Check this song out while you read:

Da Intro

Howdy and hello, folks, and welcome to the second monthly blog post. Give it up for month two!!!

Just as a disclaimer: I’ll only be showcasing submissions rated E or rated T. I have the M and A ratings turned off for my account, so if a user I showcase here has submissions with those ratings on their account, I may not know about it. Viewer discretion is advised and all that!

Da Recap

This segment is where I’ll be talking about stuff I’ve done this month here on NG (possibly other sites as well, if it’s notable enough)!

First was my song “u’d nvr lie to me,” featuring artwork by the impeccable @duimaurisfootball. This song’s title was suggested to me by dui, and I kinda just ran from there. It’s a bit odd, but I like it. There’s some solid bars in there, methinks!

And that’s all for my April on Newgrounds! I posted one thing wooooo!

This one isn’t on NG but I still wanted to share it - last month I also tried my hand at making a YTP for the first time!

Da Spotlight

“Da Spotlight” will be me going over three works and/or users from this month that especially stood out to me here on NG. It may be popular stuff that I want to celebrate even more, or it may be more lesser known things that I think need a bit more love. Who knows! Anyways, here’s da spotlights for this month.

Da first spotlight belongs to @JazzDew’s “静粛||力---SiLENTPOWER 'my 10000th song',” which I can only describe as a genre bending, tempo switching, brain busting journey. Every repeat listen to this tune feels like the first time around, which is a wonderful feeling. Every sound is meticulously placed to assault your psyche with adrenaline in .mp3 form. As the song says as its repeated anthem: “GET LOUDER!!”

Da second spotlight belongs to “Sheep Time” by @Dalblauw. A juxtaposition from their usual character artwork (although not their first portrait of this nature), this piece is very soft and inviting. The coolness of every color combined with the textures of the greenery and sheeps’ wool make for a very relaxed piece that envelops my brain in a sense of wistfulness. For as simple the piece is, it’s very evocative, reveling in that simplicity to present an intense feeling of natural beauty.

Da third and final spotlight goes to @InventoryObjects. Inventory Objects’ experimental sound may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but their music tickles my neurons in just the right way — their driving distorted basslines combined with their solid melodic structures makes for some real toe-tappers. Additionally, all of the amazing artwork for Inventory Objects created by @Certly is such a departure from Certly’s usual use of clean and clearly defined shapes and colors, and that departure captures the experimental attitude of the music well; the accompanying artwork is twisted together, drenched in muted colors that bleed into one another. Absolutely go check out this amazing music and art duo!

Da N00bz

This segment is meant to celebrate the cool new users to the site who are just getting started on here. Whether they’re completely new to creative expression, or experts that are only new to NG, anyone who’s started their account in the past month is fair game >:D

Thick lines, pitch black shadows, and unforgiving machinery permeate every corner of @xkl-3’s gallery. Within this framework also comes a good bit of stylistic variety, all executed with precision and finesse. Everything from the composition of the shots to the choices of colors and shading is just so, and it gives xkl-3’s work quite an edge. Welcome to Newgrounds, xkl-3!

@evangel1ne is a singer and songwriter with a voice that works really well in multiple styles of music, as shown by the following two tracks! The juxtaposition between her music’s upbeat tone and her lyrics’ typical subject matter - ranging from melancholy to anger - makes for songs that warrant an immediate second or third listen to truly understand. It all feels very bittersweet in the best way possible. Welcome to Newgrounds, evangel1ne!

@kani-has-no-tattoos is an artist capable of creating both incredibly charming works and incredibly disturbing works. They have the special ability to produce art that can either make me feel happy or give me a pit in my stomach, all under a consistent stylistic umbrella. Muted colors contrasted with foreboding reds give Kani’s work an appropriately spooky atmosphere, and it’s awesome. Welcome to Newgrounds, kani-has-no-tattoos!

Da Rest

This is the final segment and I’ll be using it to give any closing thoughts I have or mention anything that doesn’t fit into the other segments.

Wanted to use this bit to talk a little about my summer plans. I currently don’t have a job lined up for the summer (I work at my university’s library and they aren’t able to take any student workers this summer) so I’ve decided to stay broke and focus hard on making cool stuff. I have a metric ton of ideas I want to pump out this summer - I want to improve my art abilities, I want to work on an album idea I’ve been concepting, I want to make a ton of cool YouTube videos (already got a great idea for this year’s Halloween special planned), that kinda thing. Sacrifice the financials for the artistics. Plus, being unemployed leaves me open to spontaneity; I don’t have to take off work to go do something fun with friends or family, or to participate in a church activity - I can just simply go.

