How to Create A GOOD Platformer Level in Geometry Dash 2.2

[@mindcap.]

Colon made super gd gem hunt 64 so he's permanently banned from talking about platformers and you'll have to listen to me instead. Edit: nvm Zip Lash is peak go play it

[@aichaamara392]

Hi

[@rinkooNOT]

was it really THAT bad

[@ItsJustDemon]

Bro.

[@TheBruster]

shut up

[@thechesschief7048]

That’s really rude, at least he doesn’t have to do megacollabs to make adequate levels. Also your commentary is really boring which perfectly reflects ur personality. Do better (oversight on my part I indeed do not know what a joke is mb, but I’ll keep the comment anyway to piss y’all off, ;)

[@crep50]

Also a side note: MOBILE PLAYERS HAVE MOVEMENT BUTTONS AT THE BOTTOM CORNERS - please try to avoid placing important factors there, my fingers cover it and i can’t see it at ALL

[@CoDSysmiq]

very true

[@sonicwaveinfinitymiddwelle8555]

did you know you can swap the controls or just tap higher?

[@Legatron17]

am i a bad person for thinking that creators shouldn't be giving a single flying fuсk about mobile players. like, if you're a mobile player you simply have to accept that you cannot play every level.

[@avyaycheemaladhine9624]

*cough cough super gd gem hunt 64 level 5- cough cough*

[@faiqmid]

​@@Legatron17 no but like half of the player base are mobile players. If you want your level to be liked by as many people as possible, you may need to consider their experience too, it's not that difficult

[@gdperox8]

When i was creating flower peak (thanks for showing in the video), mobile playtesters found a lot of stuff and bugs. If you create a level PLEASE bring mobile playtesters! This is very important, as they have different aspect ratio and controls. Consider that some gimmicks are much harder on phone controls, and optimise your levels.

[@TelepathShield]

Yes, also that level is a little too hard for me but it is very cool and well made!

[@16lord]

0:55 im on a mindcap video my life is now complete

[@RavenBluimagination]

hi 16lord i am a brick of cheese

[@Nobzera4]

deserved

[@Enirom]

no you're not, you're@@RavenBluimagination

[@MorseLevv]

@@Eniromoh, i guess then there is a chance he is a ball of cheese

[@Sakup3nMarkus]

bro ur talking only about mindcap ur in every gd media possible wtf

[@Ezel_142]

Something to add to pacing: I think more players need to learn how to use the Item Persist trigger, as it allows creators to skip stuff like cutscenes after they've watched it already once. The ability to activate shortcuts or have multi-trigger checkpoints can also help with pacing in some cases.

[@selasiii]

fun fact about La Citadel; the deco of the white section of the level is just taken from a platformer puzzle game called Gris. game remakes need to stop

[@TrulyAtrocious]

Once a youtuber named Wherwin said that people should stop remaking games in GD because 2.2 is basically a game engine so it loses its appeal, which I thought was stupid. Then I saw my recommended...

[@mindcap.]

It was a game recreation?

[@selasiii]

@@mindcap. although it didnt take the exact puzzles the level has the same deco as the first area of the game

[@joakalfajoor]

Gris is a very zzzz game

[@NoReal123]

@@mindcap.will you finish every end

[@Slzerot]

21:12 omg he said the word

[@UltraPlasmaMan]

What word

[@trueffetbysyqual]

​@@UltraPlasmaMan "focus"

[@GastrointestinalGastornis]

17:38 he said it

[@timu924_]

18:45 he said it once again.

[@fruitpie19]

​@@GastrointestinalGastornisthat is not focus

[@NOCTULLA]

one thing with the camera in 12:51, the game it is bacing off of is called jump king, and one of the gimmicks of that level is the way camera works. just something I noticed :)

[@mrquackalot553]

Idk why but it feels uncanny seeing MindCap actually giving out tips.

