Rating Curve

Archive pull, I don't find this level's use of 2.1 tiles to be too offensive but I think it's telling that a lot of the really impressive effects feel very out of place due to the stylistic differences between them and these cartoony blocks. Given an older style I think this would be a much better level.

I hate GD platformers.

They just suck. As a medium, GD levels excel at joining music and auto-scrolling platforming together in a harmonious instance of auditory synesthesia, something that has long existed in the domains of music (as composers and artists have often based their music on other things or sensations), but GD is special to me. GD’s art style is distinct and the way it works with the music is nearly perfect in my eyes. It’s why I have high standards for levels, because I care about what you can do in this game that you can’t do with normal music or other rhythm games.

Platformers get in the way of all of that. That mixture of combining GD’s visuals and music is tainted by supplementary elements that take me out of the experience. Dodgy controls, annoying sound effects, lack of sync, and more, these all contribute to making these carefully crafted experiences topple over disastrously as what they are trying to aim for is something out of reach, something that the GD editor cannot bring them to. It’s why when I initially heard Dead of Night’s announcement and subsequent release, I was very disappointed to see how much work and dedication had gone into an effort that I saw being futile to begin with. However, I finally sat down to watch it one night, around 10:45PM, just to put something on before I go to bed. An hour later, I came to a horrifying realization:

Shit. I actually like this. Why do I like this? What is wrong with me? This is a GD platformer; it’s doing everything I hate and more, yet I remain fixated on it.

DON can only be described as a feverish marathon of one’s own dreams. It is a beast of a level, in ways that other endurance-based platformers like How to Platformer or TOP 10000 CHEESE cannot emulate. It’s much shorter than those two if you’re playing perfectly, but this level strikes a midpoint between room-by-room difficulty and length that really feels painful; it’s like how a clock seems to move slower when you’re bored or experiencing any negative emotion. This is needle platforming- any sort of misstep or death feels both cataclysmic and trivial at the same time, bodies piling up before you can reach the exit, some deaths more heartbreaking than others. It’s the type of evil that fits right in line with needle platformers like I Wanna Be The Guy while also fitting in strangely with GD’s roots as a rage platformer. Strange.

DON’s structure revolves around exploring various different levels- dreamlike needlescapes which usually call upon a unique visual quirk or gameplay gimmick for their 1-2 rooms, before vanishing in time for the next dream to queue up. Between long segments of levels, you’ll occasionally be treated to a small interlude in the desert, of the player waking up from their sleep and exiting their tent to observe the night sky. It provides a bit of respite, similar to other interlude-like areas in video games such as the bonfires from the Dark Souls series, these provide some moments for contemplation. These interludes break up the series of levels into similarly themed chunks. Routine. Frontier. Dive. Apex. Vague ideas for what these dreams could possibly mean. But dreams don’t really mean much. We may be able to find some value hidden away in them, but we already have a hard time perceiving and judging them. There’s no consistency between them; it’s a roll of the dice whether we’re going to get a good one or a bad one. So, while we may think of there being some sort of meaning present in these levels, I don’t really think they’re that deep on the surface. You may remember or even maybe dream the same dream again, but any sort of significance is just out of arms reach- you won’t be able to grab on if you tried, and maybe there wasn’t really anything that deep in about 90% of them to begin with.

From level to level, the quality will vary quite a bit between both the quality of the decoration and concept. Visually, you may get a really good looking and really conceptually solid part (something like Ash or Lift), and sometimes you get neither (Drizzy, Wonder, Consequences) which makes it a bit of a gamble from level to level. Also, most levels have gimmicks which are often welcomed to prevent the gameplay from getting too homogeneous, but they often can be hit or miss. Some gimmicks feel earned, some feel a bit extraneous, and some do not work at all. It’s strange considering this is a pretty skilled set of creators- I think it comes down to the sheer volume of rooms these creators had to make combined with the timeframe of 1 year of building, but some of this output is a bit baffling to me.

DON’s presentation is decent for what it is. Its main appeal is in its rigidity- there are no slopes, few moving objects, and fewer with actual easing. It emphasizes hostility towards the player, something that all extreme demons excel at, but there’s something about the stillness of it all, that you’re not blowing past these tight structures like in a classic level that makes it feel even more cramped. Most of this level’s best often use these structures to obfuscate other imagery that may be present, something which works well for its theming- a lot of meaning that you might want to find in a dream is hard to make out and parse. The stillness also gives the player a chance to breathe and collect their thoughts, which adds a lot to the collectedness of this level- you have time to sit down and think about what all this means. There’s a level of depth here that really makes the scale of this project feel earned, which is something I can’t say the same for projects that have similar ambitions like Ocular Miracle.

