I know I said it in the description but... this video was a really really really interesting one to make. I spent weeks playing more than ONE HUNDRED featured levels in order to find the exact points I was looking for. And although I rant a lot about levels being "bad", I have to point out that I've honestly gained so much more respect for GD creators. Although playing through 100+ levels sounds like torture, the truth is that it was an incredible experience where I got to play through some of the most beautiful and well designed levels I've seen in a while. I mentioned that stopped playing GD levels a while ago but I honestly think making this video got me back into the game. Definitely gonna start playing more levels and leaving friendly comments on them. And I encourage you to support creators by doing the same!
Honestly, it's really fun to have someone famous comment on your level (NOT from personal experience) so by doing so, you probably made someone's day. Those are the little things that matter in life, so it's a good thing to do. ^^
@@lioncaat7961 Honestly I just wish people left more friendly comments in GD. Usually I'll just play through a level then comment on everything I enjoyed about it (and maybe some steps for next time). Along with being meaningful it's also a nice break from the constant toxicity and like begging so... it's a win-win in my book
I died to the transition at the beginning a lot because wave-ship transition sucks, but once I got lucky and got past the transition I did it first try
"don't use triangle decorations" oh sir, i have the perfect level where i ALWAYS DIE IN THE SAME SPOT every time i try playing it because all the spikes look exactly like arrows. it's so annoying. thank you for pointing it out.
This is exactly why I like 1.9 levels so much. Their gameplay is fair and readable, and the decorations are already very beatiful, and unlike most modern levels, the two don't hurt each other in 1.9 levels
@@chillfrosted2670You may think Fire Aura has “unfair” gameplay just because it’s hard, and in a sense that’s true. But as much as I hate the term “skill issue,” this is 100% a skill issue. I would bet a large sum of money that if Fire Aura was 8* or 9*, you, and the collective consciousness of the GD community, wouldn’t whine about it so much. Also Fire Aura looks really nice especially for 1.9. In short I have no idea what you’re talking about.
I completely agree that your level should be sight readable. I hate so many custom levels because they have way too much decoration and I have no idea what anything is, I get making your level look nice but at least make good visual difference between the ground, spikes, and empty space.
I’m not gonna lie, what you just said is one of the reasons I quit playing Geometry Dash, I just couldn’t do dailies or weeklies since it was so hard for me to tell the foreground from the background and what was dangerous. That and I only had bluetooth headphones, so the desync between gameplay and music was unbearable.
Almost all the layouts I see on RUclips for geometry dash are xl 2.2 demons with the gamemode changing like every second with 3x or 4x speed, which is annoying for me. (I don’t expect anyone to agree with me on this but those layouts are so annoying and things get very repetitive;
Bonus tip: Don't overflow the level with decoration There's often levels online which end up being harder than they actually are due to decoration being very distracting or blocking vision Edit: It's been 2 years and I STILL get replies mentioning ISpy, I GET IT.
6:56 “Essentially it’s a level that looks like it was designed by a 4-year-old. And they exist in geometry dash as well, usually with demon layouts.” Recent levels: *Am i a joke to you?*
the absolute worst thing people do with transitions, is when you go into a ball part, and then they knock you down with a blue pad thinking you don't have enough time to realize you need to make an input there, but 90% of the time, what happens is that the player notices that they should make an input right as they're hitting the blue pad before they notice the blue pad, and then end up making the input after the blue pad, killing them. like please, why can't you just not have the gameplay of that part start right away? or maybe have it be Auto for a second at the very least.
@@RetrOHeaD5805 yeah like the only time you'd want to use them is as a fake, and that should be either obvious, or intentionally memory heavy, and not just some annoying thing that's supposed to be """helpful"""
Let’s also not talk about the “Layout” trend. Rated layouts do not deserve to get rated. Most people who make layouts just add flashy stuff just to cover up how bad their gameplay actually is
ive started to grow a bad taste from geometry dash, because at this point, flashly decoration is the only real requirment to get rated, and gameplay is often tossed to the side
5:36 Made even more true if you realize that size, speed, gravity, and gamemode portals all have different hitboxes, so even if you placed them on top of eachother, you’ll touch them at different times.
I feel like a great tool for creators would be a graphic showing the percentages where the players die the most in a level, so they can fix that part of the gameplay. Public playtesting basically (edit: clarity)
@@ziwuri the thing is, as the creator, you've playtested the level to oblivion, so it's basically muscle memory. as someone who's made a few layouts, it is actually really hard to tell
The decoration on most levels these days is outstanding. That being said, the gameplay isn't improving. It's surprisingly hard to find a level with good decoration and gameplay. I hope this video will help future creators
I respectfully disagree. Gameplay has 100% improved a lot since the first demon levels. With more gamemodes and orbs to work with, gameplay has become ever more complex, and there are even dedicated gameplay creators, who can create the most enjoyable and synced gameplay in the history of Geometry Dash. Just look at old 1.9 levels compared to newer ones, most people would agree that Thanatophobia has far better gameplay than Supersonic by ZenthicAlpha. Although I do somewhat agree with you about non-demon levels.
@@porple4430 It's cool it's cool. With the added mechanics such as dash orb, 4x speed, spin trigger etc, there is for sure an improvement when compared to the 1.9 levels. The levels nowadays are way more complex than what it used to be.
But it has been around 3 years since we get a new update, new gameplay mechanics. Many creators can innovate their decorating skills as much as they want. However there isn't much that they can do to innovate gameplay (unless you are someone like Serponge).
I like to make my levels more “dynamic”. An object first seen as an obstacle can actually be a useful platform you can jump on to go forward a different way than usual.
