Hey! With 2022 coming to a close, I figured it might be a good time to do a retrospective on my year on Newgrounds, think back on what went well, and where I want to take things next.

2022 Project Summary

NG Rumble Character Reveal Art

Late last year, Bill hosted an art contest where participants would create a piece based on a Newgrounds character being introduced to NG Rumble! The character I chose was Jouste's Maw-smerizer, and the backdrop was inspired by KeepWalking's titans.

Pixel Day

I've made an entry for every Pixel Day since it began, and this year was no different! This time around, I dabbled with animation and environmental storytelling.

Pico Day

Way back in 2012, I made a submission for each of the three major series-driven holidays on Newgrounds: Pico's Mission for Pico Day, A King's True Journey for Clock Day, and Madness Alteration for Madness Day. For their 10th anniversaries, I wanted to make some Newgrounds site add-ons that referenced them, as well as promo art for each add-on! It was a great chance to make some art and code that celebrated my love for those characters and series.

For Pico Day, I made an add-on to replace Steve in the voting bar with the cast of Pico, just like in the previous site designs! The old designs looked a little something like this, for those unfamiliar.

Clock Day

Much like during Pico Day, I made some promo art and an add-on for the voting bar that... mostly functions! Some CSS lessons were learned the hard way, but it was still good fun.

Madness Day

Seriously underestimated the amount of time this one would take to complete (a few months of on-and-off work!), but I'm happy with the result! Like with the other two Newgrounds holidays, I made some promo art and an add-on: this one was for the tombstone users see when they visit a blammed submission.

Mobile Game Jam - Roxy's Windows

Definitely the project that was the most exciting part of this year for me! I worked with @Bleak-Creep , @GetterRocka , @Madfatter, and @Taxmann to create a mobile game in 2 weeks for Stepford's Mobile Game Jam. Players get to explore Roxy's desktop, learning about her interests, issues, and relationships with her friends. We've continuously updated the game since launch, adding QoL fixes, new content, medals, bug fixes, and a few other treats!

Maestro Nav update

Maestro Nav was a Flash game I made for the first Flash Forward Jam way back in early 2021, and I always intended to make an update for it, but real life and other projects took priority. I found some time recently to finally get around to it, though! This included releasing the source code, adding some visual flourishes, a new medal, a new level, and some miscellaneous bug fixes.

Faces of 2022 Collab

I was lucky enough to get a chance to make some art for the Faces of 2022 Collab! Say hello to VonGrimworth's awesome little guy, Goloth!

Year In Review

Looking back, I'm proud of the projects I worked on. I just wish each of them could've launched in the state I intended - more often than not, I had to launch one of these submissions to hit a deadline, and then went back and added content after the fact. This post-launch focus also led to a smaller number of submissions, but with more content packed into each one.

Seeing it all laid out, I'm also realizing just how much I focused on fan art this year. A pretty significant part of the reason I chose to make anniversary pieces for the 2012 submissions was because I wanted to "go out with a bang" before shifting my focus towards more original works. I hit that goal - I just didn't think it would take most of the year, but it's all good now!

The only truly sore spot, I'd say, was a game for the 2022 Flash Forward Jam that I had to cancel after spending the better part of the first half of the year chipping away at. Long story short, it was going to be a strategy game where the user manipulated voronoi patterns (like so) to create pathways for units to traverse. I ended up running into insurmountable technical issues and had to drop it; I'm considering picking the core ideas up again some day, but definitely in a more modern engine.

2023!

For the year ahead, the theme I want to work with is "more content, more consistency". I'm aiming to get out a larger number of smaller-scale projects, focused on new ideas. Plus, I want to connect with the community more frequently - I think I was better about that this year than in years past, but I can do better.

I do have a tiny bit of wrapping up from this year, though - Roxy's Windows is going to get another tiny update or two, with the biggest part being the release of the source code. I'm almost done with a deep clean to get it into an acceptable state for release (with the disclaimer that I'm not a coding pro by any stretch - I ran into plenty of problems that required insanely-specific solutions when working on Roxy, though, so I figured I'd share what worked for me!).

After that, I'm gearing up for Pixel Day, the Flash Forward Jam, and then... the future's wide open!

