so many projects, so little time....

hello everybody, it's that time of year again. I wanna go over some of the things that happened in 2024, mostly for the sake of not forgetting anything as the future rolls forward, and for anyone who happens to be interested. I'll also be talking about my general art direction going into 2025, which you might be curious about. I'm gonna write this all in a big long ramble, I'll try to keep it organized but sorry if it ends up kind of unreadable lol

This year, I didn't make as many things as I did in 2023. Part of me feels lazy about that, but actually looking back I feel my time this year was much better spent, and I'm a lot prouder of the things I've made and finished this year compared to last. My games and such from 2023 leave a lot to be desired, playing them now there are so many spots where I slacked off. I'm not talking like bad or unskilled design, there are a lot of moments where I skimped out purely because I wanted to get the project finished faster or was too lazy to implement the proper elements to fix things. In a sense, this was good. When learning to make games just getting the game out the door is one of the most important steps. Still, a lot of it left me unsatisfied.

I assumed I must have just been a pessimistic loser who hates everything they make and can only see the flaws, but this year my mind has changed quite a bit. I'm not pessimistic, I'm just critical. As I've gotten better at the craft, I have felt a lot better about what I've made. I can say with some certainty that I am pretty darn proud of the stuff I've put together this year, so now I'd like to go into some of those projects and see what's up.

I'm NOT going to be sticking to a linear timeline on this, by the way. I was a bit unfocused this year, so ALL of these projects overlap in some way. I'll be doing this on a project to project basis, I'll explain it to the best of my ability but consult the timeline if you get lost.

2024 PROJECT TIMELINE

BUG BALL 3D

I'm starting with bug ball because it's the first game I published here on newgrounds this year. I had honestly forgotten how much time I had spent on bug ball until I was making that timeline image just now. I already spoke on bug ball and my feelings about it in my bug ball retrospective post but I'll do a quick run down of the timeline and some additional thoughts anyways. I was working on my then unnamed sandbox project, and at some point I took note that with my current scope, there was no way in hell it would come out in 2024, and that I should probably work on a different smaller project in the meantime. At some point, while I was at work I had the random idea to create a pill bug movement controller, with different segments that would visually bend. I got home, created it, and then created the roll functionality too. Pretty quickly I had a cool player controller and needed some sort of environment for him to run about in. I decided to reuse some code I had originally played with in January to create fake 3D environments using Godot's polygon2d.

original fake 3D code later adapted for top down use

original crummy testing room for bug ball 3d. You can't even fall in the holes yet!

Similar to that original prototype, I initially had the idea to make bug ball a simple rpg, where you could walk around and talk to characters, progressing a little narrative. I decided however that that would be a bad call, since I still wanted to work on my sandbox project and couldn't afford to take on ANOTHER huge project. I went with a simpler arcade format instead, which eventually became the bug ball you know and love ( or hate. or are indifferent on. )

I worked on both the sandbox and bug ball interchangeably, but bug ball being the simpler game took precedent. I had been wanting to do something for a while though: put a game on steam. I wanted to for the experience, so that when I go to make a more serious project, I know what I'm doing. Bug ball's arcade-y format lends itself well to future content additions, so the goal was set. Make a free demo here on newgrounds, and then add more levels and sell a complete version on steam. Development moved quickly up until June, when I decided to release the demo. Bug ball was far my most polished game, with really no areas left untouched or ignored. A huge step up from last year. Reception was mixed, lots of people found it too hard, which I expected. It can be hard for a lot of people to commit to a free web game in general, so when its an experience as abrasive as bug ball, lots of people just end up quitting. Can't blame em for that, I'm the exact same way. Despite making lots of hard games, I'm not the biggest fan of them myself. The people that do like hard games however loved bug ball, and I got lots of kind words about it, so thank you.

After the demo release, I took a break from bug ball to focus more attention towards the sandbox game. This was meant to be a short break, but after working on the sandbox, I realized how much more passionate I was for it over bug ball, and had a hard time getting myself to work on it. I also got hired to work on somebody else's game in august (more on that later) which further hindered my ability to work on it. The release plan was for August, then September, then October. After the hiring job was finished, I banned myself from doing anything else and cranked out the remaining content, releasing the game October 21st.

