Geometry Dash Editor Guide

Welcome to the Geometry Dash Editor Guide! This guide will take you through the editor
and its features so you can create your own levels!
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Table of Contents
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Lesson 1: Basic Building Techniques

(It is recommended to view lesson 11 before starting this lesson. Since it is more
of an advanced topic, it is placed later on. It is not required to view that lesson.)
For the first part of the editor, we will take a look at some basic editor
techniques. These will help you do anything in the editor.
At the bottom of your screen is your toolbar. This is what you will use to perform
most tasks in the editor. The toolbar has thirteen tabs which will be referenced
throughout this guide. The tabs are in this order from left to right: blocks, half-blocks
and effects, outlines, slopes, hazards, 3D outlines, gameplay objects and modifiers,
hazzard decorations, other decorations, pulse objects, spinning objects, triggers, and
custom objects.

On the left side of the toolbar are 3 sections: Build, Edit, and Delete. First, we will
be looking at the Build section. When in Build-mode, you will see many additional tabs at
the top. We will only cover a few in this lesson.
The first tab is the blocks tab. This is where you find basic blocks used to create
ground. Most blocks come in a set which can be connected together to create a nice
looking ground. Follow these steps to make a basic ground setup. This is not the only
way you can make the ground. This is just an example to help you get started.

Place two basic blocks on top of each other. To select a

block, press on it in the toolbar and then press on the editor
grid where you want it. Make sure they are above this white
line or the ground (either may be showing).
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Finish it off with filling in the blank spaces with some blocks
without white lines.

This is one way to build a basic ground section, and should work with other types
of ground, too. However, some ground blocks don’t allow collision on their own. This is
where that white line comes in. The white line makes it so that the blocks have a hitbox
(collision box). For example, if you were to build this same setup like this:

You would pass straight through the ground because these blocks do not come
with collision lines by default. To add some, go to the third tab in the build section
(outlines). There, you will find all the outlines you will ever need for your level. Go ahead
and add some edges to the design. If you ever realize you need collision lines in the
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Finish it off with filling in the blank spaces with some blocks
without white lines.

This is one way to build a basic ground section, and should work with other types
of ground, too. However, some ground blocks don’t allow collision on their own. This is
where that white line comes in. The white line makes it so that the blocks have a hitbox
(collision box). For example, if you were to build this same setup like this:

You would pass straight through the ground because these blocks do not come
with collision lines by default. To add some, go to the third tab in the build section
(outlines). There, you will find all the outlines you will ever need for your level. Go ahead
and add some edges to the design. If you ever realize you need collision lines in the
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(More detail on jump pads and rings in Lesson 5.)

Congratulations, you just made a playable level!

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Lesson 2: Editing
The next section on your toolbar is Edit. This section allows you to modify blocks
to your liking. Here’s a button-by-button walkthrough. Note that the first two buttons are
section unspecific.

This lets you select objects

by dragging over them in
edit mode. You can also
draw objects into the
editor with this in build
mode. When deleting, you
can drag over objects to
delete them.

This will let you rotate an

object to any degree.
Some objects are unable
to rotate. This is the same
as the free-rotate button
later on
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Rotates the object 90

degrees in the direction
shown.

Rotates the object 45

degrees in the direction
shown.

Moves the object 5 grid

steps in the direction
shown.

Moves the object 1/60th of

a grid step in the direction
shown.

Allows you to rotate a

non-solid object anyway
you like. Can also be
accomplished by pressing
the rotate button off to the
side as mentioned earlier.
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Lesson 3: Deletion

Now, this seems very simple (and for the most part, it is) but there are a few
features worth going over. First off, any object clicked on while in the Delete section will
be deleted, just like that. There are also buttons in the Delete tab with some pretty cool
features.

Deletes the selected object(s). This has

the same function as the trashcan next to
the undo/redo buttons.

Deletes all of the type of object that is

selected.

Deletes all start positions (more on that

later).

Allows all objects to be deleted.

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Only allows static objects to get deleted.

Only allows objects that don't have

hitboxes to be deleted (which means
decoration). This does not include portals
or triggers.

When selecting an object, using this will

only allow that type of object to be
deleted. For example, if you hit this while
a yellow jump orb is selected using edit
mode, you will only be able to delete
yellow jump orbs.