Here is some corrections I would make to your video: 1) Pads in portals depend on what the gamemode is. If you are a cube and you put a gravity change portal with a pad in it, it can serve as a nice auto alternative to a green orb. The key in putting pads in portals and making them work is making them readable and intuitive, which is why pads in portals such as UFO don’t work well because the first instinct is to jump. 2) Off screen jumps shouldn’t have a time to be able to adapt to them, but they shouldn’t be done in the first place. If the camera changes drastically, there shouldn’t be any gameplay following it until the eye has adjusted to it. 3) Putting a ceiling in a ship transition can cause you to hit it and plummet down before you notice what’s going on. I would personally just make sure the movement is almost stopped or smoothened before entering a ship. 4) When you space portals out, it’s better to make the size or gravity portal 0.25 size smaller and move it to the front of the portal. That way, when you hit it, you will always be centered into the portal, it doesn’t change the jump after the portal has been entered and it still maintains good readability. Apart from all that this was a very good video, and very necessary. Good stuff :)
In my opinion, you shouldn’t have a long cutscene at the start. Yeah, it’s nice and all, but when you die, it’s boring to wait through that 10-20% of the level. At least in 2.2, you’ll be able to create a sort of “Skip Cutscene” button by using teleporters and the song trigger.
0:47 this particular part of hexagon force used to drive me insane back when i was a kid. Then i've finally learned how to play it properly without 2 cubes jumping at the same time
@@hunterplaysroblox119 basically you just have to jump in sync with the music, so after you make the first jump off of the platforms you gotta click again to jump on the yellow orb at the bottom with the lower cube, then wait for a bit (do not hold) until the upper cube reaches the end of its platform, then jump again and jump on the yellow orb at the top with a little delay so the lower cube can jump into the ship portal
I wanted to make a video like this someday. I really love that you made this, the amount of just wrong stuff in levels nowadays it's insane, the worst part it's that most ppl just repeat them because they saw them on other levels. Unfair jumps. Difficulty spikes for no reason. Fast unreadable gameplay. Portal spam. I think a gameplay it's good when it is: Fun to play -> Sight readable -> Memorable A memorable level doesn't need deco for you to remember it. Take Astral Divinity as an example. I'm pretty sure that you remember at least 80% of the entire level. Even if it didn't have any deco. As a creator, i think that the best way to make a level it's letting the player know exactly what they have to do. Example: instead of making an annoying timing orb to force sinc with the music, you could put a fake orb in front of the first orb (clearly marked of course). It is just a fake out tho, since the objective of that orb isn't to be a trap, but to make the player, without even knowing, to use the next orb with timing. If you want the player to use the orb instantly, then put the orb a bit inside of an object that kills you, dying from that object will feel much more fair than dying because you didn't reach the platform you were supposed to land on even after using that orb. The whole objective of this it's that the player KNOWS what they have to do before dying.
Im so glad someone is talking about this, because its not hard to make a fun and fair level, but its like all feature creators don't care because they know the levels don't get featured for gameplay, it gets featured for decoration. So its basically a bunch of really nice looking pieces of shit. This is why I only play robtop levels, my own levels, or just specific creators that I know make good levels.
Extra tips: Don't put blind clicks. If you're gonna surprise the player with an orb/obstacle that was offscreen at least put an indicator (an exclamation mark for example), but I mostly recommend you to not put blind offscreen clicks at all. Make sure to balance the gameplay properly. Too much precision on a simple level can just make it unfair and sometimes buggy. Sync up the level with the music you're using. Even doing this a little bit can help because this can give the player an idea of where it should click, and it feels better than just random obstacles mashed together which results in a messy feeling gameplay that requires pure sightreading. (If I made any mistakes please tell me)
This is exactly why I absolutely dread old demons. There wasn't a good way to scale up the difficulty back then (there were barely any triggers), so most people's idea was to put blind jumps and 5 million trilple spikes to get that beautiful demon rating.
@@cowrocks3630**ahem** CLUTTERFUNK. I absolutely despise that blind triple spike at around 70% and its the reason i refuse to do the level. Its 100% the most unfair jump in any non-demon main level
i tried my best to make LDM for my rhythm doctor level (which never even lagged on my phone) but i've concluded that you guys are just playing on calculators
5:32 I'm really glad my level got used as one of the GOOD examples since my friends who playtest my levels often tell me my gameplay is annoying. Also, thanks for showing my level
- Timestamps - 0:00 Introduction/The Gameplay Problem 1:05 Be Careful With S Blocks 1:59 Invisible Block Kind Of Suck 2:39 Transitions Can Be Deadly 3:23 Just Let Them Jump 4:02 Use Triangles Responsibly 4:41 Liftoff Isn't Necessary (Only For The UFO/Ship) 5:11 Avoid Portal Stacking 5:52 Handholding Is Boring (Only For Modern 2-3 Star Levels) 6:20 Moving Objects Are Wack 6:50 Don't Be A Jerk In Demon Levels 7:41 Conclusion 7:55 Outro/Endscreen
@@matthewramirez4678 you don't know him???? go away from the gd community please Edit: Okay,I am really sorry for telling someone to go away from the GD community because they did not know Michigun. I will never do this again.
I'm so glad that you put the transitions point in, the amount of times I've died because of how fast a ship falls as soon as you go through the portal is unnecessary.
You forgot to mention LDM mode. Sometimes, LDM doesn't change the level at all, such as Flax by Thomartin. Other times it changes the background and maybe flashes, such as Thought Process from Enlex(I think). Other times it just changes the whole level into a layout
00:46 I understand how people cannot do this part in hexagon force, but for me, I kinda got into a rhythm where now I can just do it, along with the second dual with the ball
5:40 The only problem with this is that it creates swag routes, like for this example, if you were ship and touched the top of the ufo portal, you can go over the size portal, so there should also be no way for anything like that to happen
@@raiseddd He says that one of his levels was in the video, but it had bad gameplay. He pointed that out by saying: Hey mom that's me. And he says sorry for bad gameplay, my levels are better now. By that he means that his levels where used in the bad gameplay example on the video, but they have better gameplay nowdays.