Hey, Newgrounds! The past few weeks, I had a chance to work with @Bleak-Creep , @GetterRocka , @Madfatter, and @Taxmann to make Roxy's Windows, our game for Stepford's mobile jam! In this story-driven experience, you explore lots of files on Roxy's computer to learn all about her - what makes her laugh, recent events that have stressed her out, the ways her friends try to help her out, and more. Make sure to poke through every nook and cranny... You'll be rewarded for it!

But wait, there's more! We've been talking about ideas for a patch once the contest judging phase is over, including bug fixes, code optimization, Newgrounds medals, some new content, new UI solutions, and more.

Getting the game working for mobile in Unity was a major challenge, but it was really fulfilling to be able to learn so much so quickly. Hope you enjoy!

Hey, Newgrounds! I've just released Russian Roulette with a Black Widow, my brand-new black comedy novel! It's free to add to your Kindle library until 10/12, at which point it'll bounce up to $4.99. If you add before then, though, it'll be yours to read on mobile, tablet, PC, or Kindle anytime! Click here to add!

Description

“Life is equal parts sleepwalking through traffic and conversating with counterweights.” That’s what one of Nate’s interviewees told him once, anyway. Working for a satirical newspaper in Hanover, New Hampshire, he’s found that it’s usually in his best interest to jot down whatever will grab a customer’s attention. Outside of hoping to one day fulfill the distant dream of making the jump from contractor to employee, he navigates the uncertainties and tensions of a quarter-life crisis in the early 2010s, aided in part by psychology student Claire and junkie-turned-cynic Victor. When Claire gives Nate a journal as a birthday gift, he sees it as an opportunity to commit his problems to paper. It works well enough, but he finds its true value when it helps him process falling head over heels after a chance meeting with Savannah, a homeless artist. Now, he writes his story in the journal to suspend his hopes on a dark sense of humor, a taste for the vivid and the surreal, and a willingness to wade through overlapping crises, just as the world around him is inclined to do in turn.

Artwork

Cover

(High-quality upload here, along with making of: https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/intrapath/russian-roulette-with-a-black-widow-cover-assorted-articles )

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Other Thoughts

It's surreal to see this finally out. I've been building these characters and stories up for years, and finally fully committed to putting them to e-paper around the time Covid started. Writing this has been my way of working through some of the things that have bothered me for years, and it's a little scary to open that up so publicly. I just hope that folks who read this enjoy learning about these characters as much as I've enjoyed writing them. That, or they at least get a good laugh out of this whole thing. Or cry. It's a black comedy. I'll take either.

Ten years ago, the track pad on my family's new laptop was starting to show a discernible white spot in the center, surrounded by hairline scratches, worn from constant use, day in, day out. We just had internet installed in the house, and I had been busy playing catch-up: Myspace, Homestar Runner, and a new one called "YouTube" (which I misheard as "YouToo", when I'd first heard another kid talking about it at recess, then "BlueTube", which could've ended disastrously for my naive self). Two of my other favorites were DeviantArt and Andkon. The first helped me start poking at a desire to be a part of something online, and the latter, the beauty of Flash games that could be run through in an hour. Somewhere in that time frame, I found Newgrounds.

I know it was a game that drew me to the site, but I don't remember which - it may have been Agnry Faic 2, or Newgrounds Rumble. Whatever it was, I clicked that "Sign Up!" button, saw it through to Mindchamber's artwork of Pico pressing his hand to the login panel, and was quick to lose focus of all those other sites for this one. They were fine, but there was something very different about this place - and I use the word "place" very deliberately. It was a term that came to mind when the 2012 redesign happened, where I likened the site's transition to that of moving from a homely suburb to the flashy, graffiti-laden, bustling city, but that's jumping ahead a few years. In the beginning, I got hooked on the RPG-like system of voting experience, blam points, whistle status, and more (who doesn't enjoy watching meters fill up?). I was always so excited to come home from school to get another medal to pin on my page, or see what the new game of the week was, or see what my favorite content creators were up to, whether they were animators, programmers, or musicians. The best part of it all? They were all just a bunch of regular guys, working on some of my favorite Flash games one minute, and spouting off cock jokes (90% of which were little more than "cock joke!") the next.

Seeing all that I did, I knew that I wanted to be a part of it, and make Newgrounds my online home. The site drove me to take influences from everything around me, and put them into my own art. My first few games and animations were love letters to the Newgrounds creations that drove me in the first place. I wrote my first album, Orchestra of the Zodiac, a hodgepodge of genres pulled right from the Audio Portal's listings. My first book, LOCKED, took inspiration straight from all of my favorite sci-fi stories at the time. Looking back at all of them, I could cringe at all of the technical flaws, but the humor and memories I associate with them still make me smile.

