Sadly this 2024, lots of headlines have been focussed on the soulless AI creations.

But in the middle of all of this, I discovered a small European studio that has been cooking for seven years a heartwarming platformer about our friendly pets, crafted with the most traditional media possible.

Its name is: Stars in the Trash.

And when I said this is traditional art, I mean it. The artist of the game was a former Disney employee that animated frame by frame on paper all the animations of the game, he also painted all the backgrounds, just look at the following video which shows all the art process:

The gameplay and story are also outstanding, it makes me throw tears of joy, it is a true love letter for our lovely pets ❤

I know that lately I haven't written as many posts as I used to on Newgrounds. It was a busy year for me, but when I played this game it stole my heart, and it is worth it to share it, because I want more games like this one.

And the creators deserve more recognition, let's spread the word, and enjoy this masterpiece.

Let's play Stars in the Trash !

Hello everyone, I hope you’re doing great and having a wonderful holiday. This year, a lot of amazing content was submitted to Newgrounds. Whenever I want to watch a good animation or play a good game, it feels good to be on this site.

Other video websites have broken search engines, and seeking quality animated content seems impossible. Of course, it entertains, but most of the stuff has less quality and care.

Regarding games, this year I installed Newgrounds as a playable game on my Steam deck (I like to play as comfortably as possible). The experience is good, but sometimes I must do a little bit of setup for a new game.

I want to share my favorite movies and games from this year, I may miss a lot of submissions, so if you want to share your favorite movie or game in the comments, feel free to do it. 

Movies

Games

Parodies  

Special Mentions

I would like to mention two more movies, these are related to how the Internet content is evolving, and it's worth watching.

My uploads

About my personal creations, this year I’ve uploaded one movie Buy to the past. I also planned to publish the PC port of Pad of Time on Steam, but I preferred to wait until 2024 to get rid of the Unity splash screen.

One last thing and the most important one:

I wish you happy new year!  

Man, what a week! If you don’t live under a rock, you might have heard about all the backlash against Unity Technologies due to the new subscription changes and the “runtime fee”. Yes, it’s bad. Even if you feel that it’s not going to affect you, it’s hitting hard on successful studios that are important pillars for the industry.

Around 2011, I decided to switch from Flash to Unity to work/make for mobile and consoles. Unity felt like what we needed after Flash was killed by the rise of smartphones and Apple’s hostility towards it.

Unity helped lots of developers have a career in technologies in general, allowing growth for multiple studios with lots of successful titles.

It’s sad that they didn’t manage to make Unity profitable and put unfair fees, and it scares me that they track all user installs (is that even legal?). I hope the affected studios and professionals can manage this situation and survive, and I wish Unity would consider taking a step back.

Computer software has a lifetime, and like Flash, Unity could be reaching its end. Luckily, we have many affordable options that even have moving guides for Unity users:

• Unreal Engine. Older than unity and perfect for Consoles & PC [guide for unity devs]
• Godot. A rising open-Source engine with a bright future  [guide for unity devs]
• Game Maker. The indie’s favorite for 2D games  [guide for unity devs]

In June 2020, SEGA announced a new game, a remake of Alex Kidd in Miracle World. That title was a must-have for the MasterSystem. This new Remake Alex Kidd DX was made from scratch (at first as a fangame) by a real talented group of people called Jankenteam.

This group was solely created for Alex Kidd DX, and after that, each of them continues their own path… In this post, I would like to talk about what other games are behind Josyan, former game designer of Alex Kidd DX, and Bibiki, former composer and sound designer of Alex Kidd DX.

Josyan is a unique game developer. He is focused on making hardcore classic games. Instead of following trends, he looks for what he likes and stays true to the old school style. Josyan’s works always sound great thanks to the music and sound design of Bibiki, who keeps the tunes fresh with great 8-bit vibes.

Let’s take a look at their original creations:

Hoppy Hop

Their most recent game is a charming arcade title that expands the Qbert formula with a cute rabbit on various landscapes for collecting candy, eating carrots, and avoiding enemies.

