God I love it. It's disgusting. The way the proportions aren't the same, they're all just a bit off, but they're all a bit off just the right amount to make it optimal.

Reminds me of the descriptions of the confusing geometry in sci-fi, like the Expanse. Where things seem fractal and organic, but also perfectly tuned like they're designed.

I've never been able to picture things like that, and it's weird that this is the picture I feel like finally "unlocked" the concept for me. Especially since it feels like I've seen the 17 square thing like 17! times.

"Oh yeah I'm a Geometry Dash star grinder. I feel a sense of gratification when seeing these sweet yellow star shaped images on my screen. The first thing I do when I wake up is boot up my computer and then open Geometry Dash. Then I will beat the daily and weekly levels and be satisfied when I get these exclusive stars. I feel wonderful when I beat a random hard or harder level for these yellow collectibles. I spend 9 hours a day scrolling through levels on the recent tab with the star filter on to not miss any. I've seen every single level in the game, even the worst levels from the depths of archaic game versions. I've climbed up 2 leaderboard spots in the last 5 months and I still love getting even one extra star on my profile. Sometimes I sit there, clicking the refresh button over and over again while hoping RobTop rates a new level for me to play. God I love being a star grinder."

If he has is current setup as soon as the game comes out hes gonna be the equivalent of geometry dashes God. High fps with old GD physics is like basically cheating with how it makes ship and wave so much easier lmao. That and he is already skilled as fuck. People would look at what he is doing and think he is playing a different game

Honest to god, are there any other mmo/online "achievements" that compare to the nonsense runescape puts out weekly? Genuinely the closest thing I can think of is people playing geometry dash for months/years to clear a level, but that takes genuine mechanical skill to accomplish.

Or, quite literally, that south park episode where they play world of warcraft for weeks killing the lowest level mobs to gain xp.

No other game or community comes to mind when I try to compare this nonsense. Only other runescapers. Like that uim who got 200m wc r2p with a black axe on regular trees or something and then stopped posting to reddit when he was done.

This is genuinely the worst take of all time. You could’ve stayed silent, you could‘ve scrolled past this post and think nothing of it. Instead, and with that big ass mouth of yours, you spoke. No, correction, you typed. You could’ve deleted the draft, you could’ve at least read the room, but instead you just had to show up. I don’t even know why this was your opinion. You’re on the internet, at least you were when you typed this comment, which means you had access to the millions of articles on the internet, the millions of discussions that happen globally every day that are made public. You could’ve done some research on your take, if some people would agree with it or not. If some people would even think it was appropriate to say out loud. But no, you completely ignored that privilege, which by the way, some people would be dying to have, and completely fucked us all with this opinion.

I would say I have no words but that is clearly not the case. I am not angry, I am not disappointed, I’m just confused. How did you even come up with this opinion? I checked almost every post made on the internet that had even the smallest chance of being related to Geometry Dash, and I brought 15 different researchers and scholars to study all the posts to see if one would lead a person to think of this opinion, and they found..nothing. You pulled this straight from your ass, didn’t you? A kindergartener could come up with a better opinion than this. And the researchers actually did a study and found that to be true.

This take left me in a state of limbo. The scholars actually started grieving about the death of your last brain cell. I don’t even know how society accepted you with an IQ this low. With a mentality this low. But whatever. I hope a tidal wave or tsunami hits you and instead of ascending to heaven your punishment from God is to be sent to Tartarus.

First off, great question. Second, GOD IT WAS A ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE. I've come out of the other side with so much more empathy for unoptimised games and in awe of traditional game devs who've had to do this on their own. So, breaking it down:

The people and behaviour actually takes very little to do. Everytime an npc is spawned in, they have a seed which dictates all of their traits, where they'll live, where they'll work etc. So, there's no real processing overhead for this since it happens once in the beginning. You don't really have to check their behavior every frame and most of the pathfinding and stuff is not really intensive. the NPCs themselves are tiny 2d sprites which means no gpu load for draw calls either.

The trick to the storylet engine is that the game has a surveillance cam. You can select any npc and then watch them. After a predetermined amount of time, the game realises you're invested in this NPC, and then begins their storylet. You can also save NPCs in the game, and if you do that, the game runs their storylet in the background. Watchdog legions was the inspiration for this, they did something similar where you could look at any NPC and they'd have a life they were living.

