Okay so, I haven't been uploading many animations recently, because I've been busy with personal and collab work, I've been planning to make a Splatoon animation because of its 10th anniversary but I don't think I can release it in time. Someday I'll make a Splatoon animation! Someday...
As for Pico Day, the animation has been fully completed! It'll release on April 30th! Not on NG's 30th anniversary! I've been doing some collab work for that, so no independent work.
Also, I've been hired to work for TWO OBJECT SHOWS! I've always loved object shows but I never really had the time to make one myself so working for one really is a pleasure! I'll do more updates later!
For Jane's Pumpkin Patch, I was really happy with the reception! I've been reading the comments and I was pretty okay with what I've got, I'll make sure the next games will be better than the last! If you haven't played it, play it now!
You might as well check out the prequel as well!
Also, I've uploaded my Newgrounds Jump comic, so JUMP right to it and read it!
I've also been thinking about making a Pico's School Christmas animation called, "Cassandra's Christmas Carol"
Hi guys! I'm proud to tell you all that a game I've been working on for a while is officially released! Play it now!
And... Here's a devlog below!
So, it all started when I collabed with 53xy83457 to make a small game for the 2024 Halloween Spooktacular called “Jane’s Spooky Skeletons”
This game was pretty small in terms of gameplay but I was proud of how it turned out. Then, Tom announced the Flash Forward Jam in 2025! I started conceptualising ideas for the game. I planned for another Jane game where Jane would attack crows and defend her pumpkin patch. Pretty simple but it would get the job done. After I started programming, I realised that the game would be kind of hard to make with Adobe Animate. I knew that I had to use a game engine to make my game. First, I tried Godot. Sorry to you Godot diehards but I cannot understand the engine. The node system was unlike any game engine I tried before and it was so niche and there weren’t really many sources to go to when I needed help. Then, I discovered a game engine called GameMaker. I followed the official tutorials from the website and I got a bit of a grasp for it. I realised GameMaker was used for making games like Mindwave, Dead Estate and UNDERTALE, so I knew it was pretty versatile. There was also visual scripting and code so that’s cool. When I want something as simple as, “I want this character to go here when I press this button.” I can make the code in as little as less than 2 minutes.
When I started to work on the game, I realised it would be a bit empty if I had just worked on the game on my own. I wanted to collaborate with other people so that I and other people could combine our skills to make something fulfilling and awesome. I collabed with oquanaut for the art, Aalasteir for the sound design and thefakealki with the thumbnail art and the project was turning out pretty good! But I experienced some difficulty. I always debated on changing the game engine. First, I tried Scratch, but its animations would play out very slowly. Then, I tried Godot but I didn’t understand its node system. Then, I tried out GDevelop but that engine is basically just “The 2D Platformer engine”. I decided to settle for GameMaker. But, I experienced some more difficulty. I struggled with the cloning aspects of the crows and their movement. That was the hardest
part of the game for me. I tried searching many resources but it didn’t work. Game development is a series of trial and error. But, eventually, I decided to ask for help from the NG Game Portal Discord server. Eventually, I decided to see how the code would look like in Scratch and used sources to see what the equivalent code would be in GML code. Eventually, it managed to work! I was so glad.
Something I have to also talk about are tutorials! Something I learnt from a few YouTube videos is that you need to make simple games to learn the game engine rather than to learn the game engine to make a game. If you’re thinking about using GameMaker, I recommend doing GameMaker’s starter tutorials on the website to get a feel for the engine. While making this game, I would have learnt a lot more from trying rather than watching a bunch of tutorials. So, that’s something to keep an eye out for.
Game Development is something that I’ve always been dreaming about ever since I’ve played the very first Mario Maker game. The idea of making something and having other people play it and enjoy it really is something amazing.
Oh yeah, I should probably talk about Jane. Okay, Jane! Everybody’s favourite green girl. One time, I was designing some random people and Jane was one of them. Once Tom announced the Halloween Spooktacular, I kind of wanted to create a game for it. I decided that she needed a name and thus, I christened her “Jane” and I gave her a personality of, “A paranoid girl who always gets into mishaps.” If it wasn’t obvious, it was inspired by Luigi’s Mansion. C’mon, green person, scared of the supernatural, Halloween setting? I have many more plans of what I want to do with Jane next, but for now, I’ll probably just stick to arcade styled games. I tried to design her in a style similar to parody animators I like such as Spicevipe, Cas Van De Pol and TerminalMontage.
