Splitting into gameplay and decoration...
Gameplay
Overall pretty nice! However, sometimes there are places where the gameplay do not sync well with the music. (will be mentioned again below) There are also some parts that can be skipped, which are probably unintended skips. I think you need to playtest the level to debug different segments. Try crashing intentionally by skipping certain inputs or adding extra inputs to see whether they will cause the player to reach a path/area that is supposed to be barred from access. Here are some specific tips.
- 3%: A jump to a gravity portal with a pad and 3 orbs coming behind. This is probably a well-built formula for inconsistent gameplay. You have other orb combos of length 4 to 5, which is really risky. As orbs and the influence of gravity portals on momentum all depend on the player input, the player can get very different trajectories every time they enter that segment. When the error is large enough, the player can crash, which is probably something you don't want.
- 5% to 11%: This is a ship part that does not sync well with the music. I know, ship parts are hard to sync, but you can sync the 'ups and downs' of the song with the vertical movement of the ship. When there are, say, ascending arpeggios, you make the ship go up, or when there is a kick, you make the ship go down. Of course you can sync player input, but it can vary greatly in ship, so it's not really a good choice unless you are at least 90% certain that players will normally follow the rhythm to click.
- 19%: Narrow gap for the ball. I think that it is a bit too much for 6 stars. Consider nerfing areas that looks too hard for the intended difficulty to prevent difficulty spikes.
- 23% to 26%: Dash orb duration is too long. Use long dashes wisely. They really shine when you put then between transitions, or long notes, but holding the dash for a whole bar of melody is a huge no for me.
- 27% to 33%: Very satisfying cube section! Do note again that the orb combos can be inconsistent. Thankfully, I have never encountered any issues at all in this part.
- 29%: Red dash orb is actually not necessary. The gravity portal coming after it actually makes the gravity changing effect of the orb obsolete.
- 31%: There is a large vertical movement here, which can really make the player lose focus on the layout and the icon. Fortunately, I can still see the orb coming up.
- 33% to 38%: Wave does not sync well to music. Wave is probably one of the easiest mode to sync, so I want more from this.
- 44%: Only the first input is necessary here. The player can actually drop from the ceiling to the slope and continue. This leads back to the playtest thing. You need to actively find mistakes in order to perfect your layout.
- 47%: Fast downwards movement here leads to a small window for input and can lead to crashes if the player does not react fast enough. I recommend leaving a bit of room between mode transitions, but actually many epic levels also do this so if you don't mind, just forget this.
- 49%: The blue orb. A misinput can be easily triggered considering how close the orb is to the ceiling. Again, I feel like it's a bit too much for 6 stars. I would delete the little pillar on top of the orb to make things simpler.
- 57%: The wave can actually go below the gravity portal, leading to a crash. Consider placing the portal better (e.g. using finer controls) to prevent players from missing portals.
- 61% to 65%: UFO section here is basically auto because the player can safely rely on momentum from slopes. The player also does not crash in anti-gravity for some reason. Slope physics are really quirky, so please don't rely on them too much to make layout.
- 70%: The lack of S block, causing the player to manually stop dashing, is a good thing. However, because a) the spike coming up is black and hard to see, and b) previous dash orbs all have S blocks with them, this dash orb is probably better off with S blocks. Also, the pillar with the pad is just 1-block wide, which can be hard to aim for some.
- 81% to 89%: Quadruple speed ball... It's quite hard to read the instructions for inputs, because the screen is scrolling fast. Quadruple gameplay is something you need to master making, because unless your quadruple layout is great, the player is guaranteed to have a hard time reading the level. Quadruple speed is probably not intended to be used in gameplay, and because of this reason RobTop does not use that in Fingerdash. So unless you are sure that you won't cause harm by using quadruple speed, please refrain from using that.
Decoration
Very nice! I can see your hard work in the decoration. I see detail in block deco, but I don't really see much in the background. I think the background is something you need to work on. The background need to be filled throughout the level, and should have a bit of movement to simulate a real background scrolling slower than the blocks. Except for that, the decoration is impressive. Here are some specific bits to talk about though.
- 0%: The 3D objects are visible at the start of Attempt 1. I think you should be able to see that and should be able to correct that. So why not? Also, starting from Attempt 2, I can clearly see the blank space, the area which is out of bounds in the editor. Small areas like loading before Attempt 1 and the shift in camera starting from Attempt 2 can really prove your attention to detail. FIxing some animation errors and moving decoration to the left can really make the level more appealing.
- 23% to 26%: The easing and the timing of the move trigger is not right, making the movement of the two electric 'wires' really unnatural. Learn what easings are and use them in move triggers. They are vital to making diverse movement of objects, instead of moving linearly.
- 47%: A line of invisible spikes do not look nice. Consider spikes with opacity 0. Players don't need to see the spikes. They probably can guess that these lines are harmful. If they don't get it, a crash will do the job.
- 52%: Again, not good movement, similar to the case from 23% to 26%.
- 55% to 58%: A plain colour and black looks really bland. I see that you try to use the exit/enter effect to make some shenanigans, but you should at least try to slip some more deco into the layout to make it look better. You should not sacrifice detail for effects.
- 66% to 72%: The decoration in this part is super nice! Probably the best part throughout the level. The spikes and blocks are all well designed and feels really full and filled up.
- 100%: Name is not visible there, moving that up and right a little bit works.
Triggers
I think you can utilise more triggers in your work. I see that you used pulse, colour and move trigger, but that's about it. Here are some more triggers you can look into to spice up your level.
For appearance:
- Rotate
- Alpha
- Animate
- Shake
For mechanisms and contraptions:
- Spawn
- Toggle
- Pickup
- Count
If you have any questions on how these triggers works, a) check the offical editor guide; b) ask anyone, including me in this thread; c) search for tutorials about triggers; or d) experiment until you figure that our yourself.
Verdict
I would say this places at around High Decent. This level has flaws in both gameplay and decoration. Fix some errors and fill up the bottom layers of the level, and use more triggers to make your level more dynamic. Good luck!
>>> Moving to Decent.