Personally, I like what I did, especially with the theme. Not many people may agree with me but that's OK, this level is certainly not for everyone. I originally felt like this level was a bust, especially when people told me that the theme made no sense, but now I think stengthen it
I had to watch this a few times to actually determine what I thought about it, but what I get from this level is that, from the depictions of school, the knife, the noose and the medication, the level represents the euphoria of relieving onself through harm, and drugs as a consequence of experiences at school. Another interpretation I considered is that the protagonist has in fact commited suicide, and the depictions of heaven are the afterlife, the bliss gained from an absence of the misery of life. It can certainly be missed if you don't pay attention, this covert messaging is reflective of how in the modern day, signs of mental health issues such as suicidal and addictive tendancies regularly go unnoticed due to the masking which an individual persues, the song also is reflective of this notion, the completely joyful upbeat song is ironic, telling the viewer "everything is fine" when perseptive viewers know this is not the case. The cyclical structure of the level hints at the idea that this is an innevitable cycle that seemingly goes unbroken as once you come back down from that high you are back in the same place as the you started, possibly symbolising some sort of addiction. Very interesting expression, and I hope you are doing okay if this interpretation is in any way relevent to you yourself or anyone reading, as the ideas the level portray are in no way encouraging such actions, as you are always back where you began after the brief hit.
Very sweet :3 The energy in this level is soo heartwarming! But, knowing the dark undertone - it makes me feel really weird. I was about to praise you for the subtle nod of Falling Up in the second part, but now I want to praise you even MORE for how well it fits with the theming. Interpreting Falling Up as "getting high with drugs" is incredibly genius, I TRULY congratulate you for that :)) The visuals depicts this theme SO well! like the "galactic shapes" within the sky background. Also, I would like to think that the dual depicts seeing yourself in a hallucination but that may be a stretch :P. Genuinely amazing work on this, and hope you're doing well now 🙏.
An incredibly fun journey of a level which reminds me of why I love this game so much. Sure there will always be very technically impressive levels, and levels that have super good atmosphere, and all of that. But in my opinion, none of that can compare to a level where you can just tell the creator was just having FUN while making it. It's why I shill the magic tab so hard, it's full of levels created by people who had a vision and saw it through!
This level just emits an aura of joy I haven't seen any other level do, every part just feels "happy" to me. It might just be because of the song, but I dig it SO hard.
However, despite what the level's theme and aura implies, I think is not what the level is truly going for. The level seems very happy-go-lucky at first, but in the drop there are some things that suggest that this level might not be as happy as you might think. Showing objects such as knives, bandages, pills, and a noose.
Now I might be completely wrong with this, and I am VERY sorry if I am, but this feels like a theme of someone escaping a very difficulty school life through self-harm/suicidal tactics. I'm not sure if they go through with it at the very end since it ends with the cube simply looking out of a window at a house, but it's definitely implied that something is happening.
From what I view, when the cube escapes the school they are sent on a journey through the clouds, which is very happy and fun. I think this might be a representation of either being extremely high off of medication and/or a final resolve for them. (They're celebrating because they finally decided to buckle down and "do it.") It's a shockingly heavy topic which I actually didn't notice at first glance due to the objects just kind of blending in with each other at the Falling Up-esque cube part. It's incredibly interesting and I'd love to know if I got the theme right on this, this is at least how I interpreted it.
Moving onto the actual level, this level has some SUPER cool parts which I really like! I really like how the level both begins and ends with this black and white monochrome slow cube part. It both fits the song and my supposed theme I gave. The beginning cube also has what seems to be overhanging school lights and the last cube seems to be lampposts, implying their walking home. The first part after the first cube is a really cool 3D visualization of a school building which heavily reminds me of Pinecones, jumping over various school themed obstacles. It's very simple but very effective for a level like this :)
You then break out of a window and fly through the air around a lot of various school supplies, which slowly transition into other things I mentioned before. After this, you get hit with a BURST of energy as you are now flying through the clouds! The spikes in this part look SUPER cool and I love how they pulse as you move by them, the block design is a really pretty pink and overall it just looks super happy! It eventually opens up into a free fly ship part which has these giant glow bars go down in sync to the song.
At the end of this you get hit with an even BIGGER burst of energy as you are now in a very zoomed out swing section flying around the same spikes as before but also with these really gool geometric space blocks! This part is very simple in retrospect and reminds me of the magic tab a lot, it might not be the best executed color wise but I think it fits for a level like this. The gameplay is also REALLY FUN HERE!!! I love it so much. It then enters a dual which has this super cool effect of the blocks you're jumping on literally flying into the void behind you! It feels like something out of early 2.1 (compliment again, i swear) and reminds me a lot of Disco Night by HeroMoltenGD actually!
The part ends with you starting back at a similar looking black and white cube as I mentioned before, to which the level then ends.
I was honestly shocked to watch this level for the first time, I had only known Somie because I had occassionally seen them on the community tab, (usually getting some sort of backlash for a tweet where they just wanted to show off something cool [I FEEL THAT DW 💔💔]) but I never expected them to make such an awesome level, I definitely have to check out more of their levels after this :D
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sorry about this gang