Geometry Dash: More Than A Mobile Game

When I was 10, I had friends whose school gave them iPads. The iPad had only existed for a couple of years now, so schools were excited to see how they could use this brand-new device for education. Kids, however, were excited to see how they could use this brand-new device for anything other than education.

My friends would always try to find ways to get around their school’s blocks on games and social media. PicCollage became an app that everyone at their school used, because Instagram was blocked and this was basically Instagram. One day, one of them showed me a game they started playing–it wasn’t yet blocked because its name looked like it maybe could have been educational. Its gameplay was simple, yet engaging, merely featuring a block dodging spikes. This game was Geometry Dash, and I don’t think I was ready for what was to come.

Geometry Dash, on its surface, looks like any other mobile game–it costs a mere two dollars (four on Steam), alongside a stripped down “lite” version with ads. Like other games, it features daily rewards and content to keep the player coming back for more. Geometry Dash’s gameplay uses only one button cough, and I wouldn’t blame you if you put it in the same pile as other one-touch games like Stack, Crossy Road, and Flappy Bird. I wouldn’t blame you, but you would be wrong. Hiding on the App Store is a gem of a game with a vibrant community, one that’s constantly pushing the boundaries of both creativity and skill. And I honestly haven’t seen anything like it. Geometry Dash is so much more than it appears on its surface. Geometry Dash is more than a mobile game.

Largely inspired by games such as The Impossible Game, Geometry Dash released on August 13, 2013, developed by Robert Topala–RobTop. The game launched to moderate success, largely due to the small userbase Rob grew with his previous mobile games, Boomlings, Boomlings Matchup, and Memory Mastermind.

RobTop[1]: I did add cross promotion between all games though, so there was a base social media following (although small) for when I started with GD.

RobTop[2]: I received a few great reviews from news sites, but not enough to have an impact. Since I had no marketing budget it quickly dropped in rankings after release.

The initial version of Geometry Dash was dead simple. You play as this cube. If you tap the screen, you jump. Your goal is to reach the end of the level without dying, whether from a spike or running into a wall. This is…pretty much the exact same gameplay as The Impossible Game. To differentiate itself, Geometry Dash spiced it up with additional mechanics, such as this pink portal, which introduced a brand new gamemode. If you pass through it, you ride a ship, allowing you to fly in the air by holding the screen.

Updates to the game would continue to increase the variety. Update 1.1 released a month later with a new level and the ability to reverse the screen direction. Yet another month later, update 1.2 introduced the ball gamemode, which flips its gravity on a tap. Other updates would introduce mini portals, the UFO gamemode (functioning similar to Flappy Bird), and speed changing portals (That’s not a portal!), among other features.

It was around this time the game really started to grow in popularity. By June 2014, Geometry Dash had garnered over 20 million downloads across its free and paid versions. Entirely through word of mouth, the game rocketed to the top of the App Store charts, where it remains to this day.

This is where things get interesting. On January 16, 2017, Geometry Dash’s 2.1 update would be released to the world. It was an excruciating wait for the GD community. We were used to updates every few months, so for the game to not be updated for almost a year and a half? That sucked, but at least we wouldn’t have to deal with that again. At-at least…

Geometry Dash would not receive another major update for nearly seven years.

For many games, that would be the end. The game would lose popularity, and even if many players stay, it would mean the game’s community would be much smaller than it was at its peak. The game would stagnate, become boring, and eventually drop off into obscurity. So, over the several years without any updates to the game, how the hell did Geometry Dash steadily gain in popularity?![3] What is up with this game?

Ask anyone that actively plays GD what’s so special about it, and you’ll likely get a question back: “Have you seen the level editor?”

ProChara is Splatoon’s largest and most prolific content creator. (I’m going somewhere with this, I promise.) In a collaboration video with another content creator, Bipedal Squid, the two of them analyzed and redesigned some of the game’s maps.[4] Bipedal Squid made some illustrations to demonstrate the changes. These illustrations, as was later revealed, were entirely made using the Geometry Dash level editor, completely unbeknownst to ProChara, and just…(hahaha)[5]

I’ve been a little misleading with the footage I’ve shown so far of the game. Like, yes, this is Geometry Dash. But so is this. And this. And this. The Geometry Dash level editor is somehow able to bring out its players’ creativity in ways unlike anything I’ve ever seen in other games. (Even if I’m not one of those players.)

This is Sedulous, a level which creator Samifying built over the course of three and a half years. The level is chock-full of detail, and it’s obvious that a ton of care and attention went into it. Everything here is made entirely using in-game objects, the exact same set of objects used in the game’s official levels. And yet, Sedulous looks completely different from them. It also looks completely different from other custom levels, which often showcase a wide set of unique styles. One of my favorite levels, for instance, is Between Worlds by xXLOCOXx, which combines beautifully crafted artwork with fantastic sound design and an original score. All of this is absolutely incredible, and it begs the question: how is Geometry Dash such a potent catalyst for creativity?

