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.

Hullo,

Happy post-pixel day. There's so much stuff out there!

The NEWGROUNDS WINTERFEST is this weekend, I'll be hosting a roundtable with Psychogoldfish and LeviRamirez & friends

We're going to be discussing Flash and game development, both during the 'golden age' of Flash and also what kids nowadays are doing in a post-Flash era in regards to making games for this website. We have a few other guests also who will stop in and share their insights into the game dev scene today and in yesteryear!

Be sure to tune-in at 7:15pm EST on Friday Jan 28 details on how to go about joining are in Stanpai's panel schedule

I locked myself in my room all of yesterday and finished my animation for Boxing Day!

Probably my last piece of this year. Overall, pretty productive year!

I wasnt expecting to make an animation as one of my accomplishments. I rarely ever have time, and so small loops and gifs work in perfectly to my work / life / socialite balance.

Enjoy!

I actually have useful content to share this time!

1 - I'll be a guest this Friday, at 8pm est on the @thenewgroundspodcast you can join via Discord, link below when the time comes. I am structuring it to be more of a community thing, where people come in and out and we talk about whatever. VERY informal, I think 8pm is good because I'm not completely plastered but friendly enough to talk.

https://t.co/wHQ7hXq0md

2- I'm working on an Animation finally! It started off as just a little gif, but it's so long now, that I am adding to it, and making it a whole standalone thingie. I'd like to release it on Boxing Day, if I fail, I'll release a looping version of what I originally wanted to make, and then release the actual animation + sound + music etc, shortly thereafter in January, probably runs around 1- 1:30 i'd say. Short compared to some stuff on here but a full-length movie for my standards.

WIP of that below:

3- Finally, I hung out with Tom, ninjamuffin, and ivanAlmighty the other day. Was good catching up, especially at a bar. Bounced some ideas around of what Pico Day 2022 might look like and stuff like that. Someone did those gender swap things of a photo ninjamuffin got of us and I still find it hilarious, WHAT IF Newgrounds was a woman owned business and community!

Left to right: Ivanka, Tammy Fulp, Cammy, Luisa

Been on animation break the last two weeks or so, but my wrist feels good again so i started a new skating thingie.

My last gif was based on a pro Australian skater, this time I'm basing it on my non-pro australian friend @lochie

idgaf. first post. I'll prolly be done next week

I have no idea what to title my posts anymore. Also I'm kind of a mix of drunk and on medicine cause i was sick as a dog for a lil bit, (not the covid or rabid kind).

ANYWAYS, i was just kind of impressed by how many EPIC things have released this year! I ain't gonna link to them cause if you want that sort of attention to detail, go read a Tom post.

DEAD ESTATE!! released yesterday i think? Pretty cool. I admit i was like oh okay, whatever when i first saw it last year, but it has alot of heart and also Jack is awesome so check it out. Link can be found errr not here... but probably the front page until tom changes that thingie.

PROJECT NEXUS!! again, can't find the link here, but you can find it if u look elsewhere. Another game long time in the making, good to see it happen.

FRIDAY NIGHT FUNKIN FULL ASS nevermind that's still goin.

I did finish making my lil skateboarding thingie that i last posted about as a work in progress. Helped me get out of my artist bloque as they say in french.

SUMMER JAM THINGIE, finally over, man its so impressive people can make something for all summer that are amazing and i struggle with a loop gif. But whatev i have bars to visit.

I think life-wise, as private as i strive to be in such matters. I moved from my high rise overpriced 440sqf studio to more humble 300 square feet surroundings down the street. It was an inspiring view for sure, but kinda sucked during covid lockdown, no point in spending so much money on a view you can't share with people (cant bring guests up and also people like pulling the fire alarm for some reason). Cest la vie!

Also DearKruno, stop making pixel art, thats my art style!

I'll probably get back to making games soon, i've spoken to BoMToons about it, that i'm ready, so we'll see what happen. Also happy halloween soon.

L

Just kidding, but what if i wasnt.

