Newgrounds.com — Everything, By Everyone.

At 10/27/12 08:02 AM, Auz wrote: Tom actually asked the communities' opinion about this at some point and most users said Newgrounds should stay independent.

It's the opposite actually. Most users said Newgrounds should take the money, and that was my opinion as well.

http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1301711

Investors aren't evil people that want to ruin everything. They'd lose money too. Sure, too much corporate meddling is often a bad idea for artistic projects such as Newgrounds, but they wouldn't be selling the company outright. I can see that maybe the investors would not want pornographic content on Newgrounds, which would be a good thing in my opinion as it would get rid of hentai games and all the porn submissions in the art portal, leaving popular spots for the actually good art.

Just think how many more features and how much awesomer Newgrounds could become if it had the money and the resources. NG has been working on a multiplayer API for developers to use for a really long while, and that could have been finished a long while ago and could have been *the* multiplayer API all flash developers use. And that would have gotten Newgrounds to occupy a very important role in the flash market.

As Tom keeps implying, NG is working on some really great and innovative features. They just need time and money. I mean they're still fixing bugs from the last redesign.

Just my 2 cents.

At 10/27/12 05:36 AM, Sandremss128 wrote: That sounds really interesting, although I wonder how these certificates from this site are looked upon by potential employers. But as a self development tool I think it's really interesting.

I remember there was a discussion about that a while ago on the Udacity forums as well as a bunch of articles.

Basically the certificates themselves don't hold a lot of weight due to there being no way to confirm that you were the one who took the test or that you didn't cheat or whatever, but the things you do with what you learn matter a lot. Like people the finished certain courses made simulations or some demo products with what they learned that looked really impressive. And Sebastian Thrun, one of the original creators of Udacity eventually sent out the CV's of those guys along with what they did to some big companies like Google, recommending them.

They also said they're trying to change the way higher education works. A popular idea is that you could learn all the materials at your own pace, and at the end you pay a small fee to go physically take a test at an accredited university and there you go, you get an accredited certificate.

At 10/27/12 02:13 AM, PoisonHeart wrote: Dude, fuck this, I am crying. Call me a fag or whatever, but fuck you, I don't want to see Newgrounds die. Is that going to happen if we as a community don't do something? And Don't feed me shit about "mysterious forces" keeping Newgrounds alive to make me feel better, unless those "mysterious forces" are private billionaires and you can cite some sources on that shit.

There are no mysterious forces. There would be if Tom had allowed investors to invest in Newgrounds, but his fear that they might ruin NG and his urge to keep it independent has stopped that from happening. And that may be a good or bad thing. But that's another topic.

As for:

How to do more?

Newgrounds is special because it's more than just a website. It's a beautiful community that has enticed creativity and fostered talent throughout the years, with all its lore. Producing people that have gone on to creative ground-breaking projects or to be creative thinkers, such as all the people that have gone on to become very successful game developers, or the musicians whose careers were kickstarted on Newgrounds, or the people who get their first publishing deal because of newgrounds.

Newgrounds lives through the work of all the people it has inspired. The sad thing is, Newgrounds likely isn't going to die off anytime soon, it just won't be able to grow and flourish without enough funding.

Newgrounds has pretty much pioneered flash games, as well as the idea of users submitting content.

What *you* can do is just be part of that. Your work can help it grow and influence Newgrounds as well as the people that visit it.

At 10/26/12 10:36 PM, jennaskook wrote: Going along with what the first commenter (Labraxadores) said, I don't want the money if I win. (Which is probably a 1 in 0 chance anyway) Donate it to a cancer research center or something.
Anyway, luck to everyone! :D

That's pretty confident of you to say, because technically, a 1 in 0 chance of winning means your odds of winning are infinitely high :P

At 10/27/12 01:01 AM, Roxxar wrote: Alright, I'm going to drop out of this contest and wait another year. I need to read some stories for experience.

The best experience you can get is by actually trying to write something and getting feedback on it. I have a friend whom I keep asking to write a story, and he always says he's not good enough yet and is afraid he'd look really bad compared to all the other writers. But the trick is you'll never get good if you just keep waiting until you get better, because you won't improve until you write and so on.

This is what Newgrounds is all about. The inspirational thing about Newgrounds is that you could go visit a famous artist's profile and just see how bad their stuff looked when they were first starting out, and how it slowly became better and better. Like, I just came across Monkokio's profile, who is now making frikking awesome games on PS3 with thatgamecompany.

At 10/19/12 10:45 AM, Innermike wrote: After a while though I hit a roof where my math ability really wasn't up to the caliber I needed it to be, so I paused all the actual programming and focused on my A-Level Maths and Further Maths (though I don't go in for classes anymore, I've been expelled twice now and my therapist recommends it since I have 'a problem with authority')

So wait, does that mean you're still taking Further Maths or not? Cuz I was looking forward to asking how your experience with that was. Because due to the tiny amount of people that take it, Further Maths around here is seen as this impossibly difficult holy subject that is reserved only for math deities.

