Rating Curve

It’s pretty fun, idk much about 1.9 since I didn’t play then so I can’t comment on the visuals

I am giving this a lower score, but I do not hate this level, and I don’t think I would be particularly caring about it if it now didn’t accidentally represent the poor judging in the SGC. This is no means on Vegtam, he seems like a nice and understanding person who made this and had a good time with it. I’ll go into my thoughts on the level divorced from the SGC contest first and then relate those points to why this as a first place (as well as pretty much every placement) doesn’t sit well with me.

From what I have heard, this level was initially much harder, which explains a lot of the structure choices and busier structure design, and then nerfed as the gameplay was not the most enjoyable. I can’t comment on whether this was the best move, as I have not played the initial version. However here, the effect it has on playing is really weird. The level presents itself in pacing and structure as much harder than it actually is, which a lot of the time made me think I was going to die to an obstacle, then just going past it. I found this really (anxiety inducing? Unsure on how to word this), and it didn’t make it that fun to play. The coin is also fairly inconsistent, the hitboxes are rather odd. I typically don’t go into critiquing gameplay since it isn’t something I pay much mind to, I don’t really enjoy it most of the time. This one though felt like uncanny. It was strange.

The visuals are not that good. The characters are the main focus, and are very poorly drawn. Not in a like endearing way, more so just inexperienced. Which maybe sounds pretentious, but like nearly every creator is fairly inexperienced at art, especially characters (which is why we have such a plagiarism issue haha). The surrounding visuals are like fine. They are inoffensive, nothing particularly special, but nothing awful. I did find there was too much fighting for attention, very messy and lacked distribution of any detail really. Same rings through with the colours, there is so much that is homogenous in terms of it and detail. I think maybe some people will argue that it could perhaps aid the comic book theme, but this is sort of misleading. It’s not really an issue of “too much detail”, more so the details are not placed correctly, so they don’t aid in drawing attention to anything in particular. This is inherently not very comic-esque considering how much thought has to go into composition in comics to lead the viewers eye appropriately in the order the artist intends (between panels and within specific scenes). I think most of my other critiques on the visuals are simply an extension of these thoughts, so there isn’t much use repeating them. As for the aesthetic and theming, I won’t comment much since I don’t particularly like it, I am not part of the target audience.

For how this relates to SGC, it’s more so how the judging arrived to this being #1 over so many other levels (main issue is space i guess placing so low though, maybe Aperture too). From what I have gathered from Viprin messages and conversations between friends and those involved in judging, each entry was ranked from 0-10 on gameplay, visuals, and theming. This itself is problematic, as it cuts out a lot of nuance to what judging and understanding a level actually is, as is ranking any art from 0-10. I would leave no true rating on my posts if it were an option, it just can’t be represented by numbers. I also heard, the judges are definitely inclined to more flashy stuff, and care primarily about spectacle and gameplay (I don’t believe this, I’ll get into it later). It should be rather obvious why promoting flashy stuff is problematic for fostering creative expression. It teaches newer creators to just care about the stats and spectacle. This has already always (I have heard, I didn’t start creating until later 2.1) been an issue though, as people are just inclined to want attention, human nature thing. I don’t think this was the case given how the judging was conducted, but I did hear speculation that this and others got high rankings due to their closer approachability for new creators, where they may be able to see themselves making it one day. Where with for instance Aperture which includes a lot of knowledge barriers to make (outside of art and editor knowledge, but also a lot of math) does not feel as accomplishable to newer creators. More of a “this could be you one day” thing. I don’t like this sentiment as it doesn’t promote or demonstrate the actual artistic progress and expression of the community. I know this to be true, as when I showed this level to my sister who isn’t into art or Gd, she commented on it looking bad, and wondered why it won. When I showed her Aperture earlier, she was had much more positive comments, same for space i guess. For the inconsistency in how these were judged gameplay wise, this gameplay as I had mentioned earlier is not great. Yet, Aperture was weighed down purely by gameplay. This kind of shows they prefer a level nerfed down to a semi-auto over engaging gameplay that may be a little practicey. I dislike that. They did like the gameplay in the second place entry which I agree with though, that level is fun. Overall though, I think the takeaway is clear from the SGC. The judges and who run and promote Gd do not care much for good art or artistic expression, just whatever has the flashiest colours and plays well in their minds (usually just whatever kills them least). This does not promote making art. This promotes making clickbait. I cannot respect that.

Note:

This is not implying this level is clickbait, Vegtam didn’t make it for that reason I believe, I think he just had fun. I would love to see him improve as an artist, he has potential to do very well (though I do highly dislike Decay). I wish him the best. The judges and who set up the judging format should be the ones to question themselves and think a little.

Generally fun, fits the song rather well. I like it. I don’t particularly have strong emotions towards much of it though, so I cannot write a long review.

Personal bias. This level stands for everything I dislike in the Gd community, and it should not exist. Mels was it it though and Mels is nice, Bli is nice too. I wish ill upon some specific members and hosts of this collab though.

