"Stereo Demoness" (Insane Demon) by MaJackO | Geometry Dash

I noticed I was coming up on 100 Insane demons soon, so I tried to think of a level that I felt necessary for me to beat before the milestone. I realized I never beat this despite always wanting to, and decided to do it for my 99th. MaJackO is one of the most influential creators to date, showing at an early date in the game’s history that compelling and intricate environments can be made to get across a more interesting idea than just jumping or flying over obstacles. I'd like to quickly point out that the rated version of this level is heavily nerfed compared to the original. The unnerfed version to my knowledge has only been beaten by one person ‪@kpgdylan‬ which is crazy to think about. MaJackO seemed to treat the editor more like a canvas for painting rather than a place to make video game levels, which led to impossibly difficult sections that he had to hack verify. Really interesting. Anyways, especially with a level as early as this in his career, it’s easier to see that he liked to experiment without a ton of polish put into the final product. Especially since the editor was relatively new, this was really a time where creators could take advantage of doing whatever they want. Much of this level feels like a hodgepodge of concepts strung together, with the vagueness of being a playable experience being on the back end of thought. That being said I think tying this to an existing well known level was smart because with such abstractness, it is easy to not have people be interested especially during a time when it was so weird to make something like this. There are many interesting structures all throughout this, it's wild to see how MaJackO's mind works. Even right off the bat, sure let's copy and paste a ton of spikes on top of each other to form parallelograms and triangles while still having them be placed next to extremely normal pillar jumps. Stuff like this makes for unforgettable visuals; it makes me think that MaJackO's method is to conjure a neat landscape first, and then form the gameplay to actually traverse it later (despite this, I had quite a fun time finding consistent click patterns and timings). Fascinating. We can see him presumably trying to learn the editor over the course of this, with random objects being tried like the shimmer teardrops at 12% that will never be seen again. The more I look at parts of this level the more I realize how much of a visionary he is. Using blue orbs in a ship like at the drop was such an unexplored thing at the time but he managed to make it engaging, but still hadn't quite figured out how to form obstacles around them so he left the spikes floating. Even other little things like the jumps at 39% are so stylized for the time; having spikes rest on top of each other is so creative when you're left with so little tools to innovate. Of course, you can't talk about this level and creator without mentioning the fact that he very well could've been the first person to incorporate actually tangible "art" into a level like this. All levels are art of course, but I think you know what I mean. The first instance is at 43% with the huge mechanical claws that grasp at you as you fly by. You're then greeted by some kind of guardian at 52% that you defeat by hitting his weak spot, and move into the darkness of what's to come. There's a lot of other things going on that I haven't mentioned like the death defying corner jumps you have to do on the pyramids, orbs sporadically placed around to cause disarray in the player, and encompassing blocks that help with immersion (all things that also hone in the "demoness" theme of difficulty and terror), but I think the single most impressive section of honestly almost any level I've seen is the final 20%. Nowadays it is hard to really grasp and not forget how groundbreaking these illustrations are in the concept of the game. Jumping and flying over perfectly shaped men with swords, enormous blades that are so imposing, and of course the huge monster clenching one of them as it encompasses your entire view. Having such set pieces like this is sick on paper but translating them this well with such lack of internal inspiration and instruments is just mind blowing. Block designs hadn't nearly been popularized in the way they are today, yet the spikes and outlines overlap in such beautiful ways to create potent assets that never look crude or with anything left to be desired. We can truly thank people like MaJackO for the means we use today of portraying recognizable imagery in this game, it takes a lot of care and courage to craft such graphics that are this wonderfully strange. Join this channel to get access to perks:    / @thezinkyt   Thanks for watching! Discord (easiest way to contact me): thezinkyt Twitter:   / thezinkyt   Twitch:   / thezinkttv   Monitor Refresh Rate: 144hz SayoDevice 03C v1 Mouse: Logitech G502 Microphone: razer headset lol