@Andrey20 - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: The story of your username: Andrey20

:I used to have another account called Andrey2010, but I lost access to it so I had to create a new account, I didn't bother with a name for my new account and I just removed the number 10 from the name of my previous account, so it turned out Andrey20 :)

Q: How did you discover the NG website? What made you decide to join the community? Do you feel differently about the site now compared to when you first joined?

:To be honest, I have been familiar with NG since 2020, but I did not decide to create an account, then after 3 years I decide to create my first account on NG (and I mentioned it in 1 question) I lost access to it and then abandoned NG for a while, but on March 3 of this year I am creating a new account (by the way, an interesting fact is that my mother's birthday is March 3). And so I came to NG for medals and for good content.

Q: How did you become a medal hunter?

I became a medal hunter when I realized that I was making great progress in this.

Q: What makes a good or a bad medal? How should game developers make medals?

:I believe that what makes a medal good is when it is possible to get it, and I consider bad medals to be those medals for which you need to fulfill very insane requirements, for example, play the game 123456789 hours. I recommend that developers do everything possible to get a medal.

Q: What are your favorite games on NG?

:I really liked the game Abobo's Big Adventure, it is immediately clear that it was made with a soul, I also liked the game Madness: Sierra Nevada (Halloween UPDATE) also a very cool game.

Q: What makes a good game?

:I think the game is good when it has a good plot and good graphics.

Q: Your advice on medal hunting

For novice medal hunters, I recommend going through simple games to achieve great success, it is not necessary to play games 24 by 7, if the game is difficult, postpone it for later, perhaps you can pass it in the future.

Q: What is it like having a cat?

:It's great to have a cat, especially in my case, when my cat walks outside alone and then comes home.

Q: Your favourite food and drinks

:I like black tea, mostly I eat meat, potatoes, salad.

@Porter - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: What do you like about art, and would you say that art is therapeutic? How does it help you, and do you think about art differently than you did before?

I love how there are possibilities in breaking the walls of what was once thought to be impossible and exploring what you can do with the tools that are offered both digital and traditional. It's therapeutic to me because I get joy during the process of making it, and when it's finished, there is always something new to learn from every piece that further advances my skill and could potentially push the boundaries. I think about art and being creative a lot more differently than when I was getting started like night and day.

Q: What advice would you give to people who want to draw but are dissatisfied with their current skill level?

Don't feel let down about not drawing what you want to draw or even feeling unmotivated at some point in life. There are going to be times where you need to take a step back and focus on the things that matter most. When there are times where you feel a sudden spark in making something, write it or doodle it down somewhere to save it for when you're ready to work with it.

Q: What drawing advice has been most helpful to you in developing habits and gaining knowledge?

I can't stress this enough, but, practice. Learn the fundamentals and apply it to simple doodles. Look at art thats good or bad, and think about what makes it good or bad, apply it to your art. Keep doing this and apply a specific style you want to your works to stand out or be a part of an art movement/aesthetic. Practice is key to learning new things, and continuously working with what you're learning is key to building a habit.

Q: How did you get interested in animation?

I got interested in animation since I was a kid watching Disney princess films and reruns of various cartoons all on VHS.

That was all we had until we got cable and full internet access later near my middle school years. When we did get internet access, I had a DSi that had Flipnote Hatena. That was where I really became amazed with every animator on that platform and wanted to be like them grown up. And well, I'm sure 10 year old me would get his pants wet seeing how far I have come.

Q: What is the NG community, and how did you join? How would you describe the culture, and do you have to do something specific to fit in or be called a "Newgrounder"?

A welcoming one for that manner. The community feels like what Flipnote was to me as a kid, a fun and engaging community that welcomes all levels of creatives. I joined at a weird time in 2018 where the great Tumblr migration occurred, which funnily enough, was not the reason why I joined. Eventually, as of recent, this is the only platform I am exclusively posting regularly on. For the last part, I don't wanna determine what makes someone a "Newgrounder" or to fit in, but just be yourself and only make what you're passionate about. There's always an audience that will love what ever it is that you put out and follow you along your journey. A lot of what comes out of this website is from people who are passionate in what they make and only do it because they love doing it.

Q: Can you describe the experience of doing additional animation for Mix 'n' Match?

Fun, easy to work with along with getting feedback from Nine when there came time to work on an episode. I learned a lot of things in each episode and it's great getting the feedback to improve on the next batch of episodes. Hoping to work with him again soon and also potentially work with everyone else here looking for an additional animator for their projects.

Q: What was it like creating backgrounds for Glyde the Dragon?

That was my first experience working with an independent studio and getting to know what it's like having something you contributed to be included in a major piece of media. The backgrounds I made were for the intro video to the indie game of the same name. It felt trippy seeing something I made be in a video game. Wish that there were more I could have made, and maybe some more opportunities for other games/animations would be awesome.

Q: What animation and art inspire you, and why do you like them?

I have so many art pieces and animations that have inspired me over the years, from the Hatena legend BosS to the indie animator Don Hertzfeldt and some animators on this website who are killing it like LiteralHat and ImPage. When it comes to artwork, wish that I had enough room for every single one to mention, but a good few I love are shotty, carmine3, ennuikal, birdblitz, and Wildblur are all that come to mind. Those mentioned or not, I love their art because they're unique from all I have seen be put out as of recent and it gives me inspiration.