I’m blessed beyond measure that I’m at a place in life where this is even an idea that I can say is worth considering and I don’t want to take that freedom for granted. So expect some cool stuff from me this summer! (And if any of you cool people want to collaborate on making something cool, my DMs are always open lol.)

Also, April 9th marked the two year anniversary of my Newgrounds account’s creation! (I completely forgot on the day of…) What a wild two years it’s been. I can confidently say that discovering Newgrounds (thank you, FNF, xoxo) was one of the best things that’s happened to me in recent memory. You’ve heard the “NG shill” spiel a thousand times over, and this blog post has been sappy enough already, but genuinely, from the bottom of my heart: Thank you to everyone who has made my experience on this website so special.

I also worked my first ever youth church camp this past month, which was an exhausting blast. I am an intern with my church’s youth group so I helped plan most of the games and events, as well as helping with some more stuff both behind the scenes and on-stage. It was such a wonderful, spiritually enriching experience and I cannot wait to do it again next year.

Also as a tease - I’ve been working on some music in my short bouts of spare time! I’ve been working on a semi-secret gaming project as well as an Art-Inspired Music project, and both of those are shaping up nicely so far.

I’ve also finally decided what I want my audio portal collab to be, and I’m currently planning to drop the details sooner rather than later! I’m excited to finally be able to share all of this, eventually!!! (EDIT: I ended up being able to post details for this collab in the NGAP Collab Center discord, so go check it out there!!!!)

That’s it for this month’s frontpage blog! Take care everyone; good luck to anyone who is or has been taking final exams, and I hope your May is excellent!

Check this song out while you read:

Da Intro

Howdy and hello, folks, and welcome to the first monthly blog post. I’ll be doing these on the first of every month rather than just spamming news posts when I feel like it; that way I can compile all my thoughts into one big, juicy post lol. I’ll also try and break it up into segments to make it more digestible. And before someone asks: no, this isn't an April Fool's Day gag, this is legit!

I’ll be using these blogs to not only talk about stuff I’m doing on Newgrounds (or elsewhere if it’s notable enough), but also to show off cool stuff other folks have done in the previous month. Newgrounds, as you all know, is full of a ton of incredible creative minds, so I’d like to showcase some of them to y’all!

Just as a disclaimer: I’ll only be showcasing submissions rated E or rated T. I have the M and A ratings turned off for my account, so if a user I showcase here has submissions with those ratings on their account, I may not know about it. Viewer discretion is advised and all that!

Da Recap

This segment is where I’ll be talking about stuff I’ve done this month here on NG (possibly other sites as well, if it’s notable enough)!

This month was the NG Audio Portal Collab’s drop date, and I’ve already made a news post about it which you can read here. I’m very proud of all three of the segments I had my hand in!

After posting that blog post, however, Customer Shrirvice got frontpaged, which was a very nice surprise!

I also posted my first original tune since Jamuary ended (not counting the collab stuff) for Jacksfilms’ #shrekme challenge. Listening back to it, I think I needed another melodic element, but overall for doing the song in ~2 days I’m happy with how it sounds. The YouTube version didn’t get selected for Jack’s stream, which I think is a shame, but oh well.

Last but not least, I posted a cover of West Forest from POPGOES Arcade! Transcribing a song by ear is always a really fun challenge (it really helps you appreciate the original song on a deeper level), so I’m thankful I was able to transcribe this one - with a tiny bit of help from the song’s original composer, no less!!

And that’s all for my March on Newgrounds!

Da Spotlight

“Da Spotlight” will be me going over three works and/or users from this month that especially stood out to me here on NG. It may be popular stuff that I want to celebrate even more, or it may be more lesser known things that I think need a bit more love. Who knows! Anyways, here’s da spotlights for this month.

Da first spotlight belongs to the ever amazing @duimaurisfootball for his incredible artwork. I know I’ve said it a thousand times, but let me say it a thousand more: dui has such creative and inventive work. The way he uses shapes and perspective hammers home the simultaneously unnerving and comedic effect his drawings have, making you laugh, but like, kinda pensively. Do yourself a favor and peep his full gallery for some wacky, surreal, and sometimes disturbing artwork.