The answer for this, I think, is the freedom the editor provides. GD creators are given every object and tool RobTop creates for the game’s official levels. In fact, every single official level, when extracted from the game files, can be opened and edited directly in the level editor. By the way, to grab copies of official levels, they’re all uploaded on the account RobTopArchiverRobsVault. Despite the presence of a grid, objects can be freely moved. They can intersect, overlap, and be rotated freely. I actually think this is the secret to Geometry Dash’s level editor, hidden in plain sight. This openness is what allows creators to make custom objects, designs, and even artwork in-game. These days, the game has a vast array of objects and features, each allowing creators to build more and more impressive levels. My favorite level in the entire game, however, doesn’t use any of these modern features. In fact, many of these features didn’t yet exist.

Built by FunnyGame, under the alias Caustic, Death Moon is perhaps the crown jewel of Geometry Dash 1.9. The level editor was a lot simpler back then–only four color channels were available, compared to the 999 we have today. Objects couldn’t be moved or smoothly animated during a level, and the object selection itself was way, way smaller. Yet, this level is beautiful. To create these rotating triangles, FunnyGame cycles the colors of triangles at different points of rotation. Taking advantage of the editor’s freedom of positioning, FunnyGame created birds, background art, and several complex block designs, all to create a thematically cohesive experience of a level. Even by today’s insanely high creating standards, I think Death Moon is fantastic. And I think a feature as simple as the ability to freely position objects is the reason it can exist. The Geometry Dash level editor is powerful to the point it gives geniuses like FunnyGame a canvas to create.

In a way, this amount of power is a double-edged sword. Because we’re essentially working with RobTop’s own developer tools, the editor can be…less than intuitive. I think many new players are intimidated by the editor these days, and it’s really not hard to see why. What the hell is this menu? Why are there so many objects? If others are building masterpieces, and all I can muster is a bad Stereo Madness remake…why bother creating at all?

Even so, the positives of this editor cannot be overstated. Players can build and enjoy levels that harness the full potential of the game’s mechanics, all without modding, because they are given an absurd amount of power in the editor. This is a feature of the game RobTop himself seems proud of.

Robtop[6]:

I try to foresee the needs and things people will do but I keep getting surprised every update. The creators in GD are insane I am impressed all the time. Thats part of what makes it so much fun to work on :)

Super Mario Maker is perhaps the most popular video game level editor. And y’know what? It’s really good! Nintendo made an editor accessible to pretty much anyone, and watching people push the limits of Mario game mechanics is really exciting. Mario Maker levels are fantastic, and can be truly creative, but its editor definitely has its limits. In Super Mario Maker, and nearly every other level editor, you can create levels that are of the aesthetic and mechanics of its original game. Geometry Dash levels are above such limitations. I’ve already shown that GD levels aren’t constrained to the game’s own aesthetic. What if I told you they aren’t constrained to the game’s own mechanics, either?

Geometry Dash update 2.0 was revolution. I was in seventh grade when it first released in 2015, and I remember completely freaking out with my friends over the addition of moving objects into the game. The ability to move objects wasn’t the only groundbreaking addition. By changing the “z layer” of a block you could now hide the player. Objects could also be turned invisible or outright disabled at will. This was accomplished with “triggers”, which change the position, opacity, color, or plane of existence of an object when passing or touching it. Alongside allowing for increasingly varied visual styles in level creation, especially from creators like Echonox and G4lvatron, update 2.0 allowed creators to build levels that didn’t play like Geometry Dash at all. Serponge was the pioneer of this, especially with his “AlterGame” series. Update 2.1 would add even more features for creators, and with nearly seven years to dwell on this version of the game, the community pushed it to its absolute limits.

This is MasterGame, a top-down adventure game created by Serponge, even featuring an NES-like save password system. It is a Geometry Dash level. This is Karting Dash, a simple racing game by MaxyLAND inspired by Mario Kart Wii. It is a Geometry Dash level. This is Brainfugd, a programming puzzle game by Spu7nix. It is a Geometry Dash level. This is WHAT, a 3D rendered level, built by Spu7nix using a programming language he wrote specifically to generate Geometry Dash levels. And NitenTeria didn’t need any sort of programming language to create a softbody physics engine. They just used the Geometry Dash level editor! These are not the sort of things that are normally possible in a level editor, let alone running in an unmodded game! The closest thing I can think of anywhere near this level in a video game would be what people have accomplished with Minecraft redstone. But redstone’s entire purpose is the construction of logic circuits. Geometry Dash wasn’t meant for this–THIS IS INSANE! Of course, not everyone can build…that. I certainly can’t. But, that didn’t stop me from creating…

Purple_The_Pup: My game freezes when I go to a different application while geometry dash is running. I don’t know what the problem is? It’s annoying
Yoichi Isagi: FG’TY’U
Purple_The_Pup: what?[7]

The Geometry Dash Steam discussions page has always been an interesting part of the community. It’s shockingly active, yet it’s divorced almost entirely from the rest of the community. It’s a weird, independent microcosm of Geometry Dash players. A megacollab is a level built collaboratively between several creators, and it was rather common for people on Steam discussions to try to plan them. Very few of them actually were made, but, at some point during 2.0, thirteen-year-old me thought to join one.

