I purposely stalled on this post because I wanted to post a lil recap on TooManyGames stuff.

Also the winner of the bball thingie was post #11, which is https://brandybuizel.newgrounds.com

I was hoping it wouldnt be Tom tbh....

Anyways, yeah pretty intense weekendish. In hindsight, i wish i took more days off work, even though i'm dangerously low, It's only my first year at my new jorb, so vacation days are only 10 days. I burned a bunch on my trip to Bosnia earlier this year and i wanted to save some for Toronto next month, also I'm going to Bolivia in Sept. But i wish i would have took off last Monday because I was so wrecked, also people went to the office that day but whatever.

It was an awesome weekend overall! I got to re-connect with old friends like @droid whom i love having at meets. We just get on so well, i'll see him soon in Toronto. But I also had a chance to connect with people I admire and hadnt met yet.

@bacun whom I've never met before but i love his style and all he do, I already met @srpelo but it was kinda different this time, because I used his characters in my bball game, and i dunno it was more special. Same with @jack I've seen that dude before, but again, using his beloved characters, it was so weird and cool.

Shoutout's to @ivanalmighty for doing the dogtags again. Stuff like that makes it all worthwhile.

Was also awesome to see the event @cortat-g did with the panel stuff. Tom drove me back and we were like how the heck did he manage to do that. That also goes with all the merch at the event! @pkettles killed it on that poster (image below). Shoutout to @mkmaffo for the stickers and being an absolute gem. I wasn't expecting to run into her but it was awesome, i can only hope that Philadelphia treated you well.

Same with Eric i dunno his ng name (if he has one) but he's one of the awesome fnf people putting that gargantuan erect mode project together. Had a little rockstar moment meeting @kawaisprite he's done music for me in the past, and he has such a positive attitude, who says musicians cant inspire graphic artists.

I could go on for days really, but i wont. I feel re-energized and ready to keep things rollin. On the final day of my day out, @the-swain threw together a karaoke joint, at my bar, which was kind of awesome. Got a chance to see Maxx James of Max in the mornin on the ng radio do his music thingie, amongst others. Didnt see Chris Piche clog a toilet, but maybe next year. I also got to see alot of NYC meet people from the last meet. It's always so unnerving going to a meet and not knowing if you'll meet familiar people, yup even for me. But that was comforting.

Also comforting was to finally meet @moawling who does a ton of awesome pixel work. I thought it was inspiring she's sharing her expertise and knowledge of the medium in a teaching level. One day...maybe. But i think it's a good mindset in general, to share your findings and continue to grow the medium.

I'm sure i left out a TON of people, wasn't intentional. Here's some imagery!

See u in Toronto (if ur going)

I submitted my 100th piece of art over the weekend apparently. I wish there was medals for stuff like that, like there is for yearly supporter thingie.

ANYWAYS, kind of busy year so far, we were able to wrap up that 4-month basketball project, you can play it here.

Sports games are kind of hard to come by on Newgrounds so we knew we were heading into uncharted territory, so we tried to make it super casual. Having just played it with a gamepad at my friends house, it do play better with the pad. I think Nick has some little fixes here and there he wants to roll out, so i'll probably continue to contribute to it for a little bit longer. I'm pleased about using the Portal Defenders platform to do all sorts of different genre of games that don't necessarily relate to the previous one. I'm not sure what the next one will be, but it's probably something different.

I'm working on some smaller pixel art here and there. As far as NG events go, I think I should be able to go to one of the Too Many Games days next month. I'll be in Toronto the month after that for another annual Canada meet up with those crazy people up there. After that, I think it should quiet down some. I have a personal trip in September, haven't been to South America in like 20 years, I should probably go...

Here's a wip of something I started yesterday. I think i should be done in two weeks.

Ive finally gotten back to my hobby of traveling to every country in Europe. I flew out to Bosnia on Thursday not really knowing much about it. Pretty good so far. The dollar is strong here and everyone has been pretty friendly. I think the bars a bit smokey but otherwise good. Glad i left my heels at home the inclines are tuff. My friend @sqeezy joined me on this one. Hes tagged along in past hits like London, Paris, Turkey and Tokyo.

Did you know Bosnia has a Bruce Lee statue the way Philadelphia has the Rocky statue?

im flying out to Switzerland after this. And then ill go back work on the game im supposed to be working on. I figure ill be back in Europe in November for my 30th country in Europe. Not sure where yet. Maybe Macedonia.

I saw alot of people doing end of year posts naturally.

I felt inspired to post some shit cause i rarely use my home PC as much anymore!

Pretty good year overall, some scrapes and bruises (some tough ones) but what don't kill you make you stronger!

Productive year, I was able to be part of a bunch of stuff, from the flash forward, to the summer jam, and some meetups in between. I think next year will probably be not as productive, only cause I plan to get back on the road and also my jorb is less creative than it was. I don't even have photoshop anymore!