Q: Why do you think you don’t get sick very often?

Not eating a lot of crap! I do the best I can to not eat too much while being careful not to eating the same things. Working out too, although I don't work out often, I do my walking and occasional gym visits every so often when time is available. One other thing, two bottles of water and an apple per day keeps the doctors happy!

Q: When did you get interested in glassblowing, and how would you describe your experience?

Right around 2022 and it blew my mind once I found out that there were classes you could take in my area. Enrolled in the classes and it eventually grew with me. Overall my experience has been good, with some good and bad days at the studio, there's always something to learn from every session I partake in. Not the absolute best at it nor have I completely gotten all the shapes down to be perfect, but only with time added in each day I enter the shop, I'll eventually get better with a new understanding of the material and tools to use for the project I want.

Q: How did you get interested in the art aesthetic known as "Metalheart" (also referred to as Depthcore and Trendwhore)? And thank you for allowing me to use your art for the album cover of my royalty-free instrumentals

Not a problem! When I first discovered the internet as a kid, I had kept seeing a lot of it from various websites and short video reels. I was fascinated by the animation and rendered shapes that I wondered how it was done. Now all grown up, I've gotten the time and drive to not only learn 3D modeling, but also replicate what I saw as a kid on the computer.

Q: Do you have any advice on being cool and collaborating?

Super corny but just be yourself. Don't put yourself in a bad group of people who'll take advantage of you. Find something new that you find cool and put some time to get really good at it. As far as collaborations go, I'd find a good number of people that envision your idea(s) and ask around to see if they'd be willing to work with you on a project. Getting rejected is not the end of the journey but a starting point. So keep people on tab, ask friends if they know anyone who'd be down to collaborate with.

Q: What food and drinks do you like?

Just about everything really. I am not a picky eater and will munch on just about anything that's given to me. However, funny fact about me, I really enjoy drinking cranberry juice and it gets people to come up with funny "old people" jokes. The pomegranate or grape variation are awesome and good for your body too, trust.

Q: Games that you enjoy and why?

I enjoy hopping on Terraria and Quake. I have been a die-hard fan of the Portal series and the lore behind it. I love everything about it from the dystopian environment to the gameplay to the characters that make the games shine.

Part 2:

Q: What misconceptions do you see people having about art and animation?

The biggest one that I have noticed is either seeing people feeling bad about using a reference or people getting heated over someone using it during the process. I can see why someone would only trace a reference and not really learn something out of it, but at the same time, some people really need to get angry over other things that are more important. The artist will eventually learn to draw without using a reference, it's all part of their own journey.

Q: What do you enjoy doing when you go outside?

Walking and drawing on my sketchbook with some music playing in the background. It's always a treat when I get the chance to do that once everything from personal to university projects are completed and have nothing to work on. A great way to get out of the little room and think about your surroundings outdoors.

Q: What are some songs you like?

I like just about everything, lately I have been getting back into some deadmau5 tunes and some OSTs from Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross. Classic hip hop and Drum n Bass are also bops to put on while I work on stuff at the studio or in the car. A song I like lately is "Re_Jaded - deadmau5" and an album I listened to lately is "Above - Mad Season".

Q: What’s your opinion on fashion?

An everlasting evolving form of art & design that I could never catch up on nor understand entirely! Only type of fashion I could get myself into would be street wear like baggy jeans/shirts or big sneakers (oh Osiris' when will I ever get you...)

Q: What are some of your favorite dishes?

As mentioned, just about anything, but I do like some buffalo wings and fries. Always my go-to and its enjoyable to eat in any occasion in my opinion. That or spicy chicken sandwiches. Those are the bomb dot com!

@larrynachos - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: How would you say the Internet has impacted your life, and in what ways do you think it has affected you?

1. The internet has affected me in both positive and negative ways. It is a portal to the world's information and entertainment. It did a good job of giving me perspectives outside of my bubble, before algorithms shoehorned us into cliques and restricted the variety of information put in front of us. I feel like it helped me discover what was possible, I probably wouldn't have become a musician or game developer without seeing how accessible it had become. In the past few years though, the amount of time I spend online has decreased significantly. It's no longer about enriching my knowledge and connecting with others, everyone is just trying to use misinformation to distort our perception and provoke conflict, as well as monopolize our attention with cheap brain rot.

Q: What is Newgrounds, and what is the story and context behind you joining? Why did you join?

2. Newgrounds is the last surviving refuge for genuine creativity in the AI age. It's a great place for creatives of any size to be seen and appreciated. I think the sense of community has splintered into somewhat tribalistic cliques in recent years, but overall I like to think we're one big happy family.

My first exposure to Newgrounds was Eddsworld and Final Fantasy Daycare, both of which I was introduced to by my sister. My first newgrounds account @larynachos was created in 2010. I wasn't really a creator back then, I just used it to play games like punk o matic, chaos faction, and territory wars.

I don't remember exactly what inspired me to make this new account. In 2013 I downloaded the trial versions of fl studio and construct 2. The limitations of each software (not being able to re open project files in FL, and having a limited number of events in construct 2) forced me to iterate quickly and keep ideas simple, making songs start to finish in a single session, and keeping games simple, procedural, and repayable. Around this time I also pirated flash and tried making a few animations, but I'm a terrible artist/animator so nothing really came of it.

