Geometry Dash
Hard as nails and honest with it: a pay-once platformer where the only way forward is practice.
One attempt lasts seconds, and “just one more” is the entire game. Natural stopping points exist all the same: a record beaten, one per cent further into the level. Agree the ending using the game's own goals: “Until you beat your record, or ten more attempts.” And know that the frustration you hear through the wall is part of the training.
The limits by age, and the moves that make them stick: Screen time for kids and teens, a complete guide.
The most important things to know
Geometry Dash is a rhythm game and a platformer in one: a little square jumps through levels in time with the music, and one mistake kills the run. The game is over ten years old and still everywhere in primary school, kept alive by millions of user-made levels and a level editor of its own.
This is the business model to cheer for: the full version costs about €5 in the App Store, once, and that's the whole bill. No shop, no currency, no countdown offers. The free versions (Lite, Meltdown and the rest) are a different product: the same game, paid for with ads.
The account comes with messages, friend requests and comments on user-made levels, and all of it can be reined in: the profile settings control who can make contact, and a dedicated parental control hides comments and shows only curated levels.
What's positive about Geometry Dash for your child?
Mastery in its purest form: hundreds of attempts per level is normal, and progress can neither be bought nor faked. Hearing a child finally clear a level after three days is hearing perseverance being trained, for real. And the step from playing to building levels of their own is a short one, with an editor kids actually use.
How can Geometry Dash affect your child negatively?
The frustration is real: the game is built on failing hundreds of times, and the noise through the wall can match. That's part of the training, but for some kids it tips over into pure anger, and then a break beats one more attempt.
The free versions carry ads, and the comment fields on user-made levels are a mixed bag if the parental control isn't on.
Settings you set together
- Pay for the full version. That one payment of about €5 is the entire business model, and the ads stay behind in the free versions.
- Profile settings (the cog on the profile page): messages and friend requests set to “friends” or “none”. RobTop's own overview walks through the settings.
- For the youngest: turn on the parental control setting, which hides comments and shows only curated levels.
Ask your child about the game
- Which level are you stuck on right now, and how far in do you get?
- How many attempts did your hardest level take? What kept you going?
- Do you build levels in the editor, or play other people's? Which one would you show me first?
- Which demon do you think is overrated, and which one deserves its name?
Glossary
- level
- One run from left to right, set to one piece of music, over in about a minute if you make it. About twenty come with the game, and players have made millions more.
- demon
- The hardest difficulty label, with its own ladder from Easy Demon to Extreme Demon. Clearing a first demon is a badge of honour.
- attempts
- The counter in the top corner showing how many times you have tried this level. Hundreds is normal, thousands happens, and the number is said with pride.
- practice mode
- The same level with checkpoints, so a death does not send you back to the start. The learning happens here; the record only counts in normal mode.
- user levels
- Levels built by other players in the editor, searchable inside the game. Millions exist, from gentle to impossible, and the parental control can limit the view to curated ones.
- stars
- Points awarded for clearing a level, more for harder ones. The star total is the measure of how good someone is, and it cannot be bought.
- icon
- The shape your child plays as, a cube, ship or ball in a chosen colour. Unlocked by playing, with no shop involved, which is rare in a game this popular.
- editor
- The built-in tool for making levels of your own, with the same blocks and effects the game uses. Many kids spend as long building as playing.
- “rage”
- Losing your temper at a level after attempt three hundred, out loud. Rage quitting is a known phenomenon in this game, and a break is the usual cure.
Sources
The whole mindset behind the guide, with the research and the open-door principle: Kids and social media, a parent's guide
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