Overall, it was a very good learning experience. I learned the ins and outs of using steam, I polished the absolute shit out of the game, and I understood more about myself and why I was making games in the first place. The biggest draw to game dev for me is being able to make worlds. Not just worlds that you watch and observe, but worlds you can step into and influence. That concept is very creatively invigorating for me, and its part of the reason I struggled with making bug ball. Bug ball lacks a world, or characters, or ability to influence. While I am proud of bug ball, it's just not the type of game that I want to be making. If you're a fan of my current work, I'm going to be shifting direction quite a bit for 2025 and onwards. I want to practice stuff like writing and maybe a bit of music too.

WAXWEAVER

waxweaver is the name I only just recently gave to a project I've been working on since January of this year. It's still currently unreleased, however you can play an alpha build on itch.io. I was originally referring to this project as simply "planet sandbox", just so there isn't any confusion.

i added automation to the game just the other week !

This game has a pretty insane amount of history to it compared to any other game I've made, being about 7 years from concept to something functional. Originally in 2017-ish I was disappointed by how dog shit starbound was, and I wanted to make my own space exploring terraria type sandbox game. The main gimmick I had in my head was that you'd be able to make whatever ship you wanted, and you'd be able to fly it seamlessly to another, just by going there in physical space. Because I was 14 / 15 years old, I also thought it'd be cool if it was an mmo, and you could randomly come across other players or bases. At the time, I had absolutely zero skills, and the idea never became anything more than a few drawings I made while at school.

4 years later in 2021 though, I was slowly figuring out how to operate the Godot engine, and decided it was a good time to try and make my project. It didn't end up working.

sadly this game is now SCARY LOST MEDIA, this is the only surviving footage.

the concept was there though, i learned a shit load about godot making that project. I didn't have the skills to pull it off at the time, but the idea never left my brain.

Fast forward to January 2024. I got it. It's happening. I'm making the planet sandbox again. The insatiable urge will never leave unless I make it, so I have to. And you know what, things were goin pretty good this time.

Feb 3rd. He isn't his beautiful yellow yet.

This game really proved to me how much my skills had developed, which has been very valuable for my sanity. Often while I've been making waxweaver, I've said to myself "I don't have the skills to add that to the game." Then I try to add it anyways, and every time it ended up being way easier than I had made it out to be. My skills had improved faster than my confidence, and working on this game helped me get a better picture of where I was.

I also learned a bit of c++, as it was required to get this game able to run on web.

All that being said, there have been a few hitches. I've scoped down the game significantly from the 2017 concept, and even more since January. Right now, I'm just doing a singular planet, that the player can explore and do all kinds of things with. I've dropped the space exploration entirely, because to be entirely honest, flying around in a 2d environment like this just sucks. Quite literally impossible to navigate without a map, and there isn't any purpose to being in space itself. Functionally, it was no different than starbound. Cutting it has helped me work faster AND I think it'll be a better game because of it. I've always had this itch to make a sandbox game like terraria or minecraft, and with this game the itch has been scratched. Once I finish it, my brain will properly move on to fresh ideas, as its already doin now :)

Expect its release quarter 1 of 2025.

ENDOPARASITIC 2

After seeing a twitter post from game developer and youtuber Miziziziz asking to hire level designers for their upcoming game, I applied, and ended up getting the job! This was the first time I had done game work for anybody other than myself, so I consider it a valuable experience, even if it was small scale. I was also pretty excited to work on a game I actually knew about and knew there would be a lot of feedback on. I was hoping markiplier was gonna play it but that is still to be determined lol. Unfortunately, the game was rushed quite a bit by Miz, and the final game leaves quite a bit to be desired. It wasn't my project to run, but I do think I got some second hand experience about running projects with multiple people. Time will tell if that experience applies, assuming I get around to it.

TIMMY CHRISTMAS

I don't have too much to say about timmy christmas. You just gotta experience it for youself.

I was a little sad I had only published 1 game here in 2024, so to remedy this, last week I spent 3 whole days shitting out timmy christmas. Honestly, I really love timmy christmas. It's also been very well received. Last year, I made plumer quest, a shitpost game for my gay wife's birthday. I think timmy christmas is a bit of a culmination of what I've learned this year, and the difference in enjoyability between it and plumer quest is the proof.

It's a hard game, but the frequent checkpoints and funny ragdolls make death not very irritating. It's short, and even players who struggle a lot finish the game is 10 ish minutes. Even if it did irritate you, the final bit where you become ripped and destroy the level that was causing you so much trouble is both funny and satisfying. It's garbage and stupid but I genuinely feel like its one of the best designed games I've ever made, and for that I'm really happy with it.