The first users I befriended on newgrounds were @thatawkwardkid, @etherealwinds, @cyberdevil, @cacola, and @teravex, among others. I'd always struggled with making friends in real life, the interests of those around me never aligned with my own, so making these connections in Newgrounds really helped me feel like I belonged.

Q: What games do you enjoy playing, and why?

3. The answer to this has changed now that I have little free time ^^; I grew up on Nintendo games, we've had every Nintendo console and handheld. I used to love open world games that I could sink dozens of hours into. Minecraft, Ark, 7 days to die, sea of thieves, just to name a few. Nowadays I play games that have shorter round-based gameplay loops. I used to play csgo but that game is too sweaty. I play a lot of dead by daylight with my mom and brother in law. On my phone I play hearthstone battlegrounds and pokemon tcgo (rest in peace the old version). I like games with minigames for that same reason lol. If I had more time, I would play more narrative games like the Yakuza series. I played all of 5 and like half of 7 but I just don't have time anymore.

Q: How did you get interested in making music, and what are some of your favorite games?

4. As a kid, we had a huge electric clavinova piano that you could record and save midi songs on. I don't know how to play piano, but that didn't stop me xD I also got an electric guitar in 2013, which I also have no formal knowledge with but I still like to jam on from time to time.

The second part of the question is a little redundant lol, I answered above. It's hard to pick a favorite, do I pick a game that I play the most, or a game that gives me the most nostalgia, or a game that I had the most memorable moments in? What you should have asked is "how do the games you enjoy influence the games you develop", to which I wouldn't have much of an answer either lol. My games aren't really inspired by anything, when I'm not collaborating with artists my game ideas revolve around the royalty free art assets I can find online x.x I suppose there are a few that could be traced back to old flash games I enjoy. Shoot your goo is inspired by Hanger, bandits and barbarians is inspired by the old stick archer games. Just little things like that I guess.

Q: What advice would you give on developing games?

5. My advice for developing games is to not neglect preproduction. I'm guilty of it for most of my games. I just dive right into development without a clear vision of the entire game's scope, which bites me in the ass when I try to build additional features that are incompatible with my original code and either requires a bunch of hacky fixes or a complete rewrite. Preproduction also prevents scope creep and keeps you from stalling because you're not sure what to implement next. Write out a game design document with all of your ideas, then organize it and structure it in a way that will streamline your development journey.

Q: You've created multiple Madness Combat games. What do you like about Madness Combat?

6. I mostly made madness combat games because my artist friend YuriKadry enjoys the series. Madness Roulette was originally going to be a pico day game with characters from multiple series, not just madness combat. I chose to make madness roulette instead when Yuri and I were thinking of madness day game ideas back in 2021. I like the series for its simple style and modular body composition which makes them easy to animate.

Q: What is Newgrounds culture?

7. Newgrounds has many cultures, but I guess if I had to sum it up, the core values of Newgrounds are creativity and collaboration. "Everything by Everyone"

Q: What do you like about music?

8. I like music because of the way it makes me feel. My dad raised me on rock music, but once I discovered electronic music I was hooked. Every other genre is seemingly defined by it's limitations, but electronic music is all about experimenting and defying expectations.

Q: How do you define color bass?

9. The defining characteristic of color bass is constraining atonal bass sounds to a scale, and layering it with twinkly high end sound candy. It's heavy bass music but it sounds pretty because it's all in key.

Q: What do you like about the VST Pitchmap? 

10. I like pitchmap because it accomplishes exactly what is needed to make color bass. It takes a sound and snaps the frequencies to that of the selected scale. It takes a lot of tweaking to sound right, and of course you need to pair it with other effects, but it's a very powerful tool to turn atonal sounds into something cool.

Q: What makes Castle Crashes are good game?

11. The diarrhea deer

Nah in all seriousness, it's a combination of satisfying art, animation, music, and sound design. It all just meshes together so perfectly. The levels were unique and varied. The progression keeps you playing, but the option to switch characters and do it all over again kept it from getting stagnant. Any game that can tell a story without words is a good game. I played so much castle crashers on the 360 as a kid.

Q: How did you become an audio moderator, and what do you do as an audio mod?

12. I was nominated to be an audio mod a few years ago, presumably for my contributions to the audio portal cleanup thread. As a moderator, my duties are going through user flags to find and remove songs that violate our terms of use, and to review copyright appeals. When I first started as a moderator, going through flags was a regular part of my routine in the morning. I will admit that I don't work as diligently anymore, but I still go through flags when there are too many, and I'm always available for people to ask questions and appeal our decisions.

Q: What advice in life has helped you the most?

13. I'm a very anxious person, I'm always worrying about things and running scenarios in my head and trying to predict every outcome for every situation I may or may not encounter. It constantly leaves me burnt out. And one day when talking to my mom about it, she told me to not worry about things I can't control. I still overthink a lot, but it helped.

@ConorKehelly - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: How would you describe your personality?

Dry. But I like to find the humour in everything. People have said I am pessimistic at times but I think I am an optimist at heart. I just like having a laugh really.

