The winners for Madness Day will be announced Monday, sorry for the delay! Getting some cool judges involved.

The Newgrounds Halloween Costume Contest has been announced by Amaranthus and Lich! Please participate!

We're having our annual pumpkin carving contest this year so if you plan to carve a pumpkin, think of a character from Newgrounds you could carve! The front page archive is a good place to find characters who have never been done before.

Our Halloween Spooktacular is a go! Make scary / horror / Halloween themed movies, games, art or music and you could win a prize!

Ongoing Layout Discussion

As we work to streamline the layout and make it better for mobile, one of our BIG goals is to not have this become a redesign project that ties up all other feature development indefinitely. To ease the transition to new pages, we are looking at transitional design concepts that could help the existing layout blend in.

What are your thoughts on this one?

The above layout features a streamlined header with no textures and nav buttons would not have dropdown categories. The remainder of the page would use our existing HTML / CSS but would swap out textures for flat colors and some gradients. The whole site would go grey, like all designs prior to 2012.

As pages are addressed individually the html and css would be redone and we'd address things like having so many boxes in boxes. New pages would be much more lightweight, easier to work with and friendly with mobile.

Soooo... Drop some feedback! I love talking about layout.

Follow Friday

I've been front paging episodes of this series but they don't get tons of clicks, is it because of the giant cropped titles in the thumbnails? If you like this, please Follow TalesofStuff so you don't miss future episodes!

• 

  Tales of Stuff Episode 1

  by TalesofStuff

  Episode 1 of Tales of Stuff!

  Movie

  8,318 Views

  (Ages 13+)

• 

  Tales of Stuff Episode 2

  by TalesofStuff

  Episode 2 of Tales of Stuff!

  Movie

  4,694 Views

  (Everyone)

• 

  Tales of Stuff Episode 3

  by TalesofStuff

  Episode 3 of Tales of Stuff!

  Movie

  6,729 Views

  (Ages 13+)

• 

  Tales of Stuff Episode 4

  by TalesofStuff

  Episode 4 of Tales of Stuff! feat. the voice of the talented Eric Bauza!

  Movie

  4,859 Views

  (Ages 17+)

• 

  Tales of Stuff Episode 5

  by TalesofStuff

  Episode 5 of Tales of Stuff!

  Movie

  4,197 Views

  (Everyone)

• 

  Tales of Stuff Episode 6

  by TalesofStuff

  Episode 6 of Tales of Stuff!

  Movie

  5,477 Views

  (Ages 13+)

• 

  Tales of Stuff Commercial

  by TalesofStuff

  Tales of Stuff Commercial!

  Movie

  8,149 Views

  (Everyone)

TheHappyToast has been making some great animations, the latest being Jazz Factory. Would be cool to see a team up with someone from the Audio Portal!

• 

  Jazz Factory

  by PsychoSpider

  A factory in the middle of nowhere produces a peculiar product. Robots that like to dance.

  Movie

  14,228 Views

  (Everyone)

• 

  Tank

  by PsychoSpider

  A biker bar gets an unwelcomed visitor, and he isn't looking for a beer

  Movie

  10,790 Views

  (Ages 17+)

• 

  Nightshade

  by PsychoSpider

  A demon steals the soul of a man, and an assassin seeks to destroy her

  Movie

  5,320 Views

  (Ages 13+)

TheUnseriousguy has also been getting some consistent front page placement this past month.

• 

  Art Asignment

  by TheUnseriousguy

  My Art Asignment

  Movie

  5,777 Views

  (Everyone)

• Unpublished Submission

• Unpublished Submission

Do you follow just2pale? I've known him for years but never actually hit the follow button until this week!

• 

  Spider Powers

  by just2pale

  Don't you realize I am bestowing super powers unto you with one bite?

  Movie

  230,433 Views

  (Ages 13+)

• 

  Spider Powers 2

  by just2pale

  Talking to your Ex can be trouble.

  Movie

  148,572 Views

  (Everyone)

...

• 

  Spider Powers 9

  by just2pale

  It's extermination time...

  Movie

  5,253 Views

  (Ages 13+)

• 

  Spider Powers 10

  by just2pale

  Scientology my dear Watson.

  Movie

  7,007 Views

  (Everyone)

In the gaming space, Die Hipster! impresses me in so many ways. There was an AS2 version on NG a few years ago that was removed when sofake decided to redevelop it for mobile. Now it's back on NG with an improved AS3 version:

• 

  Die Hipster!

  by sofake

  The chance to legally kill a hipster comes twice in a lifetime.

  Game

  124,059 Views

  (Ages 13+)

Follow sofake!

Mantis made a great high score challenge game called Abyss where you play as a wall-jumping bird. It's really important to follow game devs like this because lots of games fall under the radar.

• 

  Arise

  by Mantis1

  Jump on walls and evade a volcano's wrath!

  Game

  50,461 Views

  (Ages 13+)

• 

  Flip World

  by Mantis1

  Use bottomless pits to evade hazards! Made for Ludum Dare 30.

  Game

  6,472 Views

  (Everyone)

VinceB has a few previous games on NG but had managed to stay under the radar until releasing Fire Fighter this week!

• 

  Fire Fighter

  by VinceB

  Put out fires, save lives and jump for glory!

  Game

  23,287 Views

  (Everyone)

• 

  Grief

  by VinceB

  Travel through the five stages of grief.

  Game

  5,914 Views

  (Ages 13+)

• 

  Exercise

  by VinceB

  How high can you climb?

  Game

  6,250 Views

  (Everyone)

If you're looking for musicians to follow, TheColdSpiri made a great showing on Madness Day:

• 

  The Unicorn (MD2014)

  by Djjaner

  Epic melody Dubstep

  Song

  Dubstep

  2,763 Views

  PLAY
• 

  The Wonderful (MD2014)

  by Djjaner

  Epic Drum and Bass on Madness Day 2014

  Song

  Drum N Bass

  3,097 Views

  PLAY
• Unpublished Submission

As did RealFaction:

• 

  by <deleted>

  4 Views

• 

  by <deleted>

  4 Views

• 

  by <deleted>

  4 Views

Did you hear this NGADM entry by SoundChris and Hitokirito? POWERFUL!

• Unpublished Submission

In the art department, Nerdbayne has kicked off October with this Pumpkin person:

• 

  Scarecrow

  by Nerdbayne

  Illustration

  10,642 Views

  (Everyone)

And jagondudo made a really nice egg:

• 

  gudetama

  by jagondudo

  Illustration

  8,646 Views

  (Everyone)

Check your account page to see if you're on the panel to decide the Best of September!

Hope to see some fun costumes this month!

At 10/3/14 06:07 PM, Zachary wrote: That layout really doesn't go well with the background

http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/6a1e340f81dd74170ca74a61e25ddf9f

Light Black background looks decent though. Honestly, I am in favor of ditching the artsy fartsy backgrounds. Makes everything look that much more cluttered.

There's still the reality that we have to run skin ads on a lot of pages, too...

At 10/3/14 06:07 PM, Zachary wrote: Light Black background looks decent though. Honestly, I am in favor of ditching the artsy fartsy backgrounds. Makes everything look that much more cluttered.

Could also consider gradient sides... Been trying textured stuff but it sure does clash a lot... Also are the sunbeams behind "Newgrounds" too distracting from the rest of the page?

http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/ac69b32feb70c8e7c3d4607cc459ee86

Eh, I guess the transitional FP design will do. Certainly easy for smartphone users to see, even if it looks kinda drab. Will the drop down menu buttons still work on a smartphone, or will they go to the requisite page?

VicariousE don't do texts or cell/smartphones :|

At 10/3/14 06:48 PM, Zachary wrote: Gradient background can work, but I think it would have to be less of a jarring transition of colors. Have you thought about having a header that is artsy instead of a full background? I think something like this would work well. Makes it pop etc

A header like that would be pretty but if we did that it would probably only be for the front page - the goal is to minimize our header as much as possible, so it gets out of the way of people getting to the content they want to see.