OTHER PROJECTS

ART

I didn't make as much art this year as I did 2023. That kinda sucks, and I for sure want to remedy this for 2025. Still though, I have a couple faves from this year that I'd like to share.

my secret santa drawing turned out pretty dang good

these are the yellow guys from waxweaver, the first time i really drew him.

this drawing actually influenced the game, inspiring me to make the players eye big and adding those flowers

he's also holding sand, which wasn't in the game until quite a while later.

more art of the yellow guys. I ain't even gonna say anything. I just think this one looks great.

very detailed drawing im pretty proud of. was originally gonna do a whole comic for a zine, but I dropped out as I just didn't have the time and wanted to focus on my own projects.

this drawing objectively sucks but it makes me really happy regardless. i love jimbei and i love that he's in a car. I bought some stickers of this jimbei, i still got a whole bunch of em and idk where to put them.

MOVIES

I made a segment for the "playstation" collab here on newgrounds! The collab was just an april fools joke organized by RGPAnims ( like all good collabs are ) and I wanted to participate.

There's also another movie project I helped with, wink wink, its coming out very soon, wink wink, I don't wanna spoil anything, wink wink.

[ INSERT AMMENDUM HERE WHEN THAT PROJECT IS OUT ]

[ ITS FULPWARE ]

LIFE AND FUTURE

In June ( actually it was the exact same time as Bug Ball's demo release ) I finally moved out and got a place of my own !! ( in addition to my gay wife of course ). This has been pretty darn awesome, I feel a lot better in the brain and I have a lot more control over my environment. I've also been a lot more productive too, which is a great bonus.

Last year a met a handful of newgrounds people, and this year I've gotten to know everyone better, and I can tell that I'm slowly becoming a less and less anxious freak. I've got my ups and downs, but I think overall from last year I'm doing a lot better, which is awesome.

A couple of my irl friends also got their own place as roomies. Everyone's gettin older! damn. It's a wonderful thing.

our wonderful christmas tree

I don't have much else to mention on my own life, only that things are generally lookin up. My life isn't super interesting but that's the way I like it.

For the future: Waxweaver is still being worked on, it'll be out pretty darn soon. My brain has already been flooded with ideas waiting for myself to finish this game ( I got 3 big ones ), so I know exactly what I'm gonna be hopping on the moment I get the time. No timeline on that yet, just know it'll be badass.

COOL STUFF

i wanna mention some other stuff I thought was cool that came out this year and talk about em a bit.

lovely big long seamless drawing from graskip. just look at it dude

here's a game that i thought was really neat. goin in I was expecting some pretty stupid itch.io horror slop, but was pleasantly surprised at the unique mechanics that blended horror with clicking. I wasn't aware such a blend could be done, but here it is. Give it a try !

i never managed to complete this game ( the driving mechanics were pissing me off a bit lol ) but its a simple walk around and talk rpg and i really loved the vibe. its also got a lot of moments that made me chuckle and smile, so go check it out.

i dont see sandbox type games super often, as they can be hard to make ( i would know ). I really liked the music and vibe of this one though, and although its simple I think mister levi ramirez did a great job with this little toy.

speaking of vibe, this movie does a really good job at setting its tone. I love the little detective guy, I'm kind of stupid and I like every character that looks like that. Such a good mix of 3d and stop motion too. It's 7 minutes, you have to watch this one.

this movie made me laugh really hard, and I've been thinking about it all month. I started watching one piece at the beginning of the year and I absolutely fell in love with it. I've always kinda hated anime but one piece has been a big exception, and it's fans are some of the funniest people on the web. I mention this cartoon mostly to make the point that enjoying one piece has been a big part of my year personally.

scribblefuck is a big part of my childhood so seeing this drawing made me pretty happy

i think that's all ill mention now, thanks for reading and have a epic and cool new year !!

bug ball is out on steam now for ONE whole dollar !

pick it up if u wanna support me

to be honest, it's not everything I imagined, I ended up getting really burnt out and just had to force myself to finish it. Something like 80% of the new content was made in just the first couple weeks of this month. Regardless, I think the new stuff is still fun.

