I'm in San Diego, getting settled in for a busy week. I already had my first Jamba Juice of the week!

Luis has taken over the Comic-Con list of appearances! He even broke them down into staff, mods & affiliates, and everyone else.

In other news, Nathaniel Milburn and Atomic Noodle have announced the launch of their new art community site, Camp North!

Today's $100 winner is Snowy-Beast, concluding our 20 day, $100 per day give-away! If you didn't win... Maybe next time!

Tomorrow I'm flying out to San Diego to get ready for Comic-Con. We're gonna have a live streaming webcam at the booth, running during regular event hours from Thursday the 24th until Sunday the 27th. This is assuming nothing goes wrong with the cam or our booth bandwidth.

If you're at Comic-Con, look for "the Behemoth / Newgrounds" in your guide. The booth is primarily for showcasing Castle Crashers, but we'll have a 9 foot tall Newgrounds poster on display.

It's been fun making daily posts this month and we'll wait and see what my posting habits are for the rest of the summer. I tend to get quiet when I'm focused on code, but I might take it easy a little while longer now that Castler Crashers is done. Lately I've been tinkering with Pixel Puncher, but also working on docs to add to our library of potential NG features.

I'll wrap things up with some reminders:

Clock Day is August 15th! We are giving out prizes again:

1st: $500 + t-shirt and stickers
2nd: $250 + t-shirt and stickers
3rd: $250 + t-shirt and stickers
4th: $250 + t-shirt and stickers
5th: $250 + t-shirt and stickers
6th-10th: t-shirt and stickers

Madness Day is September 22nd. We will be announcing prizes for that later! In the meantime, you can prize yourself with a Madness shirt from store.

And one final note of amusement... RSQViper made a Penicorn in Spore.

I'll likely post from San Diego over the coming week!

We are setting up a live streaming webcam at our booth for the Behemoth / Newgrounds at Comic-Con!

The stream will run from Thursday, July 24th until Sunday, July 27th, during regular Comic-Con hours and assuming our internet connection continues to work.

The stream will be available on Stickam.com via this link:
http://www.stickam.com/newgrounds_cam

Tons of NG regulars will potentially make appearances on the cam! Here is a list of some of the NG folks who will be at Comic-Con.

If you take any funny screenshots during the event, post them in this thread!!!

At 7/18/08 12:25 PM, RSQViper wrote: Did you completely forget about the Spore Penicorn I made?

Whoops! I'll put that in tomorrow's post!

At 7/18/08 12:12 PM, cast wrote: Sadly his poster is a bit out of date.

How so?

MaestroRage has posted the latest Monthly Audio Contest! The theme this month is "Sorrowed Tears", meaning your song has to be REALLY SAD. Read MR's post for more info. We're giving out a few hundred bucks in prizes!

Today's $100 winner is Girdf! Tomorrow is the last day of the daily $100 give-away. On Sunday I'll be flying out to San Diego to prepare for Comic-Con! I'll be at the Behemoth booth promoting Castle Crashers.

Speaking of Castle Crashers, Joystiq posted a very positive E3 Hands On!

And speaking of daily winners, Luis is giving away $1 per day from now until Sunday. Just check out KevnSevn for proof that it works!

To continue getting in the Comic-Con spirit, we've re-skinned the front page with Jeff's NG Comic-Con poster. It's awe-inspiring. If you aren't familiar with some of the characters, I made an interactive Flash version! You can scroll over the characters to see who they are, or click them to view their stuff!

In other fandom news:

TehSlapHappy and Parlux are hosting a GTA4 game meet-up on the Xbox 360, Saturday at 5:00pm EST! Read their post for more info.

elliez3 has made a poster to remind everyone that Clock Day is August 15th!

Brumak drew the NG tank on his wall. You can see the final result on page two of that thread.

A few months ago Techno posted about how he was gonna go to a mall in a HOTDOG COSTUME and scream about NEWGROUNDS. He actually did it, and this video was the result, although I don't hear any screaming!

Here is a reminder that Rudy is organizing a Newgrounds collab! There is also a thread about it.

This can be the official thread... What does everyone think of that? We figured we would leave it up for the next week until Comic-Con is over.