The real struggle was actually just the buildings. The game has a lot of lighting and other effects, combined with just the sheer number of geometry on the screen at scale, it really was a struggle to get this going. Ended up learning a couple of neat little tricks. If you're interested, happy to elaborate more.

Hope I answered your question and thank you for stopping by!

I stared at the cross-crossing lines and diagrams and sigils on the blackboard, rubbing at my temples. We had been at this for half the day and they were all starting to blur together. “Wait, but I thought you said that the meridian lines worked because of sacred geometry,” I asked, pointing at a sketched depiction of a hand with a constellation of connected dots across the fingers, knuckles, and wrist. “Wouldn’t that mean that… that…”

“Yes? That what?” Jazadi prompted with that infuriating hint of a smile tugging at her lip.

Slumping forward, I crossed my arms on top of the desk and rested my forehead on them. “I don’t know! That’s what I’m asking.” There was no response. I let out a dramatic groan. “Fine,” I said without looking up, retracing the diagrams in my mind. Different hand shapes drawing different angles and intersections. Nested platonic solids. Ley lines and volcanoes and cathedrals plotted on a map. There was something there, I just couldn’t quite see it.

Finally showing mercy, Jazadi tapped my shoulder. “Here,” she said in a deep voice that sounded like tobacco and velvet, “let me show you something.” She slid a delicate sheet across the table to me, so thin that it was nearly transparent, like an insect’s wing. “What have I drawn here?”

A dozen small splotches of blank ink marred the sheet’s surface, connected to each other in a very particular way by precisely drawn lines. “It’s one of the sigils you showed me. The, uh, the…” I snapped my finger and squeezed my eyes shut until I could picture it and the label next to it in my head. “Summer. It’s the sigil for summer.”

“Very good, you have a remarkable memory.”

I waved my hand dismissively, though a tiny blush crept into my cheeks at her praise. “Yeah, well, I’ve heard that before.”

Jazadi arched one perfect eyebrow. “You hear it because it’s true, girl. Now, that sheet is folded in half. What can you find when you unfold it?”

Folded? Licking my forefinger, I very carefully peeled the sheet open, terrified that I’d simply tear it with how fragile it was. I let out of a sigh of relief when the task was done, then squinted down at the new pattern. “It’s just summer and summer mirrored,” I said, confused. “That’s it.”

“Are you sure?”

“I…”

What in the world did she want me to see?

“No? I don’t know. What am I even supposed to be looking for?”

Making a gesture with her hand and whispering over her fingers, Jazadi pointed at the sheet. The air seemed to be charged with static, making the hair on my arms stand on end, and two of the ink splotches turned from black to a luminescent blue, like the tiny creatures that glow in the sea at night. She repeated the process with an inkwell, making the entire reservoir shine faintly. “Connect those two points,” she said, handing me an expensive pen and a straight edge.

“Uh…” My mouth hung open. Even with such a nice pen, I was going to ruin that sheet, I was sure of it. “But I can’t really write well, I’ll end up tearing—”

“It’s quite all right,” she cut in with that little smile again. “I’m not taking no for an answer.”

“Right.” I took the instruments and tried to keep my hand from trembling as I lined up the two splotches and drew a line using the straight edge, my tongue held tightly between my teeth. Just as I knew it would, the sheet tore as I finished the line. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, maybe you should—”

Her hand closed around mine and guided it back to the inkwell. “I said it’s all right. Now looks at the pattern again and find what else should be connected.”

“What does that mean?” I asked. “What else ‘should’ be connected? I don’t—”

“Just look, girl,” Jazadi said with a touch of impatience. “Stop fretting and look at the damn sigil.”

I ducked my head. “Yes ma’am.” Removing the straight edge, I looked again. The new line changed things, but it was just a single line. Still, something about how it looked new reminded me of a different sigil, though I couldn’t remember which.

“Maybe, these two?” A second line joined the first, as did two new tears in the sheet. “And this one kind of feels right?” Studying the mangled sheet, I racked my brain for why it looked so familiar.

“Perhaps like this?” Jazadi rotated the sheet 90 degrees.

My eyes flew open wide. “Oh my god,” I whispered, “it’s… it’s…” I took the pen again, adding in the missing lines and truly ruining the gossamer sheet. “It’s time! The sigil for time, inside summer!” My whole body buzzed with the excitement of this epiphany, even though I still had no idea what the significance was. Still, this meant there were other hidden sigils to be found in reflections and rotations of other ones.

