Tablet 2 and Revisiting Flash Forward

[TomFulp]

Expect a lot of news posts this month, as I’ll be announcing recipients of our Annual Drawing Tablet Giveaway while also highlighting cool things that happened on NG this year!

Drawing Tablet 2 - CloudSpires

Our second tablet recipient this year is @CloudSpires, who has been working with an old tablet that has had a bunch of wire replacements and is showing its age.

CloudSpires will be passing the old tablet to a younger sibling and embarking on a new journey with a fresh tablet!

2023 Highlight - Flash Forward

This year was our third annual Flash Forward Jam, an event where people make new Flash games that run in the browser, thanks to Ruffle.

Ruffle is an open source Flash emulator created by @Mike and now managed by a whole team of brilliant developers who have taken up the mission of preserving Flash in a way that is free and open.

People familiar with Flash know most Flash games were made with ActionScript 2 (AS2) or ActionScript 3 (AS3). The first two Flash Forward Jams were exclusively AS2 occasions and this year was the first where some AS3 support was available. This progress has continued throughout the year; Ruffle currently supports 75% of the AS3 language and 68% of the AS3 API. As this support becomes more complete, work will shift towards optimizations to improve performance.

The winning Flash game this year was Portal Defenders: Fast Break, by @BoMToons and @Luis, with music by @Dry and @POSTELVIS and voice work by @VoicesByCorey.

This was a continuation of the Portal Defenders series, all made with Flash and playable in the browser!

The second place game was Gooby, by @Guy-Unger and @SupaBubba, with music by @x-Petrichor-x, @ZaazNG, @tansau, @JamesCord and @AndrewCr. 

Gooby is a Vampire Survivors-like, which was a popular genre this year with games like Fantasy Madness, GROBLIN SURVIVORS, The Spin Slasher and Solace Inc. 

What’s impressive is to see this genre done in Flash, running via Ruffle with lots of bullets on screen! Bullet Heaven 3 from Flash Forward 2021 is another good example of this.

Third place went to Tidying Up, by @Intrapath, @Bleak-Creep, @GetterRocka, @Scarfygoose and @Taxmann.

Bleak-Creep and Taxmann worked together again later this year on Love Me Newgrounds!!! <3 JOO 2, while Intrapath made Reggie’s Seasons of Streams for Costume Jam 2023. 

GetterRocka got involved in a bunch of collaborative projects, including Frogger Tower Defense, The Skibidi Toilet Collab, Creature Collab 2023 and Monster Tavern.

Fourth place went to CypherGrid by @Veinom, an inventive action puzzle game!

This was one of three games Veinom made for the event, the other two being Pixel Puzzle and Ucogi Go.

The Flash Forward Jam had an additional category for interactive movies. @Emrox knocked it out of the park with Artifacts, a sort of demoscene meditation on Flash.

Artifacts made the front page of Hacker News, bringing expanded awareness to the Flash Forward Jam and Ruffle. I highly recommend watching this one!

The second place interactive movie was Badass Beatrice, by @HawtDogull and @Alicesqueaks.

Fans of old school Newgrounds will get a kick out of this one and if you want to keep the party going, HawtDogull went on to make ARFENHOUSE SHOPPING RAMPAGE. If you don’t know what that is, check out the Arfenhouse series page.

Third place for interactive movies went to The Whicher, by @Joeyag.

This is a great classic Flash game with branching paths. Joeyag has since shared Grimmy Groove 8bit in the Halloween Spooktacular.

You can revisit the rest of the Flash Forward 2023 Winners in the original post!

We’ll be kicking off Flash Forward 2024 in January with a round of prize fundraising. If you want to make something, you can get started now! We’ll be following the same theme, with categories for the best Flash games and interactive movies.

Thank you again to our 2023 Flash Forward sponsors!

@matt-likes-swords - Creator of Epic Battle Fantasy - $1,000

@PhotonStorm - Creator Phaser game framework and Cat Astro Phi - $250

@SamBakZa - Creator of There she is!!! - $200

@wheezl - $200

@radjunk - $150

@DrSevenSeizeMD - $103.97

@olskoo - $100

The Funkin' Crew - $100

@Weirdo - $100

@Piggybank12 - $75

@Foumart - $55

@RelchBelch - $50

@53xy83457 - $25

@HawtDogull - $25

@WiseTree-BBH - $22.22

@TecNoir - $10

Thank you to our Drawing Tablet Sponsors!

