Geometry Dash – How to Get a Rated Level

A small guide I wrote to help give people a chance for creator points.

Introduction

Note: Credit goes to ssabutaha

This is a guide that I have made to help people on making good levels that get rated or even featured! I have not personally finished any of my levels but I have seen many other people talk about how you need a lot of things, so I’ve made some ideas and steps based on those.

Music & Layout

Step 1 is to find good music for the level. If your level is an easy/normal level, don’t choose a high tempo song, and don’t use the 21 default songs.

Make the layout. Make it using the default blocks and spikes, and make it fun to play, not too repetitive, and make it sync with the music.

The gameplay should preferably be between 1 minute and 2 minutes long, and try to make it easy to sight-read. Use features to your advantage, such as gamemodes, or for any readers reading when 2.2 is out, maybe the reverse orb and triggers.

Decoration

Now, test in a new level some block designs that fit the theme of the music. If the music is upbeat use vibrant colours, if the music is sad then use more cool colours. This matters a lot. Choose your favoured block design and make all the default blocks in a group.

After adding the block design, put an alpha trigger at the beginning of the level, and make the default blocks fade to 0 opacity with no fade.

Put some decorations to fill in some gaps. A gap in the air of a ship part? Add a cloud or something to fill in the space! Make sure the level is still sight-readable after decorating it.

Testing

Test all different paths in the level. Miss an orb or jump over a jump pad and see what happens! If you can skip the level from skipping an orb or pad, then make it a blocked path! An issue I see in many levels, rated or unrated, is secret unintentional paths.

Today’s daily level even had a small gap that led to a lot of the level being skipped! Even though it was impossible to win from taking that path, it still gave orbs, diamonds, and percent through the level, which is an unfair trade.

Don’t make the level too memory based, unless that’s the whole point of the level. People play hard memory demon levels because it’s memory, and they expect a memory part, but nobody plays an easy level to get hit with an insanely hard memory part! Make it sight-readable and easy to understand.

Ask a friend to test the level and give concerns on it, as they don’t know the level like you do, and everyone else playing won’t know it like you do.

Uploading

When the level is verified, fun, sight-readable and decorated, then you can upload it. But the naming of the level really matters. You can’t name a level “Hellscape” and then the actual level is all cheery and colourful, or a dark, sinister level being named something cheery.

Make sure the name fits the level’s theme. Some levels do get away with being rated while having a very random name, such as a level I found named “The Great Gobsmack” which is rated.

After finishing with the naming and uploading, don’t spam anyone about rating your level. This will make them ignore you and possibly block you.