Preempt - eurana

This isn't a return of the level archives or anything like that. I just wanted to rant for a bit (it is actually a long read). If you don't care for it, all good! I hope you enjoyed the video and please show this level tons of support! ----- This level came out a few months ago, I really wanted to upload it then, but I decided against it in the moment. Since then, I've genuinely had a lot on my mind, when it comes to IRL stuff as well as with my presence online. I've taken a big step back when it comes to GD, not so much from creating, because I still do that and enjoy it, but more so just being around the community. When it comes to GD as a game or as an art medium, I want it to still be something that I find fun to do. The process of building, the end result, the gimmicks, the theming, whatever it is, I want to have fun with it. Doing the things that I want to do and genuinely enjoying myself while opening the game. Not forcing myself to finish this big project because no one else in the collab wants to do it, or pushing myself to keep up with the expectations and polishing levels for dozens of hours in order to match the standards that I've set on myself based off of other's opinions of me. I've realized that most of the time I don't actually enjoy making these things.. I end up burning myself out so much and it genuinely has affected a lot of my enjoyment for the game and the things that I do. As an example, let's take Next Cab Soon. I worked so insanely hard on that level. During the time we were working on the level, sadly the company I was working at closed down and I lost my job. So working on this level became my new 9 to 5. I worked on that level every day for 8-12h every single day, be it on my part, on someone else's part, on merging, bugfixing, answering messages on discord.. I was incredibly burnt out and yet I just kept going, working on even more projects right after that. And like, I think I did this for almost every single project we released since Astralith until GD Gangster Rap. That was stupid LOL. My mental health took a massive toll and I still don't think I've recovered from how much I've pushed myself over the last 2 years. So now onto the part where this level comes in. I've grown a really big emotional attachment to playing this level. I go through it, every so often, and just kinda play it for 30-40 mins in a loop. It makes me happy. It also has made me sad. Melancholic in a way. I don't really know what the emotions are or how to explain them, but I definitely feel them. There's just something about this level that has made me realize that at the end of the day.. this is just Geometry Dash.. and having fun and making silly things that you enjoy is the most important part of it. This level is just great to me. The gameplay, the style, the deco, the colors, the composition, the player movements, the song rep, the progression, everything about it just speaks to me in a way that I have not seen in almost 10 years. In a way, I've had to relearn what it is that I love about this game. I love this game so much, that I have dedicated thousands of hours throughout the past 12 years to playing this. I think you can also see how much this has inspired my change of style and direction since then... but I won't go into detail about this. If it isn't obvious, then it's ok. I'll keep doing my own thing going forward, making the projects that I want to make with the people that I care about whenever I want to and when I feel is the best for me. Happy 12 years of playing GD to myself I guess! Oh and if it wasn't clear. This has been my favorite level in the game for a while, tied with Sad Machine of course. ----- ID : 125297134 Song : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbvEQclRAaE