As what Molybd3num has said, Short levels have an immensely low chance of getting rated. If getting CPs is your objective, there is still lots to work on. I'll split into gameplay and decoration to illustrately why. Hopefully.
Gameplay
The gameplay is really lacking in several aspects, either on sync and variety. This layout don't really time jumps with the music, and while some places do have a similar 'mood' to the song, some places are randomly built, to say the least. The layout can also be summarised as 20 words. Here's how.
Jumping onto platforms, and jumping onto either pads or orbs, and also straightfly and bouncing between the ground and ceiling.
Don't focus on the missing wave part. The thing is the level is really repetitive, especially when the cube takes up nearly half of the level. A good level, in my opinion, at least need to do the timing well and the variety fairly decently. This is how the player will actually interact with the level, and if the level's not fun, why bother trying to beat it? Gameplay is easy to build, but it is also easy to mess up. Here are some more specific comments. (as for the percentage, just run through the level with either noclip or practice mode with percentage and progress bar on)
- 27% to 33%: Quick ascends with repeated red pads are generally not preferable because the player can easily lose focus and as the screen is quickly scrolling up, every single deco will be blurred by our persistence of vision. The hidden character kind of makes things worse, but the character is shown back in 30%, so no harm to gameplay is done.
- 40% to 44%: This is one of the examples where the gameplay do not fit well with the song. The song is building up but you placed a blue pad chain there, which usually fits better with rolling notes, instead of the type of build-up in 2011. Make sure you have a reason when you design the layout.
- 58%: I would argue that the separation between the portal to the area where an input is necessary is too close, meaning that you have little time to react with the obstacles in front. Plus, you are approaching the portals from bottom, which actually hides all of the blocks from the camera. Players need reaction time to play levels or else they would just memorise them, which are often not fun in my opinion. Some people may advocate for some bits of memorisation, but be sure to never overuse memory as an excuse for gameplay with little reaction time.
- 67% to 75%: The essence of spiders is jumping instantly between platforms, but never bouncing between the ceiling and the ground with looong pillars between jumps. This not only leaves little room for decoration, but also really hinders readability because you are constantly shifting your focus between the top and the bottom of the window. The variety is also harmed because of the fixed height for spider gamemode.
Decoration
Can't you see that except for the blocks, the spikes and some orbs and pads, the whole level is basically empty? A good level usually have 3 layers of decoration - air deco, blocks deco, and the background. This level only has blocks deco. To make matters worse, the block decoration lack layering and detail. Just using some pre-made blocks and stuffing a line of glow is not going to make it. Look at what people create now in 2.1. See how they layer stuff behind stuff behind more stuff? It's this kind of dedication that earns you the rating. Your objective is to fill up the whole level so that nothing looks empty. How will you do this is up to you - this is how styles are formed, but you have to make sure everything feels full.
Exactly how would you do it goes back to the 3 things I mentioned, air deco, blocks deco and the background. Check this spoiler for some easy tips to fill up a level.
- Make custom objects and spin them on your own with the rotate trigger. You get lots of freedom designing your own decoration instead of using premade ones. This is especially important if you want to go modern. You often need to handcraft a lot of stuff using simple dots, lines and shapes, because most of the tiles the editor provides don't fit modern.
- Add more blocks, even if they do not affect gameplay. Blocks are super effective in cover off empty areas so that you don't have to chuck a lot of air decoration into the level. It also makes the level feels more solid, if that's how you describe that.
- Make patterns for block deco and add lines. This helps give detail to block deco and thus make them look better.
- Make a background and don't be afraid to make it subtle. A background with a low opacity can also take you a long way.
- Scale background to your liking. Blocks with larger and smaller designs will have their strengths and shortcomings so just design some and place them in. Throw science at the wall and see what sticks.
- Experiment! Decoration can sometimes be really hard to do well. Sometimes you may have a product which just simply do not look well. Don't be afraid to delete stuff and redo from scratch. Creators have scraped countless of projects until they made one that clicks. Hey, failures don't mean wasted time. You will know what does not work and what does and that is what helps you create better decoration.
Here are some more comments about the level.
- 2% to 17%: Incorrect 3D blocks usage. The 3D blocks have oblique patterns for a reason - to suggest depth. That's why RobTop provided multiple items for a single tile, because you have to mix them in order for the blocks to look like actual 3D. If you have ever sketched simple solids like cubes or spheres you probably know what I mean. (if not then go search for it and blame your arts teacher for failing to get the fundamentals done)
- 17% to 54%: Floating pads. Like just add blocks below/above them so that they look better.
- 81% to 87%: Floating spikes. Please add blocks.
- Also, if you want to ensure people hit the portals but don't want blocks to get in the way to provide the player more room to move, you can make other portals become less opaque so that they don't get in the view. How opaque are they is up to you. You can make everything except that main one invisible or made something like fading portals or anything you thought of.
- You should try to dive into triggers to make your decoration (and gameplay) more dynamic. But I think the main focus you should have is to train yourself to fill up a level, instead of going for complex effects, or crazy trigger contraptions.
Verdict
Needs Improvement. This level simply lacks in both gameplay and decoration. Try playing a lot more other levels, and maybe pick some featured ones in 2.1 and simply rated ones. (rated ones means having a star rating but no yellow ring around that face, only having face does not count as rated) Look what different creators design a level, and you can even dig deep into the inner working with the forever-useful Mega Hack v5. (copy hack to be exact) Learn and experiment. This is the advice I give to every single creator. See what others are doing, think how they are good, how they are bad, and transform this knowledge into a piece of art of your own.
Molybd3num Hi there. I think a level, even with its short length, deserves a bit of comment on how the level works. True, short levels never get rated, but there can be really great short levels that creators make just to fiddle around with something they have found, or just as a proof of concept. Every level has judging potential, and I think you can certainly elaborate more on why this level will not get rated.
>>> Moving to NI.