At 10/3/14 06:48 PM, Zachary wrote: Gradient background can work, but I think it would have to be less of a jarring transition of colors. Have you thought about having a header that is artsy instead of a full background? I think something like this would work well. Makes it pop etc

Really does spice up the page to have that little strip of art... Sooooo hard to say what's best...

Here's some changes I made...

I think a textured background could work, it would just have to be subtle. Also, I think the navbar buttons are rather wide, so I slimmed them down and put them to one side, which leaves room for that art strip Zachary suggested, possibly more.

I know the buttons are rather ugly in my picture, which was made quickly.

Anyway, here's a mockup of some other ideas I had during the last discussion, Although I understand some of this may require more recoding than you'd like at the moment...

http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/7efc0e892518b1b12e779a63f68dc6cf

I really hope that the design in that picture would only show up on mobile devices. Keeping this design for desktop and having that new one for mobile would be great. Having a link at the bottom of the page to switch to the mobile design or to the desktop design would be great, too.

So, is that animator vs. animation header supposed to look like a stick man thrusting a giant penis? :3

EDIT: I hope you guys are still planning to curate the front page. That new layout picture has "latest from friends and favorites" there instead, so I don't know if that's planned or not.

Newgrounds is one of the last remaining sites I visit that has nice colors so I will miss the beautiful header, but I think the website would be cool as long as the sidebar images remained.

I agree about making the bg more simple, the first gradient looks much better, but now the orange/brown links on the layout don't suit imo. I guess it IS a transitional phase after all, one step at time :)

Cool! I've been learning Flash and just finished my newest release "Alter Kat" - a tribute to my sexy sister w/ a dark side, and featuring creepy music I made in Fruity Loops... future chapters will have more animation and storyline, but it's aimed for the spooky Halloween, autumn-time feel with her hanging out in a graveyard ... I hope everyone likes it as my #Halloween2014 submission.

Thanks Tom for being so awesome and facilitate many years of wonder & encouragement to artists such as myself!
Jenni Nexus

Our Halloween Spooktacular is a go! Make scary / horror / Halloween themed movies, games, art or music and you could win a prize!

At 10/3/14 06:32 PM, TomFulp wrote:

At 10/3/14 06:07 PM, Zachary wrote: Light Black background looks decent though. Honestly, I am in favor of ditching the artsy fartsy backgrounds. Makes everything look that much more cluttered.

Could also consider gradient sides... Been trying textured stuff but it sure does clash a lot... Also are the sunbeams behind "Newgrounds" too distracting from the rest of the page?

http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/ac69b32feb70c8e7c3d4607cc459ee86

Out of everything posted here, i prefer this the most. I'd recommend against the sunbeams being used like that, though, they do draw the eye and seem unfitted to that layout. The gradient is a must, however.

At 10/3/14 05:59 PM, TomFulp wrote: I've been front paging episodes of this series but they don't get tons of clicks, is it because of the giant cropped titles in the thumbnails? If you like this, please Follow TalesofStuff so you don't miss future episodes!
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/646624
etc

I think it's more because people tend to avoid series mass uploaded across a week. Timing uploads to be at one per week is better imo.

I like the new design. It's not too different but definitely is a cleaner look. And I love that the upload button is easier to find for people.

In my opinion why don't you organise some sort of contest for the layout you will get good ideas or
you must make it like Try these section :Games , movies , audio and art
And then Your feeds and channels in the other section this will look more organised
and yeah why don't you just add message , project manager name at the left side and Settings ,Logout and dump on the right side

Holy Shit, is the thing on the Pink Unicorn costume what I think it is!?

I've had an idea for a new design for a while. I think it's pretty original, if I say so myself.

Wow.. yeh..

If you are going to redesign this site then may I suggest something that resembles a mixture of the 2007-2012 layout and this current one?