I do have alot of unfinished business creatively outside of work. I started working on the axe game again that I've been working on most of the year off and on. My wrist feels great again and I have my mojo back. It helped that BomToons was like ok bud get back on the horse (for a different game). But sometimes you just need someone to remind you to get back out there.

The shout out list is long but bear with me:

• @droid kept me level most of the year. I finally got a chance to meet him in Toronto, but it was refreshing to keep him in my everyday. We work together sometimes
• @teravex very talented music man. I think anytime i had and i always have these weird ideas i come up with and i'm like i need this and he do it.
• @voicesbycorey kinda blew up this year, but another one of those people i would just casually come up to and be like hey wanna do this. and always YEA
• @chipollo i dunno, he doesnt inspire shit but i just love sharing my adventures artistically and not and he has some sort of feedback for it
• @stradomyre luv this dude. His art and just his energy. He also love the party scene
• @snackers another one of those people i casually talk to and keeps me going. Love that he finished that Lunar shit.(it wasnt shit, you should watch it)
• @migmoog I'd be remiss if i didnt say something about him and @dry (combo shout). They just simply make stuff. And thats awesome. I think sometimes whether you're big or not, you get into this mindset of having to make polished shit and sometimes the best shit is the honest quickie. I feel like Fnf wouldnt be as big as it has gotten if it didnt start out as a honest quickie, idk.
• I aint gonna mention him cause he's fuckin dead but Oliver died this year which is a bummer of course, but I actually became closer to his family as a result. They had no idea he had so many friends from all over the world. It strengthens my drive to continue to connect with people from all over, cause you matter to someone out there.

There's a ton more, and if i didnt mention u its not that i dont care but the ice in my drink is so melted and its kinda pissing me off.

I purposely havent done shit in the last few months to recover from it all. But i'll see u in 202333

Here's a foto from this year or this post is boring.

Hola,

ive been a bit busy as of late so i havent had a ton of time to do an update. I felt i spired by Toms recent fp post to type something up before i goto work.

Ive been kind of swamped with work to end the year. Kind of been getting ready to launch a redesign website for my current job. I jumped in and redid everything in last two and half or so months. Hopefully next month ill be pushing it into the production enviro. The last time it was worked on was 2017(?) and its kind of crazy to me that the city has these properties that are supposed to provide services to people that actually pay for them (tax payers) but they just kind of live broken and forgotten for years.

in my non professional life, that means i havent had much chance to do art to end the year. After launching that Halloween cartoon in early october i have just been busy. I actually dont even use adobe creative suite at my new job so thats been a shift and im too tired when i get home. Im hoping to reel in some discipline and balance for 2023 and make some time again. I still have a bunch of stuff in progress. Im pretty happy overall with my art production in 2022 so i wont beat myself up for being quiet to end the year. If anything ive used the last two months to let my wrist get back to top form.

you see drawing with a mouse is kind of bad for you! Ive been pretty good over the years to notice my wrist starting to hurt and take it easy (maybe goto the bar instead). I do feel good about not doing art professionally because of this. Im able to shut it down if im not feeling great.

ive been motivated by that recent Sydney meet. I talk to Chip pretty regularly now and its been cool to see that the ng meets still capture the essence of community that this site offers. Gonna see if i can do a long haul meet in 2023.

heres a foto from this past weekend. Bob (old ng staff) has like a massive holiday party and this was the first time in 3 years it came back in its regal way so got a chance to catch up with Tom, Timmy (pictured) as well as my old roomates Swain, trucker justin and Krinkels.

have a good holiday!

I felt like I was due for a new post but a positive one!

It was a rather intense weekend last week. I went up to NY for the newgrounds nyc meet on sunday. It was pleasant to meet new people and even more pleasant when I dont need to run it. I hung out for a relatively short time, it was like the hottest day ever and the Chelsea market we went to after was slammed with people, which is probably where i got the covid…luckly i think most of the group didnt get it. Just a few of us. Oh well.

anyways i rushed back from new york with like 10 mins to spare to jump in on a newgrounds summer session panel that Mike and Psychogolfish put together. Really entertaining topic talking through the ups and downs of flash game development. Kudos to mike for having a little PowerPoint to keep it pro.

anyways im taking a break from meets for a bit. I think it still might be a bit of a risky endeavor. Im fine now, i mosty spent the first part of the week with Joe Biden sharing covid stories. Im actually annoyed because ive managed to not catch it for almost 3 years. On the upside, my house is spotless, got some work done on some side projects and even caught up and finally played the newish cuphead. That studio always does such high quality work, its a visual feast. I still prefer the original and the game has limited shelf life but its still fun now and then.

Today is the anniversary of the famous Luis Day song!

Well now that that title is out of the way! Lets sink into a deeper ocean...

Err...

