I'll break this down into parts so no one has to read what they don't want to, and they can gleam whatever necessary information they want from this news post.

Got it? Got it. ^^

2020

A Newgrounds Year In Review

- - -

Actually Being Active On Newgrounds

A brief history.

I haven't always been active on Newgrounds. Not even a lurking. I strayed from the site for around seven years during the more turbulent part of my life, and finally gravitated back towards Newgrounds when I was seeking more creativity and inspiration in my life. Everything from college to work life to friendships all felt lacking. There was some integral part of myself that has always held onto the dream of drawing or creating something of note, but I had no drive. Depression and anxiety habitually controlled my actions while I tried to figure out what I wanted for my life, and it felt like there was very little room to breathe. I watched as all my friends smoked weed and played video games 24/7, and once I saw myself falling into the same rut, I actually started to question the validity of who I thought I was as a person. It sucked.

That was when I started drawing comics with @Destructin, @Ozone, and @Template88 again. I just wanted to create something. There were times where I'd be completely distraught at my lack of ability, but what mattered in the end was actually creating. It was through that influence of seeing the power to make something that inspires my everyday routine-driven life that brought me back to Newgrounds.

Seeing people come together to create using whatever means available from programming to music to animation to art to voice acting to writing--it was mentally stimulating. I came back to Newgrounds because I craved seeing interesting people come together to make something--to make anything. It became addicting to see everyone's imaginations displayed through their veritable talents.

- - -

My First Commissioned Art (The Beginning Of Everything)

It was a steep slope from here, bois.

It was sometime in late February. I had been posting in the forums for about 8 months now, won a writing contest hosted by @Fro, genuinely shitposted and shared my opinions about mental health on the forums, and even entered into the My Friend Pedro competition here on Newgrounds. The BBS is where I came to recognize users like @SevenSeize, @WonderSchwifty, @Belthagor, @Wegra, @Sobolev, @Little-Rena, @Gremlin, and others. I met all kinds of whacky individuals who have honest to god personalities, whereas my work life gave me the same few personalities every day, so the forums gave me a relief from normalcy with their antics.

Writing reviews for Newgrounds content became a hobby and my art reviews started getting really in-depth (much more than they had to be lol.) My love for creativity and art became a big passion, and one day in late-February of 2020 I decided that I should put my money where my mouth was.

This was when I commissioned my first Newgrounds artist, @cashumeru. They were so nice and forth-coming about my support of their art, that I was whole-heartedly taken aback. I just wanted to support them, you know? And through commissioning cashumeru, my own work life felt more meaningful. At this point, I was working 60 hour work weeks and I couldn't really decide if it was worth it. But from supporting cashu's art, and eventually becoming friends, my purpose in life made more sense to me.

My experience with cashu led me to continue commissioning other fantastic Newgrounds artists including @MatthewLopz, @Kyuri08, @Oddlem, @Namenloose, @Stradomyre, @FuShark, and @MKMaffo, just to show my support and get some damn good art out of these talented individuals ^^

It's hard to fully describe what people making art means to me, but it definitely means the world to me. And the art community on NG has been nothing but responsive, welcoming, and supportive <3

- - -

GRNDSBreaking EPISODE 1

Oh, boy. What a time to be alive.

@GRNDSBreaking EPISODE 1 was a heavy project.

60 hour work weeks were killer on my mentality, but I was fully prepared to continue working my ass off if it meant supporting artists. I had been listening to @TheNewgroundsPodcast, was relatively familiar with @ACoupleOfCrickets, and I wanted to take my support of art a big step forward. So I decided why not make a project that involved many aspects of the community.

Why not make it a whole presentation? Why not get voice actors, writers, and musicians involved to create a unique experience? Why not commission everyone like it's one big stimulus to the creative community here on NG?

Well, that's what I did ^^;

Initially I was spurred into action because I had a long conversation with @JohnnyGuy in the NGP server about how great the Newgrounds community was with helping him get out of his crappy living situation. After having that talk, I decided that I actually really enjoy talking to people and getting to know them.

So, I reached out to @MatthewLopz because I loved the unique variable contained within his art, and I asked if he wouldn't be down for an interview. He agreed, and then I started this big project where I had to make posts asking for everything I needed to create commercial break skits and allow for a genuinely creative and unique listening experience.

This was when I met @TrinaTan, @VoicesByCorey, @ZaPanda-VA, @hazencruz, @MechanicalTree, @Jorshes, @StefJohnVoiceOvers to form a team of writers and voice actors.

The amount of creativity was flowing and overseeing it all was a big deal to me.

GRNDSBreaking started, and then COVID hit, and then the Party Games server was created by @PsychoGoldfish, and I really started getting to know a lot of different personalities from Newgrounds. It blew my mind that the programmer from Newgrounds was such a funny guy (winning every f*cking jackbox game, btw) and how everyone was allowed to be goofy and weird. I fit right in, and I got to meet @Jacob, @Oddlem, @MrSnuggles, @Jatmoz, @SplatterDash, @HOTSTUFFDX, and many of the other friends I have today.