A lot happened in the intervening years. Life, mostly. I'd always kept in touch with Newgrounds, but haven't done much more than scratch the surface. I've been wanting for so long to really come back in earnest, and with a sharpened focus, I'd need a more distinct, definite identity (it doesn't help that LDAF already stands for "Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry", "Lower Delaware Autism Foundation", and "Libyan Defense Air Force").

Enter Intrapath. It was originally an idea I had for the name of a band in my teens, combining the prefix "intra" (within) with the suffix "path" (one who does). The summarizing philosophy would be, "unique juxtapositions for a greater whole." More often than not, that'll come from the realm of surrealism, bringing together things that exist in two different worlds, only to take on a greater meaning when brought together than when separate. The ethic of this aesthetic that I love the most comes from the different interpretations that people bring with them to the piece - I've had some really interesting conversations in that regard with some of my past works with a symbolic lean, and I want to carry that forward.

What gave Newgrounds that permanent spot in my heart is how I've been exposed to all these mediums, being inspired by the artists here to make my own content - animations, games, music, illustrations, and literature. This new brand identity brings all of that under a more consistent umbrella. My old content isn't going away, even if it's not representative of this new path - I can't roll my eyes enough at artists that delete their older work, just because it's not up to par with where they are now (at least on a technical level). How are other artists supposed to be inspired by your progress if the first thing they see when they sort by date is your biggest and best? Failures, embarrassing as they can be, make for such a great learning experience for both the artist and viewer.

All of those art forms I've talked about are vehicles for their story, an ethereal thing not tied to any particular medium. I want to dig into how to take advantage of each - the movement and sound of animation, the interactivity of games, the auditory ways of music, the snapshot-nature of illustration, and the figurative language of words. With that mountain said, I couldn't be more excited about this new slate, and sharing with Newgrounds what I build on it.

Hey guys! Just a bit of a IRL update - I'm trying to move to the Seattle area! I've been here a few weeks, and I'm  looking for jobs to get me settled, and wanted to ask anyone that sees this if they know any places in the area in search of a 2D/3D animator/illustrator. I've been using Indeed, Worksource, etc., along with scouting out Help Wanted signs on the street, but also wanted to see if anyone knew a place I hadn't seen yet. Thanks to anyone who can help!

Black and Blue Friday update:

I just released the holiday update for Black and Blue Friday! Included are a more difficult game mode, the ability to pause by pressing P, and after you've collected all upgrades, your money now serves as a multiplier for your score, giving your cash some value after you've bought everything you can. It can be played here:

https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/702649

2017:

This year was a transitional period for me. I wanted to wrap up the big projects I had on my plate (Black and Blue Friday, Heart Sick) from years past, and clean the slate to make room for works with a higher-quality, more consistant style moving forward. I also spent a lot of time just cleaning junk out, both physical and digital, for the sake of being able to spend more time focusing on learning and really studying my influences.

2018:

I probably won't be posting much outside of assignments that I'm fond of. I may do an update to The Education Collection for smaller animations or works that don't warrant a full Portal submission, but nothing's set in stone. I'm graduating in May, and want to focus on my professional portfolio, and polishing up my skills, particularly in drawing, 3D animation, and coding. I still want to establish a consistant identity for myself on here as well, but I won't let it take precedence over my career. Still, fingers crossed! 

Hey, folks! I'm trying to get a little brawler/runner out the door today, titled "Black and Blue Friday"! I have a few things that need to be fixed before I launch this bad boy, but would love some help alpha-testing first. The version of the game below has NUMEROUS issues that I'm aware, mostly in the way of temp graphics and sounds (in fact, it might be best to play the game on mute, considering there may be some nasty sound glitches). Still, there may be some game glitches I'm not aware of! I'd be really grateful to anyone who can click the link below and give it a run, let me know off the bat if there are any game glitches I may not know of. Hopefully, this post will be updated later with launch details! Thanks!

https://www.newgrounds.com/projects/games/885260/preview

11/26 update - Game's coming out tomorrow now! What better day is there to release a web game based on Black Friday than on Cyber Monday, right?

CYBER MONDAY UPDATE - https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/702649

It's out!