Starting to realize that I'm not having a huge amount of fun making games and my passion is very thin. I've always wanted to make games with stories, write lore and characters and all that, but never actually gone and done it. I kept myself away from pursuing those ideas under the guise that I needed more practice before I could handle something like that. Perhaps that was true at the beginning, but I don't think I need practice anymore. I've been working on the sandbox game and I'd need 3 hands the count the amount of times I've said to myself "man, I don't think I have the ability to implement that." But then I try anyways and turns out: hey, I actually COULD do that, it wasn't remotely as hard as I would've thought.

Point is, I'm fully capable of making the types of games I want to, and needing "more practice" is just a lie I tell myself. Writing stories and shit is scary. Somebody talks shit about bug ball its whatever, but something that I put an amount of soul into hits harder. But I don't really know, because I haven't actually tried any of this shit, I'm just psyching myself out before even giving it a shot.

So I'm gonna give it a shot, no more bug ball, bug balls finished. I'm still working on the sandbox, it doesn't have any sort of story, but I do think its a lot of FUN to work on because its very technical and coding stuff for it isn't easy. More updates coming very soon.

Sorry if this is unreadable I typed this all out really fast and didn't proofread any of it, I mostly just want to let the PEOPLE know that I'm probably shifting gears a bit from this point forward. Still plan on making cool stuff for this cool website.

bye bye <3

i did level design for this game go check it out :D

i am still working on this thing! theres still quite a few things to do on the technical end but the main meat is done and I've been focusing more on making content. the recent updates have really shaped it into a real looking game! (even if its still a bit barren)

the current version is v0.0.14.2 and can be played on itch.io if u want!

if you'd like to keep up to date with the project follow me here or on twittar

the big technical things to still do are:

• Saving / loading
• Solar system generation (already mostly done just needs to be reimplimented)
• main menu stuff
• Sound system
• a few additional item things ( accessories, weapon types, enemy status )

and of course, the game still needs a NAME !! if you got any ideas dont be afraid to drop em. i am not good at coming up with names

v0.0.15 is coming VERY SOON. i cant wait to post it here on ng but ive gotta wait til its at least mostly done

bug ball is also coming soon, but developments been slow because admittedly i am just a lot more passionate for this thing. also, i also got hired for some contract work but thats a SECRET. it may hamper my time to work on personal projects though.

anyways goodbye bye bye goodbye play the game give some feedback DO IT !!!!

PLANET SANDBOX UPDATE

i took a break from working on this game for a good minute because I know that it'll be a while until its at a point where im happy enough to post it here. I went and worked on BUG BALL 3D instead for a month and a half and happy to say that that is goin good. I wanted to revisit the sandbox game however so the past week or so I've been tinkering with the sandbox game again. I'm making this post because currently, although limited, the game officially has SOME kind of gameplay loop. Right now there are enemies to fight, torches to craft and copper to mine underground.

There's still A LOT missing before I could call it a passable demo, such as:

• tool tiers
• multiple ores
• multiple enemies
• food / some way to heal
• status effects
• chests
• doors and furniture
• farming
• planet biomes
• FISHING ( necessary )
• crafting stations
• saving worlds
• general menu polish stuff

despite all these missing features, the game in its current state ( v0.0.12 as of writing ) is available to play free on itch !

don't get too excited though, remember there's still not much to it

quick bug ball 3d update

ive been taking a quick break after the demo release but I have plenty of stuff planned for once i decide to get back into it. Right now the plan is to make 2 additional courses, each with easy medium and hard sets of levels. Maybe some bonus modifiers, and some new skins to unlock. Also I want to add a bowling level. I'll put updates on twittar once I have stuff to show...

okay goodbye everybody goodbyyyye good bye join the discrd good byee

hi everyone :3 I haven't posted a whole lot so far this year so I wanted to give some updates on what I've actually been up to. I have been hard at work on some new toys but its a slow process.....

SNACK SLICE 2 UPDATE ( ITS OVER )

I was workin' on it quite a bit near the end of last year, and engine wise its 90% feature complete, really just needs levels. But there's a big issue with it. Godot's default physics engine sucks a whole lot of ass! Luckily, a plugin exists that can replace those default physics with the Box2D physics library, which is a whole lot better. However, box2d uses Godot's C# support, which currently in Godot 4 can't be used to export to web.

I thought about possibly doing just a downloadable game, but to be honest its been very discouraging to work on it knowing that I won't be able to share any of it here.

I'd still really like to make this game, all it needs are levels and art. Sadly though, I'm gonna hold off on it until C# support comes to the web exports of Godot 4. It's unclear when that will actually be, but as soon as I hear that it works IM MAKIN THIS GAME!!!!

