Newgrounds.com — Everything, By Everyone.

Before getting all these artists to jump in, you should post some examples of your work, to ensure that all these people's work won't be lost. Especially since you seem to have no previous flash experience.

I think what'd help with your search for some offers is to make an engine to show your skills, or to show some examples you've made.

It would help if you posted your collisions code, so we can identify the problem and fix it.

Alright, I just submitted my story. Although done in less than two days, it wasn't at all rushed. I'm happy with how it turned out, but I kind of tried something new here.

As mentioned in my previous post here, my story's actually about, without spoiling it, Joe sitting on a park bench, then going home. Hopefully it's not a boring read, as it does reflect some of my personal experiences, although exaggerated.

I look forward to seeing my scores for this month's contest, hopefully an average of 7 or above.

Malignant Thoughts: Part Two

The world suddenly felt so small and cramped, like I had seen it all. If I had been a poor beggar wandering the streets, I wouldn't be this sad. The only problems I would have, would be thinking about how I would get a meal for the day, and where I would sleep. None of this philosophical junk, none of this wandering about the meaning of my life, none of this debating with this horrible man about how we should live our lives...

For a moment, my thoughts stopped. The bad man had shut up. Was I free? I did not think of that, because the man was silent.

I looked at my clock, it was time to go back. I slowly got up and took a final look at the great view I had been admiring, then at the horrible wasteland behind me. It reminded of how I, trapped in this wasteland, forced to gaze upon which I could not have. The land over there did nothing to deserve that beauty more than the land behind me. Cruel circumstances are what made the difference.

I got up, and started to walk.

It's funny, as kids, we've always been warned of the bad things in life, drugs, murder, rape, even the littler things such as envy, greed and hatred. But no one ever said, that boredom could be this dangerous.

"Things, simply, cannot get worse." I said out load once more, not caring who heard. I was right to an extent, any adversity that would be befall me would at least create some sort of meaning to my life, would give me something to occupy my time. It seemed as though that once I retire from my job, I may literally go insane, or commit suicide. That was not a good thought, I carried on walking.

Just then, I had a thought, "What if I tried to conquer this bad man inside? What if I tried to defeat him! Yeah, that could be my goal in life, yeah, defeating the demon within!" I laughed out loud at this. I felt alive there and then, I was given a meaning from up above. I would get out of that road with a new lease on life. I was smiling now.

Apparently, this bad man hated me so much, as this happy thought quickly evaporated. I did not like this. I fought for my happy thought, I literally did. I started to run and began to hit my chest heart in a futile attempt to defeat this bad man. I wanted to be happy again and I was determined not to let this bad man control my life any longer. As I ran, I thought about how ridiculous I looked; a 50 year old man, running in a suit, hitting himself on the chest. I began to slow down, but I knew if I did, the bad man would catch up to me.

I looked behind as I ran, and he was there! The bad man was there, running after me!

"W-w-what?!" I shouted aloud, "he was supposed to a metaphor, in my mind..."

I did not know how or when he appeared, I could not describe him, but I knew it was him. I looked around myself, I was no longer in the road where I once was. I was alone out here, being chased by this bad man.

I could not outrun him, I decided to face him. I hadn't much to lose, I had only one thing left to protect; my sanity, or, what was left of it.

I charged at him head first. He was lunging at me with a small dagger in his hand, but that did not slow me down. I was ready to face my greatest enemy, the most dangerous entity I have ever known.

I bumped head first into him and he fell to the ground. However, his dagger sunk deep into my skin. The pain was excruciating, but I carried on. I grabbed him and started punching. I attacked with fury that surprised even me. I punched and kicked, clawed and scratched. I was beating the man to a bloody pulp. Tears ran down my face. It wasn't because of the brutal murder I was doing, I had served in the army, and I've gotten my share of killing, but the feeling of beating, of letting out all the anger and misery that has been bottled up for all these years brought tears of joy to my face.

