Iris Gradu Finished

Published on September 23, 2023.

This is by far the most fun I've had playing Geometry Dash in a long while. And I believe the reason for that to be because Iris Gradu was so free.

There was only freedom and cooperation. Nothing had to be approved by a host. There wasn't a host. There were only friends. Nobody built a part alone. Whenever someone needed help, someone would be there. This is truly a new form of collaboration that I haven't seen present in Geometry Dash in a long time.

We didn't just build parts independently and just stick them in a level after the fact. We collaborated on individual parts. The whole level was interconnected because we worked with all other creators when building our parts.

Pretty much no part was made alone. Everyone contributed everywhere.

Here is a list of the parts, in order, and including its creator along with everyone who helped:

  1. Ronlix, with help from Purzin
  2. Purzin
  3. V3nti, with help from Purzin and Kivixi, and finished by ClingingBog
  4. Moldy (me), with help from Kivixi
  5. Kivixi
  6. ClingingBog, with help from Purzin

In addition, the level was merged by Purzin and Kivixi.

The transitions were done by Purzin, Kivixi, and Moldy (me).

Kivvvi, Bli, and Culuc also made an appearance by each making a funny spike for the final jump.

The gameplay was made by Kivixi and ClingingBog.

The end screen was made by SedgedHog, who won the Iris Gradu end art contest.

And despite not actually building in the level, Tygrixon provided emotional support.

I want to especially thank Purzin. He did so much for the level and it honestly would not be so good without him. Everyone did a great job helping eachother, but Purzin seems to have dedicated the most time to this level.

This isn't my level. This is our level. This is super cliche to say but this level was a team effort. There was no host. There was no leader. There was only comradery.

We also had complete freedom to do whatever we wanted with our parts. Aside from the loose "rainbow" theme, everyone did whatever they wanted with their parts.

I think this is a great and easy way to find a balance between parts looking too similar and too different. So long as a loose theme is adopted by every part, so long as everyone executes it in their own way with their own styles, the level will feel connected while being diverse.

This experience reminds me of what Serponge described when making Acid Rush with his friends. This is what he had to say:

Okay so this level was probably the best experience I had in gd. The reason behind that is it was a true work of cooperation, friendship, disputes and understanding of life. This is kinda hard to equate the true feeling this level emanates when only playing it. To truly understand it you have to be one of the creators, and sadly, only 8 cool and good dudes will ever achieve this state, those are: Lumpy, Jayuff, Devon, Echonox, Motleyorc, Alkali, Kips, Codex and my true self.

So basically this all started when I posted this stupid profile comment asking for 10k dislikes and Ill upload new nivel. Sadly I didnt expect everyone to dislike so fast and I was caught off guard. I had no level truly ready to be released. So GS came to help me, they proposed me a deal: They help me making my levels, and in return I had them helping me for my level. So from now on I have a little slave team for each of my levels, kind of like viprin factory (not as big yet). So for you to truly understand what happened during the making of this level, Ill try to resume it under a few line:

Lumpy started his part, he was the only one willing to help yet, then jayuff came [...] and made his part, and from there everyone came (like legit lol) and the Acid Rush was born. Everyone helped each others, it was amazing. Sometimes someone was like wtf do I do for my part so someone helped and finished their part, it was a true inspirational cooperation. For example, alkali made 90% of the gameplay drop and started deco but then had to go so motley finished his deco following the right schem, then I made the BG for the entire drop and kips and codex used it for their own design and then I made my part, it was really really [fun] to build and manage, to be honest there wasnt even a true manager, everyone was managing like a true society with no rich or poor, everyone was equal, I hope we can share this state of mind to future generations.

This has never resonated so much with me before. But this is how Iris Gradu felt.

I also believe that the reason I had this experience was because I was collabing with friends. These weren't random recruits. These were people I've known for years. And it was so much more fun collabing with friends than it would have been if we just recruited a bunch of randoms.

I hope others can do this once 2.2 is released. Don't hyper-obsess over every detail in your collab. Just go with the flow and let it manage itself. You will have so much more fun that way. And who knows, some people might come up with great ideas you could have never thought of on your own.

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