Da second spotlight belongs to “non euclidean labyrinth battle theme” by @Leavesz, and I know that this was posted in February but cut me some slack okay? This is my first post and I’ll do what I want. Anyways, I’m always a sucker for a good song written in 7/4, and this song scratches that itch so nicely. Leavesz’ signature style is in full effect here, and the driving bassline behind the whole song carries you through a delightfully harsh soundscape that will leave you wanting more. I can listen to this track over and over and it’s just as good every time.

If you want something from Leavesz that was posted in March, they posted a small album just yesterday called “Before you go,” so be sure to give that a listen as well!

Da third and final spotlight goes to @NobeyOne for “The Realization.” I don’t wanna spoil too much about it, but the punchline made me giggle aloud. Be sure to check out the rest of Nobey’s work as well; their animations are an absurdist goldmine. (They make all of their own music, too!)

Da N00bz

This segment is meant to celebrate the cool new users to the site who are just getting started on here. Whether they’re completely new to creative expression, or experts that are only new to NG, anyone who’s started their account in the past month is fair game >:D

First is @Kreagato who posted “Krea - Apple Pie (feat. Bex)” which has been STUCK IN MY HEAD. It’s such a fun, bubbly tune with lyrical symbolism that’s just vague enough to be confusing but just clear enough to get the vibe across, which is something I absolutely adore in writing. The cute sound direction and catchy melodic structure work together brilliantly. Those opening drums too…what a great tune. Welcome to Newgrounds, Kreagato!

Edit 04/03/23 - I just realized Krea made their account in March of 2021, not 2023 OOPS...oh well, Apple Pie is still a great song!

Next we got @3-17 who uses VERY deep, harsh shadows to great effect. They’ve also got a great deal of stylistic variety, yet all of their pieces feel distinctly cohesive. It all feels very bleak and a bit surreal, and it’s an absolutely visually arresting style. Welcome to Newgrounds, 3-17!

Next up is @PT-Bonesy who is an incredible traditional artist! Her work has a very visceral edge to it that makes it incredibly captivating; the deep level of detail combined with the typically horror-tinged subject matter absolutely demands your attention. Welcome to Newgrounds, PT-Bonesy!

Last but not least we have @anomAlain who has done excellent redesigns of the wider Star Fox team. He’s also got some cool original character art, but the Star Fox redesigns show a great level of expertise and attention to detail that I really enjoyed. I especially liked how each member of the team had their own unique weapon; that was a really great touch, and all of the designs felt super cohesive. Welcome to Newgrounds, anomAlain!

Da Rest

This is the final segment and I’ll be using it to give any closing thoughts I have or mention anything that doesn’t fit into the other segments.

Be on the lookout for an Audio Portal collab coming from me at some point. I had an idea, but I think that it may have been a bit too ambitious for my first ever organized collab, so I think I’m going to wait on that one; regardless, I want to organize something at some point, so keep an eye out for that lol. Once it’s ready, I’ll be posting it in the NGAP Collab Discord as well as in the audio forums!

I hope you enjoyed this little blog. I’m gonna try and keep them going monthly, and I want to uplift as many cool artists as I possibly can. I know I focused hard on musicians and visual artists this time around, but that’s because it’s easiest for me to primarily interact with music and art on a daily basis (monthly voting can get a little awkward for me LOL). Next month, I may try doing individual segments for each of the mediums because I had trouble deciding on just 3 things to highlight lol. If yall know of any cool folks that are making cool stuff, be sure to let me know so I can talk about how cool they are! I’ll see you guys next month!

(PS: This may just be me being self conscious, but I feel like “Da N00bz” is a bit of a reductive name for site newcomers. I think it’s silly outdated internet lingo, but I can see how someone may not like being called a n00b, so if anyone can think of a better one-word title for that segment, let me know please!)

The Newgrounds Audio Portal 20th Anniversary Collaboration is finally out, and all the individual segments I was apart of have been posted! I'll be talking about them in the order that I joined the projects.

First off, we have "Customer Shrirvice." This was my segment featuring NickSenny and OctoBlitz on vocals.

