RL for reproducing speedrun techniques / glitches in 2D games

Hi! I’m an undergrad CS student starting my thesis project, and I’d love feedback from people in the area on whether this idea is realistic for a semester (or two), and how you would scope it.

My idea is to use reinforcement learning to reproduce a known speedrun technique / glitch in a simple 2D game, for now I’m thinking about trying to reproduce Super Mario Bros flagpole glitch, then evaluate wether the same approach could help discover similar time-saving behaviors or easier ways to reproduce one that is already known.

I was thinking about trying to do so using a saved state in gym_super_mario_bros, starting near the flagpole, just a bit more than enough to execute the glitch, restricting the action space and using a standard algorithm.

What I’m mainly unsure about is:

– I have only one semester for this project and little practical knowledge in RL, is this feasible in the timeframe?

– Is this project idea realistic?

– If it is a good idea, any advices on how you would approach it?

Any pointers, warnings, or related papers/projects are welcome. I’m happy to adjust the scope to something publishable and realistic.