of the big three creators who spearheaded the neodesign movement—cometface, zhiana, and presta—zhiana's levels have definitely aged the worst. which is a shame, because they feature tons of creative ideas and concepts that just aren't able to fully shine. maybe if zhiana's career lasted longer, he could've developed his skills to the point where he could do his ideas justice. for only creating for a little over a year, though, zhiana's catalog is still very impressive. i do miss when we had creators like echonox, serponge, jayuff, and cometface who were consistently able to engage the community with creative, fresh levels for a long time, which is something we haven't really seen since cometface left at the start of 2023. most good creators now release their levels very sporadically, which is equal parts understandable and unfortunate.

nospikenation isn't zhiana's best level by any means, but it's a fun one to look back on. i remember being obsessed with it when it came out in april 2021, but looking back on it now four years later, there are just too many glaring flaws for me to really get into it. the ship/wave at the halfway point is definitely the highlight of the level, but the rest really does not work at all for a variety of reasons i don't think i need to go into. it'd be cool to see a creator remake one of zhiana's levels and truly let his visions shine. maybe that creator could be me? who knows