Abandon 2 - Opal Rider

https://youtu.be/1AYmAHf7w_E


EDIT: Oh yeah forgot to mention! If you're confused about the ending, it's a preview for my next track. Stay tuned.

This track is great! I love it when tracks mess with what a "track" is. I could tell that you were inhabited by the spirit of georg for several parts of that, and it felt so cool to watch that play out.

This track does a great job of subverting the idea of a flow killers. Instead of feeling like a frustration, the stop moments set up break, kind of like in stopngo, but instead of a go, it just MILKS the moment until the proverbial teats upon the udder of this track are totally dried up, before dipping back into the groove. That's another interesting aspect, too: most stops feel out of place and unintentional, so when the track gets going again it feels like a drop in skill. Here, it's intentional, and the result is awesome.

For a lot of tracks, aesthetics are sort of important, but usually come secondary to flow and unexpectedness, but for you, aesthetics are everything, and that's really apparent in this track. Votale did it to a certain degree, but in this track, we see it cranked to 11. The structure of every curve is integral to the flow, and the function becomes the result of the form, opposite to most tracks. This is the track's greatest strength, as it puts the structure and form of a track into a unqiue and rarely-explored light, but it also presents a slight weakness, in that there are a few spots where the rotation is awkward or a more helpful amount of power or flip is sacrificed for the form.

This, though, is a pretty tiny gripe, in comparison to the exploration you're currently doing. It's new, cool, and unique. I want more. Well done, and I hope your next tracks explore this further.
Totally rad!

you really use the reflection thing a lot in your intros

not sure how i felt about the first bit of the track, there were a lot of things that didn't really reach as far as they could have, like the wells on the curve at ~0:17, or the manual switching at ~0:27.  I liked the stop where he balanced for a little while, that is something a lot of people don't do or use to their advantage in a track.  The track starts hitting its marks around 0:30, as everything or mostly everything connected to me as the viewer.  I could see what you wanted to do and you did it.  There were still a few weak spots, the fling/chain thing at ~0:34 was really wobbly towards the end and could have been more satisfying if it were smoother rotationally.  The up-down thing and the manual hi-jinks afterwards were really enjoyable to watch and are probably my favorite part of the track because of how well bosh navigates through it.  The section after it is also a highlight of the track, another part where everything just worked with one-another.  The shoulder stop was pretty neat, but the hand stop could have been equally as smooth or as one fluid motion into the spring out of the area.  I'm not too much a fan of falling into a horizontal flanual, as it hasn't been successfully done in a way that doesn't kill flow unless its gone under my radar, but the area after it pretty much makes up for it, except for the smaller little dna strand thing afterwards, as it seemed a little forced.  I liked the whatever-ual that came after the smaller dna thing, we need to use those more often and find more configurations of bosh for them.  The last all red section was pretty damn fluid and I can't think of anything to critique on it besides one small quirky bit at ~1:16, where it just didn't deliver.


dna seems to be a recurring feature in this track, maybe more than just the ending is a preview

there isnt a single goddamn new or excessively fresh thing in here, are you people brainwashed?

That was interesting! It felt like stop'n'go, but much smoother. There were no sudden moves and the whole flow was very consistent.
I didn't really like the thing at 0:27 though. If it was more like a wave rather than a bunch of connected curves, it would look better in my opinion.
Also, I love the color replay

So this was probably the most inspiring track I've seen since Catgroove, which is what made me start playing again in the first place. The flow was really really nice, and there were some really clever green line parts, like the manual part that starts at :45. Thank you for making this, it really has inspired me.

Good job, really flowy and georgio-esque

When I thought Abandon was creative... this is really sweet.

I had no idea the game could be played this way
give me more

beautiful control, loved your blue manuals and misdirection.

Holy benis. This is the sickest integration I've ever seen.

Crazy cool new stuff, with that classic Opal vibe. Big ups for keeping the manual game fresh and in top form.

God damn, that was smooth as butter. I can never get enough of this style, it's gorgeous.

Also, I found the music really fitting

Smoothness award goes to Opal.

My favorite things about this track are moments. My least favorite thing about this track is how it fails to come together as a whole.

There are two types of moments I love. When suspension builds tension, and when something flows visually.
- 0:23 building tension with the pause/green line (I didn't know it was a green line until color replay)
- 0:28-0:31 This recycle flows beautifully
- 0:32 building tension by extending the suspension
- 0:41-0:45 This part flows beautifully. I especially like the rotation reversal and the stop & go when he gets to the bottom.
- 0:51 building tension via suspension. I love how he sort of eases back into movement again.
- 0:58-1:05 this integration flows beautifully, especially with the reusing of the area.
- 1:06 is awkward but the rotation in 1:07-1:09 is beautiful

However. The track doesn't really have any kind of structure, which means it just kind of goes and then ends. The blue-red thing is not nearly as cool as the original Abandon because it was basically just "let's make the track all red for the last 25% of it" - I feel like it doesn't make sense as a sequel at all. And the ending is easily the weakest part of the track. If you had been more intentional about the stops, tension/suspension, green line use, and/or and the super flowy integration this track could have actually made a statement, but as it is it's just a track that takes some cool concepts halfway. It's a really pretty track but it doesn't really stand out except in individual moments buried within the track.

I think you're afraid of making a statement. I look at how you structured this track, how you ended it, how you published it, and I feel like you're trying to distance yourself from your own art as much as possible, sending subtle signals all over that you don't really care about what you're doing here so we shouldn't either (so that you can completely avoid the risk of trying and failing). Unfortunately, all this does is become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

OTDE wrote:This track does a great job of subverting the idea of a flow killers. Instead [...] it just MILKS the moment

flow milker

I agree with everything OTDE said.

rabid squirrel wrote:However. The track doesn't really have any kind of structure, which means it just kind of goes and then ends. The blue-red thing is not nearly as cool as the original Abandon because it was basically just "let's make the track all red for the last 25% of it" - I feel like it doesn't make sense as a sequel at all. And the ending is easily the weakest part of the track. If you had been more intentional about the stops, tension/suspension, green line use, and/or and the super flowy integration this track could have actually made a statement, but as it is it's just a track that takes some cool concepts halfway. It's a really pretty track but it doesn't really stand out except in individual moments buried within the track.

I think you're afraid of making a statement. I look at how you structured this track, how you ended it, how you published it, and I feel like you're trying to distance yourself from your own art as much as possible, sending subtle signals all over that you don't really care about what you're doing here so we shouldn't either (so that you can completely avoid the risk of trying and failing). Unfortunately, all this does is become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I can see where you're coming from, and I will definitely take it into account, but the last paragraph is pretty much wrong, and I feel the main problem that you're dealing with is that we look at tracks in two very different ways. It's not the first time you've told me that my tracks lacked vision, and in many ways, I agree with you, but when it comes to statements, I've never been much for having a lot to say.