SAVE AS
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SAVE AS is a 2.1 Medium Demon created by PAHC. The level is designed to represent the stages of Alzheimer's Disease, which is a type of dementia that commonly affects people who are 65 years old or over. It starts off normal but progressively gets glitchier and messier as the level goes on.
Gameplay
The level starts off with an easy ship sequence, for most of this section you can just rest and slide off the platforms, but it requires you to fly through some spikes. This is followed by an easy cube section, which requires you to jump on platforms and jump over double spikes. What's odd about the cube section, though, is that around halfway through this part it looks like you're done with the section before the rest of it flickers in suddenly.
Next up is a simple ball section, which requires easy timings to get through gravity portals. The level slows down and jitters, representing one of the beginning stages of Alzheimer's.
After this is a UFO segment where the colors start becoming more monochrome and dark. This section is pretty simple. The hardest thing about this section is hard-to-see fakes, with semi-hard timing to get through them, but other than that it is pretty straightforward. This ends with you avoiding a fake to get to the next section.
After the UFO section is a repeating robot section, representing the forgetfulness and repeating words from the Alzheimer's patient. This section repeats itself seven times. After this is a ship section, where seeing color is pretty much rare at this point. This section is relatively tricky since some of the hitboxes are changed.
Next is a wave section, which is pretty easy for the majority of the part. This part also repeats itself, this time only six times. It requires some easy spamming and dodging saws while the gameplay reverses itself into repeat. After this is a tricky ball section that repeats itself three times. The gameplay jitters throughout this part and requires timing to get through that can be difficult.
Next is a hard cube section, all color is gone at this point, and both the block design and gameplay jitter intensely, making it hard for the player to see and time their jumps. This is followed by a similar UFO section. Sometimes during this part, the player's cube flickers off and on the screen. This section also jitters, and with added saws that also jitter, they make it even tougher. After the UFO is another ship, but this time a lot of it is auto, and requires easy maneuvering to get to the said auto part.
After that is an auto transition, with structures and gameplay flashing, syncing with the music. This represents a brief break and memories being remembered, but this doesn't last long. This is quickly followed by an extremely dark section, with crooked and tangled block design. This part is also mainly auto. It switches to a wave, then a ship, and then a UFO. After this is a robot section, which changes back and forth to a cube. It also switches to a UFO a few times. This part isn't really hard, and requires easy jumps.
Next is a ship section, with decoration that resembles the part before it, but the decoration and gameplay flicker off-screen a few times. This is followed by a cube section, which is auto. The cube cannot move in a straight line anymore, as it is seen bouncing up and going backward. The screen fades to black as it transitions into the next part, it's also a cube, but this time it requires you to jump over double spikes. You're not required to jump sometimes as there are pink jump pads during some jumps.
That section is followed by a ship section, where the screen is mostly black and it's nearly impossible for the player to see what they're doing. Luckily, only a few timings are required during this part.
The last section is a robot section, which is so incomprehensible that the rest of the level is all auto with the exception of a final dash orb. It's nearly impossible for the player to see their robot during this part. The level ends with said dash orb as the screen fades to black, representing the death of the patient due to Alzheimer's complications. When the screen fades entirely to black, the level ends with a logo with the level's name on it, before fading to black once more.
Controversy
In July 2020, Mulpan, a Korean player who mostly uploads level walkthroughs, uploaded a video of SAVE AS to his channel. However, the walkthrough title of the video called "Ge?@o%me?tr!y d^"as$h". It was indicating that Mulpan was using clickbait with SAVE AS for views, without actually knowing the level's meaning. After this, he got loads of backlash, some people stating that he disrespected PAHC and the latter's level. In the end, Mulpan took the video down and made a statement about the situation.
Trivia
- This level is free to copy.
- This level contains 105,433 objects.
- This level is 5m 39s in length.
- Juniper, an American player, did a fundraising stream where she played SAVE AS while raising money to donate to an Alzheimer's disease foundation. In the end, she raised over 2,000 dollars.[1]
- This level was rated on August 18, 2020.
- The song for SAVE AS, The Noise Experiment by Triplebarrel, was actually made specifically for the level, as PAHC could not find the perfect song to represent the disease.
- PAHC's inspiration for SAVE AS was an album titled "Everywhere at the End of Time" by The Caretaker,[2] and the artist William Utermohlen's paintings.
- The level only contains two jump orbs, a green dash orb and a custom orb.
- Many players consider this as the scariest level in Geometry Dash because it represents something real.
- The old song of this level got removed for unknown reasons, later on August 2021, triplebarrel uploaded a new version song of this level.