In other news, managed to shake off my burn out from a few weeks ago, I debated deleting my last post but i'll just let it be for time capsule purposes. ANYWAYS, started working on a little thing this week, finished the rough of it earlier this morning so its fresh out of the oven for you! (below) Also have some notes on it.

In the meantime, my past roommates are on the verge of releasing their Madness: Project Nexus project, yea i had never hearded of it either until yesterday. LOOKS PRETTY COOL!

I was looking for something beefy with frames to do, and you usually can't go wrong with skateboard clips.

So I wandered over to my pal Loachie's retwit and he had a highlight of some Aussie phenom so i thought that might be fun to work on.

So now I am. It's kind of weird working from footage because live action has so many frames to it and animation is about frames sure, but also trickery so you have to pick and choose stuff to cut and suggest visually rather than frame by frame. So like in the gif above, there is no easing or blurs or squashes. So when he finally comes down, he doesn't feel heavy or like gravity brought his crazy spins to a stop. I think the thing i enjoy most about animation is those tricks, but also just being like: i feel like making moving stuff and then after a few hours an empty canvas now is a breathing moving thing. WIZARDRY.

Ominous title compared to my other posts, and honestly it didn't occur to me to write about it, but my friend (not newgrounds related) told me that I should, that if anything someone out there might find some comfort and resolution in knowing that everyone struggles then it's a win. To be clear i wasn't embarrassed, i am just a private person and i try to filter my online personality with my offline one. Still haven't totally fine-tuned it, maybe i never will, BUT i do agree that her advice is sound in that sharing is caring and especially in these weird times. SO on with the show.

Creative burnout

it happens to everyone, hell it's happened to me plenty of times before; but i'll admit, never this hard and never this bad. I think the important thing is, and trust me it doesn't just come to you overnight; it's to realize that's what happened and more importantly, that it's OKAY. Rome wasn't built in a day, and some days it faced famine, or tragedy, or war or whatever. That's just how it is.

So i think what happened to me was, I was using art as an excuse to not confront or let myself be sad. I think June - Julyish and some of August was particularly tough. I mean, I live in america and we are begging people to get vaccinated and not take homemade horse medicine or whatever, and i mean BEGGING, and elsewhere in the world, like where I am from (Bolivia) there's still parts that don't have access to stuff. Full disclosure, i had family die once every week for like two months; not because they were going to a house party, or Kid Rock concert or whatever, but just because access is limited. To date, i think Bolivia still has access to mostly the Chinese and Russian vaccine or whatever, and all the people with money and government officials are hoarding the more effective american ones that get sent over(might have changed somewhat now, i've not been keeping up.). Anyways the point isn't to make you get vaccinated, the point is to go back and review and see what contributed to my burn out. So with like family overseas dying every week, and trust me, there was like weeks in July and August i just blocked all my calls, family, friends, nothing, because it was just so draining, and so like i wrapped myself up in making art, and making art, being part of art, taking commissions, and making art again.

I think you can make art until your arm falls off, and its a good fix for a bit, but eventually even that buzz goes, and that's kind of what happened a few weeks ago. I made really negative posts, and made people worried, and just not really in a good space.

So i pulled the plug on art, and surprisingly, i feel better. I quit twitter (i'm kinda back sorta), I deleted social apps on my phone, etc etc. I think I got to a point where i felt like i HAD TO make art to keep going, to keep my mind off stuff and it worked until it didnt. I wasn't making stuff because i WANTED to.

TLDR

It's okay to take a break from art, its ok to not let art become a crutch, or a fix, no youre not gonna become a worst-er artist, your artistic abilities are not draining like the life bar on a video game. It's okay to take a break from online hysteria and online art, and whatever and just settle yourself out. I think I'm not QUITE ready to resume making art, but i will soon and i feel itll be on my terms when i do and that's okay.

I have zero projects planned, i have zero things i am working on, i fully regret canceling on stuff and letting people down, or suddenly disappearing, but i just needed (and still need) to sort it out.

I'm still in touch the art community, i still enjoy seeing peoples stuff, or reviewing entries i see on my feed on newgrounds. BUT for the moment anyways, i aint making shit. :)