This segment was so, so much fun to make. SHRIMP-OS has a special place in my NG brain, and I wanted to pay homage to it with my segment. I included as many references to the original game as possible, and I wanted the track to evoke the feeling of playing the game while also sounding distinct. The idea of a customer service hotline for shrimp is so funny and it feels like it goes along (pardon the pun) swimmingly with the world the game set up, so I'm very proud of how everything turned out.

Next, we have "Lifeline." This was Troisnyx's segment featuring both her and I on vocals.

I originally wrote more for this than my little segment, but I misunderstood the assignment and wrote lyrics that didn't work well with the tempo of the song. However, Troisnyx decided to rap for the first time to make up for my shortcoming, and the result is a beautiful song all her own. Troi tells the full story in the song's description, and it's deeply personal, moving, and motivating, so please do yourself a favor and give it a read.

Finally, we have "Only The Start." This was NikoN1nja's segment featuring me on vocals.

This song was arguably the one I had the most trouble with! I volunteered to help Niko with vocals since his original partner dipped out, and not only was my singing off key, but we had some trouble with the mixing. I'm glad we finally got it made though because it turned out well! This song was a rock anthem about how Newgrounds can be the start of something wonderful creatively.

Thank you endlessly to these four wonderful people who worked with me. The NGAP20 collab was such a wonderful experience and I am very blessed to have been apart of it. I hope I can collab with you guys again sooner rather than later, and I hope that I can collab with even more wonderful people on this wonderful website.

(PS: I may or may not be cooking up an idea for a collaboration of my own in the NGAP Collab Center discord server! Be sure to join the Discord so you can get the scoop on that, as well as any future collabs that come out of the server!)

i need to know RIGHT NOW who made this image because it looks EXACTLY LIKE ME and feels like targeted harassment

BTW, I posted some YouTube videos on the first of this month featuring thumbnail artwork by my awesome friend @mxbun! Go follow him; he's an awesome artist!!

The videos are about version differences in Pokemon games! As an incredibly clever and subtle commentary on why version differences in Pokemon are bad, I essentially made the same video twice. Lol.

Preorders for the BF nendo finally opened and I got one!! Thankfully preorders opened the day after I got paid lol

HUGE STINKY SHOUTOUTS TO @ninjamuffin99 @KawaiSprite @PhantomArcade @evilsk8r AND THE WHOLE REST OF THE FUNKIN CREW INC!!!!! Thanks y'all for making this funky lil game that introduced me to Newgrounds (literally would probably be a different person if not for Newgrounds fanning the flames of my love for independent art, as hyperbolic as that sounds), and I cannot wait to see what the full funky lil game has in store. Keep up the great work.

I checked my song and I got jumpscared by THIS?!?!

Holy Toledo that came out of nowhere. Thank you so, so much to whoever frontpaged it!! It genuinely means so much to me that a song I've made is featured on the homepage of a website I love so much. NG for life!

edit: i should probably link the song, doy

Have you no sense of humor? Have you no soul? Are you too good to laugh at a song that goes "peepee poopoo fart"?

I'm genuinely curious why someone voted that lol, I thought it was my best song so far, from both a production standpoint and a comedic/creative standpoint. Wish that person would've left a review.

So here's the cool NG stuff I did this year, just as a recap.

I started the MHForecast!

Got two episodes up already and I'm working on the third (it will not be the "third" official episode because it has some pretty freakin' bad technical problems in the recording but I still want to post it because it's got some hilarious content lol). [EDIT 12/13/22 - here's a link to that busted podcast lol]

I joined the Faces of NG '22 collab by @Dungeonation:

I'm super honored to have been apart of such a successful project. I'm simultaneously really happy with the Daily 2nd trophy on my account and not proud because all I did was draw Gildedguy and a shrimp LOL

Outside of the collab, I started drawing on my laptop this year!

I'm not super good at it yet but I've put out some pretty decent stuff!

I'm especially happy with how my Madness Day submission came out:

Over on the YouTube side of things, I made a lil video for Pico Day talking about why I like this site so much.

I've also started making a little bit of music, and I plan to participate in @Droid's Jamuary next month!

I'm really excited to keep working on music stuff and to keep learning FL Studio, and I think Jamuary is going to be great for that. Hopefully I can actually keep up with it haha.