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2231850/Hoppy_Hop/

UnderDungeon

Josyan’s most ambitious personal project is a great storytelling experience with humor, great boss fights, and even minigames. Join this quest with Kimuto on his new job as a mailman. Every delivery will be an incredible adventure.

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/850760/UnderDungeon/

Tamiku

Tamiku is my personal favorite. This 80s arcade game has a great flavor of Poyepe, Donkey Kong, and Pacman. For me, it is really addictive and I’m always trying to beat the online leaderboards. And the goal? Blow all the balloons with Tamiku on various arcade-ish levels.

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1117890/Tamiku/

Zeroptian Invasion

This was their first published game, and it is still a great alien shoot 'em up to grab and have an enjoyable time. A timeless Josyan classic :)

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/974110/Zeroptian_Invasion/

Well, if you’re into retro or old school games, you should give a chance to Josyan and Bibiki creations. Making games is hard, and making a living creating indie titles is even harder. As a player who has tasted their work, I wish them success and hope they continue making more games.

José, Ramón Gracias por hacer juegos!

YOU ARE A SUPER PLAYER!

Since I added medals to Pad of Time nobody was able to unlock all of them until JimmyCarlos did it, I'm really impress since beating the game with all the characters and finding all the treasures is a really tough task.

Checking the profile of JimmyCarlos I saw that he is a truly Newgrounds medal hunter. Always good to meet a committed gamer and Newgrounds supporter 🥂

In other news the final Wii U's eShop day is 27/03/2023, so I'm doing a giveaway until that day of my Wii U games.

If you are still using this precious console, try to catch a copy before it's too late!

The giveaway is being done over this Twitter's thread

As the year 2022 draws to a close, I would like to share a playable version of Pad of Time on Newgrounds.

This is not only a demo. If you support Newgrounds you will have access to the full game and earn exclusive medals.

On April 13, Pad of Time was released for Nintendo Switch and Wii U.

If you didn't have any of those consoles this is your chance to play it at Newgrounds!

- Click here to Play Pad of Time on Newgrounds -

FAQ

On which devices can I play Pad of Time?

Apart from Nintendo Switch or Wii U you could play it on PC, Mac, or even Xbox One. You just need a web browser to play it on Newgrounds. On Android/iOS devices is playable but not recommended.

Why is the full game accessible to supporters on Newgrounds?

I want to encourage users to support this site. Back when I was a teenager NG motivated me to learn game development and I even got my first commissioned project through this site. 

Is this game available on Steam?

No, I have no plans to publish this game on Steam yet. You can play it on Newgrounds, Nintendo devices or itch.io

I finally published Pad of Time for Nintendo Wii U and Nintendo Switch !

The first time I've talked about Pad of Time was on this post, It was a crazy journey as a solo developer, but I finally decided to finish it and self-published into two consoles.

Pad of Time is a classic action-adventure game with a Nintendo 64 retro aesthetic with a twist! In this game you’re able to use a time machine to swap between past, present, and future of every level.

You can choose between 3 main characters, each of one with unique abilities and they are ready to mess up with “the time-line” for their own benefits and face tough bosses.

As the title of the game suggest "Pad of Time" it's made for "Pad" consoles and try to use special features like the gyro Just take a look at some gameplay directly from the consoles, (the Steam Deck port is in development )

I'm really excited on this launch, and I can't wait to see people playing it and enjoying it (or even hating it ! )

Pad of Time is now available for Nintendo Switch's eShop ➤ Check out at Nintendo.com or Pad of Time's official website

And for Wii U's eShop will be available the next Thursday April 21 (If you're in Europe you can buy it now ! )

Back in the flash Era a lot of creators had the chance to put small Easter Eggs on movies.

These Easter eggs were discoverable by clicking on a certain spot of the movie or even running a small little game while the story goes on, It even changes the ending sometimes.

It sure was great and I really miss that nowadays

But thanks to Ruffle and Newgrounds, we have the chance to bring that experience again.

