deciding user movement path - slick 2D

You can do this by using the dot product of the velocity of your player.

First, you need to store your player's velocity and use it to update his position. Then, for each trigger in your level you will test if the user is moving towards the center of the trigger (using the dot product between the velocity and the trigger):

Sprite { Point position; Point velocity; Texture texture; } class Level implements MouseListener, KeyListener { Sprite player; List<LevelTrigger> triggers; ... void update(double deltaTime) { //Update player's position player.getPosition().X += player.getVelocity().X * SPEED * deltaTime; player.getPosition().Y += player.getVelocity().Y * SPEED * deltaTime; // Get player velocity and normalize its components Point velocity = player.getVelocity(); velocity = velocity.normalize(); for (LevelTrigger trigger : triggers) { // Get a vector that points to the trigger's center Point raycast = trigger.getCenter().substract(velocity); // Get the angle between the raycast and the velocity double angle = Math.acos(velocity.dot(reycast)); // The narrower the angle, the more "focused" his moving view is if (angle < 30 && raycast.length() < 10) { trigger.fireIsArriving(); } } } // Update player position using mouse public void mouseMoved(int oldx, int oldy, int newx, int newy) { Point newVelocity = new Point(newx, newy).normalize(); player.setVelocity(newVelocity); } // Update player position using keyboard public void keyPressed(int key, char c) { if (key == Input.KEY_W) { player.getVelocity().X += 1; } else if (key == Input.KEY_S) { player.getVelocity().X -= 1; } else if (key == Input.KEY_A) { player.getVelocity().Y -= 1; } else if (key == Input.KEY_D) { player.getVelocity().Y += 1; } } }