My first picture book, "Heart Sick", is out for free on Amazon Kindle! Just in time for Halloween, the story follows a vampire  whose heart has started beating again. He realizes that this brand-new mortality means that he can no longer put off what he's been waiting centuries to do. Free until November 3! Click here to visit the page and add to your account!

It's been forever since I've posted a news update on here, and it feels sort of bizarre to see what I've accomplished from the last to-do list, what's been dropped, what's still in progress, what's shifted dates... here's a look at what I've got in mind! 

2017:

- Heart Sick: There's an urban myth that your heart stops beating for a split-second after you sneeze...what would this mean for a vampire whose heart hasn't beat for hundreds of years? This is a short children's book that I completed for a course in mid-2015, but have wanted to find the time to touch it up ever since. That time is now, and I aim to release it on Amazon's Kindle service for free this October, and I'll be uploading it here to NG as well. 

- Black and Blue Friday: Still been chipping away at this game revolving around the only legal bloodsport in America. I've learned a ton about coding and Unity over the past few months, and FishtailGames and I are in a good place to be able to release this once Black Friday 2017 rolls around. It'll be released as an infinite runner with Newgrounds high scores (and potentially medals!) enabled, and if the reception is strong enough, I'll try to get out an update including a brief story mode sometime around Christmas! 

2018:

- LDAF identity: Want to save this for 2018 because I'm aiming to establish a more consistant style, both visually and thematically. I'm using some of the surreal, symbolic pieces I've worked on this year as a starting point, and spending some time strengthening my core skills, creating my own PS brushes, creating a color palette, getting a stronger understanding of my own influences, updating old icons and my logo, the works. I got some really thorough critiques from folks about those pieces, and want to learn the necessary lessons before moving ahead. Heart Sick and Black and Blue Friday don't fit in with this surreal style, so I'm getting them out the door before comitting myself to spending some time working on things consistantly, rather than having a gallery that looks like it's having an identity crisis.

 - Unrest: A surreal narrative about discomfort with the seemingly-endless violence that's so easy to see going on in the world today. Still aiming for a 2018 release on this, but with some priorities at school changing, might not make it. I'll see what I can do!

New year, new batch of projects. As with my last few posts, this is mostly a list to keep myself focused on what I want to finish this year for Newgrounds. 

Leftover from 2015:

•  Black and Blue Friday: FishtailGames and I weren't able to finish this in time last year, but we've been chipping away at it and making good progress! In summary, it's a game about making your way and progressing through the only legal bloodsport in America: Black Friday!
• Red Cap Studios: The guy that I'm working on this with is in the middle of getting a script together for a video that's a series of very quick (think 10 seconds or so) animated skits (think ASDF Movie). It'd have a mostly static, quickly-snapping style of animation so we can get it done quickly. After that, there might not be much more content that I'm very involved with, but who knows. 

For 2016:

• New LDAF design identity: Remaking logo, icon, etc. here to make a more appealing aesthetic that fits with what how I want to be seen as an artist. 
• Education: Being an animation student, I have a lot of assignments that typically end up being 20-30 second animations. These are too short to post on NG by themselves, but by the end of this semester, I'll have enough work that I'll be confident enough to compile them into a single submission. Hopefully I'll release it around May or June.
• Social Justice animation: No, no, not the Tumblr brand of social justice...my school started an animation festival last November loosely based around social justice, and each year may have a more concrete theme (i.e. compassion). I don't have a script or anything yet, but I'd love to think about how commonplace and desentizing violence is today. It seems that an innocent kid in the ghetto is going to be shot tomorrow, and the day after that, a marketplace in the Middle East will be blown sky-high, and the day after that, someone will shoot up their school, and the day after that...I want to do something a little more surreal and symbolic so I can handle these topics with the sensitive touch they deserve, but at the same time, make it clear what the movie is actually about. 
• Writing?: I want to make significant progress on my next book, a black comedy/drama titled Russian Roulette with a Black Widow. Additionally, I've been thinking a bit lately about how inactive I've become with the Writer's Guild, and that I'll admit to not really having a clue what's been going on with that. I'll make a better effort to at least see what's being going on in the writing forum. 
• Practice: In general, I want to refine my work. I want to get to a more professional-looking point so I can get back to some projects I was working on as far back as 2010, but just didn't have the skill (or, admitedly, the patience) to handle the way I needed to. 

So, let's see how much of that I can get accomplished!