Q: What is animation?

A magic trick that somehow turned into an artistic medium

Q: How would you say having unrestricted Internet access has impacted you, and has it helped with your interest in animation?

Yes. I think without the internet, I would never have got into animatiton and developed such esoteric and niche interests. I think the internet forces you to take in every world view from every type of person imaginable. I used to watch really innapropriate things during the wild west of the internet, but I think exposure to these things gives you more time to compute it. Some people end up just getting an overabundance of information shot into their brains in ttheir 20's when they suddenly start partaking in internet culture and it feels like when a caveman gets thawed out of ice in the future and goes insane due to seeing flying cars. I never saw animation as a childrens medium due to sitting on newgrounds when I was young so I think I understood that animations had the power to deliver a wide range of ideas if the viewer was open to it.

Q: What were some of the Flash animations that inspired you, and why do you think they resonated with you?

David firth is an obvious answer. His influence over animation is really under-rated. The madness-combat series is also mind-blowing. I still don't think an animation has managed to match it's kenetic energy. I remember the brakenwood series also feeling like prestiege at the time, as if flash animation could also be sensitive and thoughtful as well as crude and counter-culture.

Q: Where did you learn to animate and how?

Cracked version of adobe-flash cs6 and I think the only tutorial I ever watched was the OneyNG one hahah, I later went to university and studied animation, but I feel like I learnt more from the internet.

Q: How did you create your animation THE FINAL NAIL IN THE COFFIN? What was the pipeline for the project, and where did the story come from?

It feels very immersive, emotional, and personal. How did you decide on using this texture and making it black and white?

I am only one person so I needed to strip everything back to it's bare essentials in order to finish it. I tried to keep to a boring old script>storyboard>keyframes>cleanup but somewhere along the line I just ended up improving and redoing stuff as I saw fit. I had no monetary backing so I could just take my time and do what I want until I was happy with it. I think the core to a good short is the idea and story. Nothing needs to be animated that does not further the idea. This resulted in a kind of brutalist striped back design. I love the textures of old 1940s found-footage type animations where the film is scratched and blurry, as if found from a dumpster. I thought that style might reflect the ugliness of the characters a bit more.

Q: How long did it take to create your THE FINAL NAIL IN THE COFFIN?

I work a full time job so I justt worked on it most evenings for an hour or two, and over weekends. This was over the span of just over two years. It felt long. Too long at times.

Q: What is your advice on creating an animated short film from start to finish? What do you think are the misconceptions around creating short films?

Just start. Don't get in your head about not having a voiceover or you are not good at drawing. If the idea is good, people will be engaged. Do the voiceover and music yourself. Nobody is stopping you. Don't talk yourself out of it. Stick to an idea and make it even if people won' like it. There is someone else out there who thinks just like you and will connect with it.

Q: How did you come to play the upright double bass throughout your childhood, and how did you receive classical training in orchestras until you were 18?

I just saw the biggest insttrument and decided I wanted to play it. For a long time, I thought my career would be in music so I slowly worked my way up to the highest orchestra I could in my age range, but then as i reached adulthood, I realised I never really enjoyedi it like I enjoyed art. Luckily it has come full circle and my musical knowledge has come in handy when scoring my short films. I can just do the majority of it myself. That saves some resources.

Q: What songs and bands do you like, and which genres do you gravitate towards?

Big fan of really hard electtronic dance music. Happy hardcore. Hardstyle. Dariacore. Breakcore and the likes. I find it easy to listen to really loud noisy music when concenttratting. Probably something to do with the rhythm keeping me on track. I also liike ambient too. People like the haxan cloak, Ian William Craig, Phillip Glass, Burial. They can pull a lot of emotion from the bare minimum.

Q: You love electronic music and enjoy getting granular about sound design. Which DAW and VSTs do you use?

Ableon all the way. My favourite VST's at the moment is cycles by slate & ash. It turns any sample into something giant and vast. I am also a big fan of pigments. It can create almost any sound in the world and is pretty cheap.

Q: What is it like being on Instagram? What do you like about it, and what is the culture like?

It is a means to an end. It takes a long time to build up an audience there but it is easy to chat to other like-minded artists in a really simple format, so it isn't all bad.

Q: What is it like being Irish and currently working in London?

Expensive.

Q: You made a webcomic as a teenager on Facebook called Humans of Microsoft Paint. How did that come about, and how would you describe the experience? What did you learn from it? And has it helped in cultivating your style?

It was a riff on humans of newyork, but with crazy absurdist humour. My brotther and i worked on it when we were only teenagers but we both love just distilling really odd characters into one senttence. I don't think our humour has changed much. We wanted o continue it but facebook's algorithm nuked it and we never got the ball rolling again. i guess the thing to learn there is that nothing on the internet lasts forever.

Q: How do you recognize an animation that you like, and what are the elements that you personally find appealing? Why do you think these elements resonate with you?

I think if an animation feels authentic and from a genuine place then I will pick up on it. it should be based on what you personally like rather than what you think the audience wants to see.

Q: What have you learned about yourself from watching animations, and what are animations that you like and would recommend people check out?