[@santylolcat547]

1:28 hey, that's mine!! To be honest, I admit that the beginning of Coin Temple is boring, but probably everyone who played and completed it knows that in 5-6 minutes you already have a decent amount of income, and it no longer becomes as tedious as the beginning Also, tycoons in general are intended to be played for a long time (like, days, weeks, or even years), so i tried to make it as compact as possible, but not that much so you complete the level in a few minutes If someone is wondering, i'm already making a sequel for Coin Temple, and it will have more things than just a tycoon. I can assure you that it will be much better than the first!

[@snowman3456]

Personally, i love coin temple it was a very enjoyable level for me

[@Farceisci]

Nivelazo bro

[@MT2003_YT]

personally love those kind of levels, but i did those kind of joke for fun, do not take it quite seriously

[@atalamcom]

Honestly imo it was actually fun

[@electrikpikachujm69]

coint temple 2 gonns be pesk

[@ezekielrobinson1776]

La Citadel really pissed you off...

[@TtamZzz]

and he isn’t the only one to be pissed of by it 🫠

[@glitch_the_silly]

He's the original *MindCap*

[@Zarvok08]

Random person: How the heck do you create a lots of enjoyable plataformer levels!? Me: A pyramid taught me :)

[@DameViviane]

The transition from MindCap losing his mind over La Citadel to giving out tips in hope that less people will have to experience what he did is extremely funny

[@Farceisci]

Oh, my levels :0 1:46 and 14:49

[@Muho_is_me]

Looks cool ngl

[@PeakGD]

the community needs this imo, 5500 moons later and there's still bad levels getting rated.

[@greenmad8682]

That last part about game recreations is so true, I find vanilla feeling platformers that are just parkouring way more enjoyable than game recreations because they're much more functional and less janky, if you ant to make a one of a kind platformer with some unique mode or ability, make sure it works well so playing your level is not an actively bad experience.

[@Daxylitz]

As a moongrinder myself, I agree with a lot of the points in this video. For difficulty, SO many levels, notably demons, will not be that hard until the last few rooms where the difficulty just spikes higher than mt everest. Levels like The Abyss, The Towerverse, Launch Factory, etc do this, and made my experience on them miserable. Also I am tired of these unnecessary long cutscenes with no checkpoint after. A prime example of this is in Dungeon Treasures, a platformer EXTREME DEMON where in the middle of a decently long checkpoint, there is a 20 second cutscene that you have to play through EVERY TIME. This level also has many hazards that blend in, but this problem is way more common in non demon platformers. Just because the level is easy, doesn't mean you should do this!!! There doesn't seem to be much playtesting in platformers that is done, or playtesting that isn't done correctly, and its become a huge issue. This is especially necessary with gimmicky platformers. I played a platformer demon once with a weird gimmick which wasn't that bad in itself, except for when the gimmick completely broke on the last level and I need to restart the ENTIRE LEVEL. With levels like this, I sometimes wonder if I should still moongrind, but the only thing that makes me keep doing it is the uncommon but amazing levels that I play along the way. More people need to watch this and learn from this, may people start making good platformers. Godspeed Mindcap 🙏

[@jdez02]

Not only they are annoying but also very unsatisfactory to play like you spend 10 minutes doing very easy and boring challenges and when interesting things start happening the level just ends

[@SerpongeDash]

Honestly game remakes don't have to be bad, I think it can be interesting to see new takes on some of your fav games. Problem is most game remakes are just trying to be the most 1 to 1 they can be... Which obviously will always end up worse than the og game

[@gym3857]

18:53 just reminded me that Juke's Towers of Hell is a pretty good base for gd platformers since the base moveset is a one-speed movement and a one-height jump

[@MemoriaChan]

5:26 hahah didn't expect my level Brownie to make it in :D

[@arikatsuu]

3:37 hey i know that level

[@WinVNo137]

What’s its name? Gameplay looks really interesting

[@arikatsuu]

@@WinVNo137 give up cube

[@TheNotJad]