Anyways, this is all in service of a game in which there’s no saving, it’s optimized to shit, and it controls like garbage. Real nice one folks. Actually, reality sucks and it’s dumb to think about dreams and treat GD levels seriously, all that shit. Turns out 2.2 platformers still suck despite all the effort, and now instead of feeling angry about this being made, I just feel sad. I feel sad that this can’t be the best it can be. It’s a shame since I would probably pay for this if it existed outside of GD- it probably wouldn’t be too hard considering how many needle platformers exist outside of GD.

Now all that’s left is a hole in my heart. I guess I’m no stranger to this feeling; there are plenty of other works outside of GD that have left this feeling, works that I think are incredibly flawed yet I still have a significant attachment to them. There’s something about those works that really speaks to me. Maybe it’s because I love to imagine a lot of the ways they could be better, or that there’s beauty in imperfections, but I think that’s why I love DON as much as I do, warts and all. Maybe I just like to dream…

I’m going to cover a few standout levels (both good, bad, and mid) from DON since it’s really hard to get the full picture without looking at a few examples of how the whole thing operates.

FAVORITE PARTS

SUNNY – Wespdx

Fantastic tone setter. In the description of their part’s video it’s mentioned that this was the first DON part made, and I think it’s position in the whole level alongside that fact contributes to making it such a strong opening to the main set of levels featured here. It’s probably the level that feels the most in-line with IWBTG, with its SNES game soundtrack and the neat little projectiles that come out from the sun. It’s also something that helps establish the dreaminess of this entire experience; usually the first level of a platformer takes place in a forest or maybe a plain, but you’ve already ascended- there’s no worldly need to start at the ground and work your way up.

SPIN – AngeleX

I really like it. It’s the only level that has a 3D mechanic in which you “spin” the main segment of the level to progress further. It has a pretty unique aesthetic as a result. The 3D imagery works really well for a dreamlike 2D platformer in a similar way that a game like FEZ does- conveying this sort of dimensionality that our 2D protagonist has a hard time comprehending.

IRIS – Helpegasus

A bit of a detail I noticed, I think this is the only part in DON in which the creator has their name or logo visible during the part. Anyways, the rotating structure is really neat! It’s really fucking hard and annoying but it’s a really cool concept that caps off Frontier. Aside from Encouter I feel that this is the closest another level gets to being an actual “bossfight”.

SEASIDE – pocke

It’s a groove. Memorium is largely about false nostalgia, so this being a very laid-back idealized view of the 80s is really fitting here. I also like the decoration, specifically how the main background is clearly visible, but there’s a short range within the player that actually shows the obstacles. The “Live, Laugh, Love” message is a bit corny, but I think it works in this scenario- instead of the gameplay structures obscuring the visuals, it’s the opposite; the meaning is in the structures and it’s this funky aesthetic that’s blocking out any meaning that you may need to get from this level.

BLISS – mbed

I’m going to be a bit shameless here and admit that this is my second favorite part solely for the MadoHomu ASCII art at the end. But this part’s got a lot of really fun stuff going on in the gameplay and visual department as well. The Windows XP aesthetic is something that a lot of creators want to emulate in their levels, but I think mbed nails it in a way that other creators have not. Gameplay wise, this level makes use of a lot of auto-scrolling segments which sets it apart from the other levels, especially the second half, which is the main standout here. We visit this user’s personal website and it scrolls downward, kind of like those sections from VVVVVV. It’s a hell of a gauntlet but one that contrasts really nicely with the otaku aesthetic here, where there’s a ton of glittery structures and cute anime pictures and funny quotes that border on being cringy. It also ties into the general themes of Memorium with its false nostalgia; this may have been the life for some people, but many others like us were not able to live with this sort of authenticity on the internet and thus we often like to imagine ourselves as the self-actualized early 2000s internet nerd. I do at least.

ASH – DarkCacti

DON’s best part. This is one of the only levels that makes the scale of its rooms feel earned and does the camera work proper justice. It’s just a striking visual of a cross and a bell against a blood red moon, but it captures the surrealness of a dream while being unique in conveying a message through the dreamscape- a reminder of the inevitability of death, and that even if you believe, it may not be certain where you end up. Navigating through the ruins of what must be a church, you suddenly find yourself along the shores. Again. Dive features a lot of nautical themed levels so going back to the sea is probably the last thing that you’d want to do, and so you set out on an uneasy manner, hoping that this is the end of your nightmares, that you can wake back up and hopefully try to have a good dream this time.
LOVE – Kiriia

Not much to say about this that can’t be said by just watching it. It’s really dreamlike, it’s got religious imagery, it pulls an Out of this World by using representational art to directly contrast with the player character and instill uneasiness, all that good shit. Schitzo would probably be the worst section of DON if it wasn’t for this level (and a few others in its second half).