Lesson 4: Testing and More

Now, you probably want to test that level you built, correct? There are two ways
to do this. The first way is to hit the pause button and then press “Save and Play.” This
will hop you straight into the level in normal mode. The other way is to hit the yellow
play button with a cube on it to the left, above the toolbar (or by pressing ENTER if
you’re on Steam). This will allow you to play inside the editor, and will leave a green line
showing your path, although this can sometimes be inaccurate.
From here, we recommend viewing lesson 11 if you have not already (It is still not
required).
Now, you may be wondering why playtest is helpful. There is a lesser loading time and
the damage can be disabled. You may also have a much wider view of the screen (depending
on your zoom which is changed using the minus and plus buttons to the left above the
toolbar). This can also be useful when deciding where to put your next block, jump orb,
and so forth.
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Lesson 5: Portals and Other Gameplay Objects

So that level we made is great and all, but just jumping as a cube for a minute
and a half isn’t going to make a good level. We need to spice things up a little. In the
yellow orb tab, you’ll find portals. These portals change up the gameplay in a variety of
ways.
When selecting a portal in the editor, there will be a checkbox on the right side of
the screen. Pressing this will display the boundary lines for the gamemode in the editor.
This will help you know if the blocks will show up on the screen or not.
We recommend that you learn all of the gamemodes before making a decision
on which one you will choose. The way each gamemode is played changes when
modified by other portals which will be covered later in this Lesson.

This portal changes you into the cube.

Clicking or pressing makes you jump, and
you can hold to jump consecutively
unless there’s a J block, which prevents
holding to jump (covered in Lesson 12).
This gamemode has no boundaries
except for the ground. The robot is
similar to this gamemode in that sense.

This portal changes you into the ship

gamemode. In this gamemode, clicking
or tapping and holding makes you fly up,
and releasing makes you go down. The
ship has boundaries that are 10
grid-spaces apart.

This portal changes you into the ball. The

ball can change gravity by clicking. This
causes it to fall to the ceiling or ground
(whichever is opposite) until it hits
something. The ball takes a while to fall.
The ball has boundaries that are 8
grid-spaces apart.

This portal is the UFO portal, which is like

the cube, except you are able to jump in
midair. The UFO has boundaries that are
10 grid-spaces apart.
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does the same thing as the green one but

it also changes the gravity. The dash ring
keep going for as long as you hold, unless
there is an “S” block in its path (covered
in Lesson 12). The green and pink dash
orbs can be rotated to move the player in
a different direction. Like the pads, the
orbs work with all forms except for wave,
where only the blue, green, green dash,
and purple/pink dash have an effect.
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Lesson 6: Advanced Building Techniques

Okay, now that you know all the very basic gameplay stuff, it’s time to keep
building onto that level. Let’s try to make a ship section. First, build up to the ship portal
by building something like this:

Now, select the ship portal, and you should see a grey box pop up to the right, like this:

Click that box. Some blue lines should appear above and below the portal. Those
are . These lines show you where the floor and ceiling are. So, after
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Now we need to take a look at those buttons on the right, above the toolbar.
These ones:

Make sure the Col trigger is still selected, and press “Edit Object”. The Color
menu should now appear.

Look at where is says “Color ID.” See that little plus next to it? Hit that, and
another menu should popup with six buttons. Hit the button that says BG and then press
OK. Now, use the color wheel and select a color for your background. For this tutorial,
it’s going to be purple, but you can use whatever you’d like. Once you’re done, hit OK.
Now if you scroll a bit to the right, you should see the background change from blue to
whatever color you chose. This purple background might not look right with a blue
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Lesson 7: Editor Buttons

You may have noticed these buttons of to the side of the editor that time you pressed
“Edit Object”. Here, we will be walking you through what each of these buttons do.
The first three buttons in the top row are the “Copy”, “Paste”, and “Copy + Paste”
buttons. The “Copy” button copies an object(s) to your Geometry Dash clipboard similar to
how you can copy text. “Paste” will paste the copied object(s) at the center of the screen.
“Copy + Paste” will make a duplicate of an object right ontop of itself.
The next three buttons are “Edit Special”, “Edit Group”, and “Edit Object”. “Edit Special”
will have options for the object such as spin direction and speed for the rotating objects. This
will not show up in too many objects. The next button, “Edit Group”, will be covered in Lesson
8. The last button in this row, “Edit Object”, is mainly used for editing the color of an object,
but also edits most of the triggers’ options.
The third row of buttons are “Copy Values”, “Paste State”, and “Paste Color”. They are
used with the previous three buttons. “Copy Values” will take a copy of the selected object’s
groups and color. “Paste State” will paste everything that is in the “Edit Group” menu. “Paste
Color” will paste an object’s color into the “Edit Object” menu if it is possible; it is the only way
to change the colors of portals, orbs, and pads, besides the Pulse Trigger (Lesson 8).
The fourth row of buttons are the colors, “Go To Layer”, and “Deselect”. The colors
button lets you edit an object’s color while being able to see the object. The “Go To Layer”
button will take you to the layer that the selected object is in. The “Deselect” button will do
exactly what it says, unselect the currently selected object.
Finally, we have the arrows. These arrows change the layer you are currently viewing.
You can only select and modify the objects that are in the layer that you are in. Pressing the
blue arrow to the left will take you to view all layers at once.
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Lesson 8: Triggers
Now, we’re about to take a big leap here into some complicated stuff. Triggers
are complicated tools, but are necessary to make a good level. There are a LOT of
triggers, so you better get comfortable. To open each trigger’s menu, press either edit
object or edit special. Remember, most trigger’s fields can be edited to any number
between -9999 to 99999 by typing the number in directly. The slider will limit you to
what is best for game optimization.
Many triggers require objects to be in groups. Let us go through the group menu.