​​@@WinVNo137he made it, which is cool :0

[@StefanTheGoofyGoober]

11:59 gaster under mail

[@3sidedmelody]

Wingdings Gaster…….,..,,..,…

[@karlsonmilkman1748]

winging my ding until he gaster

[@HalapeenyoGD]

3:49 thank you oh great MindCap for not totally obliterating my GD career by roasting my level 🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@Gumballer92]

You can clearly see that the citadel had negative impact on Mindcap's mental health

[@D.S69]

yes

[@Toby135]

As a top unrated platformer list player, this was actually really good. It isn't just shitting on a certain type of level like I expected, but it's actually really good general advice that could apply not just in GD, but in game and level design in general. It covers everything it needs to in good detail, and addresses common problems that plague the platformer scene. Amazing video!

[@vegtam2869]

Yess exactly, more creators ought to watch this

[@darienwest4748]

People remaking other games in GD got old very quickly. The moment 2.2 came out everyone just copied Terraria bosses instead of trying to experiment and make new and creative bosses in their platformer levels.

[@seeforkat]

the only good one is logodomy and it's because it's a joke

[@Vieislost]

Me who was making a w3 remake of SMB and superbuffing the crap out of it 😅. (To be fair I think I get get a pass due to my process of changing it up a lot.)

[@zerotimeleft]

@@Vieislost yes you do

[@HexDeck]

Hello cro will never get old tho

[@Opianisal]

La Citadel should be called: Mindcap disapproved

[@raslei_]

la pyramid disagrees

[@Opianisal]

​@@raslei_ even better

[@JohnIGuess]

Thank you Freakycap for this tutorial😈😈

[@septanesium]

what if mindcap was called freakycap and he hosted a collab just to get freaky with his collaborators

[@mindcap.]

dont call me that

[@daniel19465]

what if orbit was called freakbit and instead of touching all the orbs we touched eachother

[@minekey94]

​@@mindcap.We saw the video mindcap

[@Lukepuke311]

mindcap freaky mode (my youtube crashed on startup)

[@PNWukrainian]

great video! your points are spot-on, i hope more platformer creators see this and implement your suggestions.

[@BrutalSword]

I'd say this video works just as well outside of gd platformer mode and can stand on its own as a general game design tutorial. When the update came out I wasn't surprised to see people struggle to grasp how much more complex it is making a functional platformer level compared to classic mode, in a way you might as well be making a whole platformer game with a huge amount of pre-existing foundations and you can't afford to approach it like a standard gd level in the slightest. We'll probably continue to see level with questionable pacing and cameras for a very long time, but I'm glad you made this video, it's pretty good learning material for this stuff.

[@sasqey3408]

Mindcap spends 22 minutes explaining why La Citadel is a bad level

[@Zosso-1618]

19:05 is a masterclass of how to share a really negative opinion. It’s not at all different in substance from the Mario Maker tweets from Allodoxa, but the form you gave it made it much more palatable and even enjoyable to listen to. You combined critique and comedy in a way that made me much more sympathetic to your point. In addition to this, because you don’t have the reputation of being an incessant prick, really negative opinions like this feel much more genuine and that you’re not just being assertive to bring people down or because you get a kick out of being mean.

[@TicLos]

Gotta love la citadel for being the level of all time Also 9:35 boss rush in a silly mindcap video, game completed

[@Mari2407yt]

Boss rush is one of my fav plat levels I hope the Creator makes a sequel

[@G3Drummer-k8q]

guys i don't think mindcap liked playing citadel very much

[@moosewhisker8072]

Another note on the camera: if your level does not have a 3:4 mode option (or is not designed around 3:4), many users will not be able to see gameplay on the edges of the screen. If this happens, your level will get mauled in the comments.

