Shadowing Practice: How to Ruin Geometry Dash - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

Geometry Dash is probably one of the most popular mobile games of all time.

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Geometry Dash is probably one of the most popular mobile games of all time.

If you check the Google Play or App Store, it is consistently at the top of both the paid and free charts.

Which is kind of crazy, because most of these games lose all relevance within a year or two.

Safe to say, the game is doing really really well.

The developer, RobTop, is a single person who started from the very bottom with pretty subpar programming skills.

And now? Well, he was able to change one of those.

The thing is, RobTop has always had great visions as a game developer.

He knew how to set his work up for success back when companies were still figuring out how to do mobile games.

But things have changed since then.

Nowadays, the average mobile game looks like this.

And Geometry Dash is very stuck in the past.

I'm sure RobTop has already gotten pretty rich off of his game, but he could be doing so much better.

Which is why in this video, I want to propose some ideas for Geometry Dash so that players can have a more...

modern mobile gaming experience.

In other words, let's ruin Geometry Dash by making it free-to-play.

Now, I know what you're thinking- Geometry Dash already has multiple free versions.

And RobTop has even admitted that this is how he makes most of his money.

So I think it would be smart to start by breaking down how they work.

In Geometry Dash Lite, you have access to most of the game's official levels, as well as the first and currently only floor of the tower.

There's no custom levels, but if you're new to the game this is still a great place to start off.

The only catch is that every few attempts, an ad will play.

You'll also see one whenever you pause, and you can willingly watch them to earn 10 exclusive rewards.

And... that's literally it.

For this game, at least.

Geometry Dash Meltdown and SubZero both contain three more original levels, and World has ten shorter ones.

But World also serves as a demo for online levels.

You can play the daily level, weekly demon, and a list of almost 2,000 featured levels that hasn't been updated in seven years.

There's also a shop which comes with the option to watch an ad for 100 mana orbs.

Overall, World provides a really nice sneak peek into the infinite content that the full version provides.

Just don't think too much about the fact that it's monetizing people's custom levels.

I could get into RobTop's previous game, Boomlings, and how it had power-ups and in-app purchases and stuff, but I don't think it's too necessary.

But I do like how it says that ads lead to more updates, so if we want Geometry Dash 2.21 to come out...

I think I know where to start.

In every mobile game, advertisements come in three flavors.

First is bribery, where you willingly watch an unskippable ad for something that you want.

And games really like waving these in your face.

Second is what I call "shut up and watch", where a shorter ad will just randomly appear against your will.

And finally, there's banner ads, which block a portion of the screen while you're trying to draw your Rattledash fan art.

Surprisingly, a lot of big games have been cutting down on the second and third ones.

Instead, they just lock a lot of things behind unskippable ads that people are sure to watch, because that's what makes the most money.

And if we wanna turn the full version of Geometry Dash into a free game, we need to break even with the $3 that you'd normally spend.

So let's just take everything players would really want, and lock it behind an ad.

Earning orbs?

Already done.

Opening daily chests?

Sure! All out of quests?

Watch an ad!

Need to download the song for a level?

Sure, bandwidth can be expensive!

In fact, a lot of fake Geometry Dash games, and free games in general even let you revive in the middle of a level, because who wouldn't say no to that?

We could easily make this work by using the game's auto-checkpoint system to figure out where to respawn you, and to really sell it, let's mark all the completions with this as 100% valid.

Maybe it's just not allowed on leaderboards or something.

By the way, this game is also gonna have to run its own ads.

Fortunately, that's already being worked on!

This is a real ad for Geometry Dash Lite that RobTop made for YouTube, and he even confessed that adding this "Noob VS Pro" thing made it way more successful.

I like how it shows a level that you can't even play in Lite, because that's very on brand for mobile game ads.

Of course, most ads nowadays are a lot less honest, so maybe it's best to just build something really awful in platformer mode, and then showcase that.

Or use that annoying TikTok voice, like this I don't know.

Okay, maybe ads suck after all.

But I know something even more powerful than them.

I would like to propose two brand new collectibles for Geometry Dash.

And by collectibles...

I mean currencies.

There's a bit of a recurring joke about how if Geometry Dash was owned by a bad company, it would say things like "Pay $4.99 to unlock this icon".

But most games would never actually do this.

They'd tell you to pay with 500 gems instead.

This is called a premium currency, and it's usually the kind you spend real money on so that whenever the game says no to you, you can just pay instead.