The Editor L (layer) is which editor layer an object is on. The Z order and Z layer
determine whether an object is in front of behind another object. Don’t fade means that
the object will stay solid when entering and leaving the screen (this is used for custom
backgrounds which will be mentioned in Lesson 19). You will need High Detail if your
level has too many objects. These objects will be turned off when a player with a
non-powerful device selects low detail mode. These should not be gameplay objects
because the level will have secret ways and will not get rated. Group IDs are how you
classify an object. An object can have up to ten groups, but a group can have infinitely
many objects. This is the group ID you will enter into many triggers.
In the “Edit Object” menu, touch triggered means that a player has to touch the
trigger for it to activate.
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the object is moving for, and group ID is

what object(s) is/are moving.

The stop trigger stops any trigger that is

currently doing something. You set that
trigger to a group and put that Group ID in
the stop trigger. For example, if you use a
move trigger on an object set for 10
seconds, and use the stop trigger on the
move trigger early, it will stop the
movement before those 10 seconds are
up.

The pulse trigger temporarily changes the

color of a group or color channel. You can
set it to fade in, fade out, and set how
long it holds it for. This also works on
background color, ground color, line color,
and so forth.

The “Exclusive” button disables all other

pulses on objects with the ID when the
trigger is activated. When the pulse
trigger finishes, so does the “exclusive”
command.

The unique thing about this trigger is that

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it is able to modify colors by object group

as well as Color ID.

The alpha trigger changes the opacity of

a group of objects. (Makes them more or
less opaque/visible to the player.) Fade
Time is pretty self-explanatory, it allows
you to set how long it takes to fade to
that opacity.

Toggle trigger turns a group on or off.

When an object is turned off, it does not
have a hitbox and is not visible.
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facing the same direction. When it is

unchecked, the whole set of objects will
move in a circle around a point in the
middle (you should use the follow trigger
as well to prevent bugs).

The follow trigger makes a group follow

another group that is moving. One object
must be in it’s own group to be set as the
object to follow, and then another group
will be set to follow it.

The shake trigger shakes the screen. You

can set how intense you want the shake
to be, and for how long. The maximum
strength of a shake is 20.
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This works as a toggle trigger, but instead

of toggling a group as soon as you pass
it, it will toggle on or off the group every
time you click. You can also set it to only
toggle a group on or only toggle a group
off. In hold mode, the object is only
active/triggered while holding.

To use the count trigger, you need to have

a collectible item (A key, skull, potion, and
so forth) placed down with its Item ID
(not Group ID) set in the “Edit Special”
menu. You put that Item ID into the count
trigger and set what you want it to count
to in target count. Once you have picked
up that many collectibles, then the Target
ID (which is the Group ID) object(s) will be
turned on or off. This trigger will remain
active until reaching the target count or
stopped by a stop trigger.
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The instant count trigger works similar to

the count trigger. You start off by setting
the Item ID and the target count to the ID
of the collectible and what you want it to
count to, respectively. You set the Target
ID to what you want to turn on or off.
There are 3 checkboxes at the bottom.
Let’s say that we set the target count to 3.
The first one means that when this trigger
activates, it will check if the amount of
collected collectibles equals 3. If it does
equal three, it will toggle the target ID, if
not it will not. The second one means that
when this trigger activates, it will check if
the amount of collected collectibles is
greater than 3. If it is, it will toggle the
Target ID, if not it will not. The third one
means that when this trigger activates, it
will check if the amount of collected
collectibles is less than 3. If it is, it will
toggle the target ID, if not it will not.
This trigger will activate only once.

The pickup trigger will act as a collectible.

In its menu, you set a value to what the
counter is counting towards (its ID), and
how much it is worth. (Item ID is not a
group ID.)
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This is the menu for a collision block. You

will give each collision block an ID. One of
the blocks has to be dynamic (the check
box in the bottom left corner). Only
blocks set as dynamic will check for
collisions. ( : Too many
dynamic blocks will cause lag)
In the collision trigger menu, you will set
Block “A” to the first object and Block “B”
to the second object. The target ID will be
the group of what turns on or off.

This trigger will toggle a group when you

die. You can use this for a game over
screen.
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is found in the orbs section of the editor.

The toggle orb is also color customizable.

See RobTop’s “Editor Examples 002” (28359567) for examples of some of these.