[@SkyQuakee]

Alternate title: how to not make "la citadel" by robotronx

[@MapleclawGD]

17:22, a problem creatorcreepy had with semiquaver is there’s actually a server side limit of songs and sfx for a level, and it will just not let you upload it. (Limit is 10 songs and 1000 sfx)

[@BadChess56]

YES I LOVE BREAkOUT REDUX I'm so glad you got the recognition you deserved, even if it is only from that one, singular project which everyone has heard about and nothing else.

[@ihaetschool3361]

your point about letting the player know what they're getting into applies to EVERYTHING. if you want to make a memory platformer, it's probably best to cater to what memory players like. for rage platformers, try to see what makes people like rage games. as i said once before, rules are made to be broken

[@thedinosaurz]

when robtop adds save on exit checkpoints, i think the hate will die down for platformer levels with long lengths hopefullym bigger doesnt mean better everyone, we all need to take a break and thats whta save on exit checkpoints will help for

[@mazzzzziiiii]

3:18 i didn't think my level would get in a mindcap video today lol thanks for the feedback tho! tbh i speedran the building process of the level when the update dropped so i could get it out while everyone was first playing platformer levels lol i agree the gameplay could be more beginner friendly so i'll look out for that on my future projects!

[@syaifullah16633]

16:45 this part made me laugh

[@jdez02]

1:47 THANK YOU seriously I roll my eyes every time someone on Twitter justify bad checkpoint placements when they are just a very dumb way to artificially increase the difficulty like there are so many people who think they know about game design and don't know something as basic as the fear of losing progress

[@jackmcnally8706]

A lot of this information reminds me of making a good Mario Maker level and that seems like a good start. Of course, there’s a lot more to it here since you have much more complete control than a small selection of preprogrammed assets, but the general design principles largely line up. Good video! Also now that I think about it, if we all took that philosophy to heart of “gameplay first” in ALL levels, classic and platformer, I swear everyone would have so much more fun playing the game. So many levels feel like they were made for decoration first, gameplay second if not third or fourth, and it shows.

[@vegtam2869]

Well... Sometimes people just want to create focusing on the deco first. GD is an entire means of creative expression by now, and I think we should respect that. I'm not trying to justify bad gameplay tho

[@jackmcnally8706]

@@vegtam2869 While I agree that deco is fun and a big part of the game, it should never compromise the gameplay. That’s why automatic levels exist, just for deco only. It’s also just aggravating to see deco be the favored element over gameplay for rates too. I think layouts with good gameplay should at least get a star rate, and bad gameplay should hurt a level’s rating.

[@Didisla]

Mindcap really went full Colon mode with this one

[@miojo157._.]

i was really needing to find a video like this to motivate me to continue my platformer thanks mindcap

[@galofuf]

18:05 then they realise it just doesnt WHAT

[@Mrmoo_123]

The and ever guy is here

[@yesty3473]

bro saw the kinds of platformers being made and knew he had to make a tutorial

[@sonicwaveinfinitymiddwelle8555]

12:30 imagine watching 1 second camera pan for 2024 times before completing one platformer level

[@thederpyturnip6330]

0:28 I like how he said he wants a “fun creating experience for YOU”.

[@denkaku-jn6eb]

0:04 ah yes breakout redux

[@radi3te]

Alternative Title: Mindcap rants about La Citadel for 22 minutes

[@HexTheSlime]

gotta love the fact mindcap uploaded this 7 minutes after i got my first platformer rated

[@kipTheInsomniac]

On difficulty, one important part to me is making the difficulty consistent in longer levels. If a level only gets hard after 30 minutes of gameplay, It can be incredibly frustrating, because if you want to quit, you waste those 30 minutes.

[@stickmanproductions2828]

I think he made this because of the rage he had on the other platformers.

[@Wenbebis]

18:54 look gary there i am!!!!! that is indeed my level yay🎉

[@9767Music]

6:22 THAT IS MY LEvEL OMG THANK YOUUU

[@GDgalaxy-gdg]

Finally a new video MINDCAP OR MINDCRAFT!!!