For a moment, it seemed that my body was moving on its own, my hands would not stop beating this man. I could not get enough of this fight, when I finally stopped it was because my body could no longer keep up. I hadn't felt such a rush in a long while, the adrenaline pumping through my blood made me feel alive, I had forgotten how good that felt. The world seemed much more vast and interesting now.

I collapsed after this brutal fight, I glanced at the bad man, he was beaten beyond all recognition now; just a big pile of colored flesh, bones and cloth drenched in blood. I looked around, I was still in the open road, with the green land on one side, and the sandy wasteland on the other. I looked down and found the dagger still lodged in my body. I was so pumped I felt no pain from that, amazing what your body does in times of crisis. I pulled it out in one swift motion so as not to prolong the pain and I covered up the wound.

I was unaware of the actual events that occurred, but I was sure of one thing; I conquered this bad man, I conquered my own thoughts. That day marked a great triumph for me. I would live my life henceforth as a free man, as a happy man. Yes, that felt good, that was a good thought, I would hold onto it tightly from here on out.

This brutal murder, it was a problem. I would probably plead self defense in the court and I could afford a good lawyer. This was good, it was a problem, a big one, and would be hard to get out of. It was a perfect Sunday walk; I enjoyed a peaceful stroll, and had acquired a meaning for my world, and hope, dear sweet hope. It felt divine.

I had a new calling, a new lease on life. I would no longer live to serve, to help, or to succeed, but rather, to be happy. I walked home that day, for the first time in over 30 years, as a free, happy man. Suddenly, everything seemed so much simpler, and much more interesting. I was eager to see what the world had in store for me, I was eager to live my life. And most importantly, I had conquered my thoughts, the thoughts that would have surely eaten away at the last bits of my sanity if left unchecked.

End.

Malignant Thoughts: Part One

Story Two

Word Count: 2,646

The peace and quiet of the open road on a Sunday morning have always mesmerized me. The beautiful green grass, above which lay a few fallen yellow leaves. The trees seem so thick and vibrant with a dark brown. The sounds of the rustling wind and the singing of the birds all play in harmony with the tiny footsteps of small park animals. It is as if it is one grand show, orchestrated by Mother Nature. And behind this grand performance stands a very great, yet modest one. Partially seen through the thick trees, the dawn creeps up ever so slowly. Its light coating all what I see and beyond in colors not even a master artist could use, not as skillfully as this great, orange artist.

Despite this view being merely a few feet away, it is separated from me by a barrier. A great, majestic world lies opposite to me. But on my side, I only have an old, rusty bench, decorated with pieces of gum that look more than five years old. And around that, nothing but trash and sand. It's a funny sight, really, it is hard to imagine two worlds, mixing together in such a way. But that's what you get when people, these worthless...when people get involved.

I've always enjoyed coming out here every week, enjoying the quiet, peaceful atmosphere. Great view, no pollution and best of all, not a single person in sight.

Coming out here was always the only time I got, where I was alone with my thoughts. I'd often flip open my mind's engines and see where my train of thought ---

"Do you have a light?"

I was taken aback by this voice that cut through the quiet I had been enjoying. I looked up and saw a young man of about twenty. He was quite tall with a strong build. He was wearing a leather jacket. His outfit made me think of those kinds of people, whom you'd only see in an alley after midnight, and you'd usually be paying your local hospital a visit after that, if you were lucky.

"I uh...I..." I stuttered, trying to fumble a reply. I took an awkward gulp and continued," Sorry I...I don't seem to have one."

"Alright, sorry for bothering you," he said in a confident voice and continued his walk.

"Well he seemed nice..." I thought as I watched him walk out of view, "I did have a lighter, why didn't I give it to him?"

The answer was obvious to that one, I wasn't the most socially active person, in fact I could be labeled as the least in my group of friends. I could feel the heat on my face, it was probably awfully red right then. I just wasn't ready for a social encounter like that, and I handled it horribly. Usually, before talking to a stranger, I'd just take in a few deep breaths, try to shake the nerves, and just go on and do it. Apparently, I was too shaken to remember I had a lighter.