@ScarecrowArts - $300

@Zombie-Pimp - $100

@MSGhero - $60

@WiseTree-BBH - $51

@53xy83457 - $50

@RaverNG - $50

@ItsTheAshtray - $50

@The-EXP - $50

@deadspread83 - $50

@GrapheneKid - $20

@butterspam - $10

@gavmcool - $10

@agentmc1 - $5

Previous Posts

Tablet 1 & Pixel Day

Other News

Halloween Spooktacular Winners have been announced!

Last week we introduced Project Templates.

December 6th is the Music Secret Santa registration deadline.

December 8th is the Gogo’s Crazy Bones Collab deadline.

December 10th is the William and Sly Art Contest deadline.

December 11th is The Sweet Sixteen Comic Contest deadline, with $1k in prizes!

December 20th is the NGTV Christmas Collab deadline.

January 1st is the start of Jamuary, a daily music challenge!

January 5th is the NG Meetup at Anime Los Angeles, hosted by @QueenBoo and @Xeno-Cowboy!

January 15th is the Break It Up Collab breakbeat audio deadline.

January 30th is the Kamen Rider Collab deadline.

February 28th is the LISA Campfire Collab and Transformers Collab deadline.

[Dungeonation]

Congrats @CloudSpires!! You’ve got a cute style there, love how ya drew Ritz.

Also, Flash Forward hype! I expect even more people showing interest in the jam in 2024 with where AS3 support in Ruffle is now.

[agentmc1]

Congratulations to CloudSpires for winning the second drawing tablet!

[BoMToons]

Thanks for the shoutout! FF Jam is my favorite event of the year! I hope I have the bandwidth to contribute again this year!

[YendorNG]

@cloudspires congratulations on the tablet!

Flash was something of a mythical thing to me to get way back. In computer class we had a education copy of mx I played around with a friend but we didn't understand any principles of animation and of course we sucked ass.

I think CS3 was out and was a goal for me when I finally moved out of the house and into NYC in 07... Unfortunately the financial crash made that an impossibility...

Though it's so surreal to see that stuff is still being made with it despite HTML5 usurping it and it certainly does make me smile seeing goofy shit like this:

[Dungeonation]

At 12/5/23 11:26 AM, BoMToons wrote: Thanks for the shoutout! FF Jam is my favorite event of the year! I hope I have the bandwidth to contribute again this year!

I’m hopin’ too, your entries are always a treat!

[RobC3]

If anyone's on the fence about joining Flash Forward, I'd definitely say to go for it! I participated back in the 2021 jam and I remember being nervous about learning Actionscript. But, it was made better by the tons of flash-making resources and guides people have made over the years here on NG. Looking forward to seeing what this month holds!

[CloudSpires]

Woke up to this, and got confused for a second, haha! Again, thank you so much for this opportunity! I'm still getting adjusted to the XP (It's a lot bigger than I thought), but it's been a fun journey. I hope to continue creating art for Newgrounds as my art develops and improves!

[DoctorStrongbad]

Congrats CloudSpires on winning tablet number 2.

[Greenskullkid]

@Tom Unrelated but what did you think of the new GTA VI trailer?

[TomFulp]

At 12/5/23 05:28 PM, Greenskullkid wrote: @Tom Unrelated but what did you think of the new GTA VI trailer?

It's impressive to see all the stuff happening in the world and the big crowds of people where every character looks unique. I'm looking forward to more!

[Emrox]

Equally unrelated, does @Tom actually ping you, since it redirects to you?

Also, thanks for the kind words, again! Thinking about some possibilities for next FF, if I can find the time!

At 12/5/23 05:33 PM, TomFulp wrote:

At 12/5/23 05:28 PM, Greenskullkid wrote: @Tom Unrelated but what did you think of the new GTA VI trailer?

It's impressive to see all the stuff happening in the world and the big crowds of people where every character looks unique. I'm looking forward to more!

[Anonymous-Frog]

put teh plushie on teh calendr

[TomFulp]

At 12/6/23 07:22 AM, Anonymous-Frog wrote: put teh plushie on teh calendr

Added!

[TomFulp]

At 12/5/23 11:15 PM, Emrox wrote: Equally unrelated, does @Tom actually ping you, since it redirects to you?

Also, thanks for the kind words, again! Thinking about some possibilities for next FF, if I can find the time!

That's a good question, this showed up in my notifications but it would have regardless because I made the thread.