[@Littleham117]

18:54 JTOH IN A MINDCAP VIDEO YEAAAAAAAH LETS ACTUALLY GO WERE SO BACK I Love GD MindCap - wulzy if he was a mindcap fan

[@ColorSHORTS]

2:10 bro has a problem with robotronx

[@saltinnee6060]

Also SO MANY platformers with static cameras don’t even use the camera guide to look at what everyone with different screen sizes will see. There are so many levels just unplayable on iPad because the gameplay is completely blind

[@reinbew62]

no way a serious video from MindCap

[@NickAndriadze]

One of the best GD levels I've ever seen, you're a slightly more level-headed GD Colon and have a vaguely similar style of feedback as him, which I really like. -[Even though yes, considering he made the trainwreck that is ''supa GD diamond hunter 69,'' he officially has no rights to criticize the platformer levels]- Overall your suggestions are really valuable, constructive and worthwhile. I especially loved the point about the overall difficulty+leaving a good initial impression and the _M O V E T H E B O X_ gag was hilarious. Plus, I am very happy that Le Citadel is getting the dunking it oh so much deserves.

[@vegtam2869]

From a game design perspective this is an amazing tutorial. All platformer creators should watch this lol

[@justpotato8119]

Another tip that is more technical, is that you should care about DIFFERENT SIZE RATIOS! You should build your level in a way that it doesn't glitches out when someone with a different aspect ratio than yours gets to play it, this was a mistake I made with my first platformer level and most sections are unplayable due to the camera being bugged out, its also the reason why making smooth camera transitions between static screens is so hard, because it will always be focused on different points on different screens. You should try having an eye for it whenever you can avoid it AND use the UI trigger smartly cause it actually lets you work for different ratios at once!

[@TeMYT_]

Pretty good points! I'm pretty high up on the moons leaderboard and a lot of the issues I've had you issued here, I hope a lot of platformer creators take note of these

[@Micha-Hil]

MindCap is literally just teaching basic game design principles at this point

[@Archive385]

Nothing changes that RobTop needs to stop rating trash. He doesn't have time to go through platformer levels? Neither do the mods? Then why implement this in the first place? So many problems go back to the fundamental issue, which is one guy insisting he has to police his game to ensure quality, which ironically is hurting the quality because he's not doing a great job at it. Edit: Oh and I am not a disgruntled platformer play, I have had issues with the way RobTop does things for the longest time. Haven't touched platformer since day 1 release, and this video is a perfect example as to why. I knew it would be a fustercluck.

[@vegtam2869]

Platformer is just too different from what we are used to 😢

[@tdp_9]

Honestly very cool, I hope the community makes a ton of use of this video

[@sapliny9111]

18:23 Thank god someone finally said it! Creators really need to take this advice! When I'm on a break i simply play platformer and expect 5 to 10 minutes gameplay, not an hour gameplay. It would be best if Creator informed us how long or how many rooms in your platformer level!

[@Peridoughnut]

i’m saving this video for whenever i decide to start making my first ever platformer. it is a genuine lifesaver and i’m sure it’ll help me and many other aspiring platformer creators. thanks mindcap ❤

[@YoonsrDynamix]

Nice solid video for the foundations of platformer! Perhaps one thing you could have touched upon further is how to keep the player engaged with a level, such as the difficulty curve of the level or the combination / evolution of mechanics.

[@SmoofyYT]

Man the citadel really pushed this guy over the edge 💀 Also nice video, good points overall

[@Oliveducks11]

The only game remakes I like are the JSAB ones because they aren't an exact replica, and it's a new song every time.

[@selskiy_kot]

9:58 Oh hey there :D When i started creating the level i thought that a skip button would be useful for people that plays the level more than once. Even tho the level turned out not as fun as it could be, but at least it was a good lesson for me what to do and what to not when creating a platformer lvl Another thing i would like to add is that some creators adding bonus rooms in their lvls with coins right after a room with a win button. What really bothers me is that they make them hard to complete or hard to understand what you should do to complete them without the exit of a bonus room. And then you either struggle to complete the bonus room or you just quit the lvl...

