Surprise!

I've been largely an outsider to the GD community in my 10 or so years of playing, but a few players may recognize this old name of mine I went under in 2018 (alongside qazedc and paisano, which I think a few people may recognize more). This account is the oldest footprint I've made on the GD servers- prior to this, I went under an unregistered green account. There are still a few traces of my creating that exist prior to this, but they have been lost to the seas of the GD servers. I wouldn't be able to find them if I could.

Rotund is the first full length level I made on this account, as well as being the only remaining work that's published to my old account. This is the only full length level I would make in the span from 2018-2023, and I think it provides an interesting view into myself back then- very much someone who looked up to a lot of different sources of inspiration, but couldn't quite find a voice or style yet. Prior to this level, I had been making short little parts that I would upload to the servers known as "guacamole" levels, as well as working on creator contest parts for levels such as Fusion Z and Breakout Redux.

Needless to say, I was not very acclimated towards making longer levels and this becomes even more apparent in Rotund, where the style changes every part. Some of these styles are pretty interesting- I think all of the core-inspired parts are some of the better things I've made, but in general, everything is kinda dogshit. There isn't really a remedy to fix this level- it's very much amateur slop, the kind of level you would see in the recent tab and nowhere else.

Despite how negatively I view my own level, I surprisingly don't feel as embarrassed nowadays. Who I am is completely different from my 2018 self. This person is completely different to who I am today, and while it's levels like these that helped guide me to greener pastures, it can be a bit fun to look back at all the bullshit I've made to get here. Sadly, other than this level, I don't have any other old levels that I can retrospectively review- they're all gone. The last remaining footage of anything else I've ever worked on is an Instinct fan part someone recorded (and one that I remember Hybrid commented on!!!). All my other levels from bigpisano are deleted. My second account, Paisano GD, never released any levels, and when my PC got bricked, I was unable to access these accounts anymore. This is basically all that remains. Kind of crazy.

I'm debating on doing more retrospectives on my levels because I do want to talk about them but I definitely think I may need to give it more time. My next level is only a year and a half old so I may want to wait a bit longer before I look back on it.