I'm talking Robux, Gems, Keys, Cat Food, you'd be lying if you said you've never seen one.

The end goal is to make it harder to realize how much you're actually spending on a game, since we tend to disassociate these things with real world money.

I feel like diamonds would be a really good choice for Geometry Dash, but it already has them, so I say we stick with good old fashioned gems.

As for what they'll actually be used for?

Well, you'll just have to wait and see.

The second currency I wanna add is, of course, energy.

Because why play the game, when you could be spending that time...

not? In case you've never seen an energy system before, a lot of games will only let you play a certain number of times before forcing you to either pay up, or wait a few hours.

It sounds stupid on paper, but in reality, it causes you to play more often so that you never feel like you're wasting your limited energy.

It's a manipulation technique through and through, but it's insanely effective.

So how do we make this work for Geometry Dash?

1 energy per attempt?

Per level? Are we counting practice mode?

Well, if we wanna be mean, I'd say let's go with a max of 100 attempts per hour, with one regenerating every minute or two.

But since that's also the usual length of a level, maybe it also costs a little bit to actually start playing.

Okay, however you put it, an energy system just doesn't work for a game like Geometry Dash.

But I also said that about Angry Birds, and here we are.

So might I suggest what I call the reverse energy system, which you may have seen in games like Brawl Stars and Project Sekai.

Here, you can play as much as you want, but you just get way less rewards when you don't have any energy left.

So it makes you feel kind of bad for being impatient.

And I think we could absolutely work with that.

Let's give everyone, say, 25 max energy.

And when you play a level, you'll be given the option to spend some of it.

Maybe equal to the level's star count.

If you beat the level but didn't spend any energy, it'll still say 100%, but you won't get any stars, orbs, or diamonds from it.

I know that sounds cursed, but it's the price you pay for being a broke b**ch.

Actually, maybe the energy option could be on the level complete screen, but I think doing it here is way more evil.

Also, as you'd expect, you can restore energy by watching ads or by spending some of the gems I talked about earlier.

So if we're gonna make this free-to-play thing work, we should probably visit all the existing collectibles as well.

Stars, moons, and coins are... fine.

They all serve a very specific purpose, and they do it well.

Mana orbs are interesting, and I like that you don't need to fully beat a level to earn them.

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This would obviously be the game's primary currency, like how most games have coins and gems.

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I've got no complaints with how they work, but maybe you should be able to cash in your gems for them.

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Diamonds are an interesting one, because they kind of conflict with the whole gems idea.

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The way I see it, diamonds are an event collectible.

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You get them from timed occasions like gauntlets, quests, and daily levels.

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It makes you feel good if you participated in them, and makes you feel left out if you didn't.

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And thanks to the diamond shop, we can cash in on that!

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So I would remove diamonds from daily and treasure chests to make them harder to farm.

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And I think I would switch quests to give you gems, but not a lot of them.

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Demon keys are also pretty interesting, since you get one for every 500 mana orbs earned.

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But that's confusing, so, let's just make them buyable instead.

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And maybe up the price, because I have some...

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plans for these things.

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But more on that later.

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Finally there's shards, which always felt kind of out of place to me.

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It's completely random, and the whole system feels like a huge gimmick.

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I genuinely don't know if this will make it better or worse, but we could probably turn shards into a currency, where certain icons cost specific ones to unlock.

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Oh, and by the way, I think we need to address hacking.

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Geometry Dash is a very easy game to hack, because most of it is client-side.

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In other words, the game stores and calculates everything on your device, and you can easily mod it to do whatever you want.

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However, if we moved all your save data to RobTop's server, which is called server-side, there's suddenly no way to change these values.

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It's kind of like how you have no control over online levels, since they're not stored on your computer.

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Except instead of these levels, it's your own stats.

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The only problem is that it comes with two main drawbacks.

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First off, it's more expensive, so you need more money.

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We're working on that.

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Secondly, players will always need to be connected to the internet to play the game.

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Good! Now you'll have to watch more ads.

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Also, this allows us to add things like daily streaks to make them even more addicted.

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But hear me out, we could move icons to the server side.

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This would mean that you can't hack them anymore, but also that new ones could frequently be added to Geometry Dash without having to wait for an update.

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So for example, the shops could have a rotating stock, where once an icon is gone, it won't show up again for several months.

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Obviously, icons are the main cosmetic of Geometry Dash.