[@sonicpoweryay]

Thank you MindlessCrap, this is a great tutorial.

[@CatValentineOfficial]

“MindlessCrap”

[@Durthix]

20 gazillion views in 8 seconds? Bro did not fall off 😎 🤑

[@hanifinio]

Hell yeah🏅🏅🥇🥇🥇✨💎💎🪙💰⏫‼️

[@SkyQuakee]

You could say he has "fallen up"

[@suspicioussand]

​@@SkyQuakee FALLING UP BY MINDCAP AND MORE REFERENCE!?

[@hanifinio]

@@SkyQuakee KrMaL reference?!?

[@H-108]

Cold 🥶🥶

[@tdubmorris5757]

TIP: spots after cutscenes are the best for checkpoints. If you dont want to add a checkpoint after a cutscene, use persistent items to make the cutscene play only the first time you encounter it. Persistant items can be very useful

[@CKsilver]

Oh my god! I love your level breakout redux!

[@aviess9701]

great advice!!! also the cookie run music in this video was a jumpscare and a half i was NOT expecting that

[@suupre]

ah yes breakout redux the absolute most recognisable level of all time, it's so good, like that one part where

[@SwitchyWitch_]

I think one thing that people should start doing more with cutscenes, espeically door openings, is to do what super smash bros does when a fighter goes offscreen, add a bubble that shows a smaller animation of the door opening with an arrow pointing to where it happened, that would make so you see what happened, where it happened, without taking away your controls at all, AND it's super easy to do!!

[@raspiri]

As someone who hasn’t and will not make platformer levels, this video is very epic.

[@gogbone]

thank you for talking about level pacing. so many awesome platformers with ridiculous cutscenes and animations and everything

[@RispGD]

bro has beef with La Citadel 💀

[@Wonzette]

2:25 Fhedriot, its me lol

[@GLUBSCHI]

4:38 you're probably the first creator that realises how much importance rob places on difficulty suggestions. I mean this is a guy who rated cherry christmas (a medium demon) 7 stars because as a joke the creator suggested 3 stars

[@chtoproisxoditXD]

Very good video! Thanks!

[@Unfocused_Gamer]

Thank you for releasing this! I needed advice for making enjoyable platformer GP.

[@aristonmatosrocha4954]

Please,does ANYONE know what is the level shown at 19:13 ?

[@ukknown6700]

tysm for making this amazing video mindcap, this was extremely helpful

[@r4nger_54]

I have been waiting for someone actually making a proper guide of how to make actual good platformer in depth, thank you for this 🙏

[@SurdicGD]

14:32 The box has transcended to a higher level... Beware...

[@KhaoticDomain14]

The blade of justice music playing in the plane crashing part got me laughing 😂

[@STNDD]

3:35 OMG THERE'S NO WAY THEY MADE IT IN GD I USED TO LOVE THAT GAME SO MUCH WHAT IS THE ID PLEASE

[@StorryMorey]

i thought he was about to say "you might recognize me from my most popular project, ISpyWithMyLitleEye"

[@justpotato8119]

4:23 ONCE AGAIN IM IN THE VIDEO! Literally got all my platformer levels in this goddamn

[@Crimery1]

"You might recognise me from *limbo playing* breakout redux" caught me off guard, also ty for the tutorial man:D

[@parmie1001]

Thank you so much for this, with 99.99% of platformers currently all i can think of while playing is "I could be playing something else right now" One level I actually liked was Spinbounce Zone, because what it did was actually unique. Definitely not a perfect level, but one of the few ones I would actually call good

[@TheElderWerelionwolf]

What I see some creators don't care about is playablity, some levels are overly decorated but doesn't have good gp and at times it causes players to hate on the level because of how unplayable it is Creators over look this and feel people hate them for no reason, make your levels playable and then you won't face the harsh backlash... Also great video btw I love how you explained everything very well and detailed ❤