During COVID, I got to work on GRNDSBreaking for extended periods of time and hangout with everyone who was also in quarantine, and eventually EPISODE 1 was released and everyone started to be accustomed to who I was as a person: a f*cking degenerate art propagator that hates cribbage >:(

No, but seriously. Everyone I've met and come to know has honestly been really fulfilling...

I took my experience from GRNDSBreaking and made Art Talks, where I literally just talked into a microphone so I could gush my over-empowering love for art. The reception was incredible, because it's literally just me, a dude, deciphering and defining my feelings for particular artists, and they showed a lot of appreciation in return. Eventually Art Talks upgraded into Season 1 where I have guests on ^^;

All of this unique community experience was only made possible because of the wonderful people of Newgrounds.

- - -

Block Party 2020

Haha, yeah. Geezus christ, this was fun ^^;

@TheNewgroundsPodcast Block Party... what a trip, man...

I think I reached out to at least 50 artists? Some didn't reply, some couldn't make it, and others made it last minute. There is a very organized list of the participating artist as well as the art that came out of it. Shout out to @Stradomyre for commemorating the event with his group drawings ^^

The amount of positive feedback I received from the Block Party was incredible...

@WillKMR reached out to me initially to plan it in 8 days, and I was like "uhhhhhhh, ok," but we ended up pushing the event back and tying it into the pARTy Contest I hosted this year. Within a month and a week(ish) I reached out to almost every Newgrounds artist I knew (I know so many more now lol) and eventually we had a huge success with 26 artists streaming, and a f*ckton of listeners. At some point during @Cubesona, @rtil, @Inknettl, and @hcnone's stream, the voice chat was full and nobody else could join--something we have to work on for next year ^^;

The list of areas needed for improvement as well as personal experience from hosting can be found here.

Huge shout out to the Swag group @StaggerNight, @MKMaffo, @Oddlem, @LobsterMango, @RGPAnims, @Kyuri08, @Snackers, and @Cymbourine, the YOLO group of @cashumeru, @PepperoniRavioli, @Namenloose, @ookiyo, @papstuko, and @arkoirisangel, the Technical Difficulty group of @Shamfoo, @LoganPhresh, @YeloRed, @MisMash, @Stradomyer, @Potatoman, @ThePsychoSheep, and @OolongEarlGrey, and finally the Random Dude From Florida And Others group of @Cubesona, @hcnone, @Inknettl, and @rtil.

They were awesome groups of people and they all brought their best spirits ^^

The event went really smoothly, except RIP to @LoganPhresh's experience </3

After everything was said and done, @GoodL, @WillKMR, and @PsychoGoldfish reached out to me to be a part of @TheNewgroundsPodcast and we've been collaborating ever since!

I really can't explain how much fun it's been getting to hangout and talk with everyone.

- - -

Newgrounds Secret Santa 2020

ART OVERLOAD AND TOO MUCH CHEER :0

If you haven't checked out the Newgrounds Secret Santa Reveal Party thread yet, do it.

I keep saying 377 drawings were made, but that was actually just the number of artists that finished theirs on time. There's actually more around 430 art pieces at this point, with some late submissions, some being multiple drawings, and some being back-up art, created by everyone who participated.

The Naughty & Nice List has been compiled for easy viewing ^^

I've said this many times before, but seriously, shout out to @Template88 for being a major help. They drew everyone's icon and helped me organize everyone's name on a spreadsheet while randomizing their Secret Santa.

A HUGE SHOUT OUT TO THE SECRET SANTA BRIGADE FOR STAYING UP UNTIL 12AM PST TO POST DRAWINGS UNTIL WE WERE DELUSIONAL.

The awards are as follows:

@BuhlBoy - Most Casual Dresser

@cyangorilla - Most Influential And Casual Art Savant

@HEKILLZALOT - The Secret Secret Santa Brigade Member: Side-Line Aficionado

@KOLANI - Best Boi, But Also Big League Champ

@NeoD-ray - Poshest

@Onosse - Fanciest Shoes/Pointy Lad

@Roksim - Best Dragon

@solitonmedic - Tallest OC

@TamashiHoshi - Farthest Bedtime

@Template88 - Tired And Broken

@Xinxinix - Why Didn't He Just Use Google Drives ????

Thank you everyone for this year's Secret Santa. I appreciate everyone that participated to craft a unique experience that I can't wait to host again next year ^^

- - -

I'll be compiling a Favorite Art of 2020 list within the next few days, but for now, here's my favorite animations.

Favorite Animations This Year:

GENTLES by @Jaquin

The Lighthouse Girl by @rtil

The Finale by @ChutneyGlaze

Starting Point by @BlueBread

The House Inside Her Head by @AntonM

ENA - Extinction Party by @JoelG

"JOKER" but it's Goofy and Winnie by @moonshineanimations

Final Fantasy 7 Collab by @PhantomArcade and everyone else

What's in the Bathtub? by @Bassetfilms

Among U by @LittleCuteCorpse

OCCUPIED by @BoyPorcelain

my teacher is hot (music video) by @diegoastier

A Pizza My Heart by @AfroNinja360

Everybody Loves Purple! by @doggybag

Garfield Ate the House by @F-Snake

And that's it!

A big shoutout to the NG community for being so accommodating of me, and an even bigger shout out to everyone who makes it what it is!!

Here's to an epic New Year!!!! ^^