What Happened to Easy Geometry Dash Levels?

Somehow, the easy levels in Geometry Dash have become TOO easy. So what happened?

📙 Chapters:
0:00 - Easy Peasy
1:38 - The Geometry Dash rating system
3:32 - Old easy levels
7:28 - Breaking down modern easy levels
13:02 - How did it get this way?
17:05 - Easy levels that I like :)
19:21 - Who is the audience?
21:09 - 10 tips for easy levels
26:38 - Class dismissed

🎵 Music:
Checking In from Celeste (Lena Raine)
Top-Hat Tower from Super Mario Odyssey
Snowy from Undertale (Toby Fox)
Forest (SMB) from Super Mario Maker 2
March of the Spoons by Kevin MacLeod
Welcome to Mafia Town from A Hat in Time (Pascal Michael Stiefel)
Stal from Minecraft (C418)
Let's Get Together Now! from OMORI (Pedro Silva)
Rhythm Tweezers (Prequel) from Rhythm Heaven Megamix
Build-A-Bot from Undertale Yellow (MasterSwordRemix)
Bossa Nova from Rhythm Heaven Fever
Tunnel from Rhythm Heaven

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🎮 Second Channel - @GDSemicolon

If you're reading this, I recorded almost 100 easy levels for this video, that's like 14% of all rated easy levels no I'm not ok

[MatMart]

Spent 20 minutes talking to Colon about 3 stars only for him to say that he meant 2 stars...

[nemilu]

The best analogy I can find to easy levels is children’s literature. Books for kids are not difficult, intentionally so. However, they have a great story, illustrations, and overall make for a good reading experience without super complex vocabulary. The best pieces of children’s literature are the ones that children and adults alike can pick up and find something meaningful out of.

[sdslayer]

Honestly, I do think that 99% of the issues mentioned occur solely because of the fear of getting a 3*
It can come across as a really unfair and out-of-the-creators-control way of failing the challenge of building a 2* since you can't fully predict exactly what mods will send it for or what Rob will actually rate it as.
Especially since mods don't all view things like difficulty the exact same, all it takes is one mod to send it for 3*, or even for Rob to override a 2* mod send and rate it 3* anyways, and the creator's work is viewed as wasted. (Obviously it's not, you still got a rated level)
I think it's a little unfortunate that to give yourself the best chance at a 2* you have to write it out in the name, description, or even in the level itself.
That said, solid video, good points.

[HarryMario_]

YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO OBEY ME!
The 7 human triggers: 13:53

[JaydenGamer]

13:53 “The sense of seeing a proper 2 star level, it fills you with determination.”

[SohnnyD]

10:00
*THIS* here is exactly why I love DiamondDemon935 levels. He only makes art level, and almost never uses indicators. Yet you are easily able to tell what is and isn't gameplay. It's because he has mastered how to separate gameplay from the background/foreground elements. Look at his level Nyx to see what I'm talking about.

Then you have MCres on the other hand where it is literately textbook of what NOT to do. Look at Beyond The Summit for example. It is impossible to tell what is and isn't gameplay.

[drakondra]

Rob can't make "very easy difficulty" because 1 star is auto, 2 stars is easy and 1.5 stars is impossible to make

[Rishnotfishandnochips]

I have a theory, RobTop had beef with whoever created Level Easy, so he lowered the difficulty standards via mind control and made Level Easy normal, proving Robert Toplas’s power over the Dashlands.

[epochthings]

The "Target Audience" thing is very interesting. It reminds me of how kids' shows usually treat the child watching as if they know absolutely nothing, which isn't true. Children still hold some level of social awareness (and can tell when they're being talked down to), and it's often underestimated or forgotten in regards to children's media. As a result, it becomes irritating and unconstructive for parents, and an unconstructive mess for the child. A loss-loss.


Bluey: *_hold my beer_*

[SeyrenSamin]

Short answer: they went from easy to really easy.




Edit:
The songs were slower and calmer,
More Downtime,
Rarely Chained,
Jump Indicators,
Guard Rails.

[abdolarn]

Next time Mr. colon is teaching my math class I'll just scream "GENERATION RETRO IS BEST LEVEL" so i can guarantee that i won't be learning math for the rest of the lesson

[_Jasii]

Hi there, creator of Tenebrous here (found at 17:13). I'd like to just say I'm very grateful to hear that you enjoyed my level for what it is, I really tried to make something both easy yet not feel extremely lifeless like so many 2 star levels have become these days. I've had a few "failed 2 stars" and it's been extremely frustrating to see the turn that "easy" levels have taken these days, I really hope an upward trend of easy levels with proper gameplay can return past this video as I genuinely do miss what older levels had to offer. I'm glad this has become a bit more of a talking point.

And again, I really appreciate the fact you enjoyed my level, and thank you for showing it here! :)

[DubstepFanatic]

This is what I've been saying for a WHILE now. So glad this is being brought up more and more. We need more real Easy levels! Great video Colon. 🔥

[thehiddengamer]

i find it funny that the skill ceiling is exponentially increasing while the skill floor is decreasing at the same rate

[OmegaFalcon]

On the line of people committing to making a 2 star lvl, I remember a point in time where there was a kind of race to get the first Epic 2 star. So people were making levels that would look as intense as a harder level but still was easy enough to get the 2 star rate. People were doing everything they could to not accidentally make an epic 3 star instead, which happened to a lot of these lvls that attempted an epic 2 star. That's where I personally noticed the design trend of impressive visuals but TONS of safe guards and barely any inputs.

[TheDanceMan]

DHaner makes REALLY fun easy levels. I’ve replayed Dreamy so many times because of how it plays and looks. Rush is awesome as well, and what you said about Cloudy is 100% accurate.
Also, I’m also making a 2-star level that I finished the layout for and have been struggling to decorate. Hopefully, it can be somewhat memorable as the others I mentioned above.

[fazaazafg]

I'm so excited what will Colon have to say about this, considering the fact that easy online levels are too easy compared to easy main levels. And also, almost every easy level is too boring to play through for some people because it only just need like a couple of clicks to complete the level.

[geomaster]

2:58 That's so true, as someone who has beat every single platformer level difficulty, I can confirm that only platformer extreme demons are perfectly rated, everything else is too overrated, especially the platformer hard and insane demons.

[ishu]

22:19 the one frame of the invader being red is pure gold

[awesomedude]

10:05 actually as someone with autism who gets super overstimulated by excessive visuals, I actually see these as a fantastic accessibility addition. Leves like eyespywithmylittleeye are unplayable for people like me as it's simply too overstimulating and make it unreadable, so jump indicators make a level I flat out can't read into one that I can

This isn't to invalidate your opinion, but in a world where I can choose, I rather high detailed levels have indicators instead of not. Robtop style levels can get away with not having these, as they simply lack much decoration to begin with, but art levels or levels covered with decorations NEED these for me, even for the easy ones, or else it's unplayable for people like me.