Timeline

This was an eventful year to say the least, I made a good amount of games and met people that have helped me ingrain myself into this website in both creative work and interactions. I'm writing this as both a timeline of what happened to me/what I did relating to newgrounds, but also as a way to thank people who've shown me incredible kindness. If I mention you on here, you have very deep thanks from me for whatever you did, and my time on NG wouldn't be what it is now without you.

Beginnings (January-March)

I was fortunate enough to be a featured artist in @LeviRamirez's game Shoot Trip Die, and I'm very thankful for the wealth of talented guest artists I got to work alongside of. Another thanks to Levi himself for giving me a slot, this was me getting my foot in the door and going from some guy who lurked in the NGP server to my own independent artist on NG.

Then in February I published my first game as the programmer of Team Max Hog, "The Zoo Game". It was a needlessly extended development period due to laziness and me being out the country for the summer of 2021, but the whole time was full of laughs as me and my best friend @Tiny completed it. It is a culmination of both our odd senses of humor, and its publication plus the forming of Team Max Hog has pushed us into groups of wonderful people that both help and inspire us to create our games. Tremendous thank you's to @conundrym, you really got and appreciated the game and we love the music you made for it. @Nohshy, I love every piece of art you make and all of your thumbnails for us have been top-notch, and @BestStromboli for being BestStromboli.

Later on Tiny and I were asked to do an interview on Zoo Game for @TheNewgroundsPodcast, which I still have trouble believing that it happened. I've listened ever since I've been on NG, and I thank you all very much who deemed us cool enough to be alongside the other awesome featured artists. Big thanks to the bigman @BuhlBoy for conducting the interview, it was a really fun talk and we had a great time hanging with you at PAX.

Big Stuff (April-June)

After the release of the profile picture shapes update, there was this odd wave of hype based around the idea of making a video game about it ; Subsequently @Dry made a discord server to rally people for the project, and I joined as a programmer. As the hype began to die out, so did the server. But somehow a small group of people rallied themselves into finishing the idea, and from that we produced our Pico Day game "Profile Picture Party". I would say this was the most important thing I made this year, for so many great reasons. To start, it introduced me to the Godot Game Engine, which has made me more a capable programmer, and taught me the value of open-source software. Reason being it's great to have something like Godot for free, in a landscape where companies want to sap money from your creativity and expression through the tools you need to make games. It's given me a lot and I look forward to making more contributions to it. It also taught me how to work with other programmers, helping me improve my git workflow, as well as syncing schedules and making sure we each get our job done (HUGE thanks to @rickropes, couldn't have done this without your work). Most importantly, this introduced me to the people who have become some of my best friends: @Dry, @TappyWara, and @SomeApe. You guys have done so much for me and given me great times, and whenever we work together its always a great experience. Team Max Hog has become so much more because of your collaboration and help, and we've all gotten so much farther together.

The Meat Of It (Late June-August)

This summer was a speedrun, I made more games than I thought I was capable, alongside working full-time.

To start was the infamous Porb Dressup, which was a joke I made in the span of three hours with @SomeApe, and you may or may not have seen me fly into fury when it got more traction than Profile Picture Party, something I actually put time and care into. Nevertheless, it's a good goof and I'm glad I made it.

Next there was "Shit Rainbows Piss Thunder", made for @plufmot's pride month jam. That was a fun experience, I got to work with Tappy and Dry again and it was great, as well as the great concept art from @Marvazoid and the voice talents of @VoicesByCorey. Chalupa Power!

The next two aren't very eventful, but I managed to put together some stuff for mobile jam and clock day, which was very humbling as its hard to make sure a game is good and not shoddily put together.

Something huge I did was host the New York City Meetup. It went really well, and I met really cool folks and had a great time (despite the rampant covid in NYC, don't go into crowded indoor spaces folks!). Everyone that showed up was awesome. Big thanks to you if you came, and here's to somehow making it happen again! An additional big thanks to Marv for helping put the whole thing together, and @Luis for advice on hosting meetups. Was a great time!

Winding Down (September-December)

School started again and whupped my ass, and I've had trouble balancing gamedev with the work and not breaking down from the stress and deadlines. Not much came from this period, so I really just took my free-time to relax and not stress myself out with new projects. But I have a little list of things I've done in that time

• Tried some new programming languages, mainly Rust. Hopefully I'll use for a game in the future.
• Getting some inspiration and studying stuff I like from other video games.
• Leaned HARD into learning more about computer science, I've wrote a good few research papers on it for school and it's really fun seeing how these tiny boxes of wires and metal control our world.

Thoughts & Reflections

The Trade

I made very little art this year, and I kind of gave up on it. I put more of that energy into getting better at CompSci/coding, and while I think it was a good investment I am remiss to all the time I spent making art I liked, particularly my textmode stuff. I'm not even really sure why, but I don't want to give up on it. Some of it's from the internet artists perspective, it puts one off from making and sharing visual art the way they used to, and the field of art in general is already saturated. It's honestly a whole separate write-up, but art sort of shifted from art to artists, and focusing more on the self rather than just making the damn art. There has been strange shit going on from people who draw, and everything is the tip of the iceberg. I'm not choosing to deride anybody specifically, and blaming others for me not doing something on my own is silly, but I do find it's a small portion of why I stopped. Mainly I'm at a fork in the road of what I want to do, I can't really tell what I'm happier doing and I don't feel good giving up on a skill I poured a lot of time into, but it may just come again when I'm ready to start doing art that I believe has a semblance of quality again.

Internet Addiction

Obviously I've been gushing about my friends on newgrounds in this blog, and I'm very grateful for them. You guys have really helped me feel comfortable here and given me good times, and it's always a pleasure fun working with you.

I also need to preserve real life over internet life. It can be unhealthy to be online for so long, and I'm not fond of sinking my entire personality into what I do on the internet. I'm not really going to do one of those bullshit "hiatuses" that people say they take, but rather I'm going to share an incredibly valuable piece of knowledge I have gained to get me out of being terminally online.

In short: They want to piss you off. "They" as in social media companies, contrarians, or any other type of dickhead that feeds off your interactions. Any and all interactions you make on the internet generates something for someone on the other end, and oftentimes it's not positive. The trick is: any time you want to give your piece on something benign or respond to something any normal person can recognize as stupid, just don't. You do not need to send that reply, you do not need to make that side-comment. It will do nothing on your end but make you angrier, and if you scroll past it you'll forget in less than a minute. I am no authority on this type of subject matter, but avoiding responding to things that enrage me has made me so much more happy than focusing and stewing on it. Please give it a try.

Health & Stress

This is the last doom and gloom section I'll write, and it's my most vague as its very personal. I've suffered a lot of stress and strife from advanced schoolwork, and coping with it I've made poor health choices in my diet and other poor decisions. This type of coping will kill me, and I won't let that happen. I have plenty of reasons to live, for both my family, friends and things I want to do in my life. I'm very fortunate to have the avenues to get that help, but the work comes from me. It comes down to talking about my problems and taking things on one piece at a time. It is possible for all of us to make this change, and we aren't alone. Know that.

Hope

I'm going into the next year with a better view and more optimistic look. New things are on my horizon and I'm excited to see what lies ahead, and I will not let the problems I'm carrying over stop me. I'll take it step by step and they'll fall off like weights from my shoulders. An infinite amount of thanks if you have read this far, I'm glad you're this interested in my thoughts, and I hope you too can reap the benefits of NG.

Happy New Year, I love you all :-)