After taking this awkward blow, I decided to smoke a cigarette. But then a thought crossed my mind; what if he came back this way and saw me with the lighted cigarette?
"Now that would be awkward," I said out load albeit in a low voice, and so I decided against it.

And then began to I wonder, where had I gone wrong? All the teachers and my parents applauded me for being such a good student. I wasn't the typical nerd; I excelled at both academics and sports. For a time, all this success had gone to my head; I believed I could go on without any friends or companions. "They're a waste of time," I used to think, arrogantly.

This didn't go on for long however, as I discovered that I was slowly losing my mind. I started to seek social activity, and for a time, it was like nothing I had experienced. It felt good being with other people actually having fun for once. It seemed that "fun" was actually essential to my life. All work and no play makes jack a dull boy and all that. I relied heavily on going out with other people, it made me feel alive, gave meaning to my existence. After a few months however, I realized that having a social life, was like a drug. You could get addicted to it, or it would lose its effect the more you use it. Unfortunately, I experienced the latter. It no longer gave my life the meaning I craved, it did not fulfill my desires. It stopped being fun. I began to go out less and less, and I met a very bad man.

I believe that having a social life, having fun and all these activities that would qualify a person as being "normal" are what keep us sane in life. They are like threads in the crucial rope that ties us to safety; that stops us from meeting this bad man that has ruined my life. They merely occupy us, they trick us into thinking there is meaning to this world. And by God I would rather live as an ignorant fool than to be left alone with this bad man.

But what do I know? I'm an outsider. I do not live in the same world these people do. No, just as this road separates me from that beautiful grassy area, they live in social circles. I could be physically standing close to these people, but I would be far, far away from them, in the land of the outsiders. I am not one of them, never have, never will be.

I have spent many days, months and years alone. I enjoyed it at first, but just as social gatherings have lost their greatness over time, so have these lonely moments. I began to think low of myself. My mind started wandering to dangerous places, places I never wanted to see nor ever hear about. My world ceased to have meaning. I was functioning as a practical machine.

I am the CEO of a large multibillion dollar business. My products have spread in over 50 countries, I have all the money I'll ever need. I am not stingy nor do I waste my money. I live in a slightly above average house, and I am keen on giving to charity every month. I like to help people, and take nothing in return. I live by impractical morals of honor and nobility. I do not fight back when I am insulted, I simply move on. It might seem like I am gloating about myself, but whenever I am praised for being kind, generous, or just being a good man, I almost shed a tear. Their kind words seem to be very...kind. Like lying on a soft, fluffy bed after a long and tiring workout. Many people envy me, some admit it, others only show it. But I am sure, if they knew of this suffering I endure every day, they would regret it all.

I am often glad that I am interrupted from such thoughts, but this time, the voice only made things worse. I listened to a group of teenaged girls passing by. They seemed so happy, laughing, laughing with real joy. They were flushed with happiness. It made me envy them. Why couldn't I be happy? Why couldn't I feel happiness anymore? None of this success or money mattered any more. I'd gladly throw it all away for a cup of happiness. Wouldn't that be a show? A cup of happiness, drink it, and you feel actual happiness. I would like to see that.

I had sacrificed my happiness in life, for success and money, but that was not my main quest. I wanted to help people, to make a difference in people's lives, and I have. I have achieved everything I ever dreamed of, I imagined the moment would be much different than this, sitting on an old bench, all alone, envying a group of teenaged girls...

It felt horrible knowing, that I was trapped; there was no escape from this misery, from this emptiness. I was already married, and I loved my wife and kids. But that too lost its greatness after a while. Nothing made sense anymore. Why was I, the one who worked hard all my life, who was always willing to sacrifice for the greater good, who always tried to excel, tried to help people, tried to make a difference, why was I the one sitting here, alone with this horrible man inside, sad and feeling unaccomplished?

Malignant Thoughts

Story One

Word Count: 20

The longer a man is left alone with his own thoughts, the more suffering he endures. That is a fact.

