Happy New Year!
Yesterday I posted a 2020 Newgrounds Retrospective, please give it a read.
Also read PsychoGoldfish’s Retrospective because it’s really good.
There’s a weird sort of anxiety in the air today… Like you can tell yourself it’s just another day but there’s a certain weight behind “ok 2020 is in the bag, now what are you doing for 2021 go go go go!”
It’s also weird because all my life, 2020 was the sci-fi future date, then we got to 2020 and we had arrived in the future, but now we’re like… Continuing further into the future and it’s kind of scary.
I’m gonna keep the Daily Tablet and Featured Flash posts going to help ease us into the new year. It’s good to have some normalcy nowadays, especially with Flash likely still running in browsers until the 12th and the whole presidential transition happening on the 20th.
Community News
@Little-Rena has announced the 2020 BBS Awards Winners!
@meatcanyon is releasing Monster Lab Episode 1 this Sunday, January 3rd.
Tankmas ADVENTure has one final surprise coming today!
We’ve extended our Double XP event through the end of January, so you can vote on at least ten items per day to log 20 XP. It would be great if you voted on more than ten, though.
Throughout December we’ve had a growing backlog of Under Judgment Movies and Under Judgment Games. If you start near the bottom of those lists, there are likely entries that only need a few votes to complete the judgment phase. It’s gotten crazy, I know.
Some good news from December is we managed to hit our 2020 goal of 4k supporters! Thank you everyone who turned up to support NG last year! We're hoping to keep this momentum going and cross 5k before the end of 2021.
Today’s Drawing Tablet Recipient
Today’s tablet recipient is @colorsCrimsonTears.
He’s been illustrating on a six year old Nintendo 2DS…!
Today’s Featured Flash (without Flash)
Before The Binding of Isaac, @Bluebaby (Edmund McMillen) and @Komix made Tri-achnid, a game where you play as an endangered species of exopod on the verge of extinction, in search of a safe haven for his young. Or as @MindChamber called it, “sad spider.”
This might not be the ideal game to open 2021 with because it’s pretty bleak, so apologies in advance for that. Performance isn’t great if you don’t have WebGL support but it’s actually a lot better than it was when I tested it a month ago. I’ve also enabled it for mobile, however the menu is busted on iOS. Would any Android users be down to try it and let me know how it goes for you?
Edmund is currently working on Mewgenics with @Glaiel-Gamer, while Komix is working on Squid Invaders!
January Events
NG is hosting a Flash Forward Jam. We’re gonna surprise people with a bunch of new interactive Flash creations, running in browsers this January thanks to Ruffle, after Flash has been officially removed. Over $2,600 in prizes!
Pixel Day will be January 23rd and there will be prizes for the best animation, games, art and music. If you are down to sponsor Pixel Day, use the donation option on the Supporter page and PM me a heads up you donated towards game prizes.
Current Pixel Day sponsors are @JohnnyGuy $200, @AnonymousAlchemist $200, @SrPelo $100, @SantaSeven $100, @1DarkVoid $75, @53xy83457 $50, @Butzbo $25 and @Wegra $10, with NG tossing in $400 to bring the current prize pool to $1,160; almost triple what it was last year, with room to grow.
About Ruffle and Flash Preservation
Most of the content shared on NG nowadays isn’t Flash; you can share your HTML5 games and any sort of original animation you’ve made in video format, as well as art, music, voice reels and podcasts. As the original Flash Portal we continue to host both old and new Flash content.
Newgrounds sponsors the development of Ruffle.rs, to run Flash content in the browser without Flash. Flash will be removed from browsers at the end of the year but thanks to Ruffle, we can enjoy Flash forever! Ruffle doesn’t support everything yet, which is why we have Newgrounds Player as a desktop fallback until it does.
Ruffle was created by @Mike as an open-source alternative to the Flash plug-in, free of all the legacy problems associated with Flash. Lots of smart people have gotten involved with the project and you can sponsor it with money or help as a Rust developer.
About the Drawing Tablet Giveaway
Newgrounds is hosting a 2020 Drawing Tablet Giveaway, inviting artists to apply for the chance to receive a drawing tablet. Applications are still open, however you must be US-based (tablets are sent directly from Amazon) and your chances will greatly improve if you have examples of your art or animation here on Newgrounds.
We’ve received generous donations from @Egoraptor, @AnonymousAlchemist, @SinclairStrange, @RonDMC, @SaucySaucepan, @Afro-Ninja, @Jonas, @NCH, @Sabtastic, @Squidly, @MSGhero, @Rarykos, @Straqt, @kleinerjunge, @DevAesthetic, @NickSenny, @Zombie-Pimp, @Ronald-McDonald-LoL, @MrChambers, @53xy83457, @AKA-38CAUTION and @Wegra. As a result, this is our biggest tablet giveaway ever!