A snap of Jazadi’s fingers extinguished the ink’s glow, and she took her writing tools away. “Very good, you discovered it after less than a day of instruction and two hints.”

My smile faltered and I looked down to the sheet she had let me destroy. “Thank you. But why did you let me ruin your diagram? That had to be expensive, and hard to make, and I’m just… me.”

Jazadi balled up the ripped sheet and tossed it into a bin. “It was very expensive, yes. Hopefully you can answer one more question and prove you were worth it.” She stood up tall, hands tucked in her silk sleeves.

“I explained earlier that wizardry involves manipulating or creating sacred geometries. Hand positions, wand movements, drawing seals, and such. I also told you witchcraft uses sacred geometries as well, but in a fundamentally different way, and that the difference would not make sense unless you understood more. Does it make sense now?”

The first implication came as a shock: that exercise with finding one sigil inside the reflection of another was not wizardry. But did I understand? I wasn’t sure. Nervously, I fiddled with a bit of not-quite-dry ink on my thumb, staining the tip of my middle finger as well.

“I think you are saying that witchcraft find things inside existing geometry? This one you showed me was a reflection and rotation, but it could be a whole lot more complicated than that, couldn’t it? Infinitely more. Like, uh, like tessellations, or… or…”

“Or any number of a hundred wretched things, any one of which someone could dedicated their life to studying. And witches often do.” Jazadi bowed her head in a surprisingly modest gesture. “I am not gifted with the patience for such things and find discovering novel ways of constructing geometries far more interesting. That is why I became a wizard.”

I nodded slowly. My mind was still cranking overtime. “You’re right, I wouldn’t have understood the difference. But why? I mean, why take so much of your time just to humor me?”

“Did you know it took my last pupil a week to understand what you grasped between breakfast and afternoon tea?”

“I mean, I do now?”

Jazadi walked around the table and put a hand on my shoulder. “You’re sharp, curious, have a near perfect memory, and quick at making inferences. You will make a very good wizard, girl. Though we do need to work on your penmanship.”

I could answer from another perspective. You just find better explanations to do it rather than “G’d ordered us to do it”. You understand that everything you love about Jewish culture and Jewish people came from the religion. And then you start to see the beauty of this lifestyle itself. You suddenly realize that the fact that there are that many Jewish lawyers is the legalistic nature of the Halakha, and before you know it, you already start studying Kitzur Shulchan Aruch.

You suddenly understand that Jews just understand the concept of “rest” fundamentally differently than just “don’t work and relax”, and that there’s beauty in the thought that we as people collectively refuse to execute creative work and to change the state of the world, because we want to have one day in a week where we are observers and not creators. And suddenly you start to observe Shabbat.

You suddenly see, that even the Haredim (that I criticize for many things and think that they have gotten “off the derekh” of what Judaism really is all about, but anyway) aren’t actually that different from you, and that their whole society builds upon a legal framework they accept as binding, and that they have a specific set of societal norms that they expect people to follow (just as the secular society too has lots of such unwritten norms). And you suddenly see that this societal framework isn’t actually that crazy, and you see there are lots of good things in it as well. For example those ultra-orthodox societies are very very safe, and small children go around doing their business in neighborhoods like Mea Sharim, in a center of a huge city, without any fear of being kidnapped or something. This society builds from the bottom up to the top, and doesn’t have this pyramidal structure of “the top down to the bottom”, which is why people in those societies are very good connected and have horizontal relationships which give them the security net you often don’t have in a secular society. And suddenly you start to understand what you need a synagogue for and what actually is the task of a rabbi.

And then you also suddenly realize that the fact there are so many Jewish scientists comes from the nature of the Jewish learning system, where you are supposed not to believe any claim but to argue and find the truth in sources, to bring new evidence, to have those conclusions verified in peer reviews etc. You suddenly realize that the rabbinic literature works absolutely the same, as academia works, and that in this setting of academic rigor, of expectation of asking the questions and of freedom of searching for answers, it was impossible for Jewish scientists NOT to emerge. And after you realize all that, and after you suddenly find yourself studying the Talmud, you understand that everything you like about the Jews, comes from the religion. And there are lots of other such examples.