Gray background? Trying with textures? That was the old design. The answers you're looking are in something that should have never left.

At 10/3/14 06:32 PM, TomFulp wrote:

At 10/3/14 06:07 PM, Zachary wrote: Light Black background looks decent though. Honestly, I am in favor of ditching the artsy fartsy backgrounds. Makes everything look that much more cluttered.

Could also consider gradient sides... Been trying textured stuff but it sure does clash a lot... Also are the sunbeams behind "Newgrounds" too distracting from the rest of the page?

http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/ac69b32feb70c8e7c3d4607cc459ee86

I think that the sunbeam "background" behind the logo could work as an animated fade-in-and-out transition when hovered with the cursor above it. Not only that keeps the previous logo of the first-intended design of the homepage, but, like that, could work as a highlight when you hover over it. Also, make sure to add some borders or inner shadows to make it blend with the design, preferably like in the example below.

Here is an example of what I mean:
http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/ac9db705c8e8aef5dbf6d86a0a65e23e

@liljim and whoever else can help... I noticed review dates are (were) displayed differently, looks nice! But I'm having a problem. While watching a movie or playing a game, if you should click on a numbered review page, sometimes the whole page refreshes, and displays something like this in the address bar: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/322150/review_page/3

Happened to me while playing a game, and casting about for tips/tricks/hints/feedback worth voting helpful :p Major fucking buzz-kill, sad to say. Still love you guys, just another thing delaying my supporter upgrade purchase lol. Loving Newgrounds, is sometimes like loving a sickly puppy that makes random messes on the floor... so cute, but damn!

Ah well, love isn't tailor made, it's something you buy off the rack and learn to live with, isn't it?

Tom, do consider making it less cramped by getting rid of the black banner bg.

At 10/3/14 05:59 PM, TomFulp wrote:

Ongoing Layout Discussion

The above layout features a streamlined header with no textures and nav buttons would not have dropdown categories. The remainder of the page would use our existing HTML / CSS but would swap out textures for flat colors and some gradients. The whole site would go grey, like all designs prior to 2012.

I honestly don't get what's wrong with the textures but whatever, if it's meant for the phone design then I can see where it would serve the purposes of faster loading on mobile. Are these plans to alter the color palette meant to achieve the express purpose of lowering the load time for the site or are there more reasons beyond that?

Not Final Fantasy?

I'm disappointed, Tom.

At 10/3/14 08:46 PM, Sword-of-Kings wrote: I really hope that the design in that picture would only show up on mobile devices. Keeping this design for desktop and having that new one for mobile would be great. Having a link at the bottom of the page to switch to the mobile design or to the desktop design would be great, too.

The intent for mobile is that the site would collapse into a single column format when browsed on a mobile device, so the plan would be to ultimately re-code the individual pages so that they can do that. We want a layout that is as unified as possible between desktop and mobile so that we aren't developing two completely unique sites going forward.

At 10/3/14 10:27 PM, Kajenx wrote: So, is that animator vs. animation header supposed to look like a stick man thrusting a giant penis? :3

EDIT: I hope you guys are still planning to curate the front page. That new layout picture has "latest from friends and favorites" there instead, so I don't know if that's planned or not.

It really wasn't meant to look like a thrusting penis... Whoops :(

Also that box is a screenshot of the current layout - it looks like you follow a lot of people who aren't still active with publishing content, you gotta expand this list!

At 10/3/14 11:20 PM, Blordow wrote: I agree about making the bg more simple, the first gradient looks much better, but now the orange/brown links on the layout don't suit imo. I guess it IS a transitional phase after all, one step at time :)

The plan would be to adjust the link colors to better fit... The brownish color for clicked links would definitely change to something else but we would still stay in that yellow/orange turf.

At 10/4/14 02:42 AM, MHFU-TeamLeader wrote: Holy Shit, is the thing on the Pink Unicorn costume what I think it is!?

Yup, it's a penicorn.