Shouldn't Epic Beard Man and John of War's prizes be passed to the runner ups, since they're staff projects? However you didn't mention that there were prizes.

At 3/8/10 11:00 AM, 1-ceth wrote: It didnt work for me. I'm using a picture of a spaceship, and it just stays there. Does this code move the screen, not the player? This is the code that I have:

This is a classic case of when people copy off a tutorial without knowing what it actually means.

Do you see any part in the code that moves anything? No.

Is it just me, or is every single story out there a sad one? After skimming through the contest and finding that out, now that I think about it, it seems impossible to write a happy story without it being extremely boring.

There has to be some kind of conflict, some kind of plot, something bad to happen, and people try to solve that.

Seems like common sense, but I just thought of that. Something to note perhaps...

At 3/7/10 01:38 AM, Izzy712 wrote: Blocking knife kills would screw up the gameplay, but I think a perk that would reduce the damage of an enemy knifing you would work.

That'd be real stupid. Imagine someone coming, knifing you, you don't die, you'll obviously knife them and kill them. Unless you had that perk too, but you might as well just finish them off with your gun, since that'd be faster like that.

Also, Death Streaks are indeed worthless, so are riot shields. I'm pretty sure that a minimal amount of thought was put into making both the riot shields and Death Streaks as shitty as they are.

Riot shields can pwn y'know. And when they are used in teamwork (as in, one shielder, one gunner) they can be a real threat.

I thought you were just joking, but you were actually serious. You come in here with a smug order for people to make you a preloader, when they have no idea what you're doing, what you're offering as compensation, or how good your skill is, or whether this is even a game or a movie.

I'm pretty sure 99% of the "preloaders" you're going to get will be making fun of you. Really man, I can't believe you didn't see that coming.

So you ask a question, take the answer, turn into a "tutorial", take all the credit for yourself then repeat?

I'm pretty sure that the whole jittery thing is because of the Vcam itself. Either live with it, or get rid of the Vcam. It was never made for games in the first place. And it's much better to make your own scrolling technique.

Just set it's X and Y positions relative to the player's.

Example:

lifeBar.x = player.x - stage.width/2
lifeBar.y = player.y - stage.height/2

At 3/6/10 08:20 AM, SteakandKidneyPie wrote: God there is alot of whingers on the forums, just shut up and read it.

I am never this angry, but I am sick of people complaining about me helping other people.

JUST READ AND LEARN

And I'm sick of obnoxious people such as yourself that think they're qualified to make a tutorial when they aren't, and can't even take a bit of criticize.

You're not helping anyone like this.

You misspelt "Menu".

At 3/6/10 09:53 AM, bcapecci wrote: Gettting 5k from ads is still very hard. Even if you had 1 million views the CPM would need to be $5. Good games can make well over 10 million (accross all sites) however but they often find better ways to monitize. Making 5k by selling to sponsers is much easier... email the portals as has been said. Try and maintain any rights you can while balencing your profit. I suggest non-exclusive and the right for ads if possible though many portals wont allow this.

Of course, the best option is to get a primary license, which is both a sponsorship, and ads. If we assume that CPM is $1. That's be $1000 per million. As you mentioned, 10 million views would then earn you $10,000 from ads alone. A game like that would surely get over $10K for the flat sponsorship price.

At 3/6/10 08:17 AM, SteakandKidneyPie wrote: I didn't google this,

What, so you just kept on trying all the possible words till you got the right syntax?

Mike's post, although harsh, has a point. It's a pretty simple function, and self explanatory. A quick google search would suffice. No need for a tutorial.

Besides, you never even explained all the properties for this function. What does "_blank" mean? What if I want it to open in a new page, or in the same page? etc...

At 3/6/10 08:46 AM, SteakandKidneyPie wrote: If you want a reliable website, newgrounds would be the one.

Plus all ad earnings and game earnings are crap. No matter where you go you wouldn't get what you would like.

Newgrounds is the best, 200 people determine their vote on your submission then you would know how great it is.

I would stick to Newgrounds sponsorship

Submitting to newgrounds != Getting sponsored by newgrounds.