I know this wasn’t Desticy’s intent from what I heard, but I dislike the closeness to the references it used. I initially saw them since my friends told me the board he used contained generative AI images (I am the biggest AI hater), and was highly derivative of them. It is far too derivative of them for my liking, so I consider it stealing, therefore my 0 rating. This stand regardless if it were generative AI or not. Either way, it is still stealing in my eyes. From what I heard Desticy was not aware it was generative AI, which is rather sad and I feel bad for him. To be fair though, Pinterest is like dead lately with how much AI is in it (however the ones he used were obviously AI so like :/). I don’t like think this copying was out of malice though, it’s a trap a lot of beginner artists (very much a lot of art creators) fall into, where they don’t yet know how to ethically reference stuff. So I hope Desticy learns from this and grows as an artist and learns to communicate his intent rather than displaying someone else’s (or an horrific amalgamation of stealing from generative AI). The composition in most parts besides the end is rather bad. Super messy, the blocks seem to lack purpose rather than being platforms and take up way too much of the screen. There is also no distribution of LOD (level of detail) based on focal points, very homogenous. The last part has neat ideas though. The parallax is sort of bad, but it is headed in a good direction. Very much think future stuff from Desticy can be quite good, if he sorts out how to ethically reference. Everyone makes this mistake at some point, I have, and I absolutely HATE my past self for it, I’d do awful things to her if I could go back in time, she knew better and that it was unethical. I don’t think Desticy had that malice as he posted his board of references on Pinterest, he was very open about it.

I like. With this and a few others I have reviewed I think I may be a little biased towards and against them due to reasons, but I think it is fine enough to give thoughts even if they aren’t very applicable. I see a lot of people dislike the transition between the more pop-art half of the level to the cyberpunk side. I never quite understood this, as they are two sides of the “urban” theme that was intended. One being the “bright” side and the other being the more “reality?”-like one. It also fits the song exceptionally better than if it were only one. Fun level, works for what it is. I feel it could have done a little more though conceptually. It feels like a showcase of parts rather than any sense of progression, besides the flip to “reality” before the last four parts. Alch’s part is so good too oml I will die.

Yes yes. My current favourite level. Still flawed in many many ways though. It’s cool to see someone actually apply the correct dynamic perspective in something, even if it is a basic 1-point boxy thing. I think why I like this one so much despite it doing a lot I dislike is that it’s the closest thing I have seen to the vision I have for what Gd creating could be. It’s still very much in the early stages of it, but it is a step towards it. Maybe that sounds pretentious, but obviously this is a opiniony thing, I don’t want to force my vision for Gd on others, it’s their self expression after all not mine. I thought it could have done a lot more in terms of the narrative it intended to have. All you can really gather from this is “girl likes astronomy and fails at school” and that’s just like two parts. It sort of gives up after that. I know Chun and Reu had plans for a more extensive story, but had to sacrifice it for deadline. Which sucks. It is pretty evident that this is rushed. Chun’s vision for it was really cool though. ALSO big gripe, there is a mixture of “3d” assets with just flat normal assets that looks so wrong. It makes it look uncanny and takes so much away from the like immersion into the physical spaces trying to be portrayed. Like the room scene would be so so much better if it just had a litttlleee more depth was added to the flat stuff. That probably isn’t a problem for most, I spent like so long obsessing over parallax/dynamic perspective. The observatory rotating also looks bad. The like “eye” of it distorts incorrectly and the grid on the observatory does not rotate, so the “eye” (whatever the place the telescope sees out of is called) just looks like it’s slimely sliding along the wall. I like this level a lot though. Also again highly biased towards levels of people I like. Good job for Chun figuring out a super clean approximation for the 1/x curve for the z parallax, it’s really accurate and efficient.

I like this one a lot. I initially hated the text because I don’t think text fits the medium of classic levels in general, as the focal point will never be the text in game since you are trying to look at the obstacles, so it likely won’t be read in the way it is intended to be viewed. It does work in video at least though. It has grown on me a bit. I still think the writing is a little corny and flows strangely, but it has some charm to it. I cannot remember it word for word, but the line “with our pens pointed upwards, we marked everything with dots and lines” is quite cool. I like to think of it time to time. The way it progresses is neat. It has fun attention to detail like the downwards section where the branch repeats, showing the flowering, pollination and maturation of an apple, before the apple becomes focal. Right after this there’s a really fun way that he does song rep, where the line coming out of the plane of the solar system like wobbles to a sound in the music, it’s very satisfying. Overall the song representation is done quite well. Very well rounded level, quite good. My only real issue is the text honestly, and I don’t like the dash orby part at the start.

I likes. I think the largest flaw here like in a lot of levels is it kind of doesn’t do a good job at conveying what it’s trying to. It has like the impression of having a story, but rather than like actually tell it, it just uses edgy text. Not the most effective. I don’t think Xender had the clearest idea on the story either from how I have seen him discuss it. It’s still super cute visually though, and the atmosphere is fun. It does tend to be really messy at times compositionally though, and the colours don’t help in most parts, kind of being homogenous and not drawing the eye visually to any sort of focal point. This is more so an issue in the first half though. Very much cool though. Unfortunately though, Xender made it so we must burn him at the stake for being a cat.

I initially liked this level because it was vaguely funny. However after a conversation with Connot where he sort of excused stealing from other outside of Gd artists even if it was literally just small alterations, I can’t respect anything this level stands for. I think the derivative nature from some arts is fine here since they are references to other media and not trying to say “look what I made” rather “you know these”. I think from the convo with Connot though, he would have done this for any art. I do not tolerate that intent, or stealing in any capacity so I must give a 0.