SOMETHING NEW??? ( WE'RE SO BACK )

I'm makin a little sandbox game!! The gimmick is that everything takes place on little square planets that you can hop around. There isn't a whole lot to show for it right now, a huge chunk of the work has just been making sure this game is even capable of running on the web. Godot may not let you use C# on web, but it DOES let you use C++ on web!! You still have to jump through a million hoops to get even that working though lol. A good fat chunk of the more technical stuff has been finished though, right now the game is just lacking content and any sort of goals.

I tried making a similar gimmicky sandbox game about 3 years ago and failed hard, I wasn't anywhere near experienced enough to pull something like it off. Even today this game is really putting my skills to the test. It feels good to be challenged again though, there's nothin even close to the feeling of finally getting something working after tolling away at it for hours. Point is: I'm having a lot of FUN making this project and that combined with the fact I'll eventually be able to post it here is all the motivation I need!

I've released the debug builds of this game to the public, so if u feel like giving it an early test, have at it!!

Be warned that there will be bugs and possibly crashes right now though. Friend of mine had the background turn green I'm still trying to figure that one out...

That's about all for now though. I might try and take a break from the planet sandbox game at some point and make something a little smaller. I feel bad having no games up for 2024!! I made a bug for that bug collab that's comin soon. I'm also almost at 500 fans here on ng and that's pretty cool too, thanks for that :]

hopefully i'll update yall on the game soon enough,, bye byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

what a portfolio, huh?

hey everyone, it feels a little early to be doin' a year in review recap, but the thought of writing one of deez excited me, and since I don't have anything else planned until 2024, I thought I might as well just give it a go. I'm also gonna be including some 2022 stuff as well, since I never made any sort of recap nor was I very present here on ng until the very end of 22'.

QUICK 2022 RECAP

I only started doing stuff here on newgrounds near the beginning of 2022. I only uploaded a few pieces of art, and one shitty little game. From August - October, I worked on a long personal game, but after awhile I soon realized I was nowhere near prepared enough to make what I had scoped out for myself. I knew if I continued, I'd only waste my time making something utterly shit, so I shifted focus. I made Snack Slice instead, and threw it here on newgrounds. When Snack Slice got front paged, I suddenly had a lot more motivation to make smaller games for this lovely website. A month later, I made Cake Quake.

2023 PROJECTS

SQUADADDLE

At the beginning of the year, I started with a plan to create 1 little game each month of the year, to gather practice. I immediately failed when I spent too long making SQUADADDLE, released in February. Looking back, I wish I had delayed this game even further. While the game is juicy, with bangin' tunes and visuals, I failed to see just how difficult it was. Overall, I'm still pretty proud of it, just wish it had an extra week or two in the oven. It was also awesome to work with @iMustFeedit who made the bangin' tunes. This was also the first time I've won a monthly here on newgrounds! That was an exciting day.

LUNAR WORM

Lunar Worm, similar to squadaddle, kinda fucks in the juice department but is overall lacking. It was just made primarily to get a lil idea I had out of my brain though, so it accomplished its goal. Also, bangin' tunes as always.

HELIOX STATION

Heliox Station is the longest amount of time I've ever spent on a single project that I actually finished. I wrote devlogs here on newgrounds about this game, so you can read those if you really want to learn more, I won't bother repeating it. I started that game out of a desire to make something with a little more story to it. After a while though, I ended up just not having the energy to bring it up to par with what I truly wanted it to be. It's got a faint oooooh mystery lore shit to it, but it not what I ultimately wanted it to be. Overall though, compared to my previous puzzle type games, it fucks. And that's a win for me. It was also nice to work with my epic swag partner @Staggernight on something.

PNGTUBER PLUS

PNGTuber Plus is a weirder project of mine. It's not really related to anything I've done on newgrounds, but I should still talk about it since its taken up quite a big chunk of my active brain since I released it. A while while ago, I made a custom program that would give me a slightly more animated avatar on my rare twitch livestreams. It was all hard coded though, and at some point I got the idea to make a program that would allow anybody to import their images and make goody little avatars. I threw it together in just a week (rather sloppily in all honesty), and it ended up doing unbelievably well over on twitter dot com. That was, alarming, to say the least. Suddenly the amount of bug reports I was getting made me regret making it so fast lol. But it ended up alright, and I want to thank all the people who've used it and donated to it! Your generosity means I'm gonna be able to move out sometime in 2024, and god am I grateful. fuck