Lesson 9: Level Settings

You might have noticed that different levels that you have played have different
backgrounds or different fonts. This is where level settings come in. Level settings are
where you can modify aspects of your level as soon as the level starts. These settings
are located in the gear in the top right corner, next to the pause button.
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Now, we have the background and ground menus. The background changes
what background you have in your level. You want your background to fit the theme of
your level. There are grounds to go with each background. In the grounds menu, the line
type means what the line separating the ground from the background looks like. Line 1
fades in and out, and line 2 is solid:

We will discuss music in the next lesson.

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Newgrounds. E.g., http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/568699. For this song you

would type in, “568699.” Another button is the saved songs button in the bottom right
corner. Click it:

Here are all of the songs you have previously downloaded. These are usually
from levels that you have already played before. You can select a song from here and
press use. You do not need to enter the ID manually for these songs.
Back on the selections screen, there is a gear. Press the gear:

This will let you set up some things with the song. The start offset is how far
forward you want the song to start. Let’s say that you don’t like the intro of the song and
want to build starting from right before the drop. You might put 15 seconds and the
song will start 15 seconds in. Fade in makes it so that the song fades in instead of
suddenly starting. Fade out means that the song will fade out when you finish the level
instead of continuing.
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Back in the song selection screen, there is a button that says “Create Lines”.
Press it:

Here is where you can create the guidelines for the song that you chose. First,
you press “Record” and then start clicking/tapping to the music! Save the guidelines
when you’re done. This is to give you a visual of where each beat is (depending on how
accurately you timed the clicks) so you know that you want to put an object there. They
will show up as orange lines in the editor.
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Lesson 11: Customizing your Editor

It is important to have your editor the way you would like it. It will speed up your
building and make it easier for you to understand what is happening. To find some
customization options, open the pause menu and press the gear in the top right corner.
This will open a menu that looks like this:

Draw Trigger Boxes Shows the hitboxes for any collectible

items such as keys and triggers if they
are set to touch triggered.

Hide UI on test Hides your editor controls when you are

playtesting your level in the editor.

Playtest Music The Playtest Music option is when your

music in your level is able to be played
during a playtest. If you uncheck this
option, then the music selected for your
level will not be able to play during
playtest mode.
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Duration Lines It will show you how long a trigger’s

effect will last for.

Grid On Top It will move the black grid which is, by

default, behind any objects that are
placed to in front of them.

Hide Grid On Play This will hide the grid when you are
playtesting your level in the editor.

Hide Background It will hide the background when you are

building.

Buttons Per Row By default, your editor is set to 2 rows, 6

Button Rows columns (rows are horizontal, columns
are vertical). If you increase either of
these numbers, you will see that the
number of objects that show up in each
editor tab increases.

We should also take a look at other small but helpful features. Going back into the
pause menu, you can see some check boxes on the left. The table below explains the
options and what they do.

Preview Mode Helps by showing all the colors and other

decorative things right inside the editor
as they would be when playing the level.
Usually you want to keep this on, but
turning it off can also be useful. For
example, turning it off will let you see
blocks where the alpha is set to zero. By
default it should be on.

Show Ground Does exactly what it says; it lets you turn

the ground on/off. When you first create a
level, the ground will just show up as a
white line. When this option is enabled,
the ground’s design will show. This will
only work if you’re in the editor; the
ground will always show if you are
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playing the level when it is both enabled

or disabled.

Show Object Info This is usually for advanced creators, but

is very useful. It shows the information of
the selected object in the top left corner
of the editor instead of you having to
manually open the group menu, which is
done by pressing “Edit Group”.

Show Grid This toggles the grid on the editor.

Select Filter Before enabling this option, you must

unpause the editor and select an object.
Then, go to the “Delete” section of the
toolbar. From there, you have to press
“Custom,” and the selected object will
appear on the “Custom” button. Once you
do that, pause the editor and enable this
option. With this option enabled, the
object that is on the “Custom” button can
only be selected. This is useful if you
have many objects close together but
want to delete a useless object.

Follow Player When the yellow play button on the left

hand side of the editor is pressed, the
screen follows the player.

Ignore Damage This is another option for the editor-test

mode. It prevents you from crashing
while playtesting and is very useful.

You may have also noticed the music symbol with lines underneath. This will turn
off editor guidelines when pressed.
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Lesson 12: Gameplay and Sync

Good gameplay is essential when building a level. If your level doesn't have fun
gameplay, it will be extremely boring to play and won’t keep the player engaged.