At 7/17/08 12:26 PM, STEM wrote: TOM you should do a newspost on the iconhelpers page! Long ago I remember it being mentioned that those stats would be tracked in profiles some time :(
http://www.newgrounds.com/iconhelpers

I still do hope to have that, just FYI for anyone wondering.

At 7/17/08 11:37 AM, Anim8or666 wrote: Why are the winners always '05 and '06 users? Did you set the raffle script to disregard all '07 and '08 users?

I think it's more common for hardcore voters to be older users... Or it's just dumb luck... But the script doesn't check for sign-up date.

At 7/17/08 10:58 AM, squeakytoad wrote: "RTIL AND ZEKEY YOU'RE ON THE POSTER AND ONE OF YOU WAS NOMINATED FOR A TANKY AND THE OTHER GOT TO VOTE SO PLEASE LIKE NEWGROUNDS ALREADY PLEASE."

I can honestly say they would still have had all those things even if they kissed NG butt all day, but also... PLEASE GUYS LIKE NEWGROUNDS ALREADY PLEEEEEEEEEEEEZE!!!!!

At 7/17/08 11:02 AM, Bullion wrote: How much money did Sumosac give you then?

We were paid with sacs.

At 7/17/08 10:53 AM, Atgod88 wrote: That April song must have pissed you off :)

I am incapable of emotion.

Just a reminder that Max Games has announced their new Flash game contest, with over $40,000 in prize money! The contest runs until October 30th and you can implement our Flash Ads in your submission! They also posted about it here on NG.

I've been jotting down lots of notes about NG happenings so here goes:

Firstly, Rudy is organizing a Newgrounds collab! He has also made a thread about it, so be sure to have a look if you are interested in being a part of it!

Jeff has posted the Comic-Con poster he put together for our booth (the Behemoth / Newgrounds in the listing)! Also, we DID intend to have the RWD mascot in there so I'm gonna see if it's not too late to make it to print... Otherwise, I PROMISE I WILL MAKE IT UP TO YOU GUYS SOME DAY.

Congratulations to Luke Norman and Mark Aberdour for their first year together!

Techno made StrawberryClock in Spore.

Does this fan-made Lobster Johnson Lego Man (from Hellboy) look familiar?

In more unholy news...

Luis has defiled the Portal with this NSFW art thread.

The Wade Birgade have made a song about April...

And uh... HAPPY KITTY DAY EVERYBODY!

Today's $100 winner is racky1! We're giving away $100 per day from now until I leave for Comic-Con on July 20th. To participate in the raffle, all you need to do is vote on five submissions while logged in. Every day I run a raffle script based on activity from the previous day, and a winner is declared!

Ghostdemon has been maintaining a list of the daily $100 winners, check and see if you're on it!

If you read my post about the SumoSacs, you'll know why I am once again telling you to go buy a SumoSac! They are lots of fun.

At 7/16/08 08:16 PM, Esn wrote: 59 cents, rather.

Those aren't the normal results, something is wrong with his implementation and I'm looking into it.

At 6/10/08 10:25 PM, El-Presidente wrote: I'm not shitting with you Coaly...

I'm looking at Pico & Pals now and it doesn't load an ad... When's the last time you saw an ad load in there? Is there a chance one of the early file updates busted the ad code?

At 7/16/08 07:56 PM, Esn wrote:

That's good, Tom, but how about putting advertisements IN the Audio Portal? You know, while the music's playing. Instead of (or alongside the) audio visualizations.

And just as another suggestion, the audio advertisements could be related to the music genre category that the audio is submitted into. So that jazz music could have advertisements for jazz-related concerts, musicians, CDs, instruments, venues, websites, etc.

I've explored some options for having artist opt-in (the artist chooses to run it) audio pre-roll before their music, which would be revshare based. It would probably be near-impossible to actually have ads relevant to the music genre, more likely they would be like general radio ads. It's one of those things that could feel kinda yucky, and realistically the AP would probably need a lot more traffic before it could really pay off for individual artists - so until then it would just annoy people. :)

At 7/16/08 05:59 PM, The-Swain wrote: Rucklo is correct (AS USUAL), the writer's portal will be there to serve Flash authors.

Darnit I should have just read ahead before posting. :)

At 7/16/08 05:19 PM, Ansel wrote: Writer's Portal? What's this shit? I thought this was a Flash site. Tom, I recall reading some little snippet of text you wrote about the decision to keep the portal flash-only, as opposed to allowing the submission of video files as well. I respect that decision, and feel adding a Writer's Portal (along with the "Art Portal" I keep hearing about) would detract from the site's focus. Of course it'd bring the traffic rolling in, but it'd also probably expand the site too much.