Very few games actually get sponsored by newgrounds, and those are usually top notch quality.

As for ad earnings, some games earn over $5000 from ads alone.

As for "200 people voting on your submission". My game that I couldn't find a sponsor for, got half a million views. People submit their games all over the internet.

Man, I thought it was going to be an actual code, but nah, each number represents the number of the letter in the alphabet, what kind of code is that?

I doubt people couldn't figure that out.

If you want a code that's impossible to crack, then make it. You could do something like, each number had to be multiplied by two, subtract by the original number, then add two. And that's the letter. Simple, yet I doubt anyone would guess all these steps.

At 3/6/10 07:30 AM, meneldil wrote: People who used it, gief us sum opinions.

I'll be looking for a sponsor in a few days too =D

It's incredibly useful, especially if you're just starting out, and most sponsors may not reply to your email.

An important thing to note though, that the first 30 seconds of the game are the most important, if a sponsor (or player) isn't interested in the game by then, he'll just move on to another.

What exactly does this have to do with flash again?

At 3/5/10 11:20 AM, Coop83 wrote: Practice makes perfect. Don't start if you don't think you'll be finished by the 8th, because that would be demoralising. If you feel you could, feel free to enter, by all means, but I hate the idea of writing for the sake of it and then abandoning the piece after a short while.

I tend to write the main bulk of the story in one sitting, then finish and proofread. I've gotten used to this method in school, where I'd have to write a short story in a limited time in class.

Anyway, thanks for the encouragement. Off to re-read the contest rules and think of a 20 word story.

At 3/5/10 05:11 AM, CrossFyre wrote: It does, and I find that sad - but that's probably just another good reason for me not to start making those games xD

It's not so bad, it makes sense actually, since there are thousands of free flash games, people just move on quickly from one to another. All they invest in this game, is a few kilobytes of bandwidth and a few seconds of their time, so if they're not interested in the game past the menu, they'll just move on to something else.

Yeah, I've considered doing that, but really who would play it and why? There's already thousands of those ... but, I suppose, really with the luck I've been having maybe I should.

As I said, this one wouldn't be for releasing as a game, but more for showing as an example to artists, just so they know you have sufficient skill.

Damn, only a few days left, and I haven't even started yet. After entering the second and third contests, I always have a fear of a low score and bad review. Hopefully I can write something worthwhile this time.

At 3/4/10 11:03 PM, CrossFyre wrote: I don't have any proper examples of my work, and that's why I'm doing this. The reason I don't have proper examples is because I have jack all ideas to start a game with, short of something that would take many many months to make.

Ironically, such games may not be as successful in flash as small casual games, as flash is a casual game market. The first 30 seconds of the game determine whether or not the player will continue playing or quit.

So I'm asking for people who just want some code for a project they're already done with, or nearing completion, or some similar situation. I'm not looking to make my own games or do full projects just yet.

And that's exactly why you should get cracking on your own right now. You don't need to make a full blown game, what you should do, is a game engine. Starting from something as simple like an asteroids clone.

Lots of people come here offering work, but why should people come to you when they see someone else with proven skill?

That's just my advice, and I wish you the best of luck regardless.

At 3/5/10 01:25 AM, Buster60 wrote: if I had asked a different question, like how to do a thing similar to what I have asked just without mentioning I want to make a tutorial about it, your answer would surely have been different.

Obviously it would have. Since the whole problem is that you're essentially asking about how to make tutorial.

As for your actual question:

how can I animate a cursor going over tools and drawing squares (it seems really hard)

Did you try tweening it?

No seriously, it's like you're asking for a tutorial on how to create a tutorial. That's just silly. If you can't figure that much out, then you're obviously not experienced enough in flash to be making a tutorial in the first place, whether you're a programmer or an animator.

Well, if you'd like people to offer you some work, it's always a good idea to post up an example of your work. Try going for, as you suggested, a simple game with placeholder graphics, then see if anyone would be willing to create some art for it, and you can go on from there.