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And that makes it the best money-maker you could ever ask for.

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Plus, along with that we even have trails, death effects, ship fires, and even animations now.

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And there's probably room for even more stuff, like profile themes, or even particle effects.

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I saw Fundy's video about the Chinese version of Minecraft, and, you can buy footprints, I kid you not.

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But you know what we really need?

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A bunch of random rarities for all the icons.

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And we could piggyback off the featured system for this.

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This guy? He's a common.

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This one? Eh, epic, I don't know.

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The rabbit icon?

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That's a mythic right there, and people will pay real money to have it.

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But we can't give it to them that easily.

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First, they're going to have to go through the dreaded treasure room.

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Because why work your way towards achievements when you can...

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gamble? aw dang it Yep, we're going full gacha system.

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We've already got the loot boxes and overpriced keys and everything.

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So here's how this will work.

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First off, no orbs from chests, since that's how you're buying keys.

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And no diamonds either, because that might be pay-to-win.

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Shards are still fair game though, and it goes well with the shop system I pitched earlier.

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Keys can be bought with orbs like I mentioned earlier, but the easier method will be getting them through bundles that cost real money.

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If you didn't already know, rewards in the treasure room are fully predetermined, but shuffled randomly.

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And we can NOT have that.

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So instead, there's gonna be infinite chests, and to top it all off, you'll have a pretty good chance of pulling icons that you already have.

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'Cause that's how they get you.

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As for the different chest types, well, I think it's best to just make them way cheaper to open, and throw a limited time banner on each one.

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For those of you that are...

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normal, that basically means a really cool collection of icons that are all super rare, and everyone wants them.

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But, they're only around for a week, and the chance of actually getting them is like, 1 in 100.

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So you have no choice but to spend an ungodly amount of money, and start gambling.

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For those pixels you really want.

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It's perfect.

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By the way, there should probably be some kind of public collection, so that even if you want to use a specific icon, you can still flex all the rare ones that you have.

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It could even be a stat, kind of like creator points.

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Just, anything that adds meaningless value to these things.

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Now, obviously a lot of players aren't even going to bother with cosmetics, but they're cringe, so any comments they leave aren't valid.

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Really, all we need is a small handful of people who are willing to spend more on Geometry Dash than their personal hygiene.

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In the gaming industry, these guys are called "whales", and they actually make up a TON of the game's total earnings.

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So if that's you, then, congrats on being a statistic I guess.

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Go celebrate by taking a shower.

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Anyways, that's one predatory cosmetic system out of the way.

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But to a lot of people, this feels like gambling, so it would be nice to also have some kind of paid skill-based system.

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RobTop, you have made this too easy for me.

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So, the path system in this game already vaguely resembles a battle pass, so it shouldn't be too hard to finish the job.

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Normally, you pay a bunch of mana orbs to unlock one of ten paths, which the stars and moons that you collect will contribute to.

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For every 100 that you collect, you unlock a new icon and inch towards the grand prize at 1,000.

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If you're never seen a battle pass before, first of all I envy you, but it's basically this with a few key differences.

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Firstly, it costs real money to unlock.

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Second, the rewards swap out every month or so.

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And finally, If you don't reach the end of the pass by the end of the month, uh, sucks to suck.

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Thanks for the money.

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There's usually also a free pass with boring rewards, that's always placed next to the sparkly paid one showing you what you could be earning.

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The idea is that if you're a super dedicated player that grinds the game anyways, you might as well pay up to get way more rewards for it.

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Because if you don't, you'll miss out on all these limited time icons forever and all your friends will make fun of you.

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It's still a fairly new thing for free-to-play games, but it's been popping up everywhere.

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Like why does Subway Surfers have one now?

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I really like how Geometry Dash has ten paths to choose from, since we can potentially force players to choose from ten different battle passes with different rewards.

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But I don't think anyone actually wants to do that, so maybe they could be reworked as alternating seasons.

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So December could be the month of the ice path, where you get ice shards and winter-themed icons.

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And then after that comes blood month or something.

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As far as actually progressing through the path goes, honestly, I have zero complaints with the current system.

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Featured levels are genius, because it's literally infinite content for the game.

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Many people already voluntarily grind these out, but with a battle pass, now they can do it in order to get the Niko cube.

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While under the pressure of a 1 month time limit.

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Getting 1,000 stars honestly isn't that bad, but when you combine it with the energy system I proposed earlier, yeah good luck.