Zandit:
So anyway, im doing a megacolab! I am looking for 15 people to sign up.
To sign up, answer the following.
Your Gd Name
Best level id (Could be tiny, just show what you can do.)
What part you want

Toadtoad:
Toadtoad
Best level: FortFlsk; Level ID: 19397704
Btw, that doen't showcase my true capability. I'm working on a…

Zandit:
You're in[8]

One by one, each of the sixteen slots filled with creators, chosen by the level’s host, Zandit. And soon enough, we were ready to begin. It was a rocky road to completion, and all coordination was accomplished entirely through this single Steam discussion thread, spanning 54 pages.

Toadtoad: Wait is it my turn?
SteR: I think CrispApple is decorating Zandit's part, but I may be wrong about that.
Crispapple: I'm not decorating Zandit's part. I just wanted to look at it
SteR: Well then, who is? :L
WatchPiggy: no one ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)[8]

Normally, in a megacollab, everyone builds their part separately before everything is combined into one level. Unfortunately, we had zero clue what we were doing. We were building the level in sequence, passing it from person to person until it was done. In total, it took over seven months to build, and we lost several creators along the way. This is the list of players assigned to build a part in this level, and this is the list of players that actually built a part. We lost over half of the participants, even including the host, somehow. It was an arduous endeavor to build this level, with an endless amount of time spent wrangling into a finished product, and it’s honestly a miracle it was finished to begin with.

Despite all of the work that went into it, the final result, End of Infinity, is nothing to write home about. While some parts, like SteR’s and Crispapple’s, look pretty good by 2.0 standards, others, like mine, never looked good in the first place. A lot of people in the GD community place emphasis on their level getting “rated”, or approved by RobTop. End of Infinity, looking back, was never going to be rated. And I think that’s okay. I have fond memories of building End of Infinity, despite all of the setbacks. There was something special about the whole process. All of us that remained were focused on a single goal–seeing this level through–and I think there was a shared connection from that. And, even though the level isn’t any good, even if no one liked it, or even saw it, I’m proud of it. End of Infinity never brought us any fame or recognition, but, to me at least, the experience building it was worth it.

There’s little in-game incentive to create. Sure, you get likes, and sure, the game tracks your rated levels, but Geometry Dash surely isn’t anything like Roblox where creations can be monetized. And I love it for this. GD Creators are more often than not fueled by passion for the game and its creative potential. As a result, community-made levels have a certain sense of genuineness that I’ve really come to appreciate, whether it’s top of the featured page, or lost in obscurity.

Geometry Dash level creation is an incredibly artistic outlet. And some people are amazing at it. But for those of us that aren’t, it’s still an incredible way to express yourself, connect with others, or simply have some extra fun in the silly little block game for kids. Or, y’know, make lobotomy levels. (Fire in the hole!)

And besides, there’s an entire other aspect of the game I haven’t even begun to discuss. While creators are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the level editor, another subset of players are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible…in general.

BadgerGFM[9]: What I’m–okay, first question, first question is–are they, do they have spikes in the dark? Like, how do you–(stunned reaction)

Geometry Dash isn’t an easy game. Your first time playing even level one can potentially take hundreds of attempts, despite its approachability. But, with enough time and effort, all of the game’s official levels can be conquered. With that under your belt, you’re prepared for the majority of user-created levels. But owo what’s this? Extweme demon? (death)

Introduced in update 1.3, the demon difficulty was created to represent the absolute hardest levels the game had to offer. Y’know, like The Nightmare. Okay, so obviously, this and Bloodbath are nowhere near the same difficulty. The community had already taken to calling levels like this “extreme demons” anyway, so in update 2.1, demon levels got five tiers of difficulty, ranging from easy to extreme. It’s hard to put into words just how difficult extreme demons are. Even after hundreds of hours of playing the game, beating an easy extreme demon can take tens of thousands of attempts, demanding absolute mastery of the game’s mechanics, alongside pinpoint precision in one’s inputs. And even then, the skill gap between the easiest and hardest extremes may be just as large as the skill gap between easy and extreme demons. Some even argue that more demon difficulties should be added to the game.

This is all to say, WHAT THE HELL? Silent Clubstep, a level created with the express purpose of being physically impossible, and was subsequently hacked on upload, has been beaten?! And it’s not even the hardest level someone has beaten?!?!

At this point, I’m almost inclined to believe that Geometry Dash’s skill ceiling simply does not exist. Over the years, players have consistently overcome the impossible, from Riot conquering Cataclysm, to paqoe beating Silent Clubstep, to Zoink defeating Tidal Wave. I have been playing this game for over a decade now, and this game’s top players never fail to absolutely amaze me, both in terms of their raw skill and the sheer dedication required for these achievements. At 100% speed, does this look possible to you? These people care so much about the game, and because of that, they constitute a core part of the game’s identity. I, unfortunately, can’t really speak too much on top level play–I simply don’t know enough about it, and I’m not anywhere near that level, of skill or of dedication. What I can talk about, though, is the experience of beating an extreme demon, even if these days it’s considered one of the easiest in the game.

Back in 2015, Cataclysm was a level many thought to be impossible. Built by GBoy, the level was hellish, both in its difficulty and its design. It was truly an incredible test of skill for players at the time. It was also hacked. You see, in order to upload a level to the Geometry Dash servers, you first need to beat the level yourself, verifying that the level is possible. GBoy didn’t do that, instead using a cheat to upload the level without having to verify it. This meant that no one really knew if the level was possible in the first place. For months, Cataclysm was left undefeated. But, against all odds, it was conquered, first (but not really) by Cyclic, then by GironDavid, then Sandstorm, and then Riot.

I still remember when Cataclysm was one of the absolute hardest levels in the game. I remember looking up to players like Riot, in awe of their accomplishments in the game. And I remember thinking that I would never be able to do the kinds of things they did. I mean, I was worse at the game than any of my friends that actively played it at the time. While my friends were beating Windy Landscape and 8o, I was sitting struggling with Reanimation. Something like Cataclysm was utterly impossible for me.

I started playing the game less and less as time progressed. I never stopped entirely–Geometry Dash would sit on my phone for whenever I was bored–but I surely wasn’t as active as I was once. Obviously, my skill at the game stagnated, at least until 2.2. The release of update 2.2 completely reinvigorated my motivation to play GD, and this was when my skill actually started to improve. I began playing harder and harder levels, finally beating levels I had struggled on, like Nine Circles. I even beat my first insane demon, Horntail Cave. The entire time I was improving, I had one goal: somehow become good enough to beat Cataclysm.

One day, kinda just for fun, I did a practice run of the level. I noticed that the second half of the level, besides the infamous ship part, wasn’t actually that hard. So I practiced the ship, played from the ball part, and that day completed a 51-100 run of the level.

Wait, could I actually do this?

Over the next few days, I grinded the first half of the level. It was very difficult for me, but as I continued to practice, I got more and more consistent at the level. And as I got more and more consistent, achieving my goal became more and more in reach. For days I obsessed over Cataclysm. For days I spent hours and hours, putting in attempt after attempt, solely trying to beat this one level. Slowly, I inched forward, reaching further into the level as every day passed. Soon enough, though, I hit a wall.

This graph shows the entire level of Cataclysm, and these are my own estimates for the difficulty of each part. The second half is considerably easier than the first, and the parts before and after this ship part are honestly pretty hard to mess up. But man, this ship part was brutal. It’s already very hard to get this far into the level–I would only reach halfway every few hundred attempts–but this ship part would kill me over and over again. I knew I could do it–I did this part before! It was just going to take a while. There are also these silly little spikes right at the end of the level–one last skill check before you succeed. Especially considering how hard the level is as a whole, I was terrified I’d stumble at the finish line. Though, of course, I had to get there first.

I was over an hour and a half into my current play session, and I hadn’t reached the ship part a single time. Overall, I wasn’t playing as well as I had been, and it was already past midnight. I had work the next day, and it would’ve been smart for me to stop now and rest, but I instead told myself I’d stop once I finally reached the ship part. I continued. Another death to the first wave. Another death to the mini ship. Yet another death to the first wave. I, at one point, started playing physics explainer videos in the background to help me stay focused. A death to the 44% cube. Yet another death to the first wave. It was my 439th attempt that session, and I, at last, passed the first half of the level. I just had to do an easy ball part, and then I’d stop for the day. I just had to focus a little bit more.

I cleared it. Finally, I got to attempt this goddamn ship part a single time today. I passed the first obstacle. Then the second. Then the third. 68%. 69%. My heart beat faster and faster as I wrestled my way through the level. 72%. 73%. I was up against the final trial of this ship part, a trial that had crushed me multiple times prior. If I could just pass it, I might beat the level right now. If I could just pass it…

At this point, my hands went numb.

I had…done it? I beat the part of the level that was giving me so much trouble. All I had left were the easiest sections of the level. They were easy, so I could do it. They were easy, so I couldn’t. Screw. Up. My heart and mind were racing at the speed of light. My hands were trembling, unable to keep up with the inputs I needed to hit. A near miss. In an instant my heart dropped, picked itself back up, and began sprinting. Another near miss. Yet another, each and every one doubling my panic. Internal screaming. At the end of the wave part, the wave part that I better not fail on, I nearly grazed the wall. The nearest miss of them all. The success closest to death.

This was it. This was the attempt. I was about to beat Cataclysm. All that was left was this final set of spikes. All I had to do was not screw up.