Well, every player is different. Therefore, every player's idea of good gameplay
varies. Gameplay in your own level should be, well, your own. The #1 tip for gameplay is
to not make it repetitive. This basically means that you should vary it as best you can.
Keep in mind that people are most likely going to want to play a level where they don’t
just jump every five seconds.
An example of repetitive gameplay:

Another key to creating gameplay is making sure the player has time to react. If
you have sudden move triggers in your level, players will become enraged and not want
to play your level anymore. Move triggers can be used in gameplay, as long as the player
still has a good amount of time to react, but it is typically frowned upon to have spikes
moving sideways.
Lastly, make sure your level isn’t based entirely on memory. As you created the
gameplay, you will know all the memory based parts, but to someone playing it for the
first time, it will be very confusing. In general, if you think think that your level has too
much memorization, then change it up a little and make it more predictable. Another
thing, A large string of orbs will almost always come out repetitive, bland, or generally
unfun.
You'll find more techniques and tips about making fun gameplay later, but for
now let's jump straight into the 'sync' section, which is equally important when building
gameplay.
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Sync is basically how well your level fits and times with the music. For example,
notice in the first main level, Stereo Madness. Most of the jumps are timed to the music,
making for some fantastic sync!
You need to know that every song is different, so the sync will be different as
well, but that doesn't mean two levels with the same song will have the exactly same
gameplay, here are two examples of different syncs with Stereo Madness as the song:

The orange lines shown above are the guidelines, so you should try to place
gameplay on those lines.
Now that you have learned the basics of sync, we can continue our gameplay
section.

As you saw before, varying your gameplay as best as you can makes for great
gameplay.
Here is an example of some good variety:

The yellow lines shown above are the guidelines. There will be several colors for
normal songs, but custom songs will only have orange guidelines if you choose to make
them.
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If your gameplay is synced enough and it's not repetitive, you’re doing well, but if
you want to improve your gameplay even more, here are some tips:

- Gameplay depends on the song you chose. If the song fast-paced, then you should
make the gameplay fast-paced as well. If the song is slow-paced, you should make the
gameplay slow and easy.

- Use things such as the move trigger with keys to open passageways to help make
the gameplay more interesting.

- Transition is the term referred to the act of changing into a gamemode to another,
good transitions are where you give the player enough time to react, instead of just
changing the gamemode from a spammy wave into a ship where you don’t click
anything.

- Try to make your gameplay as unique as possible, you may think that is hard to do,
but originality is what brings attention to the level and is what will keep players
interested.

Sync is really important as well. It doesn't matter how good the gameplay is, if
there's no sync then it won’t be enjoyable.

- Syncing the level may be hard to do at first, but for that, you can get the help of the
"Create Lines" option (Lesson 10 teaches how to do this).

- If you have played levels with fast-paced songs, you will probably have noticed that
they frequently change the player's gamemode. This is an efficient and easy way to
sync gameplay with fast songs, but there are more ways to do that: (Please view next
page)
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- If you have played levels with slow-paced songs, you will probably have noticed that
they are calm, simple levels, rarely including gamemode changes. Following is a way to
sync with slow songs, but there are also more ways to do this:
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The D, J, S, and H blocks are all found in the orbs tab.

The S block will stop a dash orb. You will want to do this to improve gameplay. This is
a way you can get rid of secret ways.

The J blocks will prevent holding to jump as cube.

The D Block will prevent wave damage.

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The H blocks will prevent the cube from dying when it hits its head.

Lesson 13: Decoration and Style

Every level has gameplay, but not all of it is enjoyable. You’re gonna need some
good gameplay to get a featured level. But there is more to a good level than just
gameplay. In today’s Geometry Dash, decoration is a huge part of making a great level.

As you probably know already, there are many, many blocks to choose from and it
can be quite overwhelming at first. You also have to take into account which colors you
are going to use, whether the decoration will fit the song or not, and so forth.
To start with, you should make sure that you know what you want the overall look
and feel to be. This can just be in your head, or you could write little notes with the
in-game text; whichever works best for you. For example, if you want a ‘space’ themed
level, using certain blocks like the earthy ones is going to look a little bit weird in most
circumstances, however they can make a good close-up of a planet. It would be better
for you to make asteroids that the player has to avoid, or very complicated and intricate
designs to look like some sort of alien technology.
If you want to create a level without a specific theme, make sure you know what
kind of colors you are going to use for that part, as going in blind often leaves you
pondering for ideas. For many creators it is easier to make layouts so you know which
blocks you have to decorate; however, sometimes it is a lot easier not to as this can
sometimes lead to bland designs and is very restricting in effect levels.
In terms of block design, it can be very helpful to tick the ‘blending’ box for the
colors you are using and combine multiple different blocks over a single layer, as this
can look incredible with a reasonably small amount of effort. However, take caution
when doing this, as too many objects blending together can eventually make the whole
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thing glow pretty close to white, making it hard to look at, try using a mix of blending
and non-blending colors to make amazing designs! The color opacity feature works
great too. Outlining the blocks on the inside, outside, or both using fade (also called
glow or gradient) blocks (either black or matching the other colors) makes for a really
smooth and complete looking design. Just because some blocks are from earlier
updates doesn’t mean you should feel obliged not to use them; they quite often look
amazing when combined with other blocks.
Play around with the layering of the different blocks. Some blocks could look a lot
better on top or below others depending on the look you’re going for. It is important that
you remember to not copy/paste designs as this tends to look extremely repetitive and
is frowned upon by the community. Non-excessive use of Copy + Paste can make for
efficient building.
Here is an example of a simple block design you can create rather quickly. It’s
not amazing, but if you can create something like this, you are on your way to making
some more complex designs:

Block design is very important in a level; you don’t ever want to neglect it when
building. A big part of some block designs are objects called 3D Lines, or 3DL for short.
3DL seems complicated at first, but with a basic knowledge of what each piece is for,
and a bit of practice, it can improve your levels by a whole lot.
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If you look at the first design shown

above, you’ll see that between each
individual rock depicted, there are bases
to fill the gap in between. However, they
don’t normally come like this. You are
able to fill in these gaps with the specific
objects, or use this shortcut. If you select
the design, pause the editor, and press
this button, these gaps will be filled in
with these bases. You may find it easier
to create the edges before this step,
however. Make sure to do those first if
that’s the case.

This outlines the designs. These outlines,

however, do not have hitboxes, so you will
want to create your own using normal
blocks/spikes and the alpha trigger.
Make sure to create the edges first and
only select them before pressing this
button

When creating the block designs depicted

at the beginning of this lesson, you will
notice that creating the edges to these
designs can get very tedious. Well, if you
select one of these designs, pause the
editor, and press this button, it will
automatically place the edges for you. If
you are putting multiple of these designs
together, make sure to select all of the
pieces. If you only select the outer pieces,
or a select few, extra edges will be placed
within the other designs, making it
messy.

This button was disabled as at the time

2.1 was rolled out. It was thought to be
useless, so you don’t need to worry about
this one.

This defaults all color channels and

groups not associated with an existing
object.
 60

This unchecks all portals (like in Lesson

6)

Let’s say that you need to place several

objects equal distances from each other
along the X-Axis. Place them down,
highlight them all, and press this button.
They will now be an equal distance apart
in X between the two outer objects.

Let’s say that you need to place several

objects equal distances from each other
along the Y-Axis. Place them down,
highlight them all, and press this button.
They will now be an equal distance apart
in Y between the two outer objects.

When pressed, it selects all objects in the

level. This might cause lag if you have a
lot of objects.

When pressed, it selects all objects to the

left of the center of the screen. The
center of the screen is indicated by a faint
grey line behind the editor grid.

When pressed, it selects all objects to the

right of the center of the screen. The
center of the screen is indicated by a faint
grey line behind the editor grid.
See Robtop’s “Editor Examples 03” (ID: 29587046) for help with some of this.
 61

Lesson 15: Coins

Maybe you have played some levels with those gold coins in
them. Those coins are from main levels. There are also custom levels
on the server with silver coins. You will find these coins in the
animations/orbs section of your editor. Silver coins will have to be
verified by RobTop before they are collectable for everyone else. They
will show up as bronze if unverified by Rob, and anyone who collects
them will get credited once the coins are verified. You can have 0
through 3 coins in your level. You want to place your coins in a place where they are not
easily reachable and don’t make the gameplay easier. The point of the coins is to not
get them on the first try, but for people to learn where they are and then get to them on a
second attempt. They are there to add difficulty to a level. Don’t place a faded coin
above the player for the player to just jump into it and collect it. It is really boring and too
easy. Also, don’t put any coins at the end of the level. Free coins usually don’t get rated.
You don’t have to do anything special for coins. Just place them in the level and they
will automatically be added. No triggers involved like the other collectibles.
 62

Lesson 16: Custom Objects

Have you wanted to use an amazing block design you created at one point over
and over again? Want to include it in another level too? Custom objects allow you to do
just that!
How? Click on the 13th tab (looks like a letter C), and you will see a Plus sign (+)
and a Minus sign (-), along with an up arrow and a down arrow, which will be covered
later on.

.
To add a custom object, select a group of objects you want as a custom object.
Once selected, hit the plus button.
For example, we can take a simple laser design like this, and put it in the custom
objects, where it can be copied over and over again with ease.

Please note that custom objects can only be up to 100 objects.

You should keep in mind that custom objects keep the same color channel and
Group IDs as the original when used, even if you use it in a different level.
The opposite of the plus button is the minus button. Its purpose is to delete
objects that you don’t need anymore. To use this, simply select the custom object in the
editor menu and then press the minus button.
Let’s move on to the arrows. The point of these is to move your custom objects
left and right of each other. Let’s say you have two objects saved that work together, but
you saved many different objects in between. Maybe they’re on two different pages and
you need them closer. To do this, select one of the objects and click the up or down
arrow until they’re close enough.
 63

Lesson 17: Uploading Your Level

So, now you have made your level (a masterpiece, of course) and you want to
show it off to the world. Right now your level is only available to you. To send the level
on its way for the rest of the community to see, press the red send button that is on the
main screen of the level.