I should also talk about my inspirations! Back then, I used to like simple arcade style games like roguelikes and platformers. My favourite platformers were Mario and Kirby games! But my main inspiration was Goodgis’s Ducky’s Cosy Kitchen game. This game and Goodgis’s game have very similar elements in terms of gameplay. Games I also liked playing were party games, most notably Mario Party 9 and Ultimate Chicken Horse! I know many people don’t really like Mario Party 9 but I find it nostalgic and fun. For the first Jane game, I was heavily inspired by Castle Crashers, the game just reminds me so much of old flash animations and the fact that a game made with flash made it onto Steam is just impressive. One pretty underrated game that I liked was “Kirby and the Rainbow Curse” . The game was just so colourful and vibrant and the gameplay was unlike any game that I’ve ever played before. In fact, I pretty much like every single game that came out on the Wii U. The Wii U is the best Nintendo console. Unfortunately, a game genre I don’t really like are Metroidvanias, I do like the action elements but exploring is kind of a chore. Most of the time, I would end up walking in circles and accomplishing nothing. When I played Super Metroid, I legit could not beat the game without a guide or some sort of finished map.
I know that the game I’ve made may not look that impressive but it was a labour of love and I’m getting better and better at game dev each and every time I make a game. By the time of making this, I don’t know if it’ll get a good rating but eh, at least I can say I tried. And all those years ago, I was surprised by what some Newgrounders managed to make and maybe, someday, I can surprise some other Newgrounders.
And thanks to all of the people that helped me out with the game. Without them, this game would be nothing more but a thought in my head that never came into fruition.
Assuming you’ve already come up with your idea, it’s time to get to the basis of the story, ask yourself Who, What, Why, When and Where?
Who is the character, what are they doing, why are they doing it, when are they doing it and where are they doing it? Stories can be really good but when they don’t have any legs to stand on, they can fall pretty easily. So that leads me to my next step!
Step Two: The Structure
There are many elements for story structure but I’ll just sum it up in 4 parts, first we have the introduction. We are introduced to the character’s life and the character has some sort of motivation to do something.
Next, we have the plot points which are the journeys and quests the character must go through to achieve their goal.
Next, we have the climax which is the part of the story when the character fulfills their goal, this is usually the most exciting part.
Finally, we have the resolution which shows us what happened to the character’s life after their journey.
Step Three: Getting Ideas Down
When you have an idea for a parody or storytime animation, you have to write it down as fast as possible, we lose our train of thought often so if you have a really good idea, get it down as fast as possible! When you’re writing for parodies, people usually go for some elements from the media and exaggerate it! You can, however, add your own ingredients to the soup though and add your own twist to it! Stories have to be entertaining because if your story is boring, nobody would want to watch it.
Step Four: The Story Outline
Time four step four! Heh, heh, eh, we'll get to comedy later. Stories are like a sandwich and the bread is the story outline! You have your basic points of the story and, like a sandwich, you add more of the entertaining stuff, or whatever you want to put in a sandwich!
Make sure to follow the story structure I used to keep your scripts consistent! I recommend using as many bullet points as possible so you wouldn’t be stuck with what to write in the actual script.
Step Five: The Script
Next, write the actual script. You can do this by using your bullet points and laying them out in a story-like manner. Pretend that you’re writing an entertaining essay! One thing I should talk about is comedy! In humour, it follows a basic two step structure, the setup and the punchline. The setup is used to make the viewer think a certain thing will happen a certain way, then next, it’s the punchline. In the punchline, this’ll subvert the viewers expectations and this’ll lead to laughter!
Next step, you need to get your friend to review your script to see if it’s good and maybe to that they can add their 2 cents. If you don’t have any friends, I’m so sorry.
VOICE ACTING
First, you need a microphone that you can input to your computer. You can also use your phone's voice recorder app! What really matters is where you record your lines! Like many storytime youtubers, they recommend recording in your closet! This is because is blocks out any echo and background noise! BG noise is very hard to remove in audio editing so it's better to deal with it first hand. Some youtubers recommend a Blue Snowball mic. If you have a bit of money to cough, you can also get a pop filter, this eliminated popping sounds caused by the impact of some fast moving air! In this case, it's "P", "B" and "F" sounds. I would recommend recording with Audacity if you have a computer.
AUDIO EDITING
Next, you need to edit the audio and set the audio to the places you want it to be. In Audacity, you should reduce the background noise. In the wise words of Gingerpale, "Highlight a flat part of the audio, go to "Effect", "Noise Reduction", and click "Get Noise Profile." Then, you're gonna highlight all of your audio by double-clicking it. And then we're gonna go back to "Noise Reduction" and hit "OK" this time." Then you can export your audio and drag it into The Levelator. The Levelator makes all of your audio sound consistent. This'll increase the sound of the quiets while keeping the sound of the louds the same.
ANIMATION
I'm too lazy to type down here so I'm just gonna like tutorials that helped me.
EDITING
You need an editing software to stitch all of your parts together! I usually use Clipchamp to video edit! I learnt how to use Clipchamp in less than 5 minutes! It's that easy! In video editing, you should add some effects for background music to your animation and SFX! I won't go too in depth to this since there's not much to go through but if you really want a video tutorial for Clipchamp, here's one.
UPLOADING
You can upload your animation now! Give it a good name and give credit to people that helped you make it!