There's a plan for NG that integrates all these things while still keeping Flash at the forefront. The goal of everyone on NG should be to collaborate and create better Flash. For example, we've already seen how much better a game can be when a programmer teams up with a great artist, and we've seen how much better a cartoon can be when an artist teams up with a great voice actor. But what about having more well-written original material? Or a larger swath of original characters? One user might only be able to draw a great character, but another could voice it and yet another could animate it. Maybe someone could write a story for it or someone else could program a game for it. That's how I like to see it all going.

At 7/16/08 03:31 PM, Stomer wrote: Even if NG MAG isn't used at the momment, it will be good to have later on when things start to get put into motion, it's a usefull site and it thins out the amount of half finished flashes on the portal. It also keeps the community in touch with popular artists through interviews etc.

Alphas are getting broken out of NGMag and will become more integrated with the Portal. Interviews could possibly return as a standalone, but the long-term goal has been for them to return as a function of the Writers' Portal, when that magical day arrives.

At 7/16/08 03:22 PM, RockinPunk wrote: Convert the Store button into a big button. You could replace the NG.MAG button, I don't know anybody that visits it, or you could just make the header wider, I guess. Although that might come with some viewing issues to people with smaller monitors.

We're gonna replace the NG Mag button when the new store launches. And I hate for that to look like the death of NG Mag because it's not, but NGMag is all busted right now and no one gets any use out of it. The interviews and Alphas WILL RETURN.

At 7/16/08 03:08 PM, The-Hitman wrote: Have you guys considered using television ads to advertise Newgrounds and the store? I'm sure Newgrounds would be getting a lot more visitors/members if you throw out a big flashy ad.

That's the thing, though - we already have enough audience to support way more artists, if we can find the right ways to "work it" without getting too commercial and off-putting. I'm hoping will have some good examples of this in the not-too-distant future.

At 7/16/08 02:47 PM, Stomer wrote: Or something alone those lines, that way, everyone wins, artists get money, newgrounds gets money and attracts loads of flash artists, and viewers get to get merchandise with their favourite characters on it.

We can't make it quite as easy as Cafepress because we are producing much better quality shirts - and artists are getting a better cut. We have to pay considerable up-front costs to get the first batch of shirts made, although the goal IS to make a ton more shirts than we are making now. We need to improve our methods for selling more shirts, though.

And I don't even mean selling more to you guys here in this thread... There are TWELVE MILLION unique visitors who pass through NG in a month and don't even know we are having this discussion... THOSE are the people who need to be aware that we have cool shirts to sell. And we have a lot of plans on that front.

At 7/16/08 02:20 PM, Zack wrote: it's like watching a little kid growing up and learning new things.

That's a good analogy for the SITE, but in terms of watching the team, that's pretty much what people have gotten to witness. :)

At 7/16/08 02:03 PM, Matt-Frozenfire wrote: I think Splitting the API money in any way would not be a good idea since the money system doesn't reward much already. You are better off getting sponsored other ways, since it's a guaranteed reward.

The Flash ads perform really well for submissions that get a lot of views, it just depends on the submission. A game that gets 200,000 views on NG will tend to get millions more across the web, and games also tend to generate a higher CPM, so the results can be great for everyone.

Future NG sponsorships and prize money will likely filter through the system as well.

At 7/16/08 01:12 PM, Techno wrote: GJ winner.

Also, tom check this out NG characters that i made using the game Spore.

Sweet... I know I saw an Alien Hominid one somewhere... Forget the link.

Our daily $100 winner is NewShape! You should also watch his movie, Undead Steel. I wouldn't have caught it if not for this daily drawing, so yay for that. Sorry it got missed the first time around!

We're giving away $100 per day from now until I leave for Comic-Con on July 20th. To participate in the raffle, all you need to do is vote on five submissions while logged in. Every day I run a raffle script based on activity from the previous day, and a winner is declared!

Today is the one year anniversary of the redesign launch!

Yesterday I made a post about some of the fun things that have occurred since, as well as the not-so-fun. Today I'll be talking about the developments on the back-end, and what to expect in the immediate future.

