FORBIDDEN

I just watched and thought: "Damn..."

2/10 needs more conun
needs more stacks
needs more one lined fling combos
needs less that is the fucking start of derezzed
needs more kram

I love you bro
Keep on smashing this game

its like even his recycles are powerful

lmao wtf

This is so well synced

Very kramwoody track

Would bang again

My gosh that was beautiful. Didn't expect it to speed up like it did at 1:30 and at 2:30 and the kramual fun around 2:40 made me smile.

I liked it a lot.

You're probably the most skilled trackmaker ever. Amazing track.

That was reMARKable. If I CALLed it the best track ever I WOOD not be wrong. If this was IAN MOORE technical I'd probably spontaniously combust.This track is so good that Joy of Motion would be considered its ANTONym. If it had BEN any faster I would have HARVEY noticed what was going on.

Kram, your recycles are probably my favorite thing out of any track ever. Every single one of them. It makes me smile.

WHAT KRAM RELEASED A TRACK FOR THE FIRST TIME IN EVER WHY IS NOBODY ELSE FREAKING OUT?!?

Because I knew about it^ we have been skyping for a long time and I was talking to him when he "quit" and ever since then I mean he already had a track in the making

also nice groll that DOESN'T speed him up by 20ppf in the end

Hey Kramwood, that was really well done, and I enjoyed watching it! Those recycles flowed really well. Thanks for sharing.

"conun's broken ass new version" ;_; getting back to work on it

Conun, please don't stop working on it

FORBIDDEN by Kramwood


First Kramwood track in a while! It deserves a review, and a nice, comprehensive one at that. Here are a couple disclaimers:

>>I am harsh in this review. Kramwood is really, really good at Line Rider, so a lot of the things that are points of praise for a lot of other people are basically par for the course with Kramwood. Keep this in mind.

>>I also make suggestions. They are simply that. I do not claim to be the sole owner of Line Rider knowledge-- I am only offering my perspective with this critique.

>>I respect Kramwood massively for being able to make something like this. I, personally, will never be able to make anything close to this. You only get so many Kramwoods in a community.

So, we know this track is going to be super tight and controlled, since I mean come on, that's Kram's thing. The opening section--dense powerquirk--is really claustrophobic, and I think if the music had matched that, I would have perhaps felt that more strongly. I don't really have anything to say about it otherwise-- it's neat from a technical standpoint, but nothing really stood out as a "moment" that I could definitively classify as a "whoa" moment.

The zoom into the recycle section made my eyes hurt. Perhaps that was intentional?

The recycle section personally isn't my cup of tea. My favorite recycles are the ones where I don't see it coming (Wallie by Georgio), or a recycle happens in a way I'm not expecting (Flashkick-- also by Georgio), or a recycle happens on a curve that's really aesthetically pleasing (Slumdog by Georgio-- see the pattern?), and none of these are the case in this track. That's certainly a subjective thing, so I'll make it clear that that's something I'm just personally not too enthused about here.

The kramual cannon is neat, and so is the sync, as well as the highspeed section that follows it. One thing I would have liked to see more of is some kind of better pairing with the music. I don't mean that it has to be synced to the frame or anything like that, but maybe make the quirk fit with the mood of the song? It's really angry sounding at that spot, and it just doesn't feel like the long, flowy quirk bits do that justice.

The alt quirk, on the other hand, worked great. This part wasn't the most rhythmically consistent, but it was easily my favorite part of the track. Props on this section-- I was really feeling it. Maybe a little more pop, but otherwise fantastic.

I kind of wish there had been some short interlude. It would have gone nicely with the music.

I liked the XY as a track, but its placement felt awkward in the context of the rest of the track like "oshi maybe I should do some XY so it's an omni" so it weirded me out just a little bit.
The last section is great! It fits the intensity of the music and is a great level of speedy quirk. And hey, you ended a track all right! Last part was really entertaining and fun and I appreciate a lot of the cool little techie bits you did with kram cannons.

