I've dedicated my time to super mario lately, so eventually I ended up watching some speedruns. So I thought to myself, how could one calculate the perfect set of minimal ingame movement. I considered comparing the time needed to pass to a certain point, for example if there are two paths to take. If i wanted to write a Programm to measure and calculate those values for me, how would I proceed? What knowledge would I have to earn?

I've dedicated my time to Super Mario lately, so eventually I ended up watching some speedruns. 

I thought to myself, how could one calculate the perfect set of minimal in-game movement?

I considered comparing the time needed to pass to a certain point, for example if there are two paths to take. If I wanted to write a program to measure and calculate those values for me, how would I proceed?