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You're gonna be watching a lot of ads to replenish that.

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I do think that quests should also contribute to paths in some way, simply because the system is kind of OP for it.

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You're given a bunch of daily objectives with a time limit, and they encourage playing even more levels.

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The final thing this battle pass needs is a better name.

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Unfortunately DashPass is already taken by...

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food... so might I suggest GeoPass?

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Geometry Premium?

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Ultra Dash?

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Extended HyperDash?

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Alright, I'll admit I suck at this.

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So, what other in-app purchases can we shoehorn into this thing?

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We've got demon keys, gems, the Scratch Pass, But why stop there?

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Surely there's many more things that players want.

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Like an overpriced starter bundle, with some gems, keys, shards, and other stuff.

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Or something like a fourth quest slot, so you can be even more efficient at not having a life.

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There's probably some potential for paid level packs, but they would need to have unique stuff that can't be done in the editor.

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Actually, wait a minute.

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The editor!

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We could sell that!

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I know that sounds ridiculous, since it's basically the game's lifeblood, but it's also the whole reason Geometry Dash costs money in the first place!

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It's also not even that uncommon.

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The Bloons TD 6 editor is partially paywalled, and certain objects even cost extra!

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Could you imagine having to pay money to unlock pixel blocks?

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'Cause that's honestly not a bad idea.

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Though I think song packs would make more sense, like paying a couple bucks for a certain artist, with a cut of that money going towards them.

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Anyways, Geometry Dash is only 3 bucks on mobile, but for most games nowadays that's totally underselling it, so let's charge 5 for the editor alone.

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Better yet, 5 per month.

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And if the editor costs more money, then maybe there will be less garbage uploaded to the server.

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Which is good news if you're annoying and hate creativity, and bad news if you're EVW.

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By the way, Geometry Dash could totally give a cut of its earnings to creators.

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Like, through a code you enter or something.

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But I think that's a little biased towards YouTubers, so might I suggest the ultimate way to ruin Geometry Dash: The partner program.

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Now, whenever you spend money or watch ads, a portion of that money goes directly to the creator of the level.

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It could work like YouTube shorts, where the earnings are split across all of the featured levels that you've played recently.

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So now, you're not just building for creator points, you're building for REAL MONEY.

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Creators are what keeps Geometry Dash going, so let's give them a chance to turn it into a full-time job.

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If they take it seriously enough, they'll be rushing out tons of levels which leads to more content for players!

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And if you're worried about a decrease in quality, the featured rating could just determine the cut you get!

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So a legendary level pays way more than one that's just rated.

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The funniest thing is that most Geometry Dash players are like, 10, so this might be child labor?

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But we just added a battle pass, so all morals are gone at this stage.

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Anyways while we're at it, let's pay the moderators too.

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But like, based on how many good levels they send.

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And how about 20 bucks to whoever gets the top comment on the daily level?

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Is this taking it a bit too far?

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Maybe. But it would definitely get people talking about the game, and most players are gonna stick around regardless.

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So, there you have it.

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Geometry Dash...

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2. Play now for free on IOS and Android.

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Wow. This kinda sucks, I'm not gonna lie.

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But the most nightmarish part is that it's not even that unrealistic!

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Geometry Dash is one of the most popular mobile games of all time, and the fact that it isn't doing all this honestly a miracle.

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Because it means that we have a developer who cares.

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A developer that's happy with the amount of money he has, and cares more about giving his players a great experience.

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And is also way too lazy to code everything I talked about.

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I spent like five bucks total to buy this game on mobile and PC, and I've been making YouTube videos about it for almost ten years now.

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So although this video is obviously a joke, it genuinely made me realize just how much we take Geometry Dash for granted.

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Because RobTop could have sold out a long time ago, and I'm sure there's tons of developers in the mobile game industry who think he's stupid because he didn't!

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It's kind of the same philosophy that I have with YouTube, since it's my own decision to not hire editors, and writers, and make stuff solely to please an algorithm.

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It's so rare to see people that just want to make things because it's fun, so I really admire all the developers who sacrifice money in order to do that.

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This is definitely one of the sillier videos I've made.

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So I hope you enjoyed it, but maybe also learned a few things about the free games we've all gotten so used to.

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Feel free to comment your own ideas for ruining Geometry Dash, and don't forget to use code "cologne" for 1,000 gems and a free epic cube.

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Shadowing Practice: How to Ruin Geometry Dash - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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