June 1st 2023

Check these songs out while you read:

Da Intro

Howdy and hello, folks, and welcome to the third monthly blog post. Can you believe it - I didn’t quit after two months!!

This month was a really busy one here on Newgrounds, so there was a lot of great material to choose from (hence why I’m cheating by including three songs up in the “listen while you read” section lol)! It’s always hard to choose just three things for each category (I’m a big fan of arbitrary limits), but I think I’ve got some awesome stuff for you today.

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 thing was for the Art Inspired Music Contest - a 7/4 rap called “rocks and rocks and rocks” inspired by my good buddy @duimaurisfootball’s art! This song allowed me to let out some negative emotions I didn’t even realize I was harboring, and for that I’m thankful. It’s also dang catchy, in my own humble opinion!

Then was Pico Day, where I made a very last minute contribution that ended up, uh, sounding like it was made in an hour. Probably because I made it in an hour. ROFL!

Next came the Intergalactic Radio Collab, which I contributed “Makeshift” to! This one was incredibly fun to make, although admittedly I could have sung better on it… Thank you to the kind soul who frontpaged this tune!

Next I posted some POPGOES Arcade fan art that I whipped up for a competition over on Game Jolt! I started using GJ to keep up with POPGOES / general FNAF news and I’ve found the community blogging aspect of it very enjoyable. That side of things definitely feels more inviting and personalized than other social platforms tend to, which is nice. If you also use the platform, why not shoot me a follow? lol

Towards the end of the month, I posted “Lighter,” a Friday Night Funkin’ fan song that features Darnell vs. Boyfriend. Give it a listen if FNF is your thing; I’m rather happy with it!

Last but absolutely not least, I’ve started accepting sign-ups for the first annual Newgrounds Christmas in July Collab Album! If you’re interested, act fast - slots to join are almost gone!!! Check out the details here:

https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1524338#bbspost27700832_post_text

One small thing has changed since I made that original BBS post — I’ve made dedicated Bandcamp and YouTube accounts for the project! Everything else should still apply. For anyone who’s participating in the event, I’ll check in on progress later this month via Discord or Newgrounds, so keep an eye out for that.

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 “VILLAIN ACADEMY (Episode 1)” by @N4sh0 which is eye candy in its art style. Taking cues from media like Invader Zim, this pilot episode is a great introduction to the world and characters N4sh0 has cooked up. The voice acting works incredibly well for the style and tone, and the world the toon is set in is very interesting and has a great deal of potential for expansion. Here’s hoping we see episode 2 sooner rather than later!!

Da second spotlight belongs to the full Intergalactic Radio Collab, coordinated by @AhWham (sorry I’ve pinged you so much recently, AhWham; you’ve got your hands in all sorts of cool projects)! And no, I’m not just featuring it because I helped contribute to it LOL. This piece was a blast to listen through; the parody radio show concept (especially the “country of Newgrounds”) worked really well and everyone who contributed did great with the concept. The other day I listened to it through my car speakers for full effect, and it was so much fun.

I’m especially partial to @JazzDew’s portion (the very same JazzDew I featured in last month’s blog)!

Da third and final spotlight goes to “A few minutes” by @SockDotClip which had the unfortunate timing of being posted right before Pico Day, causing it to quickly lose its spot on the frontpage. Sock once again flexes her multi-talented abilities with great writing, animation, different art styles, pacing, etc. Seeing these characters Sock has established interacting in real time feels like a great realization of her ideas, and it’s wonderful to watch it happen. Go see what I mean for yourself!

(also the whitty fnf reference in the music made me soyface; i am not immune to propaganda)

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

@Landylachs has some amazingly rendered art pieces posted to Newgrounds! Even the Darth Jar Jar piece, which naturally has an element of comedy baked in, is taken as seriously as possible, and the elements of realism combined with the dynamic posing and excellent color choices make for pieces that feel highly detailed without actually being overwhelmingly detailed. Welcome to Newgrounds, Landylachs!

@foolywizard has style for days. Their gallery displays a strong stylistic variety that makes it hard to predict what their next upload will be, and I mean that in the best way possible! There’s such a wide breadth of coloring styles, shading styles, linework styles, etc.…like I said, style for days! It all works really well and it’s very impressive that it’s all coming from the same artist. Welcome to Newgrounds, foolywizard!

@orangedudeTV introduced himself with the calming, relaxed simplicity of his music video for louie zong’s “pit stop” before showing us the true level of detail he can reach with his art gallery! Large, sweeping, grandiose scenery seems to be orangedude’s bread and butter, with sprinkles of character art and experimental perspective thrown in for good measure. If you like Terraria, you’ll love orangedude’s art gallery. Welcome to Newgrounds, orangedudeTV!

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.

This month, I also helped put together a murder mystery game for my church’s youth group. It was stressful, it was tiring, and it wracked my brain, but it was so much fun, it was a blast putting it all together with my coworkers, and the kids ultimately loved it. It reminded me of how much I love entertaining others with high concept ideas, but it also reminded me of two more important things: it’s okay to ask for help and/or delegate other responsibilities to others when you’re overwhelmed, and sometimes you have to be flexible and just allow things to happen naturally. The game ultimately went as well as it possibly could have, and I’m so thankful and blessed that it not only went as well as it did but the youth enjoyed it and engaged with it.

Also GOOD GRIEF, May felt like it went on forever. Pico Day feels like it happened a lifetime ago, even though it wasn’t even a month ago. Not that I’m complaining about it; the slower summer passes by the better!!

On the dorkier side of things, I finally got my Fazbear Fanverse Hex plushies in the mail. Outside of a few small complaints, they’re pretty dang cool! My aforementioned buddy dui drew art inspired by one of them, too:

Lastly, I feel so incredibly thankful for all of the opportunities that Newgrounds has afforded me. Participating in collabs with awesome folks, participating in sitewide events, getting a few of my pieces frontpaged, getting a collab I’ve organized put on the official events calendar - heck, getting to organize a Newgrounds collab at all - it’s all been so surreal. Thank you, Newgrounds, for genuinely feeling like a real community. This site motivates me to do my best creatively!! ‘NUFF SAID!!

That’s it for this month’s frontpage blog! It’s been a pleasure writing these each month, taking time to critically decide which pieces and/or users to highlight. Thank you to all of you who read these, even if it just ends up being the few people I tag in the post itself! Your time, just like the creative endeavors of the folks I’m highlighting, does not go unappreciated.

P.S. - I purposefully avoided including any Pico Day submissions in da highlights. Pico Day is awesome and a great blast of pure NG self-congratulation straight into my arteries, but NG is more than self-congratulation, and I wanted to represent that in this post. Seeing all the cool NG crossover pieces never gets old for me and is always very fun, but originality is so important!!!

P.P.S. - The hardest part of these to write is always “da noobz” section because finding talent new to NG is difficult. Do any of you guys have any suggestions on how I can locate new faces more effectively other than just scanning the frontpage and hoping one of the submissions is from a new user? Genuinely please help with this LOL