Favourite animation of all time is Cat Soup by Tatsuo Sato. Anything by Maasaki Yuasa is brilliant too. (space dandy especially). Anytthing by Don Herttzfeld and David Firth. They have never missed.

@PachkaNG - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: What is funny?

A: its a haha, a goof, maybe even... a Jape.

Q: What impact would you say the Internet has had on your life? From your perspective, what is the internet really about?

A: Well, without the internet, I'd probably be nonexistent to the wider world or any of you all. Id say the internet is just about sharing. Sharing has gotten us all here and changed us all, for better or worse.

Q: The story of your username: PachkaNG

A: When I created my account, I was EXTREMELLYY into Post punk, especially this russian band named КИНО (Kino). They just so happen to have a song named Pachka Cigaret (A pack of cigarettes) that I absolutely ADORE. I was thinking of usernames and then that song popped into my head and made me think "Wowzah that could work" and the rest is history

Q: How did you get interested in Newgrounds? You made a really good metaphor about the BBs—it's like: "A pub in a small town where everyone knows eachother, and whos patrons will gladly sing shitty AC-DC karaoke with an out-of-towner". How would you describe your experiences and explain the culture of the BBs? What advice would you give on using it, and what do you think is the right approach?

A: Oh Pico's School definetly. I used to adore flash games like it as a kid, so I basically grew up on the site's content. In 2021 however, I really decided to take shit seriously on the site. I was an animator at the time, and hearing all the praises animators gave about newgrounds at the time, I thought "Hey I should join then I'll be famous like Jonbro!!". Obviously I didnt become famous on the multiple accounts I made back then, but it definetly got me hooked. Then I joined the BBS, and I was IN FULLY. The culture of the BBS is really like a small town pub. Everyone knows eachother, we have our own inside jokes, we shit on eachother playfully, etc etc. But like a small town bar, its easy to get shit to hit the fan. General was the biggest example of this, it closing really sent a shockwave throughout the bbs. It really made us more laidback and less chaotic, but still ready to be riled, like a cold war era nuke. As for advice while using it, dont immediately think everyone knows or cares about you. Going back to the small town bar analogy, if you go there everyday, people might start to notice you and care after a week or two, but if you go there like once a week, no one will care until you do some stupid shit. I see this attitude in younger more newer users of the bbs, though this isnt a means of haranguing on them.

They just gotta learn to be more active and interesting to be noticed

Q: Where does your interest in collecting old computers come from? You currently have two battle stations, and you're planning to expand even further. You've even converted your closet into a storage space for your collection, having spent over $500 on it—mostly on processors and PCI components

A: In my school's campus, there is this local shopping complex called Freighthouse Square. It hosts a variety of stores and resturaunts, including an amazing seafood place that I took my current bf on our first date too, but there used to be this store called E-cycle. For context, I have had a life long infatuation with old technology. My parents are Gen X, so I was exposed to all of the stuff the last millenium had to offer and I made me hooked on that shit. So the moment I saw a compaq deskpro rotting away on the shelf at the store, I was sold. It started me on this path and I dont regret it ine bit

Q: How did you become interested in creating art?

A: My brother mostly. Hes an AMAZING artist, so seeing him draw and paint and all that stuff made me want to be like him. Couple that with the fact that I loved little einsteins and you got a recipe for an artist

Q: What do you enjoy most about creating animations?

A: Gee I havent made a finished animation in years. Back then I mostly did them for the sake of it. I loved Richard Williams at the time, so I tried to emulate him as much as I could (to hilariously bad results). The joy came from seeing the finished product and thinking "Holy fuck, It moves"

Q: What are your thoughts on Vinesauce?

A: I love the funni pizza pasta binyot and the Jobell

Q: What’s the story behind your greentext reading?

A: I have the ability of doing a pretty masculine voice. Whenever I did people said "Hey Daisy you should do voice work!". So after hearing those almost everytime I spoke back then, and also watching alot of brendaniel, I came to the conclusion that I should be a Greentext reader. I made a single one and I never wanted to do it again because the genre died

Q: What is the Newgrounds community about?

A: Its about everything by everyone (ayyyy)

Q: Why do you have a Mexican flag in your room?

A: Yo soy mexicano-americano. Mi abuela es de michoacan y ella vino a los Estados Unidos cuando tenío 15 o 14 años para trabajar en los años 60s. Nunca conocí con ella porque esta muerte ._.

Q: Your favorite foods and drinks and why?

A: Easy. Conchas and Sidral Mundet. RAAAAAGH I FUCKING LOVE SIDRAL MUNDET

Q: How would you describe your experiences visiting Ireland, England, Scotland, the Philippines, Mexico, and Canada?

A: Ireland was cool, Phillipenes were cool, Mexico was amazing, Canada was cool, and England and Scotland were the most depressing places Ive ever been to in my entire life

Q: Your advice for being cool

A: Be a cool guyy. Treat everyone equally because we are all brothers as humans, and being divided is what our rulers want for us to be that way they dont get blamed. LOVE EVERYONE, because everyone deserves it, and thatll make you the coolest person ever 

@Jampley-Dev - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: How did you become interested in literature? Why do you think you enjoy reading? Can you provide examples of your own stories that you’ve written, and what do you like about writing them?

