How Geometry Dash Surpassed the Game it Copied

No way it copied bro 2.2 almost out also i like your pfp pls pin

The real trick in making your game successful is to let the community do the work for you

"No matter how good you are, there's always a level where you can meet your match" This is such a fantastic line and perfectly sums up everything that Geometry Dash did right. Great video!! It's pretty clear that GD owes almost all its success to its level editor, but I think people often overlook the fact that part of the reason this worked so well is because the editor is AMAZING. And there's many reasons for that: 1) It's super easy to use - When I first opened the GD editor, the way it worked was immediately clear. Place blocks and spikes on the grid, and press a button on the side to playtest it. From there, I was able to quickly pick up on how to use other features like changing background color, etc. On the other hand, in the IMPOSSIBLE GAME editor (which I actually used before GD), nothing made sense. The UI was an unorganized mess and getting basic things to work was an absolute nightmare. And considering that the only gameplay was jumping over spikes, it just didn't feel worth learning 2) The editor can do everything - RobTop has stated many times that he uses the exact same level editor as everyone else, and if there's a feature he needs for a new level of his, he'll add it. Most game developers hardcode lots of stuff for their levels and then throw a very watered-down subset of the features into an editor, and the fact that Geometry Dash DOESN'T do this has always been mind blowing to me. 3) Levels are shareable IN-GAME - In the vast majority of level editors, you simply save your level to a file and send it to a friend over a forum or something. Geometry Dash does the exact opposite, where you can't export level files but rather have to upload them to a public in-game database that anybody can browse. This way you don't have to sift through countless websites to find new stuff to play, and the featured level system helps curate good ones 4) Online levels are incentivized - Playing custom levels gives you the same rewards as if you played normal ones. Stars, orbs, etc. In fact, the vast majority of the game's achievements are specifically locked behind doing this. The level editor isn't just a piece of optional bonus content, it's extremely front-and-center. A lot of this stuff was pretty unheard of back when Geometry Dash released - If the Impossible Game was Mario Bros. then GD was basically Mario Maker. The editor isn't perfect by any means but from a strictly design-focused standpoint it checked every box for a perfect game.

if I had a nickel for every time a swedish developer copied another game and surpassed the original game's popularity, creating a game designed around community creations with regular content updates, with said game often referred to as "cube game" I'd have 2 nickles. Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.

It's amazing how much people underestimate Geometry Dash (people from outside the community). There is so much to this game that keeps it living on, outlasting many of the most popular games right now

I’d never heard of The Impossible Game before, but honestly mad respect to Flukedude for seeing the success of his competitor and deciding to improve his game in his own way instead of leech off of him. I can’t imagine the envy/regret something like that could make someone feel.

10:59 2017* 2.2 was originally supposed to be a small update, but Robtop kept adding stuff and then having to go back to fix old stuff as well, including a whole new game type, platformer mode. But in 2.1 we’ve came very far, and with 2.2 coming within this next week or so, the game will become even more self sustaining than it already has. P.S. Everyplay was added in version 1.11. But I agree making a means of recording very accessible made the game explode so I’m glad you talked about it. ^^

everyone saying "wow I didn't expect a GD video from you" for me it's "wow I didn't expect the creator of this GD video I found to be a non-gd youtuber"

Nice vid!

2:32 Very minor thing, but I think I'd note that the engine GD uses is not Cocos2D. Now, I don't know what did The Impossible Game use, but Geometry Dash used Cocos2D-X. Yes, the X at the end makes a large difference. Cocos2D is a more web development focused framework (NOT engine) which uses HTML5. Cocos2D-X is a game development framework which uses C++.

I used to watch ur smash content so its awesome to see you covering geometry dash

An interesting thing is that this isn't the only viral mobile game to "copy" an older one. There had been a few Flash games where you needed to launch rocks to defeat your medieval opponents in their castles... standard fantasy stuff. But if we swap rocks with birds, and humans with pigs... oh hey, that's Angry Birds now isn't it?

I still remember first downloading the mobile version of the game in 1.8 (Hexagon Force) just to see what GD is like, but when 1.9 (and the Steam port) was released, I got pulled into the game a lot more because of the ability of making my own custom levels, and playing community-made levels by fellow peeps ^^ I agree that GD's level editor is a key reason to why the game is as successful as it is today, there's a whole lotta fun stuff that can be made with it, and I'm very intrigued in what the upcoming 2.2 editor features will offer 🦊💖

I'm glad that the level editor is something that exists, even if GD hasn't been updated in a long while we have MASTERPIECES like the Eschaton by Xender Game and Against the God by 1374, if this is what people created in this era, then I'm hyped to see what will come in 2.2!!

Great to see coverage like this! It's a beautiful game with basically a community-driven survival based on lack of updates. The Impossible Game walked so Geometry Dash could run, drive, and fly. It is the most gratifying game to work at and progress through, and there's truly a space for all types of players!

Great video, i didnt know too much about the history of impossible game so it was quite interesting to conpare the two. I think a newgrounds audio portal mention and showing the triggers and stuff wouldve definitely emphasized the point more but it was pretty good as is. You get one thumbs up and two spare nickels from me

I was not expecting a geometry dash video from you but I’m here for it

Funny thing is, Impossible Game 2 probably had a relatively big active player spike compared to their usual player count after this video released

Loved the video! Really in depth and goes through how this happened perfectly! I would love to see more geometry dash videos from you.

I hope RobTop doesn't stop with 2.2 and keeps updating it for years to come.