Talk:Levelution/@comment-33508627-20180525085757

The full rant:

I thought I’d write a rant because something about GD has been bothering me for a while. So here goes:

“The theme of my recent Weekly Mini Contest made me realize something important. Good levels are becoming more and more rare in this game. And there’s a simple reason for this – it’s takes way too much time to make a good level. This isn’t something to blame on RobTop like anything else is becoming these days, no, this is to blame on the community. The fans of creators keep wanted something bigger, more epic and extreme. I can say for myself that it is a very annoying feeling when something you’ve spent hours on gets a hoard of negative comments only because it’s not your best work. “I don’t know about you guys, but I think Opti is becoming more and more lazy”. These comments really annoy me. I keep pushing for new levels (which everybody wants) only to be met with this? Frustrating. No, I haven’t become lazier over time – the opposite is true – but the standard for levels have increased WAY too much. This is killing the good creators, because nobody has the amount of time it requires to make a good level without there being months in-between. I think this is a big problem because many of the very best creators almost make no levels anymore. And I, too, am tired of working on one project for an eternity. Finishing a big project is awesome, but that feeling is just too rare for me to pursue it anymore. I might quit making big level projects all together because I don’t like working on one thing for a long time. I encourage other creators to do the same thing.

Lowering the standards might seem like a bad idea, but it has a couple of advantages: 1. More levels. Getting more levels may not seem like the best of ideas, but I think the more the merrier. You would once again be able to only follow a few creators instead of everyone. This will also give more material to star-grinders and demon-beaters. But this won’t be possible without RobTop actually rating those levels. 2. Less lag. If creators work on smaller projects, they will often be of a smaller object count and therefore be less likely to lag – something RobTop himself have been pushing over the years, but nobody seem to actually want it despite countless comments screaming about lag. LDM is not the solution. 3. More activity in the creating community. Have you noticed the lag of talented unknown creators recently? This might be because learning to create good levels is too hard of a task. Lowering the standards would mean more people would take on creating, and we would see a boost in the talent mass. Everybody would ‘stand a chance’ now. 4. Focus on now. Recently there has been a migration towards older updates, especially 1.9, but also a host of ‘1.0’ themed levels. I think this is a natural reaction towards wanting to build something that isn’t so complicated all the time. Thank you TriAxis. More focus on now would lead to more up-to-date levels. 5. Better gameplay. The bigger the projects, the more objects and cluttered design. And this might eventually lead to worse gameplay (this is what happened with Affix, and I hate that I had to compromise the gameplay for a splendid design). This is also something RobTop has been pushing. Therefore, I really appreciate creators who have put more focus on judging level on gameplay rather than design; Mazl, Aeon, Chase, Lemons, Alkali and others. 6. More solo levels. Good creators have been making less and less solo levels these days, because they are too big projects. Instead they’re drawn towards participating in megacollabs where they can make shorter parts (and therefor not as big projects). I understand this, but I’d rather see smaller solo projects. 7. No more generic. Getting more creators to create more levels would make for more unique levels, as good creators can put out more quirky levels and cool small projects. The generic levels would no longer be needed to fill the gap.

To return to the beginning; the theme of this WMC has been to make a full level with less than 1000 objects. 1000 is not a lot, but we have still gotten some amazing entries, which are feature-worthy right now (in my opinion). If you want to check here are some of the best: Digitalight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lABAzhs6S8 FiNNb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qC5_ZcoD18 Player3: https://youtu.be/KRF1jpAwdCc Xenoteric: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI718F-6G_s Have you heard about those creators? Probably not. I’m not saying we should all start only making levels with less than 1000 objects, but I think we should reconsider they way we create. Maybe this is because I like minimalism, but I still think today’s levels are becoming too laggy, cluttered and have bad gameplay. And getting those If RobTop is reading this: Don’t rate levels with bad gameplay. Rate more levels with good gameplay and simple designs.

I don’t think I can single-handedly change anything in this community, but if you agree with this message please spread it amongst the community – translate it, rewrite it or share this video. I hope you react if you feel the same way as I do.”

I’m glad you read all of that and it sparked some thoughts. I’m not saying that I won’t be making big projects anymore, but I’d rather make simpler levels. I don’t care what the haters say, I want to have fun creating and I don’t have that as much on big projects. Unsubscribe if you don’t like my future content ;)

To support this case use the tag #levelution Thanks again.