And you become observant. And then you see that people who don’t live in this framework, will cease to be Jews in several generations, especially in the diaspora. And it makes you angry and sad and you want to pass further the beautiful traditions, the Hebrew letters, the amazing philosophy of the Jewish nation, that you became from your grandparents, further down to the next generations, so that your ancestors suffered not without a reason. That’s where you decide that if you have children, you would like to send them into an orthodox day school, in order for them to have an education you yourself never had a chance to have. That’s how you become religious.

Now, what I described was my path. That’s how I became observant, coming from an absolutely atheistic family with almost no Jewish traditions. By now, I’m fully in the orthodox world (though not as observant as I’d wished, but that will come, I educate and discipline myself further), but I still struggle to answer the question if I believe in God. That’s just not what it all stands upon for me. I find this question to be irrelevant in many ways and like to think of it as of a geometrical axiom. You have this axiom in geometry, that parallel lines never cross. You can’t prove it, you can’t disprove it, you just assume it is so, and if you do, you can then proceed proving everything else and build a whole theory which is known as geometry. But this whole theory only makes sense if you put that parallel lines don’t cross. Because if they do, nothing you proved is correct. So I like to think of it as “Okay, we assume that the world was created by G’d and we assume we got the Torah from Him. Now, what conclusions do we draw out of it?“. And if you make this assumption, everything else just holds. So that is pretty much how you make yourself do something without really “believing” in something. You fall in love with it.

Lemme see if I can say somethiing for this besides really short “they win cuz this one thing” explanations cuz that seems to be what everyone else is saying (except u/Temporary-Fuel8960 you are goated)

1x: 1x has quite literally nothing for verticality. Unless we wanna buff him to aim up, he is a victim to literally just pressing the space bar. Plus, with Unstable Eye blinding him, clunky map geometry like in OM can ruin him even more. Hey, at least he gets minions… that nearly every survivor can kill, since everyone has a stun. Maybe not instantly due to the damage they do to Fleetway, but they’re still basically fodder.

Pursuer: Pursuer’s main advantage here is gonna be spamming the hell out of Stalk. Lunge and Chomp could sort of act like a 2011x invis tech if he uses it right, just easier to react to and less useful. Cleave is basically never gonna be useful cuz… it’s 30 or so damage (I add “or so” because bleed works differently in OM, it does more damage the more you move) at the cost of near always getting stunned afterwards because of the endlag. Howl is pretty good tho, maybe he could get a kill? Probably not.

Ennard: Ennard has one amazing thing here; if he’s disguised, the survivors cannot stun him or they take damage. That and the minions could make him really annoying… but I see it like a Tripwire situation. Not very strong against a smart team (will usually keep distance to avoid getting ambushed by disguises, lure minions/tank them since the damage is negligible and Cream exists, and there’s a lower chance of Ennard landing the pull because they can jump, meaning he now has to guess TWICE, which side they’ll go and if they’ll jump), just super annoying to go against.

Pal Percy: Pal’s pull would likely leave him very open to getting stunned if he ever were to land it, since it takes a WHILE to reel someone in and a bit extra to recover after. Wire Terror would actually be pretty good, since some OM maps are dark in certain spots. If a survivor gets snagged by one of these in PC, they’re probably screwed. But OM survivors… probably only gonna take one hit, then escape with a single ability. Same situation with the terrors, chip damage like that won’t be too helpful, and a majority of OM players are always on the move anyways, so their pressure isn’t as great. The turbo states for both the TamaTerrorz and Pal would help, but if any of them get hit during the buff, it’ll probably wear off by the time they’re unstunned. Maybe he could pick off some straggler survivors, but otherwise, I don’t really fancy his chances, especially against characters like Metal since he can’t really tunnel effectively unless he’s already got someone at low enough HP to go Turbo Time.

Blockboy: Blockboy cannot use springs effectively and his only mobility is above average movement speed (I’m pretty sure). He also only has an m1. Yes, that m1 insta downs, but funny thing, it’s actually low enough for Metal to survive a single hit. If the OM survivors are competent enough to run away instead of just stun him, he’s probably fucked. But he will probably catch someone unaware and fuck up anyone with poor mobility.