With the Flash Portal being the centerpiece of NG for the past nine years, we've seen a lot of talent come and go. Some have enjoyed great success, while others, not so much. The primary motivation for making Flash should always be the passion to create regardless of whether there is financial gain to be made; however, we recognize that a lot of artists dream of Flash being more than just a hobby.

We have already hired a number of NG regulars for full-time staff positions, but the reality is that in order to serve the ongoing flow of artists who come to the site, we need to work WITH them to generate revenue, rather than hiring them to work FOR Newgrounds. Realistically, a lot of people won't achieve the dream of making Flash for a living. There are, however, plenty of opportunities to supplement your income (and pay for gas), or fill in the gaps between your freelance gigs and have fun doing it.

To accomplish these goals, we've tackled some intimidating systems for transaction processing, fulfillment and large-scale payouts.

The existing store has made a lot of headway, in terms of inventory and fulfillment, which are handled by Bob and Tim right here in the NG office. When the new store launches, we'll be accepting payments through NG rather than Paypal, and royalties for third party merch sales will be available to artists in real-time. You will have the option to showcase the items you've bought, for bragging rights and as an extra incentive for people to BUY LOTS OF STUFF. Keep buying it and we'll keep making it.

While artists are currently unable to view their real-time store sales, they CAN view nearly real-time data for their Flash Ads. These stats have traditionally only been available to the owner of the submission but soon will be available to co-authors as well, split by owner-determined percentages. We will also allow artists to split revenue with the Audio Portal, so that musicians have the potential to accumulate earnings from the various games and movies that feature their music.

We've set up a system that allows us to process large numbers of payments via check or Paypal, whichever you prefer. We intend to build additional revenue streams to feed into this payment system, such as store referral commissions and other potential revshares.

It's been a heavy snowball, but we're gonna keep rolling it and see how big it gets. There is much more to come, but I'd rather manage all of our expectations by focusing on what's right around the corner. :)

At 7/15/08 11:14 AM, citricsquid wrote: So in the end, how much did you have to cough up? If you're allowed to disclose that information...

The biggest hit of the audit was from 2004, when we spent $100,000 upgrading the servers. The vendor we used didn't start charging PA sales tax until 2005, so we owed $6,000 for that alone. The other various unaccounted for expenses (both valid ones and ones we simply didn't have receipts for) and totalled around $11,000, after interest. They waived the penalties, which would have made the number bigger. The whole thing feels shameful but we really never knew we were doing anything wrong. You learn as you go. :)

At 7/15/08 11:37 AM, Rucklo wrote: Who deals with the economical issues anyway? Is it all you, or shared between you and Bob since he's dealing with the store? That have to be a downside of having a company of your own if you have to deal with those things... unless you actually enjoy economics and all that jazz.

I can hardly keep my own personal economy in order, which is why i've worked and saved up alot of money from the past for future unexpected expences. :)

For the most part I hate the business side of running NG, but I handle the majority of it. Tomorrow's post about INFRASTRUCTURE will actually address some of the things we've been doing to allow us to expand on what we can accomplish without wanting to blow our brains out. It's easy to get in over your head when you're trying to create opportunities for so many people at once. :)

At 7/15/08 11:25 AM, BlueHippo wrote: Taxes are shit, I found out that I was hired as a contractor at my job and had a surprise $1,700 tax bill dumped on my lap one day... I know it's not exactly the same, but that was my first true tax experience, and I have to say it was not fun :( Goodluck with all the legal mumbo jumbo.. hopefully someone at the office is good with that sort of thing. Hey Mike's good at numbers... *glares*

Yeah, the crappy part about being a contractor is you have to pay 15% into Social Security. Most people don't realize their employers pay 7.5% and only the remaining 7.5% is taken out of their salary, so if your pre-tax salary is $50,000 per year, your employer is really shelling out $53,750... And don't even get me started on how much health insurance skyrocketed this year. :)

At 7/15/08 11:22 AM, greenkube wrote: I am confused, why did you have to pay taxes on items purchased? Wouldn't that sales tax be paid when you purchased the item to the vendor you purchased from?

If you buy something on-line from an out-of-state vendor, if they don't have a phsyical location in your state, they don't have to charge sales tax for your state. It's your responsibility to voluntarily file the tax for the item you bought.