1- I was in high school, I felt the education system had failed me, so I tried to learned some stuff on my own, like how to write and read properly, so I read some books like Frankenstein and Don Quijote. At first, I didn't like them much, but then I actually tried to understand what I was reading and I started to take linking to them. I always wanted to tell my own stories, growing up watching a lot of movies and cartoons, and I found a way to tell stories through literature, which is its own media with its own qualities. I like the creative process of making anything that is on your mind, and express your ideas and feeling.

I don't usually write stories in English, but I have this flash fiction that I think it's good:

Q: Where does your interest in game development come from? What have you learned from your experiences creating games such as Gravity Storm, Lucy's Dream Panic, and Manuee's Adventure?

2- My interest comes from the many games I played as a kid, maybe not much of an unique story ha, ha. My first console was a bootleg console called "Fullstation", that looked exactly like Playstation 1, but it come with a zapper and loaded with 999,999 repeated NES games. I had fun playing Mario and Dog Hunt on my "Fullstation". It took a while until I got my PSP and could play with oficial Hardware. I'm more a retro gamer although I'm not that old.

I remembered that one day I just woke up and asked myself, "is it hard to make videogame? I like games, I wonder if I make one". I don't know I found out about Gamemaker, but I did and started learning, although Gamemaker is quite an easy game engine to learn, it was still hard to learn. After like a year of treating game dev hobby, I found myself with no job and a lot of free time, so I decided to try see if I can make so profit out of it. I participated in several game jams which most of the time were just excuses to make games and get some visibility at the same time. Gravity Storm was the game I felt had the most potential and it actually got pretty popular in Gx.games and Newgrounds, so I decided to make it my main project, and I'm still working on it. Game development gives me a certain creative feeling that writing give me too, although I never focus on the narrative when I make games.

Rather than learning from making games, I have learned more from watching people play my games, and listening to their "feedback". Most of the time, their feedback isn't useful, so many people give their opinion without even playing the game for more than 2 minutes, or even without playing it at all, asking me to add stuff that is already in the game or features that would break the level design, or take me too long to implement to be viable. Don't get me wrong, I have gotten plenty of good feedback, but most of it tends to me poorly thought out or biased, and I usually learn how to improve my game by watching how people play, rather than what they say about the game. Many people want your game to be more like other games they like, instead of a better version of itself. For example, many want my game to be more like Megaman and I understand that Gravity Storm looks like Megaman, but it was never my intention to make a Megaman clone, my inspirations are others, and Megaman fans who actually played my game realized that it plays quite differently from Megaman. What I'm trying to say is that I've learned how irrational people can be, even myself because I've acted similarly in the past, and you should be careful listening to people who talk out of ignorance, and try not to talk out of ignorance yourself.

Q: What recommendations and advice would you give for doing pixel art commissions?

3- I'm not an expert in pixel art commissions, I have done only 5, I'm kind of new to this. But I was a Spanish tutor in the past, and I learned that you have to get paid in advance because there are many irresponsable or simply bad people out there. I have learned to value my time, my work, and keep getting better at it, because quality is important. You need patience because freelance work can take time to pay off because you need to get an audience, which isn't an overnight thing. Also, advertisement is important, advertise your work in as many places as possible.

Q: Why do you think you’ve never played Minecraft? What is it about FPS games that you don’t like?

4- I've never been interested in Minecraft, it's not like I'm not open to try it, I might try it in the future.

I don't usually like FPS games because I feel restricted in the limited view I have of the surroundings, third person games gives me more to work with in that regard. I also don't feel more immersed in first person prospective because normal people don't really move their body like that, it's unnatural. I'm not really looking for immersion, most of the time, I'm looking for cool mechanics and freedom. I don't really view art or videogames as a way to escape from realistic if that makes sense. VR games might be more immersive, but I can't afford them nor I'm interested in putting a screen right in front of my eyes, well, that's probably a whole other topic.

Q: What do you discuss with other game developers?

5- Usually how hard game development is and how to solve each other coding problems and we give feedback to each other's games.

- Two blue, two red, and one yellow

I used to work at a shop and some guy came with a piece of paper. The piece of paper read, "two blue, two red, and one yellow". I was like, "what does that mean?", and he was like, "it means what's written there. Then I handed back the piece of paper and told him to read it himself. When he read it, he look at me puzzled, then got angry and said, "I'm never doing her any favors ever again". Then he stormed out the shop, never to be seen again ha, ha, ha.

Q: Do you have any clues as to what "two blue, two red, and one yellow" was referring to?

6- I'm not sure, maybe they wanted paper, I worked at a office supply shop/pet supply shop, I know, weird. It could have been whatever, or maybe someone was pranking that man.

Q: Your favourite games and why?

7- Hard question... on top of my head:

1. Resident Evil 3, Resident Evil 1 remake: best survival horror games I've played, I love survival horror games.
2. Pokemon Black and White 2: best pokemon games in my opinion.
3. Over Horizon (NES): Best NES shoot'em up on the NES in my opinion, you can shoot left and right, great use the the environment in the level design, more shoot'em ups should do that.
4. Castlevania Harmony of dissonance: Underrated, my favorite Castlevania game, I love Castlevania
5. Kirby and the Amazing Mirror: I love metroidvanias and this is one with co-op, I played alone and with people I love.