https://kaiakairos.itch.io/pngtuber-plus

SENTIENT CLEANING DEVICE

Tom Fulp announced the Halloween Spooktacular, and I wanted to try my luck at making something spooky. I thought of using "limited perception" as a scaaaaaaarry game mechanic, and eventually that turned into Sentient Cleaning Device. In my humble opinion, sentient cleaning device sucks a whole lotta ass, but I didn't care. Usually, something of mine sucking ass would get to me a bit. I can be a little hard on myself when it comes to this type of stuff. But something about this project helped me let that idea go. It sucks ass, but that's alright. So you can imagine my astonishment when SCD won 2nd place in the spooktacular!! I still don't really get it lol, but again, thanks so much to the judges and mister fulp of course.

PLUMER QUEST

The last game of 2023 is a special one to me. It sucks, it's stupid, and it rocks.

2023 ART

I've drawn for the longest time, my entire life, but I has sort of lost my passion for art. It really slogged away in my high school years, and it stuck like that afterwards too. Something about newgrounds though, it's really given me new life. I can officially say that in 2023, I'm starting to like drawing again, I only wish I could do both game dev and drawing at the same time lol. Anyways, I'd just like to display some of my personal favorites I've done this last year.

there's also quite a few nice sketches over on my twitter but bleh bleh whateva'

2023 LIFE

I don't wanna get too personal on da timeline, my private life is just not something I wanna make a habit of sharing. I can share a lil bit tho. Like I said, for the first time since I was a small little kid I feel pretty passionate about my silly little projects and art, and that's awesome. its a feeling i've missed. it's easy to feel a little,, behind,, given all the time i just spent doing fuck all nothing. But it's better late than never. I've been tryin to make games for more than a decade now, and getting to it again (especially with my adult brain) is just incredible.

Workin my real job's been goin well. Not gonna share too much about that, but I've never been one for bein' a wagie so the fact I've been able to stick with my current job and not hate it to high heaven is a huge win in my book.

I turned 21 this year,, I don't drink though so it doesn't mean a whole lot to me lol

Oh, and this year my long distance relationship is no longer long ! We still don't live together, but its nice actually being able to see your partner whenever. huge, HUGE win.

This November I went to Oregon with my partner, and it was lovely. It's the first time I've ever been out on my own trip as an adult, that's worth something I think. Thanksgiving food rocks as always.

2024 FUTURE

There's a lot I want to do still. Not everything will be done is 2024. Some of its certainly more of a 2025 type of adventure. But we'll work on it when we get there...

I'm lazy so imma just make a list :

• Finish Snack Slice 2, planning to be my first ever steam game!
• Practice by making some small story type games. I want to learn how to write!
• Continue to update PNGTuber Plus or possibly completely rewrite it
• Finally move out ! Been a long time coming.
• Maybe finally learn how to make music better. A skill I've wanted to acquire but its been hard finding the time.
• I want to participate in the newgrounds community more!! I've done a lot of solo work, but I'd like to try my hands at some more collaborative projects or even try my hand at some animation. (if there are any collabs comin up or u need me to program a game collab jus hmu im serious)
• Also want to meet more people, here on newgrounds and just in general.
• Draw more. Just a lot. Remember to use my stupid sketchbook. ive been SLACKING!!
• Probably more stuff that I can't think of rn. I'm sure I'll pick some new ones up during the year too.

CONCLUSION

It feels a bit stupid to say, but god damn. Newgrounds has done so much for me. Creativity and makin' stuff means everything to me. Newgrounds revitalized my desire to be creative, and pulled me along with it.

Every year I find myself becoming more and more of a fleshed out character, and who I was even just a year ago starts to feel more and more distant. I could have never guessed who I'd become back then, and I imagine I can't predict who I'll be when I'm writing my 2024 recap either. The battle with my stupid gay mental health is ongoing but I'm determined to see it through. I've been getting better every year, I've been acquiring more skills every year, and I've been learning new things every year. 2023 is not my peak though, not just yet. I've got some work to do.

thanks to tom for sending me this rockin' sticker

happy new year newgrounds !

New visuals for everything!

hey everybody, I've done a lot more work on Snack Slice 2 since my last update! Last time I only showed the basic slice ability and how much cleaner it is over the original snack slice. A good chunk of what I've done since is more technical and not very interesting, but I've also made many visual changes to make the moment to moment gameplay feel as good as possible, as well as have everything nice and clean to look at.

Here's a big list of all the new changes:

• Added the eating guys from the first game. This time around, they only need to eat ONE food object instead of a certain amount of food. In snack slice 1, lots of people and myself on retrospective playthroughs really didn't like this mechanic as they'd often just barely miss the required amount and be forced to restart. The eating guys are also way better animated this time around, done by @Staggernight :]
• Previously, the black terrain was done using Godot's tilemap feature. This time, they use polygons and can be any shape. This is much easier to work with and may allow me to create some kind of level editor in the future.
• Sliceable objects now have "depth" to them. This is done by layering an additional sprite behind the main sprite. This additional sprite can be any texture, allowing objects to look like they have some kind of inside.
• Nicer backgrounds. The new backgrounds use a similar shader to the one in squadaddle, and is far more interesting to look at than the plain backgrounds in snack slice 1. The shadows also make their return.
• Slice particles. They look pretty similar to the way they did previously
• Level loading, transitions, and reload button. They've all been given nice animations that I really love, and is way faster than before. In the original, you HAD to press R to reset, but now you can now click to reset with the mouse as well. I'm hoping to make the entire game playable with mouse only.

this gif doesn't do it justice trust me it looks CLEAN

• Freeze points. These were in the last game but they were a bit shit.

that's everything i can remember off the top of my head tbh there's probably a few more things but these are all the things worth showing right now. I think I'm at the point now where I can start putting together some levels. I want to do a super mario world style map, but we'll see if something like that works for a game like this.

ok goodbye see ya i might take a break from this to draw my gift for the ng secret santa that ive been putting off oops

helo,, it's 2 am rn and im currently listening to tunes and being sleepy. i got some work done today tho, and i thought i'd post it here to hold myself accountable to this project:

around a year ago, i published Snack Slice here on newgrounds. It's the first game I've made that got frontpaged here on ng! A lot of my previous games (pre newgrounds arc) never got a lot of players, so having a game of mine get some love gave me a lot of motivation to make more games here.

It's a buggy, horrible mess that I'm not too proud of, but I must credit it with causing 2023 to be my most productive creative year yet. And for that, I'm grateful.

I've always loved the concept of the game, and I at some point wanted to revisit the idea and make it more stable. That's when I stubbled across a godot plugin that implemented the Box2D physics library. Box2D is MUCH more stable than godots default implemented physics engine, so when I saw this, I knew I had to try recreating the snack slice mechanics...

and so i did!

this new version of the slice mechanic is much, much better. it's now:

• Much more stable, physics wise. Expect less physics jitter.
• Supports slicing concave physics objects! (previous only convex shapes would work)
• Slicing multiple rigid bodies at once is much faster than it was in snack slice (it used to wait a frame between cuts because i was and still am bad at programming)
• Slicing objects no longer has a random chance to create inaccurate objects and is basically perfect (outside some scenarios where sliced objects are extremely small)

Unfortunately though, the Box2D plugin for godot requires the mono C# version of godot 4, meaning I (at least currently) can't export it to HTML5 to post here on newgrounds. If I make this better version of snack slice, it's going to have to be a downloadable game only.

Unrelated, but I've been wanting to make a steam game. I have some ideas for bigger projects in the far future, but before I go and tackle them, I'd like to get some practice with using steamworks and its api. I got a little bit when putting PNGTuber Plus onto steam, but its not a game, so I didn't get the full experience. I've been wanting to make a small, simple game i can publish to steam, but have it still be beefy enough that it feels fair to charge money for it. I just haven't come across a good idea for what that steam game will be yet...

unless... :0

I want to make Snack Slice 2 (working title) a real, honest to god, steam published commercial game. The concept is simple enough, that I think with a handful of fun mechanics and enough levels, I can make a worthy game without sinking a huge amount of time into it. I want to keep it small, and I don't want to charge a whole lot for it. I mainly just want to learn and get experience rather than make money. I'll shoot for a game only worth a couple bucks, to hopefully not overload myself with work.

This game has a lot more planning and everything to go through, and to be honest, im predicting it won't be much like the original snack slice at all. I don't have much else to share right now, just wanted to throw my ideas onto the grounds cause I like writing up my thoughts (i really should do this more often about random shit tbh)

invisible water floating

anyways goodnight everyone im goin to sleep zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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