A repost from the gdforums, I think.

So, I'm pretty sure that (almost) every gd creator has their own building process. I wonder what's your building process look like to create a full decorated level.

I'll use mine as an example:

• Find an interesting music

• Set he ideas (hard)

• Make he layout

• Decorate (hard2)

• Playtest phase

• Polishing

• Release the level

For me it's completely random depending on the level. I drew the entirety of one of my levels before even opening the editor or looking for a song. I generally don't build layouts for my levels though, unless it's a demon

nice try mr. zuckerberg

Stress myself out to the point where I delete the level and try again. And try again, and try again, and try again. Until I just leave it as a layout.

Typically I like to

- find a song

- concept art

- gameplay

- copy over deco from the concept art

step 1: cry

step 2: give up

truthfully, I'd like to suggest that I'm a straight-forward creator with how I lay down my levels, but generally, my building process goes something like this:

• find a song and offset it in-game however I seem fit.

• make the whole level's layout — normally takes abt 30m to 45m

• get a color palette, either make my own or just nab one.

• lay down my color palette, an options trigger and a bg trigger

• go to the bottom of the part I want to decorate, and make a structure similar to the ones in the part I'm beginning to decorate and make the design I want to use for the part.

• once I'm done, lay down the decoration I made at the bottom of the level throughout the part. modify where it should be.

• rinse and repeat the two above

I don’t suggest anyone follows this, it’s mainly the result of my weird style of creating.

• Stumble across a neat song (usually from another level lol)

• Dream about the incredibly cool level I could make with that song

• Make a layout that’s a little over a minute long in the span of like a week

• Come up with decoration ideas

• Make decoration ideas

• Wait a couple months until I get more ideas or actually get motivated to execute said ideas

• Repeat last 3 steps until level is finished

• Post the level and then notice a ton of mistakes and make like 50 updates

It usually goes something like this:

Find a song I like, and get a level idea for it

Let the level sit in my head for several months

Plan out each part of the level

Make the gameplay for one part

Decorate that part

Repeat last two steps until the level is done

Try to get some friends to playtest it

It usually takes a few months for me to finish a level

How to QYZ:
1 - Think of level ideas. These levels can be as ambitious or as simple as you wish! You will then need to find a song for it
1.1 - Alternatively find a song you fw and generate ideas based on it
2 - Layouting time! You will playtest it rigorously and make sure it is fun! Be sure to use outline blocks as that speeds up the creating process
3 - Realise that you have ADHD and that you have like less than a week to decorate it fully before you eventually become disinterested
4 - If you finish speedbuilding, congrats! You now have a level! Upload it to the servers !