There was also that time where some employees in Disney World recognized my NG shirt, so that was cool lol

And arguably most important of all - I became a Supporter this year! I don't regret that for a second. As I've said on Tom's news posts, I'm super happy with the tangible changes that Supporter money has brought to the site. The ratings filters, the improved art viewer, and more are all wonderful additions to NG, and I'm glad that I helped, in my own small contribution, bring those changes to life.

(psst if you aren't a supporter and you reasonably can afford it you should totally become a supporter!!)

Here's some cool stuff that happened outside of Newgrounds!

My YouTube channel got monetized because of one video hitting the algorithm lol. Turns out, the secret to success on YouTube is talking about Five Nights at Freddy's. Go figure!

I started Two White Guys, a let's play channel with my best friend Dylan (the very same Dylan who made the background art of my Madness Day drawing)! That channel is such a blast to record. New videos weekly on there until the end of time! (they are already scheduled into like 2025)

I became more intimately involved in my church this year.

Specifically, I've been editing our Sunday Morning weekly announcements videos for the past, like, ~35 weeks. In addition to that, I've begun interning with our Youth Group. Both of these endeavors have been incredibly fulfilling and rewarding. I feel like my relationship with both the Lord and my community has grown greatly because of them, and I'm incredibly thankful for the opportunities to put my skills to good use.

Alright, now onto what I hope to accomplish in the new year.

First, I hope to make MHForecast monthly here on NG. It'll stay every other month on YouTube, but I'd like to have at least one episode go up in a given month where it actually matters hehe.

Second, I hope to get more proficient at both art and music. I don't expect to become some Picasso or Beethoven, but having the capabilities of art, music, and video editing under my belt would be such a killer trifecta. Specifically, I'd like to learn the basics of art anatomy and the basics of musical composition so I can have a stronger foundation in my understanding of the two mediums. This'll probably be over the summer.

Third, I'd like to participate in a more intimate collaboration with another creative. Joining the Faces collab was fun and awesome and cool, but it was more individual than it was communal. I'd like to make something, be that thing art, music, or a YouTube video (or even something completely different!) with another person from scratch, with that person's creative vision influencing my output and vice-versa.

Fourth, and I know this sounds a little cringe, but I'd like to start a YouTube Shorts series at some point in the year. I have a good idea for it, and it would allow me to talk about some topics on my channel that wouldn't make for a very interesting full video, but would make for a decently interesting ≤ 60 second video.

Last but certainly not least, I need to work on my faith more. I need to dedicate myself further to growing my relationship with Jesus because I'll be real - I've been slacking on it. Getting more plugged into my church has helped, and I've loved being able to serve, but I'd like to be better about actively pursuing it outside of an "obligatory" context.

TL;DR - I think I did some pretty cool stuff this year, and next year I think I'll do some even cooler stuff.

I'm super grateful that there are folks out there who'll look at what I make and that there are platforms where I can post what I'd like to make.

Let me close out by sharing some of my favorite things other people have made this year!

The @gildedguy team killed it with their most recent story animation. I can't get enough of how brilliantly their animations sync with the music.

@graskip remains one of my favorite artists on the site. His style is very effortlessly cute and cool simultaneously, and I always love seeing what new character designs he can come up with.

ShrimpOS by @Jack (and a small army of contributors) made me laugh, cry, and everything in between. There's a reason I chose to represent it in the Faces collab! If you haven't played it yet, go in as blind as possible and just explore. It's a great time.

@ThatRozebudGuy is, without a doubt, one of the GOATs when it comes to FNF modding. This year he (in collab with others, mind you) put out two great mods: The Halloween Mod and B-Side Redux, which are both full of small details and wonderful touches that will make any hardcore FNF fan squee.

I may be biased because we're related, but @Robo2k has been killing it with his tunes recently. He invested in SP sampling hardware and has been making some killer tunes using real old vinyl samples, and I'm super proud of the musician he's becoming. Love you, bro!

Okay, NOW I'm finished lol.

I'll stop @ mentioning people now (sorry, y'all). I hope everyone has a great Christmas (or whatever holiday you may or may not celebrate), and an excellent 2023. Thanks for reading, and see ya later!

My NG merch collection grows…just got my Scrapnik Island variant cover by @DIGIMIN ‼️‼️

Not really a Sonic fan, but I had to show up for da NG artists 💯 Excellent artwork and it’s so cool that it’s officially licensed.