But there is a problem

But there is a problem! This popup will come up if you haven’t beaten your level in
normal mode. This is because we don’t want any impossible levels on the servers. You
cannot verify the level in practice mode. Make sure you have deleted all of your start
positions because you can’t verify a level if any are present. (Refer to Lesson 3 on how
to do this). Another thing, you must collect all coins (if any have been placed) to verify
the level as well. This can be done through multiple completions. Once you have verified
your level, press the button again. A screen should come up like this: (Please view next
page)
 65

The password can be a 4-6 digit number. A lot of creators like to put the
password at the end of the level so that people have to play through the level before
copying it. You are not required to give out the password. Be warned, however, as
people will often post the password in the comments when they find out :(

Now that your level is uploaded, it is ready for the world of GD to see :)
 66

Lesson 18: After Uploading a Level

Made a typo in the description? No problem, just rewrite it and click the update
button on the left. Please note that the title of the level can never be altered unless a
completely new level is made.

If you want to update a level you have uploaded you can easily do this by making
your changes, re-verifying and uploading again.
If your level gets popular enough, it can get a star rating. If the level gets a rating,
players will obtain stars when completing it. Almost all rated levels are long and have a
fair amount of objects, so to increase your chance of getting a rating make sure that the
level is at least 1 minute long and has good decoration and gameplay (refer back to
Lessons 12 & 13).
If you are lucky your level might get featured. Featured levels are very popular
and often gets tens of thousands of downloads, but only very good levels get featured,
so keep trying and improving. If your level is REALLY good, it might become epic. Epic
levels are better and harder to get than a feature. Epic features will show a flame around
the difficulty icon. All epic features can be found in the Hall of Fame. Featured levels
also have a chance to get “Daily Featured”. This means, for one day, your level appears
in the “Daily” section where people can play your level to earn diamonds! Rated levels
will give you one Creator Point. Featured levels will give you an an additional Creator
Point totaling to 2. Epic levels will also give you an additional 2 Creator Points totaling
to 4. Creator points determine your rank on the Creator leaderboard, if you have enough
CPs (Creator Points), you will make it up there, where the top 100 creators are ranked by
their number of Creator Points!
 67

Lesson 19: Miscellaneous & Good Practices

Sure, you can make a level alone, but what if you want to make a level with
another person? These are called collabs by the community, where 2 or more creators
build a single level together. How is this done? Well, the process is simple.
The first person publishes their first part of the level, and makes it copyable
(preferably unlisted and/or with a password). The next person then copies the level, and
builds on it (after which, the first person often removes their part from the server). When
they’re done with their part, they publish it, once again making it copyable, so that
whoever’s building next can copy it and build on that. Once the level is finished, it goes
back to whoever is publishing it, so that they can verify it and put it out for the world to
see. Teamwork!
There is also a special type of collab called a megacollab, in which 6 or more
creators work on a level together, however the words “megacollabs” and “collabs” are
used interchangeably. They are commonly, but not always demons.

People who play on phones or computers can see more lengthwise than those
who play on tablet. People who play on tablet can see more heightwise as cube or robot
than those who play on phones or computers. Keep this in mind when making sure that
your structures are complete. The most common width is 20 blocks, so it is always best
when making custom backgrounds to keep it 20 blocks wide. The height is often
unpredictable, but as stated before, you only need to worry about the cube and robot
sections, as the other gamemodes have set borders. One thing is predictable, however.
The height will always be smaller than the width, so keep that in mind when building
these sections.

How you name your level can make a difference in how many people see it as
interesting, and perhaps determine if you actually get noticed. If you name your level
“First Level”, then it probably won’t get much attention. Also, make sure your level’s
name is spelled correctly. A misspelling makes it seem like your level is bad and not
worth playing, even without downloading it.A general tip is to try to correlate the song
title/theme and the name. Remember, you can’t change your level’s name once it’s
published, so choose wisely!
 68

Your description of your level is often the third thing people see, after your name
and song choice. When writing a description, describe your level in a clear and concise
manner. People will want to know what kind of level they’re getting into. If it’s your first
level, say it’s your first level! If you think it’s your best level, say you think it’s your best
level! Really, a description should do exactly that, describe. Don’t go overboard, though.
Act as if you are writing a bulleted list, keep it short and simple, yet describe a lot.
Here is an example of a well-written description:

It’s highly likely that you won’t get your first level featured. Probably not your
second, either. Or your third. Getting a level featured takes skill, creativity, patience, and
luck. So, if you want to get a level featured, you need to be getting better at creating.
Here’s some tips for that:
Your level isn’t perfect; nobody’s is. When you
publish a level, you should ask people to criticise it, and use that criticism
to see what you can improve upon. However, you should also take
criticism (when it’s constructive) even when you don’t explicitly ask for it.
Being open to criticism and learning from it is one of the keys to becoming
a good creator. A great place to receive criticism is at the GD Forums.
(http://gdforum.freeforums.net/) There, there is a whole board for level
judges to criticize your levels!
The levels in the featured section are featured for a
reason. Playing them will show you what a good level is, and what goals
you should be striving for. If you don’t think your level is up to the
standards of the featured section, you’re probably right; don’t upload it
until you’re happy!
It’s always okay to use some ideas
from other places . Obviously, not
every level you make has to be entirely from your own creation. If you see
a cool effect in someone’s level and their level is copyable, then it’s
completely fine to go into the editor for the level and see how they did it.
Perhaps what they did could serve as inspiration for your own levels .
What’s acceptable is straight-up copying things from someone. Don’t
 69

try and do the exact same thing as someone before, and don’t try and use
custom objects to literally copy-and-paste in someone else’s idea. If you
think that something is too much of a copy, then you’re probably right. V2s
of levels usually don’t get rated if created by someone other than the
original creator. Levels that were straight up copied in the first place have
been rated, but get quickly unrated due to people being able to find the
original creator.
The best way to get better at creating is to keep doing it.
Always be striving to make your next level better than your last. For some
creators, it takes months of hard work just to get a single level out. Don’t
get discouraged by those who don’t like your level, and more importantly, if
they offer criticism (remember #1?) then consider it. As you keep creating,
you’ll get better, and who knows? You might even get a feature some day
;)

Sure, you can just save your level, but why not take the extra step of protection? You
may have deleted something big by accident and have no way of getting it back or accidently
corrupted your level. This is where backing up data comes in. If you backup your data, a copy of
everything will be saved to the cloud. Not just your levels, but other save data too! To save your
data, you must have made an account. To save and load data, you press the gear on the main
menu of Geometry Dash and then press account. Once you have an account created,
everything should be self explanatory.

On the level search screen, there is a button labeled “Magic”. A level is put into the
Magic section if it has over 10,000 objects, has a length of at least one minute, and has a few
other things that RobTop has not explicitly stated. When people are looking for levels from
unnoticed creators, they will often check the Magic section, so make sure to try and get your
level into it!
 70

Steam Exclusive Lesson: Helpful Keys

W, A, S, D Moves the selected object(s) up, left,

down, or right.

Shift + W, A, S, D Moves the selected object(s) a small

editor space.

Q, E Rotates the selected object(s) 90

degrees. Q = Counterclockwise, E =
Clockwise.

1, 2, 3 Cycles through Build, Edit, and Delete.

F1, F2 Cycles through the tabs

CTRL + Z Undo
CTRL + SHIFT + Z Redo

CTRL + C Copy the selected object(s)

CTRL + V Paste the copied object(s)
CTRL + D Copy + Paste the selected object(s)
(Duplicate)

(Ctrl +) Enter (Music) Playtest

ESC Opens the pause menu

R Toggle on/off ‘Rotate’

T Toggle on/off ‘Swipe’
F Toggle on/off ‘Free move’
G Toggle on/off ‘Snap’

Scroll wheel Move view up and down

+
-

Custom key binding may be added in the future.

 71

Afterword
Created by some of the members of TouchArcade, a forum where you can talk to some
members of the Geometry Dash community. I (zab100) would like to acknowledge sup3p,
CreativeGuy, and myself for working on this extensively before it was approved for addition in
the game. I would also like to make it known that Edenharley made by-far the longest section
of this guide. Special Thanks to PyroPenguin who created the art at the beginning. Others
have also made a significant help in this guide. Without them, this guide would have been very
incomplete and without many lessons that were important. Lots of hard work was put into
this.
Everyone from the lesson writers to the proofreaders have all worked hard to create this for
all of you. A complete list of credits is listed on the next page.
Thank you, all of you, for helping sup3p and I make this guide something amazing. Also, thank
you, the reader, also for taking the time to read through this guide. We hope we have helped
you through creating this and hope we get to see the wonderful levels you will create!

If you would ever like to talk with us, make an account here:
Geometry Dash TouchArcade
We also would suggest making an account here:
Geometry Dash Forums
And finally, we have a Discord server relating to this guide if you ever need help:
Discord Invite
 72

Credits
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*IGN stands for In-Game-Name

**Any names with quotation marks “ ” and without parenthesis ( ) are In-Game-Names.
- Indicates lesson creators
- indicates proofreaders

Kronos approves