My favorite levels are usually ones that are pre 2.0. Honestly, the crazy amount of deco levels have these days make even hard or harder levels feel like insanes. Easy demons are also so impossible to read, and feel like hard demons all over again. design from 1.3 or 1.5 is honesty some of my favorite in the game.
it was easier to get levels rated and popular back then, because there wasn't nearly as much effort you needed to get a level that met quality standards for a rate, and the community was smaller, so you could get recognition easily for making good levels that are fun to play. also glow style exists now, big L.
Thank you Colon, a larger community member actually talking about the importance of good gameplay. This is why I quit GD so long ago, creators started looking to decoration too much and forgot about people playing their level.
The reason that people put auto parts at the last 10% is to stretch the level out so that it would be at long length instead of medium. As Vipirin stated some time back, in order for a level to be rated it needs to be at least at long length (with some exceptions). Anyways, nice video.
Oh my god, thank you. I can't express how much I agree with all of this, and it makes grinding the featured tab quite annoying. Also, as someone who's working on making better GD videos, I wanted to say that I really appreciate your attention to detail with the editing! I can tell why these videos take you so long, there's clearly a ton of effort behind the scenes (I mean, look at that block-less Fingerdash scene-I can imagine that taking 10 to 15 minutes to do, and it only takes up a couple seconds on the video). You're a great inspiration, thank you!
Aaaa thank you! The real challenge came from finding GD levels that fit what I was talking about, I spent weeks finding enough and ended up playing over a hundred
I 100% agree with this video, I find that almost every epic level nowadays violates at least four things on this list. It's not that hard to make fun gameplay.
One suggestion I’d also consider is making rhythms/patterns for sync. I find it’s easier to learn a level’s gameplay if there’s a specific click patterns made for specific parts.
Fun fact: I was actually gonna get AeonAir to do that part but he didn't have time. I wasn't able to wait because it was quite literally the last thing I recorded in the video (I literally shot it a few hours ago)
RUclips said I’m in the top 0.1% of your viewers and that I watch 36x as much of your content then the average viewer and a heart or a reply would make my day
finally someone gets it. GOOD DECORATION DOES NOT MAKE A GOOD LEVEL. nowadays in most featured/daily levels, sight reading is meaningless and you just have to try to look for the arrows that tell you where to go. there's no way you'll be able to actually read the level and figure it out for yourself.
I remember when I was playing this one level. I forgot the name of it. I was a 5 star level. When I was exiting another gamemode, it had those custom portals. The custom portal was as purple as the spider portal. It was actually the ship. I then quit the level out of minor frustration. Annoying how people get away with that.
This really is a good video. I would also add to be careful with timings. Timings are alright, but they need to depend on player's skill and not on fortune. One of the things I hate most is the bugged orb timings, for example when there is an orb spam and if you click too early or too late on one orb you die reaching the next one. This problem is even bigger with the ball, since the ball has a very bad physics in my opinion, and an orb spam with the ball means the need for perfect timings
As a layout creator, i like to make fast paste gameplay because it feels cool. If you make the gameplay a little bit harder and put saws everywhere for it to be impossible to cheese the level, chances are that you do not have ANY space for spacing out anything in general, plus, if done wrong, it looks atrocious and doesn’t sync to the music (which is my main focus when i make a level in general), so nice one, Semicolon
Here's another thing: don't make platforms invisible and only show something like pulsing objects. You won't know if it's a platform, or just some pulsing objects. It's really wierd seeing pulsing objects (or any other deco tbh) being solid, and dying by sliding off of them.
Thanks, Colon, for making this video. I'm still a beginner at creating gameplay and deco, and this video can help me avoid making mistakes. Thanks again.
I often struggled with lower difficulty levels because of ridiculously over decorated they were. So while the main path wasn’t too difficult to go through, it was impossible to see where it was and what was part of it
Thank you so much for this video! I've been doing a lot of stargrinding lately (and I even recognized many of the levels you showed in this video, and died to their bad parts xD) and as such I have been killed many, many times by all of these. Hopefully the future will have better gameplay!
Got an good way with transitions, if the transition is gonna kill you, just place some invisible lines after it so you can get an rest and see the level.
There is a level called vitality, and before the first ship part, you touch a one block wide platform before falling one block onto a much wider platform with a jump pad that throws you up into the first ship section. I had two gripes with this. One is after you go through the ship portal the floor immediately stops and you may drop significantly before clicking, which can lead to a death that you will not expect. The second is that if you jump onto the second wider platform with the jump pad at the end, you will fall victim to a gear of which whoms black colour is almost impossible to see till you die, then you retry, forget it’s there and die again, a bit like jump pads inside portals.
I know I said it in the description but... this video was a really really really interesting one to make.
I spent weeks playing more than ONE HUNDRED featured levels in order to find the exact points I was looking for. And although I rant a lot about levels being "bad", I have to point out that I've honestly gained so much more respect for GD creators. Although playing through 100+ levels sounds like torture, the truth is that it was an incredible experience where I got to play through some of the most beautiful and well designed levels I've seen in a while. I mentioned that stopped playing GD levels a while ago but I honestly think making this video got me back into the game. Definitely gonna start playing more levels and leaving friendly comments on them. And I encourage you to support creators by doing the same!
Hi
Honestly, it's really fun to have someone famous comment on your level (NOT from personal experience) so by doing so, you probably made someone's day. Those are the little things that matter in life, so it's a good thing to do. ^^
Well done Colon
@@lioncaat7961 Honestly I just wish people left more friendly comments in GD. Usually I'll just play through a level then comment on everything I enjoyed about it (and maybe some steps for next time). Along with being meaningful it's also a nice break from the constant toxicity and like begging so... it's a win-win in my book
It was, bc there are some things that actually bother me too.
‘Make sure your moving objects are predictable’
80% Deadlocked:
level easy is annoying
I died there 3 times
I died to the transition at the beginning a lot because wave-ship transition sucks, but once I got lucky and got past the transition I did it first try
@@Topunito emm
It's pretty much meant to be memory ... but well if it isn't :/
"don't use triangle decorations"
oh sir, i have the perfect level where i ALWAYS DIE IN THE SAME SPOT every time i try playing it because all the spikes look exactly like arrows. it's so annoying. thank you for pointing it out.
My nemesis level that uses triangle decorations is called 'victim'
Do a mini gd level
@@darthvader5399 me too
homestuck
space battle intensifies
This is exactly why I like 1.9 levels so much. Their gameplay is fair and readable, and the decorations are already very beatiful, and unlike most modern levels, the two don't hurt each other in 1.9 levels
I agree despite there still being trash in 1.9 but that is inevitable in gd
@@staringcorgi6475 yep but at least it was sight readable trash
@@XTheScarX mostly if ignoring levels like xyz step infinity or can’t let troll
fire aura:
@@chillfrosted2670You may think Fire Aura has “unfair” gameplay just because it’s hard, and in a sense that’s true. But as much as I hate the term “skill issue,” this is 100% a skill issue. I would bet a large sum of money that if Fire Aura was 8* or 9*, you, and the collective consciousness of the GD community, wouldn’t whine about it so much. Also Fire Aura looks really nice especially for 1.9. In short I have no idea what you’re talking about.
"Make sure your moving objects are predictable."
Recent Levels: Oh no! Anyway...
well, they are recent levels.
hahhahaha i laughed so hard at this
My recent tab l3vels dont even use move triggers
i make the objects move before you arrive to them so its a little bit predictable
HAHAHAHAHA
I didn't even know it was possible to make a fun GD level in 2021
first'nt
Sdslayerrrr
Hello there
True
lol yeah
"don't be a jerk in demon levels"
krmal: "sorry, we don't do that here"
lmao
@@quentintose
E
I still find his levels fun tho
I like the first part in lit fuse
@@fgrey- lit fuse is hella fun
I completely agree that your level should be sight readable. I hate so many custom levels because they have way too much decoration and I have no idea what anything is, I get making your level look nice but at least make good visual difference between the ground, spikes, and empty space.
I’m not gonna lie, what you just said is one of the reasons I quit playing Geometry Dash, I just couldn’t do dailies or weeklies since it was so hard for me to tell the foreground from the background and what was dangerous. That and I only had bluetooth headphones, so the desync between gameplay and music was unbearable.
dash spider part
This. There is a reason I joke that half the difficulty of some levels is figuring out where to go
Almost all the layouts I see on RUclips for geometry dash are xl 2.2 demons with the gamemode changing like every second with 3x or 4x speed, which is annoying for me. (I don’t expect anyone to agree with me on this but those layouts are so annoying and things get very repetitive;
7:27 "demon levels should be readable"
demons after 2.0: *i'm going to pretend i didn't hear that*
when you see it
WYSI
@@sxneze wrong community
oh god... blue zenith intensifies*
wyfsi
"this isn't hacked i just ate a whole pack of flintstones vitamins" made me nearly spit out my drink
actually the flintstone gummies did only 50% of that the other 50% is from his gaming chair
@yur ono bruh
Same xd
Bruh the wave wasn't even hard lol the hacks were just unnecessary
@izuku39 what are you smoking?
Bonus tip: Don't overflow the level with decoration
There's often levels online which end up being harder than they actually are due to decoration being very distracting or blocking vision
Edit: It's been 2 years and I STILL get replies mentioning ISpy, I GET IT.
Tow faced agony: did you say something?
Mr CrazyHands transiton was so bad, i can barely see what is coming up next.
This is why I hate Glowy by rob buck.
Vsc the golden trueffet arcturus renevant
extreme demons often try to blur the level to make it even harder
6:56
“Essentially it’s a level that looks like it was designed by a 4-year-old. And they exist in geometry dash as well, usually with demon layouts.”
Recent levels: *Am i a joke to you?*
He’s actually explaining why recent levels flop.
the absolute worst thing people do with transitions, is when you go into a ball part, and then they knock you down with a blue pad thinking you don't have enough time to realize you need to make an input there, but 90% of the time, what happens is that the player notices that they should make an input right as they're hitting the blue pad before they notice the blue pad, and then end up making the input after the blue pad, killing them. like please, why can't you just not have the gameplay of that part start right away? or maybe have it be Auto for a second at the very least.
Yeah blue pads in ball parts are so RARELY useful
@@RetrOHeaD5805 yeah like the only time you'd want to use them is as a fake, and that should be either obvious, or intentionally memory heavy, and not just some annoying thing that's supposed to be """helpful"""
Yea it is better to place gravity portal than blue pads
Just make a good transition lol the only reason why a creator would have to do that is if the transition makes it hard to read what’s coming up
@@nitrothekid2323 EXACTLY
YES FINALLY, SOMEONE CALLING OUT THE BAD GAME DESIGN PLAGUING THIS GODFORSAKEN GAME
yeah
Agreed
Let’s also not talk about the “Layout” trend. Rated layouts do not deserve to get rated. Most people who make layouts just add flashy stuff just to cover up how bad their gameplay actually is
yes yes
ive started to grow a bad taste from geometry dash, because at this point, flashly decoration is the only real requirment to get rated, and gameplay is often tossed to the side
I've always wondered why I like playing levels made before 2.0. Now I know why.