Today I just published a new small animation filled with Easter Eggs and is working flawless with Ruffle Emulation

Check it out here: Think Mark Think but it’s a flash from 2005 (newgrounds.com)

The movie has a few lines of AS2.0 of movie navigation and a few variables, it not so complex, so if you're making a new animation consider to add some clickable Easter eggs and share it as an swf on Newgrounds with Ruffle playback (always test it first)

I remember on the 2000s, when I was a teenager and my father decided to bring a 250kbps Internet connection to our home.

Then I discovered a thing that changed my life, Flash cartoons & games by small creators, of any quality about whatever the author wants to tell.

I didn't have cable-tv back then so I used to ask my friends with cable to record me some episodes of my favorites cartoons with a VHS, but with this discovery I almost forgot about any media, I totally fell in love with Flash Cartoons !

I enjoyed a lot watching every flash animation that I encounter on the web, also playing really incredible games, the first authors that I checked out were Gerkiman, Legendary Frog, Super Flash Bros, Joanime & Cycon.

It was a matter of time when I decided to make a DeviantArt account, then Newgrounds account and last but not least SheezyArt account to begin sharing my own creations.

When I've got a copy of Macromedia Flash 8 my mind exploded, I felt that I had the best thing on computer history in my hands, and of course I still believe that.

Nowadays I'm still using my old Macromedia Flash copy to make drawings, designs and animations, I grow strong with it and helps to keep my style

Learning and making cartoons & games was a really great joyride in Flash 8, adding frames, fill the library of MovieClips , sounds and graphics, coding some stuff in ActionScript 2.0 for a game or to add some cool Easter Eggs for your movie.

And when I finished the SWF, the final challenge was to appear on the Top 5 of Newgrounds to earn a virtual trophy, I remember being late at the night looking every review, lots of them where pretty hard on me, but somehow were a lot more elaborate that the "comments" that people have today

And thanks to Flash and NG I meet Sonucais, my best comrade, he is a genius creating content ! the funny thing it's that we meet on a valentine's day 02/14/2009, because we both submitted a flash based on valentine's day

Well for me Flash make the internet a really enjoyable place but then two events occurred that were trying to take apart our precious tool:

• Adobe bought Macromedia, and did a poorly job on the updates of Flash
• Mr. Apple decided to plan a scheme to kill Flash instead of welcoming a player on his shitty iPhone.

The excuse of Mr. Apple was a joke, and of course HTML5 it's a great technology, but HTML5 it's not Flash,

As a Game Dev I confirm that publishing on HTML5 it's a great risk for the gameplay experience, you have to try the game on a ton of browsers & devices to check if there is an issue on one of them, with flash that doesn't happened.

and the weight of the files increases a lot with HTML5 compared to a simple Swf.

But Mr.Apple it's powerful and a lot of consumers listen to him like some kind of Jesus, and well you know the end of the story

Please, don't buy any stuff from this people.

And here we are today at 2021, a year where you have to do some tweaks to enjoy Flash content with an internet filled of pure video.

I'm proud of Newgrounds for keep being a reminder of more that 10 years of flash creations, and Ruffle an impressive opensource flash emulator for browsers, keep with the good work boys !

Flash Makers were great, Flash Makers are great, Flash Makers will be great, long live to all the swf's created !

Markanime

January, 2021

Hi Humans, I would like to share you a small video showcasing all the workflow that I do for creating an animation

What do you think guys ?

Using traditional media is helping me to improve my animations, of course there's still phases where I'm using a computer but all the material that I generate outside the digital world has a charm that can't compete with a screen.

These are all the steps that I use for create an animation:

Traditional:

• Sketching the story
• Character designs
• Backgrounds designs
• Storyboard

Digital:

• Script for dialogue
• Animation takes
• Video editing

the animation on the video is Hiring a Villain (Aka Avengers Endgame of office) you can see it on Newgrounds here

Thanks for reading and watching !