Me[10]: HO…HAHA…HAHAHAHAHA!! OH MY GOD….YES! NO WAY… HAHAHA-HAHA

There’s a review, written by Kieron Gillen about the game VVVVVV. It describes the challenge Veni, Vidi, Vici, and its dastardly difficulty. He writes, “I completed the level and was reduced to disturbingly orgasmic cries. I haven’t felt as good with a videogame, in that direct physical way, for quite a while.”[11] Now, I love VVVVVV. But nothing in the game, even Veni, Vidi, Vici, made me feel like that. But, Geometry Dash? Yeah…

Geometry Dash reactions are very frequently memed–you may have seen npesta’s reaction to verifying Kenos, for example, maybe without even knowing it came from this game. And I get why these spread so virally. These are intense reactions, almost comically so. Well, at least most of them are.

Colorbolt[12]:
Yes, dude. Let’s f**king go. Okay, well that’s gonna complicate things a lot. Oh, dude. Oh that’s gonna complicate things so much… Okay… Oh f**k, that was attempt one, too? Oh god, no. Oh god… Oh f**k… Okay, lemme grab my phone *unholy microphone noises* [...] I’m not actually very happy about that, I’m not gonna lie

In general, though, major accomplishments come alongside intensely joyful reactions. And I totally get where this comes from. Geometry Dash gives you a taste of what it’s like to defy the impossible, in a way I haven’t experienced in any other game. Cataclysm is now something that probably thousands of people can beat, but it was something I didn’t think was possible for myself to accomplish. So actually pulling it off felt incredible. My friends will not shut up about my Cataclysm reaction, and it “only” took me ten thousand attempts to beat. Players often spend hundreds of thousands of attempts over the span of months, all to complete a level that doesn’t even last two minutes. I can’t even begin to imagine what it feels like to succeed after putting in that much effort.

Riot[13]:
Holy f**k! [...] Oh my god! I can't believe it. Oh my god. Dude, I feel like I'm gonna be sick. [...] Dude, is this real life? Oh my god, am I living in the real world right now? Is this a f**king simulation? [...] Dude, I'm shaking, I'm shaking. [...] Oh my god, you guys don't even know what this means to me. You guys don't even know what this means to me. I want to give my victory speech, okay? I want to give my victory speech. [...] You guys don't even know what this means to me, seriously. Like… Guys. Dude, it's been four years. Four years. Four years. The 96, four years ago. [...] I lost the race to beat the level. I had the worst mental block ever. And I came back and I didn't think there was any way I could ever beat this. But I held to my promise I made on Twitter. If my channel got unbanned, I would do it. I f**king did it. People thought I was washed up. I thought I was washed up. But I just proved everybody wrong. I proved myself wrong. I f**king did it. [...] After I stopped playing this game, and I finally did… The thing I thought I could never do. Oh my god, dude.

Players’ accomplishments in Geometry Dash bring to light yet another remarkable thing about it. This game has both an insanely high skill ceiling and incredibly low skill floor. The fact that such complex and difficult maneuvers are possible in such a simple and understandable game is a huge testament to the game’s design. I’d love to talk about what makes Geometry Dash such a well-designed game, but first we need to talk about the game’s designer, RobTop.

Robert Topala is an interesting man. He is someone who, as far as my research goes, spends his time doing only two things: working on Geometry Dash and lifting weights. (I have found zero evidence that he does anything else in his life, besides also owning a horse.) RobTop is a self-taught gamedev, who began by posting his creations on Newgrounds. In 2010, when he released his first project, “Bounce ball thingy”, he wrote in the description:

RobTop/Zhenmuron[14]: My first attempt at a flash game so be gentle =) Ty

The game is really short, only about five minutes long, and rather awkward to play. But it received a generally positive reception, especially considering it was his first game. One comment, left by masterjiji, reads:

masterjiji[14]: VERY entertaining. You say youre a noob, but youre a noob with taste.

I think this comment perfectly encapsulates who Rob is as a developer.

Geometry Dash’s development is often frustrating to watch, both as a player of the game and as a programmer myself. On September 20, 2021, iOS 15 was released to iPhone users, introducing many new features like Focus, Live Text, and the inability to run Geometry Dash whatsoever.[15] This was eventually fixed by Apple with the release of iOS 16…an entire year later. This was something that could have been fixed earlier–something that RobTop had the fix for. So why wasn’t the game patched? Rumors began to spread that RobTop literally lost the source code for the game, having to rebuild the game from the ground up. RobTop responded:

RobTop[16]: No of course not. What I said earlier is that I dont have a separate 2.11 version that I can quickly patch and upload with an iOS fix, since all the code is 2.2 now. So I have to fix all the broken 2.2 stuff before being able to update the game.

If you’re a programmer, you’re probably looking at this comment with the same amount of horror that I had reading it. If you’re not a programmer, let me explain the problem. In software development, most of us use a free program known as git. Git, alongside other similar programs, saves a record of changes for a codebase. With git, you can switch to any previously saved version of your code and make changes, all without losing the current version of the codebase. In other words, if Rob used git, like most other developers, he probably would’ve been able to fix the iOS bug easily. This is what I mean when I say that watching Geometry Dash’s development can get frustrating. This isn’t to say that RobTop is a bad developer, or a lazy one. I repeat, I do not think Rob is bad or lazy as a developer. But sometimes, his “noobishness” can show a little.

Updates 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2 have all had significant changes to the physics of the game, and I can confirm that both 2.1[17] and 2.2[18] unintentionally broke levels, making them impossible, or at the very least much, much harder. These changes were never reverted, probably because Rob couldn’t refer back to an older version of his code, and this meant that each time, individual levels had to be patched. These unintentional breaking changes should not happen, and if they do manage to slip through the cracks, there should be mechanisms to revert them. These unintentional breaking changes are a symptom of RobTop as somewhat of a noob. (There have been intentional changes, too, with their own set of controversies, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.)

And heck, Rob has even forgotten to remove the level editor from two of the four free versions of the game, giving the community access to an old, buggy version of the 2.2 editor years before the update actually released. Oh right, did I mention that Geometry Dash has four separate free versions?

Anyway, as I mentioned earlier (…much earlier), Geometry Dash update 2.2 took almost seven years to develop. This is despite the fact that 2.2 was initially intended to be a smaller update to the game.[19] From Rob’s Reddit AMA responses, what happened is that he would have an idea for a new feature, build most of it, and then have another idea for a new feature.[20][21] And, yes, it sucked that the update took as long as it did. But 2.2’s release, as you’ll soon see, demonstrates why I actually love Rob’s “noobishness”.

I don’t know how to begin talking about 2.2. Like, I cannot properly convey the massive scale of this update and what it means for the game. Ignoring the hundreds of icons, thousands of objects, and even more songs and sound effects added in this update, one of the earliest teased features was the ability for creators to freely control the camera in their levels. And…what? This represents a massive shift in how the game is played. Because GD is almost always played from left to right, most players are used to locking their eyes to a single place on the screen. The simple addition of camera controls completely changes that, requiring players to repeatedly adjust their focus to read the gameplay. The gradient trigger and custom particle object have both revolutionized level creation, each of them allowing complex art and effects to be greatly simplified, and the former additionally allowing 3D renderers to be…easier to create in the game. All this is alongside a vast number of powerful editor features I don’t have time to talk about.

So, I mentioned earlier that camera controls completely change how the game is played. But what I failed to mention was 2.2’s biggest new feature: platformer mode. Platformer mode allows the player to freely move left and right, similarly to traditional platformer games. And, I’m not crazy, right? This is a fundamentally different game. Any other developer would sell this as a new game…because it is one. But not RobTop. Instead, this brand new game was added as a free update to an already dirt-cheap game. And…just…what?! Why is there a wavetable synthesizer made entirely within the Geometry Dash level editor? Why is there a full recreation of Five Nights At Freddy’s made entirely within the editor?!

I don’t think a sane developer would allow this. I don’t think a sane developer would allow any of this. For this reason, I think the brilliant insanity of 2.2 is a result of RobTop’s “noob with taste” way of developing, and I am so happy for it. I am in awe of update 2.2. I am in awe of Robert Topala.

From all this, I hope you understand what I mean when I say that RobTop is a “noob with taste”. The way RobTop develops Geometry Dash is simultaneously frustrating and fantastic, and he’s unlike any other gamedev I’m aware of. I do think there’s even more to it, though, than Rob’s idiosyncrasies as a developer. I previously mentioned that Geometry Dash was incredibly well-designed, and now that we understand RobTop as a “noob with taste”, we can talk about just how tasteful he is with the game’s design, and why that’s important.

Game-feel is incredibly hard to get right. If you’ve played a Flappy Bird clone, for instance, you may have noticed something felt “off” about the controls. If you’ve played the Mario Bros. arcade game, or most other platformers from the same era, you may not have felt truly in control of your character. And if you’ve tried to make your own platformer, you’ve probably spent hours tweaking every possible parameter of a character’s jump, pulling your hair out over the fact that it still feels jank. Oftentimes, it’s hard to pin down why exactly certain physics feel better than others. I can tell you that Celeste is a game that feels fantastic to control, and that Lep’s World isn’t, but I would have trouble telling you why. Creating good platformer physics is something that often requires a lot of practice to develop a feel for, and RobTop nails it in Geometry Dash. Every gamemode, from the cube to the ship to the wave to the spider feels intuitive and satisfying to control. And I think this speaks very highly of RobTop’s taste in game design.

An aspect of the design that’s a bit easier to evaluate is hitboxes. Geometry Dash’s hitboxes can be…kinda silly sometimes. But, I think this is a good thing! Making an obstacle’s hitbox smaller than the obstacle itself makes the game feel more fair. When you just barely graze an obstacle and die, it’s easy to think, “What? I shouldn’t have died there! I didn’t even touch the spike!” before getting frustrated at the game for being bad and cringe. But if the death occurs because your character is very clearly overlapping the obstacle, you admit that it’s your own fault you died, diminishing your frustration. And besides, small hitboxes lead to the occasional extremely close call, adding a satisfying sense of tension and thrill. Geometry Dash’s hitboxes are, in my opinion, quite well configured, which also contributes to the game’s overall great design. Though, I do wish the player’s hitbox rotated with the visible icon.

Combining Geometry Dash’s precisely tuned physics with its forgiving hitboxes, you get a set of gamemode mechanics that simultaneously have a very low skill floor and a very high skill ceiling. For some gamemodes, this range is pretty obvious. Take the spider, for instance, which teleports to the ceiling on a tap. Because it’s purely timing-based, you can simply make the timings tighter to increase the difficulty. But Geometry Dash’s mechanics go deeper than this, and even gamemodes like the ship have this attribute. The ship is introduced as early as the first level of the game, Stereo Madness. And even though there’s no tutorial that teaches the gamemode (okay, well, technically there is, but I highly doubt anyone actually uses it), most are able to figure out how it works the first time they see it, and feel in control of it. And yet, people are able to push the skill ceiling so high with this simple mechanic. Straightflying, for instance, is an advanced application of the ship’s physics, and it feels great to pull off. It’s extremely difficult–despite having played for years, I’m still not very consistent at it–but it demonstrates just how far the limits of this game go, while also adding variety to how the gamemode is played. Combining straightfly parts with vertical movements can make a ship part more exciting and fun. And this works because of RobTop’s tastefully tuned physics. This range applies even to the cube, perhaps the conceptually simplest mode in the game. Every End by Mindcap, for instance, represents a psychotic level of difficult cube gameplay, and it uses a wide variety of timing gimmicks for its difficulty. The various mechanics in Geometry Dash are very simple to learn, but they all are shockingly deep when you look a bit further.

Most Geometry Dash levels, though, aren’t defined by a single gamemode or mechanic. And I think this is where its design really shines. Each of Geometry Dash’s mechanics works in tandem with every other mechanic, creating a ton of depth and variety in gameplay. Let’s look at this structure, which is incredibly common in custom levels, and break it down into its individual components. This portal turns the player into a spider, and as mentioned earlier, the spider teleports to the ceiling, and flips their gravity, on a click. If the player is in the air and holds their finger down on the button, the spider teleports as soon as it touches the ground. The pads here and here boost the player into the air. This black orb launches the player towards the ground. Orbs in this game are designed so the player can tap and hold early, buffering the click and making the act of hitting the orb much easier. Finally, these arrows change the player’s speed. Putting it all together, we get this moment of gameplay. In a single click, the player launches towards the ground, teleports, and launches back into the air. All of these mechanics smoothly synergize to create a single satisfying second, and this is just one of many structures that combine to construct Geometry Dash’s gameplay. Levels in Geometry Dash have an insane amount of variety in how they feel to play–the gameplay of Nine Circles feels very different than that of red dart, despite both being centered around the wave gamemode (and both being red). This variety is owed to the fact that Geometry Dash’s mechanics work really well both individually and as a whole, making GD deceptively deep as a game.

I think RobTop’s own official levels for Geometry Dash are some of the best levels in the entire game, with gameplay that I genuinely believe surpasses even some of the greatest custom creations. This is because they take full advantage of the game’s more complex interactions. This manifests in many ways, some more subtle than others. This thread from HJfod, GD creator and developer of the BetterEdit mod, explains this perfectly.

HJfod[22]:
RobTop levels, especially older ones really lean into GD's incredibly well fine-tuned base physics. Even if you are late to an orb timing or a portal, you still almost never die due to unintendedly buggy gameplay. Like one thing that has always amazed me about Clubstep is how no matter how early or late you hit this orb, you will always reach the portals and make it to the ship. A custom level would usually just make you die or resort to invisible teleport portals.

This isn’t the only example of clever use of the game’s physics. The ball part of Deadlocked, for instance, combines a teleport portal and a gravity portal to create this bit of gameplay. Not only is it a really satisfying motion, you can hit it early or late without bugging out the level and dying, just like the orb HJfod mentioned. RobTop has a deep understanding of the mechanics he developed for the game. As a result, he is able to compose carefully crafted levels that utilize the game’s mechanics really well.

RobTop’s levels are additionally extremely fair, something that HJfod also noticed. In his thread, he compares Geometry Dash’s physics with those of The Impossible Game, noting that the latter’s are “just so much worse” than the former’s. I want to take this a step further and compare the level design between the two games.

The Impossible Game’s first level, Fire Aura, and Geometry Dash’s first level, Stereo Madness, share a lot of superficial similarities. They both start with one spike, followed by two spikes, followed by a jump onto a block. They both include a section in which the player is required to hold to keep jumping, releasing so they don’t encounter a spike on the next platform. And they both introduce triple spike jumps late into the level. But, I find that there are some massive differences in how the two levels are built, even ignoring the ship section in Stereo Madness.

Let’s look back at the first few jumps. Fire Aura requires the player to time their jump such that they land on this block. This is deceptively difficult–if you jump too late, you will miss the block entirely and die. This jump requires the player to hold an understanding of their jump’s trajectory, something they probably won’t have within the first five seconds of gameplay. I would even go as far to say that putting such a jump this early in the first level is unfair game design. Stereo Madness doesn’t have this problem, despite also including a block jump. This is because, adjacent to the block, are two spikes that prevent the player from moving too far forward. These spikes make jumping over the block pretty much impossible, and besides, it’s a lot easier to time a jump over an obstacle than on top of it. Stereo Madness, as early as the third jump, is much more fair in its design than The Impossible Game, which I think lends itself to a more fun experience overall. This manifests in many ways, such as the fact that Stereo Madness’s triple spike jumps are actually easier than regular triple spike jumps, but I find this the most apparent with Fire Aura’s use of blind jumps. Blind jumps are jumps that are basically impossible to react to because they appear on screen before you have time to react. This gameplay element is actively hostile to the player, and just isn’t very fun to play. Even worse, on the original version of this level, this jump is buggy and broken.

Stereo Madness doesn’t have any blind jumps (or any stupidly game-breaking bugs). It’s much more fair, which lends itself to be more enjoyable to experience. What’s crazy is even without mean gameplay gimmicks, Stereo Madness is simply much more engaging than Fire Aura. I think this is for a couple of reasons. For one, Stereo Madness simply has much more varied gameplay when compared to Fire Aura. So much of Fire Aura is just holding down the button, something Stereo Madness only has the player do for a couple of jumps at a time. In lieu of this, Stereo Madness includes combinations of spike jumps, gap jumps, and drops that keep the player on their toes while still remaining fair. And this isn’t even considering the ship parts that completely change the gameplay for a sizable chunk of the level.

The other reason I find Stereo Madness more engaging than Fire Aura is how it uses tension in a dynamic way. Fire Aura feels rather static. The gameplay doesn’t have a smooth ramp up in difficulty, leading to a level that doesn’t feel like it has much of a progression. Stereo Madness, however, has a sense of tension that ebbs and flows as the level progresses. The level starts off easy, building in challenge until the ship part, at which point it gives the player time to breathe before the level’s largest hurdles. As the music builds in intensity, the background turns red and the player is faced with the most fast-paced, difficult gameplay in the level. After overcoming these obstacles, the music reaches its climax, and the difficulty suddenly drops, leaving the player to hold their breath in anticipation as they attempt to surpass the final moments of the level. Stereo Madness wonderfully demonstrates RobTop’s incredible knack for good game design, driven by his impeccable taste.

I only talked about the first level here, but the general ideas for fair and engaging gameplay apply to all of RobTop’s levels, even as they become increasingly complex. (Ahem, with one notable exception.) Dash spider aside, I hope you understand what I mean when I say that RobTop’s levels are phenomenal, because they truly are. And if you want a more in depth look at GD’s level design, I highly recommend checking out GD Colon’s video on how Geometry Dash teaches its mechanics–it’s very good.

Why is Geometry Dash’s game design so important (beyond the fact that I personally find it really really interesting)? Everything I just talked about is, in my opinion, crucial to Geometry Dash as a whole, because it serves as a foundation on which everything else is built. I genuinely don’t think we would’ve seen any of the community’s accomplishments, whether it’s achievements like beating Tidal Wave or incredible levels like Between Worlds, without RobTop and his unique sense of design. Geometry Dash has a set of gameplay mechanics that are extremely enjoyable and well-tuned, and this fact is entirely owed to Rob. If this wasn’t the case, not nearly as many people would play the game to such a high level, and the top player community as we know it wouldn’t exist. Geometry Dash has an insane level editor, with so many advanced features it’s basically a game engine, and this fact is entirely owed to Rob. If this wasn’t the case, we wouldn’t see fantastic creations from people like FunnyGame and Serponge, or newer creators like pocke and bli. Geometry Dash has an extremely well-designed set of levels to introduce new players to the game, and this fact is entirely owed to Rob. If this wasn’t the case, I don’t think anyone would play this game in the first place. Understanding Geometry Dash’s game design is crucial to understanding why it’s so special, because this design is what allows everything special about the game to happen.

Geometry Dash is weird. What I mean is that, underneath its mobile game veneer, Geometry Dash is an incredibly deep game that gloriously defies its own image. And it just might be my favorite game of all time. I have put more hours into Geometry Dash than any other video game, and it’s not even close. When 2.2 released and I began playing again, I was struck by the realization that I had missed the game a lot before my return. I know several people that can pour hundreds to thousands of hours into multiple games across different genres. I am not one of those people, because I tend to lose interest in games rather quickly. Except Geometry Dash. And this makes the game truly special to me. I have so many memories of this game, whether I discussed them in this video or not. Coordinating End of Infinity, popping off as my friends beat Duelo Maestro (in class), watching my friend try to start a creator team, and beating Cataclysm are all memories I hold very close to my heart. And all of this is because of a two dollar mobile game. As the game industry grows, as game prices continue to rise, as microtransactions and subscriptions make their way to more and more titles, and as more and more titles disappoint their fanbases, it’s easy to feel suffocated by the market. In a way, it’s nice to know that you don’t need to look at the greater games industry to find a game that thrills, that amazes, that engages. One with a vibrant community with seemingly no end to its creativity. It’s nice to know that all that can be found in Geometry Dash, tucked away on the App Store, masquerading as a mobile game.