[mtv129]

I'm preparing a big project for FF 24, I hope I can win, thanks to ruffle for the support as3!

[destructin]

I suppose this is a good time as any to say that I've been looking for a programmer for this event, more details on my latest news post, pm me if interested.

[speed8327]

So happy to see NG Flash-forward-jam still going strong.

I was so hyped by the announcement that I quickly checked my entry from the 1st flash-forward-jam but surprisingly, the game is not playable anymore after the intro screen and has a heavy frame rate drop aswell, must be due to a recent ruffle updates. (╥﹏╥)

Last time I checked back in 2021 it was working handsomely. ♡⸜(˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)⸝♡

Can't wait for the next ruffle updates for the fix. But in the meantime, i'll see what I can do to fix that first in the game level.

And debugging the as2 project is like finding a waldo.

Does it happens to other entries aswell? and what extensions do u use to debug as2 proj, if any?

[TomFulp]

At 12/11/23 08:38 AM, speed8327 wrote: So happy to see NG Flash-forward-jam still going strong.
I was so hyped by the announcement that I quickly checked my entry from the 1st flash-forward-jam but surprisingly, the game is not playable anymore after the intro screen and has a heavy frame rate drop aswell, must be due to a recent ruffle updates. (╥﹏╥)
Last time I checked back in 2021 it was working handsomely. ♡⸜(˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)⸝♡
Can't wait for the next ruffle updates for the fix. But at the meantime, i'll see what I can do to fix that first in the game level.
And debugging the as2 project is like finding a waldo.
Does it happens to other entries aswell? and what extensions do u use to debug as2 proj, if any?

Oh weird, I've filed a bug ticket with Ruffle now! Sometimes regressions happen, curious what this one is.

[speed8327]

At 12/11/23 08:47 AM, TomFulp wrote:

At 12/11/23 08:38 AM, speed8327 wrote: So happy to see NG Flash-forward-jam still going strong.
I was so hyped by the announcement that I quickly checked my entry from the 1st flash-forward-jam but surprisingly, the game is not playable anymore after the intro screen and has a heavy frame rate drop aswell, must be due to a recent ruffle updates. (╥﹏╥)
Last time I checked back in 2021 it was working handsomely. ♡⸜(˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)⸝♡
Can't wait for the next ruffle updates for the fix. But at the meantime, i'll see what I can do to fix that first in the game level.
And debugging the as2 project is like finding a waldo.
Does it happens to other entries aswell? and what extensions do u use to debug as2 proj, if any?

Oh weird, I've filed a bug ticket with Ruffle now! Sometimes regressions happen, curious what this one is.

Thank you Tom, you are Awesome. ( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ )

[Joeyag]

At 12/5/23 10:59 AM, TomFulp wrote: Third place for interactive movies went to The Whicher, by @Joeyag.

https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/881288

This is a great classic Flash game with branching paths. Joeyag has since shared Grimmy Groove 8bit in the Halloween Spooktacular.

Thank you so much for the mention, Tom Fulp! It was a great honour getting an award on Newgrounds after this many years. I'm really glad Flash Forward Jam is a thing.

[speed8327]

At 12/11/23 08:58 AM, speed8327 wrote:

At 12/11/23 08:47 AM, TomFulp wrote:

At 12/11/23 08:38 AM, speed8327 wrote: So happy to see NG Flash-forward-jam still going strong.
I was so hyped by the announcement that I quickly checked my entry from the 1st flash-forward-jam but surprisingly, the game is not playable anymore after the intro screen and has a heavy frame rate drop aswell, must be due to a recent ruffle updates. (╥﹏╥)
Last time I checked back in 2021 it was working handsomely. ♡⸜(˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)⸝♡
Can't wait for the next ruffle updates for the fix. But at the meantime, i'll see what I can do to fix that first in the game level.
And debugging the as2 project is like finding a waldo.
Does it happens to other entries aswell? and what extensions do u use to debug as2 proj, if any?

Oh weird, I've filed a bug ticket with Ruffle now! Sometimes regressions happen, curious what this one is.

Thank you Tom, you are Awesome. ( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ )

Finally the game is back and is playable which is a good thing. There is a slight frame drop and the background png-images are bit blurry. But the good thing is we can see the level, the gameobjects and is playable. Might improve with future ruffle updates.

Thank you. I'm really excited for 2024 flash-forward-jam.

( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ )