Rating Curve

echoing eccojam here, this level feels incredibly inorganic - it blends the awe and wonder associated with exploring the world with distinctly alien environments, like wandering through a carefully curated yet unearthly garden in the mid-afternoon light, accentuated by the calming synths and idm influenced electronic sounds. you're experiencing natural wonder again and it's all you'd ever want to be

heartbreaking conclusion to bridget's creating career. have you ever been caught in the pouring rain? perhaps it comes upon you slowly, or suddenly, but nonetheless it invokes such uncontrollable insignificance over your poor circumstance, nature's assertion over your man-made modernisms. it's isolating and hopeless and individual, and it's such an apt name for Bridget's battle against cancer and mortality. everything was so unfair to her, everything about this, and theres nothing anybody can do about it - all of a sudden, the sun has shrouded itself, and the darkest kinds of clouds have come rolling in, and feelings of safety and warmth seem so far away.

i can't imagine what it would feel like to have cancer, the onerous task of dealing with your increasingly apparent ephemerality. being forced to face your end at such a young age for a blossoming artist is petrifying, your imminent terminus drawing hopelessly closer. nobody deserves to go through this, right?

and yet,

caught in the rain's undue optimism prevails onwards and forever. This level is the coming of the sun; the idea that celebration of all things good is the only way forward. look at the girls, theyre holding umbrellas, arent they? theyre not disconcerted by the rain. the yellows (and blues, and greens!...) of the sun envelop the level, and optimism and hope and joy permeates through, sending a clear message to everyone: celebrate what you have while you have it.

she was the best you could ask for in a pioneering experimental creator and will continue to inspire others years from now, i'm sure of it. rest in peace

the performance of a lifetime!!! funnygame cranked the cinematics to 11 on this one and i cant think of anyone thats done it better than this

it is seriously surreal that this level exists in this world, it's so grounded to humanity yet so unimaginably creative and expressive and reflects the ephemerality of the best years of your life and all things good and evil and in between, and a summation of your being like this is something an artist can only dream of expressing

i tear up when i play this level; it's endearing and presents such a consumerist familiarity of our lives laid bare to us, asking us to reflect and compose in the process. with the commodification of time afflicting our agency over our own lives, its a gentle reminder to breathe, to love, and to take care of the people around you.

imagine you're me, having newly crested high school and are beginning your first semester at a new university. all of your friends have moved to a more prestigious campus up north, and youve had adequate time alone to articulate your psyche. you've changed a lot over the past year, your tastes and aesthetics, outgrowing your insular online circles, and this transitional period apprehensively awaits your next move. change doesn't wait for the inflexible, and your apprehension keeps you in your unbelonging place, not strong or confident enough to make a move, and time passes, pulling you alone into the unknown.

interlude employs the same demeanour in its immaculate subtlety, mirroring silently yet intensely these feelings of isolation and uncertainty in its wittingly modest presentation. its coldness allows us to share such ease with its presence that, deeply and intimately, speaks to you at your most vulnerable. most importantly, its a reflection of the human experience that holds solace to you in its darkness. it's a deeply personal exploration that shares its solitude with the viewer with no intentions of dominance or coercion, yet it permeates and revels in the foreignness of the self, given you let it surround you with its dreamy waterscapes - it's truly rewarding to anybody that has the pleasure to discover it.

interlude is also a testament to the concept of transcendence of time, a very seldom explored notion of levels that opposes the stimulatory nature of the game (split path also notably coming to mind, though i think interlude is notable for marrying the concept with the 'classic' level feel). natural immersion often chooses to integrate an environment with the medium it's given, but wik uses this as a supplementary addition to the level to great effect, letting you be an observer in a little ship deep into the unknowns of the psyche. It's a pity that the level is constrained by the song in this regard (that being that it ends too soon), because wik is able to create a magic experience that i feel so at peace with, one that shares your fragility and unbelonging, one that empathizes with your societal aberrance, and has so much permanence as a self-sufficient work that it will surely continue to thrive years from now. its good

also i dont know where to put this but wik is just cool as fuck so that improves the score greatly. projected persona of the creator or something. shoutout

more than a noisy genre-bending realisation of a quirky song by black midi, this level to me is the visceral reaction to the most debilitating event of my life - a projected visualisation of a transcendental moment that sourced what felt like my lifes essence and cloaking it in abstract obliquity, entertaining the concept of distance between the creator and the work. 953 necessitated creative and spiritual self-reinvention, and its a miracle that it exists in the form it does - it's the culmination of my development of self. This level is my opportunity to let you all connect with me emotionally, and if it reaches you, i hope it reveals itself to you the way it did to me.

edit: its not all that. but its still pretty great