I like 1.0 style, as I don't mind about block design ad much as gameplay.
@@Rayan-West same
yeah, the map packs are cool
@@Gerbert67 that might be too far. They too contain bad gameplay like blind jumps. A lot of blind jumps.
@@Rayan-West me too
5:36 Made even more true if you realize that size, speed, gravity, and gamemode portals all have different hitboxes, so even if you placed them on top of eachother, you’ll touch them at different times.
7:34 obama calmly smashing a level with harder gameplay than bloodlust
Well, it’s obama
With colon's icons lol
@@lailoutherand Colon is actually Obama.
Change my mind
“I have to confess, I’m very good at video games.”
-Barack Obama
7:15
More Obama skills
"Make sure your moving objects are predictable." %90 of demons: *Sweats nervously*
Geometrical Dominator : *sweats even harder*
90%
Deadlocked: *makes a whole river with sweat*
Deadlocked: ▫@@Boldorx Geometrical Dominator doesn't use move triggers.
@@Dexzler im sorry WHAT????? i hope that you're joking
When I saw the Little Timmy part, I understood why most of your advices sounded like Mario Maker ones
Telegraphing attacks from "Boss Levels" could be creative and fun, but it might be mistaken for a laser if you do it that way
1:31 ok so am i the only one who used to think gravity portals by themselves would automatically stop a dash orb?
No
Nope i used to think that before 2.1 was released
@@inactivechannel2965 bruh dash orbs didnt even exist till 2.1
@@aiming2game55 theres a hacked version of gd world thats allows access to the editor when 2.1 wasn't released yet
no me too
I feel like a great tool for creators would be a graphic showing the percentages where the players die the most in a level, so they can fix that part of the gameplay. Public playtesting basically (edit: clarity)
amazing idea!
I feel like it shouldn't be that hard to figure out before uploading the level.
Edit: OC's edit did indeed clarify this a bit, I like the idea now lol
@@ziwuri you'd be surprised
@@ziwuri the thing is, as the creator, you've playtested the level to oblivion, so it's basically muscle memory. as someone who's made a few layouts, it is actually really hard to tell
@@ziwurithe player is always better at playtesting for bugs than you
The decoration on most levels these days is outstanding. That being said, the gameplay isn't improving. It's surprisingly hard to find a level with good decoration and gameplay. I hope this video will help future creators
There are some. But most actual good gameplay creators are very unnoticed.
@@CrazyDash9 Yes exactly
I respectfully disagree. Gameplay has 100% improved a lot since the first demon levels. With more gamemodes and orbs to work with, gameplay has become ever more complex, and there are even dedicated gameplay creators, who can create the most enjoyable and synced gameplay in the history of Geometry Dash. Just look at old 1.9 levels compared to newer ones, most people would agree that Thanatophobia has far better gameplay than Supersonic by ZenthicAlpha. Although I do somewhat agree with you about non-demon levels.
@@porple4430 It's cool it's cool. With the added mechanics such as dash orb, 4x speed, spin trigger etc, there is for sure an improvement when compared to the 1.9 levels. The levels nowadays are way more complex than what it used to be.
But it has been around 3 years since we get a new update, new gameplay mechanics. Many creators can innovate their decorating skills as much as they want. However there isn't much that they can do to innovate gameplay (unless you are someone like Serponge).
I like to make my levels more “dynamic”. An object first seen as an obstacle can actually be a useful platform you can jump on to go forward a different way than usual.
dorabae chooseway
Here is some corrections I would make to your video:
1) Pads in portals depend on what the gamemode is. If you are a cube and you put a gravity change portal with a pad in it, it can serve as a nice auto alternative to a green orb. The key in putting pads in portals and making them work is making them readable and intuitive, which is why pads in portals such as UFO don’t work well because the first instinct is to jump.
2) Off screen jumps shouldn’t have a time to be able to adapt to them, but they shouldn’t be done in the first place. If the camera changes drastically, there shouldn’t be any gameplay following it until the eye has adjusted to it.
3) Putting a ceiling in a ship transition can cause you to hit it and plummet down before you notice what’s going on. I would personally just make sure the movement is almost stopped or smoothened before entering a ship.
4) When you space portals out, it’s better to make the size or gravity portal 0.25 size smaller and move it to the front of the portal. That way, when you hit it, you will always be centered into the portal, it doesn’t change the jump after the portal has been entered and it still maintains good readability.
Apart from all that this was a very good video, and very necessary. Good stuff :)
You forgot the most extremely important and amazing tip: Always place very large text saying "HOLD!!!" next to every single dash orb.
Fun fact text limit or abuse scaleness secretly has alpha trigger
I can't tell if you're joking or not, but I hope you are.
@@fedwin4694 Its very obvious satire
This also applies to robot gameplay but do this IF
● The level is below normal difficulty
● 1 Star rating with 25 orbs
what i would do: Checkpoint at transition
In my opinion, you shouldn’t have a long cutscene at the start. Yeah, it’s nice and all, but when you die, it’s boring to wait through that 10-20% of the level. At least in 2.2, you’ll be able to create a sort of “Skip Cutscene” button by using teleporters and the song trigger.
???
I mean one good thing about it is you can get more orbs.
Against The God💀💀
Or maybe instead have a long cutscene with gameplay
@@Dexzler what
0:47 this particular part of hexagon force used to drive me insane back when i was a kid. Then i've finally learned how to play it properly without 2 cubes jumping at the same time
HOW???!!!