LIFT – Zipixbox

Apex is my least favorite of the main sections of the levels, but I’d say aside from Routine with Sunny, this has the best opening. Lift just has aura- it’s really surreal and it’s got two good gimmicks that carry it the whole way. I think part of why this works so well as the first level of the last section is that it provides a really fun contrast between the cosmic imagery of the meteor shower we get demonstrating some finality to the next section, before having to snap at the player and be like “Hey! Don’t forget we’re supposed to have some fun around here! You’ve still got a few levels to go.” The song choice also ties into this as well, as the elevator music acts as a surprisingly good crescendo for all that’s going to transpire in the next few levels. If only the rest of Apex’s levels were able to match this one in quality…

TETRIS – WatchPiggy

WatchPiggy gets the award for coolest concepts in their parts because this and Sudoku are really novel and a nice breath of fresh air from traditional needle platforming. I love how we get an integer overflow as soon as we reach the top of the level and then we’re back to square one.

LEAST FAVORITE PARTS:

DRIZZY – 2what

Pretty self-explanatory. I know being dated is part of needle platformer identity at this point, but there’s better things to draw from the proverbial well of pop culture. It also just looks really generic. If you wanted a better hip-hop styled part, the part RIGHT AFTER was infinitely better and referenced a better artist.

DORTNIRE – CuluC

A victim of the overall pacing of DON. I wouldn’t mind it as much if it was in some of the earlier heats of levels but placing it at Apex is such a confused decision. I think the best part of this is with the building mechanic, I think it’s really interesting to be able to create your own platforms and I like how compared to Fortnite, you don’t have those floor tiles that you usually use to stand on, you only have walls and ramps, which means you have a bit of a monkey-pawed kit for solving the platforming challenges here. The concept here is unique, and I think CuluC’s style is great at replicating Fortnite, but other than that not much interesting is being done here- it’s just a rehash of Season X’s event which was done better in Fortnite. And again, for some odd reason this is one of the final levels which throws off the tone really bad. Really confusing part overall.

ASCENSION – GDIris

This is the worst part of DON. Such a fucking letdown of this being the final stage- Encounter would’ve been much, much better than two rooms dragged out to hell all over a TikTok audio. Nothing interesting aside from callbacks to each theme of the sets of levels. Other than that, SNORE! Nothing of note, makes the symbol of the TMco eye completely useless (part of why I didn’t bring it up in this review), just a disappointment overall. I was about to say out loud “That’s it?” after it was over. Where's the gravitas?

OTHER PARTS OF NOTE:

POLYBIUS – GDIris

It’s a bit disappointing that the spider gamemode is seldom used in DON, as this is the only part that uses it, but I think that it’s what really sells me on this level. The title and aesthetic is in reference to the urban legend game Polybius which doesn’t actually exist. This, combined with its Sonic CD debug inspired background and arcade block designs channels a sort of “creepypasta” vibe for this part which is really interesting. It then ends with a fake-out ending, with an alarm clock buzzing, making you think you’re awake, but it’s actually a dream within a dream sort of situation. Pretty intriguing.

INFOMERCIAL – NikroPlays

This would be a cooler part if the bullet hell sections were a bit more interesting. Other than that, I really like the aesthetic going here. The little news reporter is also really well done, kind of like how you have a hard time parsing faces in dreams.

CLASSIC – Namik95

A bit of whiplash here. I do like this part, it’s just that it’s really strange to see it in a sea of other levels that are trying their best NOT to look like Geometry Dash. I kind of wish there were more parts that were recognizably GD, but I’m pretty sure there’s only one or two others that do. Again, another reason why you don’t really need to build this in GD…

BRIDGE – 2what

It’s a neat interlude outside of the section interludes. Figured I should keep it short because this level does too.

SUDOKU – WatchPiggy

I just think the sudoku board is fun, although the first room has terrible sudoku controls. They should’ve just made the all the sudoku boards function like the big one in the second room.

ENCOUNTER – spcreat

I didn’t even know that there was going to be a bossfight in DON, so this makes me feel much more disappointed that this is the only one. Sure, there are a few levels that feature NPCs that chase you around, but I was thinking more in line with stuff like IWBTG or IWBTB where you shoot at the bosses and they have dynamic attacks and whatever. This being the only boss is not the only mistake made here- it’s also the last level of Schitzo for some reason, and not the last level of Apex, weird since this is referencing the FINAL BOSS of IWBTG. So odd, and while this part is really good on its own, it represents a huge, missed opportunity that could’ve been done here. Like imagine if DON had more bosses… AHHH I’d die of peak…

LIME – Voltex

what the fuck

Quite a transcendental level. I think each of the three main versions of Grains of Sand (StarXD's original, pocke's pre-update, pocke's post-update) all have their own strengths and weaknesses, and I think that this was a much needed update to the pre-update version because that was the weakest version. pocke takes the structure of the original and streamlines it- the beginning parts are replaced with a minimal ship, and the ending part is no longer wave or straight fly, it just keeps ramping up the spider. I think this results in the best version of this level since it's the most focused around the main progression of the level, cutting any filler and just putting all the concentration into the ramping up of the spider part. I also like the updated visuals as they feel right at home but also a lot more polished than the original. Overall, pretty good job.