Birth of the Sun (DXL44)
A megacollab of 9 creators. Witness the beginning of the Navigator Stars. Infinite legacies. One destiny.
Birth of the Sun is an Expert difficulty megacollab hosted by DXL44 and featuring the creators noodlekin, -Galactica-, Luminescence, Dukemz, chettodust, Ace360, ColdAurora, and SBtorms. The level acts as the beginning to Project Elevatia, showing a vision Nova is given from someone beyond of what the Navigator Stars will become. It is a boss-rush of several Navigator Star characters, many of which reside over the worlds of their creator's storylines.
Birth of the Sun was first teased in a short video by DXL44, showing a logo for the collab and number of creators.[1] A full trailer was shown 8 months later in the January 2023 Workshop Direct, which revealed the list of creators and included footage.[2] The level released about two months later in March 2023, after over a year total of work. [3]
Layout
Opening (DXL44)
Nova receives a vision from a mysterious voice. As the voice admits to being a prophet, the symbol of the Elevatian Order appears in the background before zooming in and fading to white.
The gameplay then begins, with large lasers appearing alongside smaller circle pulses that fire bullets in a circular pattern. This is joined by walls on the left and right, which shoot out horizontal lasers as they close in.
Checkpoint 1 (DXL44)
Sunrise appears in the center of the screen, floating while shooting out lasers and bullet explosions. They are shortly afterwards replaced by Ray, who forms a laser spinner from the triangles on his body while shooting out a more condensed bullet pattern. Throughout this section, small triangle pulses appear as well.
In a white flash, the level then transitions to take place inside of a hexagonal arena resembling the Project Elevatia logo. Both large and small squarebullets move across it from its edges, alongside rectangles that stretch inwards from the size and hold still for a second before retracting.
Checkpoint 2 (Luminescence)
Square bullets move across the screen horizontally, alongside a vertical square pattern and pulses. Walls then close in from the top and bottom, with bullets moving inwards from them and large pulses appearing.
Checkpoint 3 (Ace360, chettodust)
Clare appears and moves around the screen, slamming into the sides and attacking with bullets. Additionally, she uses large lasers and sweeps across with rotating triangles. For her final attack, she fires rotating lasers that create a large circular wall.
Afterwards, Antares takes her place in the center of the screen and sweeps across with a large laser. He summons two anchors, which slowly slam down to impact the bottom of the screen. This is followed by a spray of bullets and an array of small, red beams. Antares then attacks with a set of cannons and lasers before disappearing.
Checkpoint 4 (-Galactica-)
This section features Centari, who attacks with a hexagon-shaped arena surrounding him. He attaches to it and spins it around, moving it upwards and downwards as it sends attacks inwards. Bullets also come from the center in this part. The section ends with Centari pulling in part of the arena to use as a shield, before disappearing.
Checkpoint 5 (-SBtorms-)
Erdani appears, and rapidly dashes around the screen - which creates bullet explosions from the edges. She then attacks with a spray of bullets followed by a rotating laser, followed by sending across comets that leave a trail of bullets. She disappears as walls slam downward, forcing the player into the center of the screen.
Checkpoint 6 (chettodust)
A red eight-point star resembling Nova's body appears in the center of the screen, as lasers appear. The shape soon turns into Creator, who moves into the background. Rectangle attacks then appear alongside sprays of bullets that come from random parts onscreen. Alongside this, walls made up of different shapes close in from the left and right. Creator talks to Nova, explaining how they will watch over infinite worlds. The checkpoint ends with a zoom in to transition to the next part.
Checkpoint 7 (-SBtorms-)
Walls appear on the left and right, as the screen begins scrolling upwards. Star-shaped bullets rain down from the top, as a glowing white wall covers the bottom. Gradually, the speed of the scrolling increases - until by the end, it requires repeated dashes to keep up. Large lasers also appear periodically during this part, which are vertical.
Checkpoint 8 (Ace360)
A large circular wall covers the outside of the screen. A set of rotating lasers attacks, with a circle in the middle releasing bullet attacks. As the lasers disappear, two more circles take their place and rotate around the circle in the center. Eventually, another set of circles joins even further out from the center - with the rotation of all the circles covering the entirety of the arena. The circles all join together in the center of the screen, with all attacks disappearing in a flash. The rest of the checkpoint has some isolated laser attacks, forming a sort of brief low-intensity break.
Checkpoint 9 (Dukemz, ColdAurora)
A triangle appears and moves to the center of the screen, forming a circle. The circle begins attacking with bullet explosions, with a set of triangles closing in on it - despite being fully opaque, they deal no damage. The shapes combine to form Prominia. She slams the bottom of the screen to create a shockwave and fires lasers upwards, before reappearing at the top to send large bullets and a laser downwards. After firing arrows from giant bows that appear on the left and right of the screen, she attacks with bullets and lasers from the center before disappearing.
Tala then moves onscreen from the top, with a planet becoming visible in the background. She attacks by drawing rectangles that she then pushes outwards, alongside using lasers and bullets. Before the next checkpoint, she disappears as several small pulses appear until the next part.
Checkpoint 10 (Luminescence, noodlekin)
The first half of this checkpoint features Dyson, who appears following a set of spinning shapes that shoots out lasers. He moves to the top of the screen and fires lasers below, before repeating the same at the bottom from inside a protective shell. After moving to the center, he appears distressed as an unknown voice appears to speak to him - releasing bullets as he hovers in place. The part ends with a black and white eye appearing in the background behind Dyson before he disappears.
Sirius then appears, attacking with lasers as a set of pulses appears around him. He moves upwards as a circular arena with a starry background closes in. Star-shaped bullets dash across the screen, followed by Sirius attacking with a sweeping laser that leaves behind bullets that move upwards. A set of yellow triangular crystals draw in from the edges of the screen to the center, with Sirius pulling together red shapes on top of it - creating the Heart from the Heartstrings storyline.
Checkpoint 11 (DXL44)
The rest of the level has no gameplay. Nova is crowned, and their third eye opens as they are told to protect and navigate. The level fades to black as a logo appears, transitioning into the credits afterwards.
Video
Gallery
The thumbnail for the YouTube video of the level, depicting all 11 of the stars.
Creator speaks to Nova.
Ray appearing in the same part.
Luminescence's non-boss part.
Ace360's part, featuring Clare.
Antares in chettodust's boss part.
Centari in Galactica's part.
Erdani's section by SBtorms.
chettodust's non-boss part, where the focus shifts towards Creator.
SBtorms' autoscrolling part.
Ace360's non-boss section.
Dukemz's part, featuring Prominia.
ColdAurora's star Tala, in Luminescence's second part.
Dyson in Luminescence's final part.
The legacy.
Credits of the level.
Trivia
- Some attacks in the middle checkpoint with Creator resemble those in the level Impact of TY-77. Additionally, the colors in this segment resemble those used in the parts of Electrify without Cryo or Watt present.
- The background of said checkpoint also references the universes of Another World and Nova's home world respectively by having icons representing said worlds appear inside a double-outlined diamond - which resemble both the logo for The Synthwave Trials and Creator themselves.
- The showcase video on DXL44's YouTube channel ends with a "bonus birth of the sun part" collecting some jokes shared between collab members during its creation. It is directly inspired by a similar segment at the end of the official showcase of PA Memories (3). [4]
- Birth of the Sun was uploaded after one of its creators, noodlekin, left Project Arrhythmia level creating. It is her final work to be uploaded to the Steam Workshop.