Some quick Flash preservation news before we get into the Best of April: If NG Player hasn’t been working for you due to Windows blocking the Flash runtime, try uninstalling it and install the latest build, NG Player 1.0.7. This version should solve all the problems we faced this year!
For in-browser Flash, today’s Ruffle update introduces a new system for Shared Objects (save data), which should be backwards compatible with the old system, so your save data isn’t lost. The old system will eventually be removed but if you play between now and then, your data should get moved to the new system automatically.
For a quick recap, we use Ruffle to run Flash content in the browser but because Ruffle isn’t ready to support everything yet, we have NG Player as a desktop fallback. Nowadays most of the animation on NG is MP4 and most of the games are HTML5, so this largely pertains to preserving older stuff while supporting the occasional new stuff.
Your votes are in and the Best of April have been determined!
Top Five Animation
The top-ranked animation based on original material and winner of $250 is Animate Me!! Congrats, @Ockeroid!
Top Five Games
The top three games based on original material and winners of $100 each are Kity Builder, Fetch Quest and I want to be popular! See the runner-up list below, which includes two of these. Also I owe @Luis and @BoMToons dinner for revisiting The Beard.
The top three original games of May will also receive $100 each, thanks to our ongoing game prize sponsors, @AnonymousAlchemist, @Manderby and @53xy83457.
If you would like to contribute to our game prize fund, use the donation option on the Supporter page and PM me a heads up you donated towards game prizes.
Runner-Up Animation
7. Fox vs Falco
9. Cuphead: Last Drop Of Greed
10. Mario's Last Day
11. Week 7 alternate ending (Friday Night Funkin' Parody)
14. Winning Oscar
15. PINK (MELTDOWN)
16. Adventure Time ANIME Op 2 | FMA Parody
18. Gone Rotten
19. Goose vs Louie
20. 64 Bits - Super Sus Bros (Custom Smash Bros + Among Us Kill Animations)
Runner-Up Games
6. Fetch Quest
8. Tooth Toss
9. Gun Orphan
10. Occupied
11. NextDoor
12. RetroMMO
14. Rat Game: Roaming of the Wretched Rat
16. Underblood
17. Gravisquare
18. Rotate
19. Block Rush
20. Third Party
Be sure to check out the Top Featured Art and Top Feature Audio of April, as well.
The voter of the month and winner of honorary Supporter status is @Hoverland!
Thank you everyone who participated in April, even when NG was struggling to host FNF Week 7. We’re still prepping for the inevitable Week 8, thank you everyone who has come aboard as a Supporter to help with the rising hosting bills.
Other News
@Stanpai is organizing an on-line NG Fest!
The Art Inspired Music Contest is in progress, with a June 21st deadline.
May 1st was Pico Day, an annual celebration of NG! Winners are still being selected and I made a Pico Day follow-up post last week.
Similarly, winners are still being chosen for the Friday Night Funkin’ Animation Jam.
The success of FNF has sort of bottlenecked everything possible; between hosting infrastructure, site code optimizations, new user sign-ups (more customer service) and larger contest turnouts, resulting in more to judge. It’s all been really exciting but also a lot of work, so thanks for bearing with us on stuff.
Pico and Tankmen are extremely popular right now but I encourage you to check out all the other cool stuff on the front page as well. Who knows how many of these people will be running their own shows some day, making top selling games or hit songs; you can say you knew them way back when!
There’s also way too much great stuff that isn’t getting a chance on the front page due to sheer volume. I recommend browsing the various options in the hubs, for example the top scoring animation this week.