So, what to make of this track? Here's what I like:

>>You're so good at making things that are powerful and technically inventive. It's really neat.
>>I like that you made the ending a good one. It doesn't seem like much but it went a long way.
>>I like that you've made it clear that you're proficient at basically every style. World's your oyster-- in this track alone, you cover a huge amount of ground.

And here's what I don't:

>>This track feels like you're trying really hard to impress people. It's not expressing anything beyond "look at all this cool shit I can do."
>>That's not to say tracks HAVE to have some higher message-- it just felt like this was one of those ones that SHOULD. The serious-sounding music, the multiple styles-- I really hope y'all understand what I'm getting at.
>>The timing of the sections felt haphazard, like you did a section until you got bored with it. Even if you don't like Handlebars, or think it's overrated ( lookin' at you, Chugs ), one thing that it objectively does really, really well is pace out its sections with the music. No section feels truly overdone.

Some notes:

Remember, this review is completely subjective-- I tend to view things through an "artistic" lens when talking about line rider, rather than a "videogame-centric" lens, so I focus more on how to present ideas and concepts through the medium of Line Rider. My view also isn't an objectively better or worse one-- just a different point of view.

Also, the suggestions I make below are something you can totally ignore if you feel like I'm putting too much thought into this. I understand, because you're probably right.

The big question: where do you go from here?

In my mind, you've basically reached the apex of what can be considered "technically proficient" in Line Rider. At this point, you'll be making variations on the same combinations of contact points and chains. They're all super cool, but it's getting harder and harder to find things that are "new" in the sense of being something completely unexplored. With that in mind, I have some suggestions. Take them or leave them-- I'm not your dad

>>Explore ways to get people to feel something with your tracks. You've done this already-- I'm a huge fan of Phantasmagoric Heart-- but beyond depression, explore further. Can you convey disgust? Can you convey anger? What slices of the human experience can you convey?

>>Explore styles. Establish arbitrary rules. No rotation? What about constant rotation in one direction? Oamaok (briefly) explored this idea, but I know you have the technically ability to go far beyond what he can do. How many different ways could you make a track with only the pencil tool? These are really simple-- and kinda stupid-- ideas, but hopefully I'm making it clear what I'm thinking about.

>>Explore editing. How can you tie editing in with your track? It doesn't have to be super fancy-- when I did the editing for Assault, I made the four panels of previous tracks into a zooming square as a subtle reference to Sheldon's animation. How can you make your editing a cohesive and integrated part of the track?

8/10.

This number is not a substitute for the actual review, but here's a short (and still incomplete) idea of what the numbers represent.

1-3: Likely a person's first track. Doesn't really have a grasp of fundamentals.
4: Has some grasp, still feels like a bit of a struggle to watch.
5: This track is overall exactly what you'd expect: middle of the road. Not bad, but not mind-bogglingly good either.
6: Neat stuff, neat moments, still feels relatively moderate in terms of overall quality.
7: Trackmaker clearly knows what they're doing: you should probably watch this one closely.
8: This track is REALLY good, but doesn't quite check all the boxes to make it truly "legendary."
9: The boss of the sauce. This track has universal appeal and will have at least a little influence on future tracks.
10: You're the bomb.com, buddy. These tracks perfectly (or near-perfectly) execute their ideas, and have lasting power in the community. Think Holy Shoes. Historical context matters.

This is my personal view and is not an objective measure.  

I hope to see more tracks from you in the future, regardless of whether or not you take this advice! I'm really excited to see what direction you take your tracks in! Best of luck.

Kramwood wrote:thanks, but the only thing I really "tried to make" was the last 20 or so seconds. everything was made on and of out of boredom. i don't know how many more tracks I'll make, or when the next release will be. Conun's new version does have me a wee bit interested, but idk. I played a lot in the last couple weeks because I totaled my care so I'm stuck at home without much else to do.

Again, I'm not your dad, take from this what you will! I gave this a review because even if the track was made out of boredom, it was good enough to warrant a big review.

Conun's new version is fan-freakin'-tastic. I suggest you check it out-- makes workflow faster and makes super-tech more viable.