Ideally, not a level that fits well with the gauntlets, but it's one that definitely tells a story.

on a second replay this level isnt as good as i remembered, drags for a little too long and the message is still neat but doesnt hit as hard the more you rebeat it. still very good, take this off the gauntlet though it would be 234x less hated if it wasnt in a gauntlet

so close to getting it. really aches that the story feels incomplete and unsatisfying

I've mostly mellowed out on this level. I used to view this level as a "message to creators", which, if you've played the level, you can see that its a very toxic and troubling message. If you haven't, I think of the message as being something like:

"You shouldn't create, because what you create will never be good enough. You won't get the attention you deserve, people will hate on your work. When I create levels, I want to heal and inspire people. But I feel as if I can never do that".

TMNGaming puts so much emphasis on wanting to "inspire people" as his main driving force for creating, and I think that's precisely why he feels so miserable throughout this level. That is also why upon initial playthrough, I vehemently disliked this level's existence because it felt like it was sending a very pessimistic message to creators and artists. Looking back, I think of two things.

1). I really vibe with this more as TMNGaming's mental time capsule. Maybe he did want to influence people with this level, but I think retroactively, and with the passage of time, it serves as a really cool glimpse into the intermediary period of an artist's thought process.

2). The GD community actually didn't understand the message of this level at all and thought it was just "creators work so hard for us, we need to treat creators better". So I guess it was all fine in the end.

I don't really know if I still like this level much, just cuz I disagree so much with the viewpoint. But I can respect its existence. Oh yeah, also the gameplay kinda sucks haha.

I don't really understand everyone's vitriol towards this level at all is it because of TMN's behaviour that I don't know about lol

I rate this creator's depression a 0/10!

Ones failure at story-telling in Geometry Dash is that messages must not be directly readed. Reading takes some moment enough to be too slow in Geometry Dash essence, and you may just miss some important details to understand the story. Geometry Dash is not a game where you need to be flulent at English to play the game, and it is good because it eliminates the language barrier. Putting the issue back into the game just means your level is going to the wrong way, especially in the context of the selling-point of your level. Even if you manage to understand the whole of whatever is being told in the level, it will always sound off and not right because you are not ready to read when you are focused to play the level.