So its been a lil rough lately. As we all know Oliver lost his battle with cancer. Totally happens sometimes. Maybe. Well it did this time. Anyways, i had a long ass relationship with oliver as a friend. Absolutely nothing in common but this website, but for whatever reason we always kept in touch, even at the prime of my popularity or whatever you want to call it.

I have dealt with cancer in my peripheral for many years, my mom survived breast cancer and maybe you fall into this false sense of security that its just an annoyance. Well it's not... i had no reason to think it would go to shit, but yea it kinda did.

Oliver never got better, and yea he died a day before his bday. It's been a month and change since he left, and it's been hit or miss to be honest. I debated whether it's even worth being a buzz kill about it. But it still makes me angry to see the beer he left in my fridge whenever i open it.

But then i remembered that i made a post about artistic burn out and its a real thing and we have to work through it as human beings, and even showing vulnerability is an important aspect of healing, SO, yeah its been a lil rough. He visited me on his 'farewell tour', and i'm a private person for sure, but i'm also a human being; so of course i'd be remiss to just carry on. I'm sometimes mad that he decided to come over before he died because i still have his beer in my fridge and i still sit smoking cigarettes where he sat across from me, but i know it's insanely selfish for me to expect him to be in as much pain as he was but go out of his way to do an insane trip from england to america to include me on his farewell tour just so i can not be upset about the situation.

I think that it's been a humbling experience for sure, and i appreciate all the support i continue to get from the community and also his family which had no clue of the giant footprint he left behind.

I'm making some pretty cool stuff, and ill continue to be private about some shit, but i think the Toronto meet was a great opportunity to continue being me. I have to remind myself that it would make him deeply sad if i stopped doing what i do.

With that out of the way, lets make some cool shit.

TLDR: I am me because i'm a smushed up version of all the people i get to know. I am nothing without YOU.

L

I couldn't think of a title for this news post and it's almost july anyways so pretend you can travel into the future for a moment. Some updates below:

Toronto Meet

Been about 3 years or so? since I attended a newgrounds function. I think Pico Day 2019 was the last time I ran into newgrounds folks en masse. So it'll be good to get that back on track. It's probably been like 6 years since I've been back in Toronto. Too early to tell but I'm thinking i'll probably have an event of some sort in Chicago and New York sometime this autumn.

Speaking of Pico Day, Psychogoldfish had a Pico Day party meet thingie earlier this month, I couldn't attend but it looked fun, and Goldfish does good bbq from the last time i was in Denver (also for a meet many years ago).

Work in Progress stuff

I have a few things going on right now. The bigger one is we are making an expansion pack for PD: Tower Defense we're introducing a new map with new characters, upgrades and things to do. It takes place inside the portal itself, so that should be a fun quirk. More on that in the future.

Lastly, before i went out of town i asked twitter people to give me their original characters so that i could try out mortal kombat fatalities on them. Had fun making the first one in what i hope to be a series of them until i'm sick of doing them. Here's the one from last week. I probably won't submit them to the art portal since i do them in one go and most of my art portal stuff is heavy duty pixel stuff. But I might change my mind i dunno.

thats it, ciao!

It's almost Pico day btw. I haven't decided if I'm making somethin. Maybe i'll just chill out and watch all the content.

Anyways, i DID make something over the weekend. It's currently in the art portal. I had started it awhile ago then i got bored of it. And then Monday, i was going to clean my apartment but i decided i'd just finish that gif in one sit. And 5 hours later i was done and my apartment was still dirty. I cleaned it yesterday though.

If you wanted to look at the sourcefile for the boyfriend taking a spill you can do so below, it's pretty straight forward. Mostly on two's. I use Macromedia Flash 2004 and my mouse from also that year.

SOURCE FILE

Also after many many years, I'll be at Ninjamuffin's Toronto meet later this month.

More info about that on his blog thingie

I meant to type this up last week but I'm always busy so.

We recently launched Portal Defenders: Tower Defense ! As with any game, a simple idea snowballs into a giant lift and this game was no different. I am pleased how we were able to accomplish to the scope we set out to. This game was like 25% done for the longest time and then like Marchish I started to really pump out the art and Nick continued to plug it in, meanwhile Ash was building the soundtrack. We got really fortunate near the end for Jeff and Monica (and Teravex for the title plug) to squeeze us in so last minute with their voice work. I think it was the finishing touch of polish the game needed.

Umm so i hate tower defense games! They stress me out and when Nick originally proposed the idea, I didnt wanna do it and didnt do it for ages. I think Nick really believed in the idea so he went out of his way to make a more fleshed out demo than we are used to and then I was like fine i'll try it but i dont gotta like it. I think once we hit that rush in March i started to really get into the maps and concepts and push it forward.

I wish I could say I'm taking a break but I aint. I have some stuff for Pico day i'm working on, i have some much neglected freelance stuff I'm catching up on, mostly of the animation variety. Taking a break from making games until Autumn i think.