@@hunterplaysroblox119 basically you just have to jump in sync with the music, so after you make the first jump off of the platforms you gotta click again to jump on the yellow orb at the bottom with the lower cube, then wait for a bit (do not hold) until the upper cube reaches the end of its platform, then jump again and jump on the yellow orb at the top with a little delay so the lower cube can jump into the ship portal
"Make sure your moving objects are predictable"
Geometrical Dominator:
i were about to say that
Xd
There are levels that require memorization. Geometrical dominator is not too hard. It's a pattern which makes it fun. Some levels though...
69 LIKES WHAT THE HELL
Deadlocked
I wanted to make a video like this someday.
I really love that you made this, the amount of just wrong stuff in levels nowadays it's insane, the worst part it's that most ppl just repeat them because they saw them on other levels.
Unfair jumps. Difficulty spikes for no reason. Fast unreadable gameplay. Portal spam.
I think a gameplay it's good when it is: Fun to play -> Sight readable -> Memorable
A memorable level doesn't need deco for you to remember it. Take Astral Divinity as an example. I'm pretty sure that you remember at least 80% of the entire level.
Even if it didn't have any deco.
As a creator, i think that the best way to make a level it's letting the player know exactly what they have to do.
Example: instead of making an annoying timing orb to force sinc with the music, you could put a fake orb in front of the first orb (clearly marked of course). It is just a fake out tho, since the objective of that orb isn't to be a trap, but to make the player, without even knowing, to use the next orb with timing.
If you want the player to use the orb instantly, then put the orb a bit inside of an object that kills you, dying from that object will feel much more fair than dying because you didn't reach the platform you were supposed to land on even after using that orb.
The whole objective of this it's that the player KNOWS what they have to do before dying.
I totally agree! Thanks for commenting on this
@@GDColon I can't believe you replied to my comment! :D
Luv ur vids ♡
this is actually the most accurate video of all time. this is literally every single problem with GD levels.
Yes!
69th like
100% agreed... This is why I miss the pre 2.0 era
why was there a fingerdash spider part in mario maker
@@Manny73211kaizo
Im so glad someone is talking about this, because its not hard to make a fun and fair level, but its like all feature creators don't care because they know the levels don't get featured for gameplay, it gets featured for decoration. So its basically a bunch of really nice looking pieces of shit. This is why I only play robtop levels, my own levels, or just specific creators that I know make good levels.
Colon : Make sure your level is sight-readable
Every Memory Level : What??
Lol thats why us memory lol
Dorabae choose way : should i add spikes?
killbot: no thanks im fine
Requiem:Nah I'm Fine
Primary Maze:I'm A Memory Level And I Am Still Not Fine
HOWCONFUSINGISTHELVL:Are You Questioning Me?
The beginning of The Process 4: I’m gonna pretend I didn’t see that
OH MY GOD THE PORTAL JUMP PADS FINALLY SOMEONE HAS SAID SOMETHING ABOUT THE FKN PORTAL JUMP PADS
The fact he thought that we have friends is sooo funny
:(
>:)
@@GDColon well, i have friends so...
@Aris Van de Moortel Like most of us.
@Aris Van de Moortel try asking them to play
Extra tips:
Don't put blind clicks. If you're gonna surprise the player with an orb/obstacle that was offscreen at least put an indicator (an exclamation mark for example), but I mostly recommend you to not put blind offscreen clicks at all.
Make sure to balance the gameplay properly. Too much precision on a simple level can just make it unfair and sometimes buggy.
Sync up the level with the music you're using. Even doing this a little bit can help because this can give the player an idea of where it should click, and it feels better than just random obstacles mashed together which results in a messy feeling gameplay that requires pure sightreading.
(If I made any mistakes please tell me)
This is exactly why I absolutely dread old demons. There wasn't a good way to scale up the difficulty back then (there were barely any triggers), so most people's idea was to put blind jumps and 5 million trilple spikes to get that beautiful demon rating.
@@cowrocks3630**ahem** CLUTTERFUNK. I absolutely despise that blind triple spike at around 70% and its the reason i refuse to do the level. Its 100% the most unfair jump in any non-demon main level
@@SomeCowguy Electrodynamix quadruple spikes part is an honourable mention
"tapping right as you enter the ball mode making you crash into spikes on the ceiling since you can't see what is actually there"
Killbot be like: “As fair and sight readable as possible”
What about fake a doom
@@staringcorgi6475 indeed
Ah, yes
its meant to be memory
@@lovelymayapop
ITS LITERALLY A JOKE
Oh yes, most important: Make LDM real for phones.
but that doesn't have to do with gp
i tried my best to make LDM for my rhythm doctor level (which never even lagged on my phone) but i've concluded that you guys are just playing on calculators
@@GDColon lol
Am I the only one who has absolutely NO problems on my phone
Just don’t have a bad phone (joke)
"This isn't hacked i just ate a pack of flintstone vitamins." 💀
7:23 btw
5:32 I'm really glad my level got used as one of the GOOD examples since my friends who playtest my levels often tell me my gameplay is annoying. Also, thanks for showing my level
ahaha truth be told I thought all the levels were good, I just had to be nitpicky for the video. Really fun level!
@@GDColon :)
@@GDColon Me subscribed 😎
@@GDColon don’t you mean: ‘Really fu nlevel!’
Friends can be annoying at times.
