Friends by KillEmKyle (6 Stars)

I'm late But at least here it is.

Splitting into gameplay and decoration...

The biggest flaw in your gameplay is found in the last part after the 69% transition. (btw did you make it at 69% on purpose?) While the gameplay is quite cool and I enjoy maneuvering through the obstacles, the absurdly short reaction time really caught me offguard, even after memory. These are the parts that I feel that I constantly stumble not because I suck at GD (though I do) but because the level is kind of cheating.

- 29%: Late liftoff of ship can be fatal. This means that I need to enter an input to save me from an obstacle I have yet to see, which is obviously unfair.

- 60%: Blind jump after blue orb because of late move trigger.

- 65%: Ditto. Both of them are almost unreactable.

- 70%: Literally get a stopwatch and time how long you get to react for that, that is from the disappearance of the black screen, to the time of input necessary. (Windows Media Player does not support frame advance. That.)

People constantly consider these short reaction time as difficulty, but it isn't. Look at Zodiac. Although it's one of the hardest level to existence, the layout is perfectly readable, given that you have enough skill and understanding of the game. Most of the epic levels will allow 1s after transition, and they allot time for the move trigger to settle and for the player to react. You want the player to feel that they messed up rather than your level messed up. This is the frustration that us GD players love, not getting cheated by pop-up obstacles. By the way, this is also a testiment that abuse of move trigger will ruin the level.

Here are some other places I would like to mention.

- 3% to 12%: The cube + robot part is really good! The move triggers are used well to give the platforms a subtle shift, giving dynamics to them. The layout syncs well with the music, and the part feels fun to play overall. Keep that up!

- 29% to 36%: Although ship is a ton lot harder to sync, try your best to do so, e.g. matching the ship's ascends and descends with the 'uphill' or 'downhill' feel of the music. (I also suck at English, please forgive me) This part does not feel like it's synced.

- 42%: The click rate is a bit high for the intended difficulty, I would say. If you insist on doing so, however, I won't stop you. It's not the end of the world.

- 50% to 56%: The moving spikes. They are interesting in concept but it really hinders my ability to read. Plus, you put this part before the drop. Given these two reasons, I think that you should give more places for error so that players will stop being confused about why the jump won't make it, while keeping the concept.

- 90% to 93%: Although it is really popular, spamming UFO is a no-go for me. It is boring and really hard to sync.

It can be seen that you really put effort into decoration, but to be honest, it's not enough. I believe there's 4 reason for the level to become like this.

- The background and air decoration, although is present, is still unable to fill up the level. In some places, like 39%, the only thing that can be seen behind is a plain green BG.

- You add no platforms other than those relevant to gameplay. Platforms can also act as excellent decoration tool.

- Block decoration is not enough. Therefore, even though a block is present, it still feels kind of empty.

- Colour variation is quite lacking. Gradients and complementing colours are useful and can literally add colour to your level. (pun intended)

If you need some visual explanation, I kindly attached a drawing for you. (((((((:

edit oh well my internet is acting so I'll update this post as early as I could

edit2 it is uploaded

Here are some other tips.

- 0%: Something is better than nothing. Period. Add background and air deco. If you want to make an effect, e.g. something appearing from nowhere, consider using the alpha trigger directly on a black rectangle blocking the whole camera, or using the hide/show player trigger.

- 13% to 21%: Seems nice! Variety can be seen in the decoration and all the block deco, air deco and background is here. However, it still suffers from the problems mentioned above, so keep that in mind.

- 49% to 56%: This part feels a bit bland. Although it is probably intentional to keep it black and white, but being black and white does not mean you only have black and white. You can focus on the block deco and make it more sophiscated, so as to add detail while retaining the simple look. You actually did it in the next part though: that feels quite nice while being also minimalistic.

- 69%: Make transitions memorable! While players will often miss some decoration when they are busy playing, players are left staring at your creation when it's auto. Therefore, make sure that you give them good stuff to watch, such as awesome fading, nice little animation on the level title, some stars shining briefly...

- Use more varied triggers. I'm not sure whether you used the Pulse trigger or not, but it is useful nonetheless. Rotate trigger will also prove its worth given the correct occasion.

- Also, learn to use 'Don't Fade' and 'Don't Enter'. They can be selected in the 'Edit Group' menu, and when checked will ignore all object entry/exit effects. This is especially useful for transition shenanigans.

I think this is High Decent. I can see your talent in creating gameplay, and the dedication in decoration. However, it's not enough. I believe you can make more and make it more beautiful though. You have shown your potential into making good levels. Levels wil take months to make, so don't rush. Take your time to slowly fill up the level, bit by bit, and you will end up with a feature-worthy product! Keep it up!

PS is it too long? i think it is too long :/