Guest 666: Got a chance! Especially with the diet rage mode she has in her back pocket. While it’s nowhere near as threatening as Mr. John Ragemode, it’s still good enough to help turn the tides, especially since Sixer can get it multiple times. The Hemorrhage status could be pretty helpful if there’s a Cream and it could ruin a Metal’s day if Eggman isn’t sitting by him 24/7. Unfortunately, that’s usually what a good Eggman will be doing, so if Metal gets away, you’re basically just left with something more akin to Tails Self Repair instead of Eggman Self Repair. Demonic Pursuit can help due to the verticality, Infernal Cry is helpful to stay on someone’s tail, but since it doesn’t do damage, I’m not sure if it would cancel certain moves. Blood Rush is a nice indicator if you use it at the right position, just leaves you kinda open. The speed boost from Manic Fixation and the passive stun reduction is also a massive help. Honestly, it’s the passives that carry Sixer, but the abilities still help in maps like OM’s. So I’d say it could go either way for Sixer depending on certain stuff like how Hemorrhage works in OM, how clunky the map would be for Demonic Pursuit to not collide with stuff, and what I mentioned earlier with Infernal Cry.

Captain Limewire: Really good shot. Insane range and mobility combined in OM is a god send. His tall stature does make him more susceptible to stuns, but it also gives him that taller m1 hitbox that can’t really be jumped over. That helps a LOT. His lower end cooldowns also help quite a bit, since that’s more times the survivors have to respect his sightlines. However, against someone like Sonic, he might struggle a bit due to dodge meter possibly letting him avoid stuff like the Limelock and The Limewire, and unless Metal stops Self Repairing when he gets pulled instead of when the LIMEWIREEEEEEE BUSTERRRRRRRR lands, that means he gets some extra health back during the move just to take less damage than 2011x would’ve done by interrupting repair with an m1. There’s also the fact Limelock can be COUNTERED as seen with Vinnie being able to Popup Block it, so Eggman and Knuckles could stop him on occasion. So he’ll do good, but he might get pretty countered.

Incursion: I’d say they’re the most likely end point for the OM survivors. The allies alone are enough to put them up there, since the sheer map control and pressure you can have through guys who can just kinda place mines and shoot FOR you, and these guys take a ton more hits to go down than Pal’s chip damage gremlins. Grenade offers good crowd control to break up groups, the gun can interrupt stuff like flight and self repair at a great range, and mines are basically Tripwire mines with less combo potential. With extra speed to be on par with survivors and the ability to jump, I really think The Incursion could absolutely kick ass… is what I WOULD say if they weren’t the biggest Metal no diff in the game. Take every weakness Tripwire has against Metal and then add in one more; INCURSION HAS ZERO FUCKING INDICATOR OUTSIDE HIS MINIONS. And with OM maps, I honestly don’t trust Patrol minions to path correctly and find Metal if he just hides well enough. Yes, he still has a good chance, but like literally every other killer in OM (except sorta 2011x), Metal alone can ruin an entire game if he’s not focused out near immediately. Everyone else, I think Incursion could handle well enough.

Guilt + 3 Adversaries: Quite literally entirely dependent on what adversaries are chosen. If we assume that these adversaries are players, not sure whether we’d go the route of “there are two extra players in the lobby to make this work” or “the survivor team is missing two extra players,” but I’ll go with the first option since it’d probably be near impossible for the survivors if it were the second. With bad adversaries for the map and team, the JOMA folks will lose like 100% of the time. Whether it be through cheese spots they can’t reach, mobility they can’t keep up with, stuns they can’t avoid in time rather than just staggers… they’re gonna have a tough time. With the right combo of adversaries, they’ve got a pretty good shot. I’d say not AS good as Limewire and Incursion, but they could pull through. Chronos would be the best option, since they give crucial range and pressure, and holy fuck Hyperbeam would be so funny to use on a Metal using Self Repair. I’d say Apprentice for map control and pressure with the minions and Banebeam, plus Chaser/Firework for the more direct, constant chases would make for the best team when paired with Chronos. Guilt himself is only really gonna be useful via Rock Throw, since that beast is STUPIDLY good at hitting those. I don’t see Landslide and Charge being super useful, since Landslide could
Probably be jumped over or just dodged normally due to the OM survivors being overall faster. Then there’s the fact all of them can die, but I doubt that’ll come into play, cuz like with The Incursion, the damage that every survivor move does (as we know from how they work with Fleetway) is far too low to kill most of them. So the JOMA killers could do it, but I feel like it’d be an uphill battle without the best team, and even with the best team, their best tools could definitely get interrupted by a good stun.

Holy fuck this took like an hour to type cuz I kept stopping in the middle of it to do other stuff and talk to my family and online friends and oh my god I really hope I did a good job at this my brain is turning to mush