- Timestamps -
0:00 Introduction/The Gameplay Problem
1:05 Be Careful With S Blocks
1:59 Invisible Block Kind Of Suck
2:39 Transitions Can Be Deadly
3:23 Just Let Them Jump
4:02 Use Triangles Responsibly
4:41 Liftoff Isn't Necessary (Only For The UFO/Ship)
5:11 Avoid Portal Stacking
5:52 Handholding Is Boring (Only For Modern 2-3 Star Levels)
6:20 Moving Objects Are Wack
6:50 Don't Be A Jerk In Demon Levels
7:41 Conclusion
7:55 Outro/Endscreen
RIP Michigun. Your godlike ability to do triple spikes will stay in our hearts
Who’s Michigun?
@@matthewramirez4678 you don't know him???? go away from the gd community please
Edit:
Okay,I am really sorry for telling someone to go away from the GD community because they did not know Michigun. I will never do this again.
@@nil8659 Don't gotta be rude about it :/. Not everyone knows.
@@nil8659 You can't just kick someone out from not knowing someone, or something
@@nil8659 why would he? Michigun won't like you if he saw you saying this.
"creators should strive to make their levels as fair and sight-readable as possible"
robtop: i'm gonna pretend i didn't hear that
rob shouldve kept the old spider part (the leaked layout)
Tbh the RobTop demons are probably the most sightreadable demons
I'm so glad that you put the transitions point in, the amount of times I've died because of how fast a ship falls as soon as you go through the portal is unnecessary.
3:59 Feels bad for people doing the extreme demon roulette
@Intimidator ruined it
@@erner_wisal *_It's Still At 70 Likes After 4 Weeks_*
*_Oh, Wait It's Not Because I Ruined The Streak._*
You forgot to mention LDM mode. Sometimes, LDM doesn't change the level at all, such as Flax by Thomartin. Other times it changes the background and maybe flashes, such as Thought Process from Enlex(I think). Other times it just changes the whole level into a layout
melodic travel
like WHAT by Spu7nix
@@fyfhgvjh1_0935it also kinda changes the gameplay, like the kinda jump near the end being turned into normal gameplay
00:46 I understand how people cannot do this part in hexagon force, but for me, I kinda got into a rhythm where now I can just do it, along with the second dual with the ball
Please tell me how
words cannot describe how hard of a task it was 😔 [ this was a joke i am not that bad at the game lol ]
Now I beat clubstep and am on my way to beat toe 2 lol
it is so fucking easy
exactly, i just click to the music and its very consistent
petition for colon to only use the thud sound effect for all of his list videos
C:\Users\Craig\Music\Sound Effects\vine boom.mp3
Ello!
I'm close to colon
colon tried 21st century humor
the self-proclaimed KingOfPetitions approves :)
This was such a great video, not only could it help me some but theres so many other people that could use this information. Thank you so much colon
‘Demon levels should still be fair and readable’
Killbot: Allow me to introduce myself
5:40 The only problem with this is that it creates swag routes, like for this example, if you were ship and touched the top of the ufo portal, you can go over the size portal, so there should also be no way for anything like that to happen
You can just scale up this portal, problem?
@@ivanych6231 Oh yeah I guess you can do that
Hey mom that's me! :)
lol sorry for the bad gameplay in my level it was made a long time ago I can assure you I can make better gameplay now
What do you mean?
@@raiseddd ikr
@@raiseddd He says that one of his levels was in the video, but it had bad gameplay. He pointed that out by saying: Hey mom that's me. And he says sorry for bad gameplay, my levels are better now. By that he means that his levels where used in the bad gameplay example on the video, but they have better gameplay nowdays.
My favorite levels are usually ones that are pre 2.0. Honestly, the crazy amount of deco levels have these days make even hard or harder levels feel like insanes. Easy demons are also so impossible to read, and feel like hard demons all over again. design from 1.3 or 1.5 is honesty some of my favorite in the game.
No one cares about what you like.
@@sergalmaster5130 diddly darn
@@sergalmaster5130 I do
it was easier to get levels rated and popular back then, because there wasn't nearly as much effort you needed to get a level that met quality standards for a rate, and the community was smaller, so you could get recognition easily for making good levels that are fun to play.
also glow style exists now, big L.
Unless it's X.
Thank you Colon, a larger community member actually talking about the importance of good gameplay. This is why I quit GD so long ago, creators started looking to decoration too much and forgot about people playing their level.
6:51 fingerdash in mario?
Knew I wasn’t the only one who saw that
lol
The reason that people put auto parts at the last 10% is to stretch the level out so that it would be at long length instead of medium. As Vipirin stated some time back, in order for a level to be rated it needs to be at least at long length (with some exceptions). Anyways, nice video.
Oh my god, thank you. I can't express how much I agree with all of this, and it makes grinding the featured tab quite annoying. Also, as someone who's working on making better GD videos, I wanted to say that I really appreciate your attention to detail with the editing! I can tell why these videos take you so long, there's clearly a ton of effort behind the scenes (I mean, look at that block-less Fingerdash scene-I can imagine that taking 10 to 15 minutes to do, and it only takes up a couple seconds on the video). You're a great inspiration, thank you!
Aaaa thank you! The real challenge came from finding GD levels that fit what I was talking about, I spent weeks finding enough and ended up playing over a hundred
W
Colon has good opinions that are reasonable he did the IMPOSSIBLE!
5:21 Idk why, but the zoom-in on the portal amalgamation was hilarious to me
I 100% agree with this video, I find that almost every epic level nowadays violates at least four things on this list. It's not that hard to make fun gameplay.
"just make sure your moving objects are predictable"
80% deadlocked: no
The other comment you recommended is still pretty high, you don't really need to recommend
There are arrows, which is better than 90% of what he's calling out
This was the most inspirational Ted talk I ever watched. Thank you so much colon lol
When it said “its not hacked i just ate a whole pack of flintstones vitamins” got me laughing 😂
One suggestion I’d also consider is making rhythms/patterns for sync. I find it’s easier to learn a level’s gameplay if there’s a specific click patterns made for specific parts.
7:51 Oh my god, a cameo from the best GD player in the world, GMD Tubular9!
Fun fact: I was actually gonna get AeonAir to do that part but he didn't have time. I wasn't able to wait because it was quite literally the last thing I recorded in the video (I literally shot it a few hours ago)
I think we all prefer the holy lord that is GMD Tubular9 anyways
@@GDColon good
jk
@@GDColon U MISSS ONE
WRONG pasab
Colon u have done
Wow thanks for the heart, I think you're the most subscribed-to RUclipsr I've gotten a heart from lol
Honestly, Im glad I found this video. Being new to creating is kinda hard lol
RUclips said I’m in the top 0.1% of your viewers and that I watch 36x as much of your content then the average viewer and a heart or a reply would make my day
6:04 that level is called Emily blunt and the only part in that level that isnt auto is the ufo witch is like ~15% of the level
Oh hey a heart.
Tysm
I haven’t finished a level in over 3 years but I can say my gameplay has improved tremendously over that time
finally someone gets it. GOOD DECORATION DOES NOT MAKE A GOOD LEVEL.
nowadays in most featured/daily levels, sight reading is meaningless and you just have to try to look for the arrows that tell you where to go. there's no way you'll be able to actually read the level and figure it out for yourself.
I swear 90% of demons would be so much easier if there wasn't an insane amount of decoration blocking the view
Fr
Castle levels that feel like putting pillars in the foreground that block your vision
'Make sure your moving objects are predictables'
Deadlocked: and i took that personally
*Geometrical Dominator has joined the chat*
E has joined the chat
I remember when I was playing this one level. I forgot the name of it. I was a 5 star level. When I was exiting another gamemode, it had those custom portals. The custom portal was as purple as the spider portal. It was actually the ship. I then quit the level out of minor frustration. Annoying how people get away with that.
7:51 *¨Bold of you to assume i have friends.¨*
the transition one is so true, an example is the annoying ufo to ship transition in electroman adventures
This really is a good video. I would also add to be careful with timings. Timings are alright, but they need to depend on player's skill and not on fortune. One of the things I hate most is the bugged orb timings, for example when there is an orb spam and if you click too early or too late on one orb you die reaching the next one. This problem is even bigger with the ball, since the ball has a very bad physics in my opinion, and an orb spam with the ball means the need for perfect timings
My priority back when I was doing custom levels was to simply match the beat
The colors, & decoration would always come after
That's my priority today
Never gonna sleep anymore so I can see your premiere
hi krisz do u like water
NONONONONO BAD KRISZ BAD KRISZ
ruclips.net/video/ThCsdLgN5Ls/видео.html
It's him....
@@GDColon hahaha
As a layout creator, i like to make fast paste gameplay because it feels cool. If you make the gameplay a little bit harder and put saws everywhere for it to be impossible to cheese the level, chances are that you do not have ANY space for spacing out anything in general, plus, if done wrong, it looks atrocious and doesn’t sync to the music (which is my main focus when i make a level in general), so nice one, Semicolon
Here's another thing: don't make platforms invisible and only show something like pulsing objects. You won't know if it's a platform, or just some pulsing objects. It's really wierd seeing pulsing objects (or any other deco tbh) being solid, and dying by sliding off of them.
7:14 Obama plays gd
Bro produced the president plays shorts
Colon: Make sure your moving objects are predictable.
Annoying creators: *Your powerless to stop me.*
No that’s what we call every 2.0 demon EVER.
2:29 If the level truly was easy, there would be no need for these slopes
Thanks, Colon, for making this video. I'm still a beginner at creating gameplay and deco, and this video can help me avoid making mistakes. Thanks again.
yeah i follow these tips every time i make a level.
FINALLY YES I LOVE YOUR VIDS!
Nice profile pic dude
@@PixelGxming Thanks
colon: make sure your moving objects are predictable deadlocked: we dont do that here
I often struggled with lower difficulty levels because of ridiculously over decorated they were. So while the main path wasn’t too difficult to go through, it was impossible to see where it was and what was part of it
Thank you so much for this video! I've been doing a lot of stargrinding lately (and I even recognized many of the levels you showed in this video, and died to their bad parts xD) and as such I have been killed many, many times by all of these. Hopefully the future will have better gameplay!
I cannot stop myself from laughing whenever someone says "little timmy level"
Idk what my brain finds so funny about it
7:21 *this isnt hacked I ate my vitamins*
Sorry I was just energetic
I was just energetic
3:50 this can be fixed now with a player control trigger stopping jumps
"how to get a girlfriend by playing a two dollar square game" best tag ever
Oh my god my art is at the end, I’m so happy you like it!
Got an good way with transitions, if the transition is gonna kill you, just place some invisible lines after it so you can get an rest and see the level.
There is a level called vitality, and before the first ship part, you touch a one block wide platform before falling one block onto a much wider platform with a jump pad that throws you up into the first ship section. I had two gripes with this. One is after you go through the ship portal the floor immediately stops and you may drop significantly before clicking, which can lead to a death that you will not expect. The second is that if you jump onto the second wider platform with the jump pad at the end, you will fall victim to a gear of which whoms black colour is almost impossible to see till you die, then you retry, forget it’s there and die again, a bit like jump pads inside portals.
Congratulations Colon!
For complimenting on the daily level two days ago, you have been added to my daily chat tier list.
lol
People: "How to make a featured level!"
Colon: I'm so smart.
6:51 THAT IS A PART OF FINGERDASH IN MARIO. LOL
Fingermario moment
fingermario 😭
0:55 i bet colon will look back at this timestamp and realize the pain that he has been given