At 10/26/12 04:00 PM, Sandremss128 wrote: I think he's talking about the Hajj, a muslim thing that a lot of them participate in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadj

Yeah, even the ones who aren't on pilgrimage are required to butcher something and give like a third to charity.

I find it fascinating how so many people can stagnate so much and adhere to a set of rules created by a few greybeards from before the dark ages, but hey we're all free to do what we want.

It sounds less crazy when you think of it more as adhering to a lifestyle put forth by an all-knowing omnipotent God, but let's not argue religion.

Udacity just put up a bunch of new courses, including an HTML5 game programming course, an introduction to 3D rendering and an introduction to parallel programming. A lot of this stuff is SUPER interesting and it feels like I NEED to know this stuff. So many courses, so little time!

At 10/26/12 02:10 AM, jegnan1 wrote: Hi,

I'm developing a video game and I was wondering if I can make a topic on some part of the newgrounds forum so I can get some feedback on the game. The game is not built in flash so I can't really upload the game. Is there any place in the forum where I can start up a topic and start distributing the current build of the game and get some opinions/feedback?

I think that would be the flash forum. Despite its name, I think it's more of a game development forum that strictly flash. Especially since Newgrounds has just started accepting HTML5 games.

So yeah I think that would be the best place to put it, just make sure to write in the post that you're aware that it's not a flash game, but you'd like feedback.

At 10/25/12 10:48 PM, egg82 wrote: I will amend that to:
what's going on, now? o.o (I understand this is Luis's work, but for what?)

http://luis.newgrounds.com/news/post/754646

On a separate note, lots of goats and cows are going to be slaughtered today. That is all.

At 10/24/12 08:23 PM, TheTrueZippy wrote:

At 10/24/12 08:16 PM, CrazySquirrel124 wrote: VG forum you fucking newfag

get outta here

New account. I've been a user since 2007. And here's a cup of fucks i give about your post, since this is about the hype and the character, not the game.

That doesn't make any sense. You're discussing the game specifically and asking others whether they were disappointed by the game.

I don't understand why everyone feels insulted when they're told their topic belongs in the video game forum. Especially when the VG forum is fairly active and would probably get you more informative posts and probably an overall more interesting discussion.

At 10/25/12 09:41 AM, MoArman wrote: So are you saying there should be a code where the yspeed should be set to zero or something for when he is standing still on a block?

Or simple, only increase the yspeed when the player is *not* touching the ground.

What's really happening is that, you increase yspeed every frame, and push the player by that amount. So let's say the player hits a ground, at this point the yspeed is at 5 for example, so he gets pushed 5 pixels down, but the ground pushes the player back up, so you see him at the top of the platform.

But then the yspeed increases, it's 6, it pushes the player down, ground pushes player back up. This keeps happening until yspeed is large enough for the player to either fall through, or that when you step off he immediately falls a great distance.

So what you want is for the yspeed to be 0 as long as he is touching the ground.

At 10/24/12 12:37 AM, StarshipLion wrote: Thanks for putting that in a way that is both encouraging and helpful! You're right, won't know how the water is 'til I jump in. Thanks again!

CPMStar's cut goes like this:

-25% to CPMStar
-25% to sponsor
-50% to developer (you)

So newgrounds takes that 25%. If you don't go with newgrounds, someone else will take that 25%, you never get more than 50% from CPMStar.

Mochimedia gives you 40% of the revenue.

Kong's ad revenue is really good, but it's only on Kong. So you can still use CPMStar/NG Ads, and make a special version for Kongregate so you're profiting from both

Armorgames doesn't have an ad network as far as I know, but they do buy sitelocks, which is something else.

With all of that said, a lot of times the biggest chunk of revenue comes from sponsorship, not from ads. While ads may give you anywhere between $100 to $3k, it will only be really profitable if you a have a ridiculously viral game.

Sponsorship tends to pay off more generally, and has the added bonus of being an upfront lump sum.

And the best thing is that you can both sponsor your game *and* include ads if you strike up such a deal with a sponsor (which is rather common) so you have nothing to lose by seeking sponsorship.

Check out www.fgl.com for more info.

At 10/22/12 08:18 PM, Nicholas-Deary wrote: I've put a button on the preloader screen linking to a URL. It works fine but after the animation finishes and it goes back to the preloader, when you click the button it doesn't open the URL anymore...does anyone know why this is?

Hmm, try removing the event listener when you leave the preloader and screen, and make sure you put it back when you go back to that screen. If that still doesn't work post your code and the frame it's on etc..

At 10/20/12 04:56 PM, TrueValhalla wrote: I hope this post has provided some accurate insight into the HTML5 market for you guys. If you have any specific questions, I'm glad to answer them.

It looks you're doing moderately well, but you said it yourself, finding publishers is the hard part. If a developer doesn't have contacts, I don't think they'd be able to do so well, especially because, again as you pointed out, even a really quality game would have a hard time finding an adequate buyer.

So I think with the combined effort of developing and marketing (considering that flash games are much faster to develop on average and are easier to market), then flash is still a much safer bet for making money at the moment.

At 10/20/12 02:59 AM, CuriousGaming wrote: It's hard to get traditional style sponsorship for html5 games because they are, by default, open source. Anyone can take your published game, put their own logo and ads on it and release it. It's a hard sell.

SWF is by default an open format. And yet the market is thriving. Anyone can decompile your flash game and put their ads on it.

There is a market making mobile phone apps or corporates who want a custom game for their website.

I did come across such job offers on www.fgl.com you might want to check there. I think for now if your game goal is to monetize then flash is a less risky option.

Did anyone notice this?

The Halloween Writing Contest is already in progress and we'll toss $25 store credit to the winning entry.

http://www.newgrounds.com/collection/halloween2012

At 10/18/12 09:09 PM, Innermike wrote:

Holy SHIT you're alive!!1

What have you been up to?

The reason you get that error is because MountainRange1 is a BitmapData, not a bitmap.

A bitmapData is basically a way to store the picture's pixel data. A bitmap is a way to render that bitmap to screen.

I would suggest you glance over this article: http://www.cultcreative.com/tutorials/11/18/2011/working-wit h-bitmaps-and-bitmapdata-in-as3/

The code in the lower parts looks complicated, but it's inherently simple. Just remember the differences between Bitmap and BitmapData, which are explained in the first part of the article. It also explains how to render using bitmaps in flash.

At 10/8/12 01:51 PM, Archawn wrote: What's the personal statement for? A specific college or something?

From what I'm told, all, or most, colleges want this "personal statement" where you just talk about yourself and who you are. You heard about anything like that in the colleges you're applying to? For example here's Johns Hopkins examples of "essays that worked"

Also if we both get into MIT we should totally be roomies :D

Wouldn't that be fucking awesome :D

At 10/8/12 02:22 PM, MSGhero wrote: What the FUCK, man. $20k/semester here for out-of-state students, like $6k or so for in-state. I got the most selective scholarship given by the institution, and it's still a sizable amount to pay. How does the quality of uni compare to the US, if you have any idea? i.e., is it worth an extra $20k plus travel? That's a nice list btw, I know of a few other good ones depending on your potential major if you want more.

Well obviously there's a huge difference in terms of facilities, but the quality of education is actually decent. As far as I know the major differences are that, in the US there might be some award winning professors or even Nobel laureates in the Uni whereas there would be no such thing here, and more importantly there are 0 research opportunities here.

There's also a pretty tiny variety of majors compared to the US here.

But I think the biggest reason why I think it'd be worth the travel and expenses is the environment around you. When everyone around you is really competitive and everyone has his own unique projects and ambitions. Like I'm always inspired by all those stories of people who met in college and changed the world. Like the guys who founded Google meeting in Princeton and facebook guys meeting in Harvard. And also the whole living on my own and having responsibilities, maybe getting some work experience, research opportunities etc..

But yeah, the reason Uni is so cheap here is because it's subsidized by the government, as in many other countries, except in US and UK where college fucking costs more than 3 arms and a leg.

Also, another funny statistic, minimum wage around here is about $50 per month.

At 10/6/12 12:34 PM, MSGhero wrote: I'm a mech engineer major and applying for a comp sci minor (taking Java now). Also taking DiffEq, dynamics, and engineering graphics (AutoCAD and Inventor) at Georgia Tech. On each college? Ivy league unis are overpriced and elitist, GATech is overpriced but really good (70-30 guy girl ratio though x.x), and there's plenty more colleges with pros and cons. Which one(s) are you looking at and for what major?

Mechanical engineering sounds awesome, although I still haven't decided on a major.

I've got this list of colleges I'm thinking of applying to:

-MIT
-Stanford
-Vanderbilt University
-Colgate University
-Johns Hopkins
-Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Everything is crazily expensive, compared to the fact that it costs $200 or so per semester here in Egypt. So I most likely won't be going unless I get some form of financial aid or scholarship.

At 10/7/12 03:14 PM, Archawn wrote: Oh, god, college apps. I'm going through the application process as well, and because I'm applying to places like MIT I have to write a shitton of essays.

Have you started writing those yet? I'm still waiting on finishing my SAT's and TOEFL before doing anything. I have started on my personal statement though, which I keep hearing is SUPER important.

But I like writing anyway. I think I'd end up writing this personal statement whether or not I was applying. It's pretty fascinating to me. It's like, you need to try and describe yourself, who you are and what you do in life, and basically manifest your personality on paper in only 500 words. It's like this essay would be the highlight of my life at this time, one that I could read in 5, 10 or 20 years and it will be like talking to my younger self. Anyway I'll stop rambling now.

At 10/5/12 12:10 PM, Luis wrote: I feel like its one of those things that youll never really master, both as an animator and a programmer. Its just so unpredictable.

Also, I forgot to say, I'm really curious, what kind of impressive smoke-solutions have you recently come across?

At 10/5/12 04:19 PM, MSGhero wrote: I might be taking fluid dynamics next semester, so I'll work on it then when I actually comprehend what those articles are talking about :)

That sounds really cool! I'm in the process of applying for colleges in the US, what courses/major are you taking, and what university are you in? (Also, what are your thoughts on each?)

At 10/5/12 04:02 PM, Deathcon7 wrote: I'd like to submit a story but be exempt from the prizes. Is this possible?

Definitely. You could pass along the prize since you're a judge anyway.

At 10/5/12 10:49 AM, powerdude964 wrote: So, to change my question: What do you guys think? I'm seriously going cross-eyed just thinking about which decision would be best.

Making something original is always better. Sure it may be harder, but it's tons more fun, and you would have something that you could call completely your own.

At 10/5/12 12:10 PM, Luis wrote: Is smoking allowed in the lounge. I dont think ive ever asked...

Speaking of smoke. I'm always impressed with the different solutions programmers come up with when dealing with smoke. even on like triple A titles, theres some neat solutions of handling smoke. I feel like its one of those things that youll never really master, both as an animator and a programmer. Its just so unpredictable.

I remember I wanted to make a smoke effect in the last game jam, and I remembered The Company Of Myself had an awesome smoke effect. So I opened it up only to realize the smoke was pre-rendered as a PNG sequence (apparently there was this royalty free smoke effect they modified) and checking out its prequel, the smoke was dynamic but didn't look nearly as good. I started searching for tutorials and realized all the ones I found in AS3 sucked and the others that were in C++ didn't have a demo so I would have to implement the code before I could see whether it was any good.

Sooo yeah, someone should make a good smoke effect in flash then release the source.

At 10/4/12 08:01 PM, Ship wrote: Last year Tom offered store credit for every contest except the writing contest, which had a cash prize (I would know, I got third :) ). So I'm a little surprised as to why he isn't doing that this year. Last year the payouts went something like:

The last writing contest was a few months ago, where only 6 people entered. As you can see, the writing section of NG has really dwindled since the start of these monthly writing contests where at least 30 people used to enter.

So it doesn't really make sense if Tom offers cash prizes and only 5 people enter, and everyone who enters, regardless of quality, gets a prize.

But I hope by reviving the contests we can revive the community and hopefully get more people to regularly be active in the writing scene so future contest would be deemed worthwhile to have official prizes.

Just my 2 cents.

At 10/5/12 05:03 AM, inquisitorlee wrote: Thank you but I still don't get it.

What is this lounge really for? I have an idea that this is a "miscellaneous kinda thread" but what's the purpose for this lounge? Is it good for Newgrounds? I just read the OP is veered against this kind of lounge.

So what gives - politely?

=)

...what?

People talk about the flash scene here. What's confusing you so much?

Take a look at a few pages from the thread and you'll get a feel for the kind of discussion that goes on. Some of it is profound debates about the state of Flash/programming/art/games/newgrounds etc.., while others is just general chit chat between regularly active members here.

At 10/5/12 03:49 AM, inquisitorlee wrote: Can someone enlighten me as to what this "lounge" is for?

=)

Here you go: http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/578434/1#bbspost10466452 _post_text

At 10/4/12 12:45 AM, DeftAndEvil wrote: I'd avoid Slenderman and Creepypasta. Spiders aren't "horror-ful," they are more just creepy. Aim for something that will give you nightmares.

I agree here. My idea of an ideal horror story is one that physically makes me cringe and makes my heart actually beat faster. Or, another form of horror is one I read of Stephan King, where the story was so grim that I had to stop reading and go outside because it was seriously affecting my mental well-being.

I just made a newspost that will keep all the updated info of the contest:

http://4urentertainment.newgrounds.com/news/post/764713

Up to date info on judging and prizes here: http://4urentertainment.newgrounds.com/news/post/764713

CosmicDeath has so generously agreed to donate $30 to the prize pool!

Deathcon is now a judge! He has also agreed to give the winner an NG "Supporter" badge, meaning he'll donate $25 to NG on behalf of the winner, giving him the supporter upgrade.

So now the prize pool consists of $40 plus a $25 NG donation!

It's so awesome to see members of this diverse community pitching in. Now I'm really excited.

Perhaps in the future we could have some more creative prizes as well, like getting a character of your story drawn for the winning story.