The Depths Above (Solo Extreme Demon) by Bram4Real [Showcase] | Geometry Dash

Thumbnail by ‪@g.Ben.‬

After 10 months, I have finally finished my second actual solo level! This really pushed the limits of both my creating abilities and how long I can work on a single project. There were many times throughout the process where I felt like I couldn't keep the pace up, and I had to push back the final day three times - my initial completion goal was September 19th! But, regardless, I am so, so proud to present my new masterpiece: The Depths Above!

The story of this level is a little confusing, as I expected to be done with the game entirely after releasing The Old Trail. However, while I and most of my friends expected a star rate, it ended up getting Epic, something that I am forever thankful for (and yet quite surprised about)!

Even before I had released The Old Trail, I had a similar vision for a level using this song. There would be more (and hopefully improved) stunning, parallax-based nature decoration, but main course was to be a series of mind-bending transitions. I don't want to say too much about them since I might try to recreate them down the road, but the point of this is that none of these ideas mattered the moment my friend got me to play Outer Wilds.

In an alternate universe, I'd have made another level between The Old Trail and this one that could serve as sort of a bridge, using this song and the transitions I hinted at above. But the moment I finished Outer Wilds, I knew I had to drop everything and run with this new vision. There is just something about that game that makes it so touching, everything from the beautiful modeling, the concept, putting together the mystery yourself, and the grand finale that awaits you once you discover and complete the main objective. The game is truly like nothing else, and I highly, highly recommend you play it for yourself if you can! I promise, it's worth finishing, even if you feel overwhelmed or lost at the beginning.

I'd like to point out that the game (mostly) started as the vision of one guy and a university project. The series of events that led to a single lunar campfire scene snowballing into the best game ever made is truly like catching lightning in a bottle. I genuinely can't imagine another game in my lifetime topping Outer Wilds as my favorite. The final sequence, the culmination of an interplanetary mystery that is so satisfying to solve, is the most emotional I've felt playing any game. It was enough to send me scrambling to the editor, thinking of ways to spread the love of a game like no other.

This level, my final homage to Outer Wilds, took almost the entire year to make. I beat the game back in late January and, with only a handful of breaks, spent 180 days working in the editor to make the vision happen. I build the parts out of order, starting from the middle since that was originally the only part I could even think of gameplay for. There were times I doubted my ability to complete this project - in fact, there wasn't even gameplay in every part until about September! But by October I could see the light at the end of the tunnel and powered through.

When reproducing different media like this, it's natural and understandable to question both the originality in recreation and the faithfulness to the source material. I would like to think I did enough to satisfy both camps here. While I was initially laser-focused on making things exactly as they were in the game (like the buildings on Ash Twin and Timber Hearth), I came to terms with the fact that this would waste a lot of time with details not a lot of people would notice, and that creative liberty is both good and necessary. Especially with parts I worked on later (such as the ship minigame and the white hole/supernova), I made some leaps to make the level more of my own. It was initially daunting to stray from the base game, especially with the ship interface (it's not really a spoiler to say the actual Outer Wilds ship does not have a bunch of switches you hit to the beat before you launch), but it really helped produce what I'd say is a fantastic end result!

In the end, I'm very happy with the end result, even if sacrifices had to be made for optimization and creative liberty. According to my playtesters, this level should be entry-Extreme, and I agree. A lot of people I don't know have already beaten this level and had a blast, and I hope you do too if you go for a level of this difficulty!

Thank you to all the wonderful people who supported me during the long and arduous journey that went into this level. Please check out Outer Wilds! BUILD!!!

Verification:    • The Depths Above (Solo Extreme Demon) by B...  

Attempts: ~10.1k (~10k playtesting, ~50 verifying)
Favorite parts: 48-61%
Least favorite part: 41-48%
Good start pos locations: I left some in the editor!

Level ID: 112371654

Overall Difficulty: 10/10
Relative Difficulty (Extreme Demon): 1/10
Length Difficulty: 3/10
GD Demon Ladder Placement: 21-22
NLW Tier Placement: Beginner
Overall Enjoyment: 10/10