Q: Advice for Game Dev

8-Get your priorities right, scoop creep is a big and very common problem. if you make a big project, it will most likely take you years to finish it and you got to be aware of it, you might not be as excited about your game after a month or two. Listen to criticism, ask for help if you need some, don't listen to ignorant opinions, and try to be wise enough to tell them apart from good feedback.

Q: What do you think about Newgrounds? How did you join, and what have you learned about yourself by being a part of it?

9- I love Newgrounds, I gotten many opportunities since I made an account. I like the system it has, it seems to make it easier for new creators to get visibility, I wish It were a more popular place because I think it deserves it, but I guess sometimes it's better when things aren't too popular.

I think I found out about Newgrounds because I was doing research on places where I could publish my game and Newgrounds would pop up a lot. I uploaded Gravity Storm one evening without expecting much, and the day after Gravity Storm was on the front page and I was so happy, some time after that I got 100 dollars from a contest on Newgrounds I didn't know existed, I thought it was a scam, but it was legit, I was surprised and grateful I got it because at the time I needed the money.

I don't think I've learned much about myself; however, I've had a lot of fun and and opportunities, and I think that's awesome.

@Stonmann - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: What is it like living in Johannesburg?

A: It's much the same as living in Middle America to be honest. Car centric infrastructure, ect. Crime is a big issue. Especially B&E. It's no longer "Oh my gosh you got broken into that's so scary I'm so sorry!", but rather: "That's so annoying. What was taken?". Although the life of a South African depends hugely on his rng stats. In my South Africa everyone has massive walls around their house to protect against crime, and you can't really just go into the street until at least 14, and definitely not at night. There's no real sense of community because of that. I barely know my next door neighbours, and I sure as hell don't know my second neighbours.

Q: Your experiences with the Internet

A: It exposed me to alot at a young age, but I think that's a good thing. It desensitised me. Although it did take alot away from me in school, socially. I don't really need to be around people to stay occupied like most people. It was much easier to just go and sit in the library at break on my computer than actually try and talk to people, which kind of set me up as a bit of loner.

Q: What does it mean to be happy?

A: I think being happy is being content. Happiness means not being bothered if you don't have alot, but appreciating what you do have. That's why I don't think money can buy happiness. Money can't buy a state of mind. I don't need a massive modern house, or a fancy car. A quant country home, in a small town or village, with a job I enjoy and a loving wife and kids is all I need to be happy.

Q: How did you get interested in Classical music? How did you discover "historic performances"?

A: When I was 12 or so I started hassling my mum to start piano lessons, and I honestly can't remember why. She was actually quite reluctant at first but it was soon obvious I had a gift in music. I was originally interested in pop music, but slowly I started getting interested in classical music for various reasons. Historical performance, I can't remember where I first learned about it, but it was developed mostly when I stated harpsichord lessons, and fell in love with the genre.

Q: What is it like to be able to clap very loudly?

A: I mean, it's not that interesting. I really don't like clapping. I go to alot of classical music concerts and it's my least favourite part. Being socially forced to slap your hands together at the end for way to long.

Q: What was it like hosting the Pickle Collab?

A: The one thing I learned from the Pickle Collab is that I am on the far, far right end of the bellcurve when it comes to how cautious I am entering a collab. When I took part in the sketch collab last year I reread the post over, and over again, making sure I was doing everything right, but not a single person who uploaded art followed the rules. JPEG 4:3. It was that simple.

Q: What did you learn from being part of a band?

A: Lol nothing. We where dumb kids who had just learned about sex and wrote some dumb songs. I mean it was fun, and I won't lie the song Sex Education does slap.

Q: Why did you set your occupation to alcoholic?

A: I set it as a joke, but I have struggled with alcohol since I was about 14. Here in South Africa underage drinking is part of the culture, but I would steal my dad's whisky and drink alone. I've since grown out of it, for now.

Q: What do you think about food?

A: Love it. Perhaps a bit too much. If I wasn't blessed with good genes I would be hella fat. I don't do much exercise and I eat like shit. I'm trying to work on it though.

Q: Your advice for life

A: As I said in the happiness one, the trick is to learn to be content with what you have, and not let those who aren't dictate how you think. You're taught that you need to have lots of money and lots of chicks ect. to be happy, and that if you're content to live a simple life your weird and nerdy, or whatever. Don't let other people control the way you see the world.

@Hookington - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: What is the Internet about? How did you get interested in the Internet?

A: Like most kids, I originally used the internet for various games. Chess and Neopets, for instance. But the Internet is about everything; forming friendships, understanding the wider world, quick access to knowledge, a place to test ideas, relax, play, network, and share your work and art with the world.

Q: In your experience is Newgrounds a good place for music? What made you decide to join the community? Do you feel differently about the site now compared to when you first joined?

A: Newgrounds is pretty good since it is a platform that has a lot of gamers and smaller (and some bigger) game developers. I joined NewGrounds originally so that my music could have a chance to get whitelisted and featured in user-made Geometry Dash levels (a goal I achieved fairly quickly)! I feel the site has grown and improved over the years.

Q: How did you get interested in creating music? What do you specifically enjoy about Dubstep and Glitch Hop?

A: I have always been into music since I was a child. I took both piano lessons and guitar lessons for many years in childhood, and always knew I wanted to be a musician. I love Dubstep and Glitch Hop because I feel these genres really allow my skills with melody and catchy chord patterns to shine. Also because they really lend themselves to advanced and unique sound designing and the creation of new and interesting bass sounds. In terms of what got me originally interested in creating Dubstep and Glitch Hop specifically, artists like Virtual Riot, Panda Eyes, Teminite, F-777 and Kotori were all big inspirations for me.

Q: What's a story you'd like to share?

A: One of my biggest successes as a musician was almost blown by thinking the opportunity was fake because it was too good to be true. Here on NewGrounds I was messaged by someone claiming to be from the Rolling Sky team. The account was recently created, had no profile pic, and the offer to be paid to have my music be in this huge mobile game that's been downloaded over 500 milliion times seemed too good to be true. I responded, but was inwardly skeptical. At one point I was 80/20 that it was a scam but thanks to help from my friend @x3llen I was able to verify that the person was in fact who they said they were, and the rest is history. Now, two of my songs, Tasukete and Final Showdown are the official soundtracks of two 5 star main levels in the game. I gained a huge amount of fans from this and it opened up further opportunities, so I'm very glad and relieved that I didn't dismiss it out of hand. (I have a friend producer who received a message from the same person but they believed it was indeed a scam/too good to be true and they blew the opportunity, so its definitely something that can happen)

Q: Your advice for creating music

A: Always try to make music that you personally love and enjoy. Your own enjoyment of the music you make will guide you and make everything flow easier. This will naturally and spontaneously give you your own unique sound, since the music taste of any one person is usually from 100s of different artists, so it will always be unique. I also suggest getting FL Studio (The DAW that I use) or Ableton since they have the most tutorials and online resources to learn from, in addition to very user-friendly interfaces and powerful music making tools. Studying finished project files from other artists is a great way to quickly learn a lot of things at once, and watching You Tube tutorials is also very helpful at the start. 

Q: What is the Geometry Dash community?

A: The Geometry Dash community is the worldwide community of people who play Geometry Dash, make levels for it, make you tube content around it, and chat in the Geometry Dash discord servers, subreddits, twitter conversations etc. 

It is a very passionate community of creators and enthusiasts. I think the Geometry Dash community has done a lot for the modern dubstep and glitch hop scene: so many artists like F-777, MDK, and more recently, Tanger, have really gotten massive boosts in popularity and recognition from having their music in the game.

Q: How did you get good at chess, and what was it like playing in tournaments as a child and winning a few trophies?

A: My dad taught me and I practiced against him a lot. Then, I played online and bought a few chess strategy and openings books that I studied. Playing in chess tournaments as a child was super exciting and fun!

Q: How did you become interested in Pokémon trading cards?

A: I was always into Pokemon as a kid, and the trading cards are just really fun to collect. The game based around them is super fun and challenging, too!

Q: What have you learned from your interest in history, and why do you enjoy studying Roman and Greek history?

A: Many things including that no matter how good a republic's founding constitution is, it usually degenerates into an empire or tyranny over time. Also, confirmation of a quote from philosopher Friederich Nietzche: “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” Roman and Greek History is interesting because it had such epic and larger-than-life figures like Pericles, Julius Caesar, and Cicero and also massive amounts of political intrigue, battles between good and evil, adventure, plus significant events and contributions to human civilization that reverberate in modern society to this day.

Q: Why is your favorite anime character Villetta Nu from Code Geass?

A: She was a very unique character whose arc from evil to good was really cool and whose visual design was really striking.

Q: What foods and drinks do you enjoy, and why do you like Halls grapefruit-flavored cough candy?

A: For food: I love pancakes, french fries, rice, veggie burgers. For drinks: cream soda, raspberry tea, and grapefruit flavored sparkling water. 

Grapefruit is one of my favorite fruits. Usually the candy or drink version of it is always awesome too.

@DrSaturn2 - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

- SpongeBob Story

I feel like stories from my childhood are more interesting than anything from the past 10 years, which of course, would make sense, considering everything I do and feel today has its roots there.

I love talking about little creeps I had as a kid, so here's a little story about how Spongebob caused my fear of late at night loneliness. I was living in Spain in the late 2000's, and during that time, Spongebob finally got a Polish dub, so I could finally watch this series everyone in school was talking about. I used to wake up, sometimes at 4AM to catch a pair of episodes before school. That's me, at the age of 7, sitting on the couch, illuminated by nothing but Spongebob playing on a tiny TV, forcing myself to look at silly Season 1 episodes, distracting me from eerie shadows in the living room. And whenever the dreaded credits rolled, I would just be left alone in the dark with the aforementioned shadows, having to find my way back to my bedroom, with the haunting credits music playing under my skin (and also being a kid who was really scared of ghosts!!!). There are a lot of video essays covering that Spongebob credits song dread, so I'll spare the details, but I'm actually surprised that I've experienced that "generational trauma" and I'm not alone on that. I strongly believe that this is the reason why even to this day, staying in dark, uncanny rooms makes me uncomfortable, and hearing stuff that just rings in my head in the middle of the night. The biggest horrors are the ones that live in our head.

Q: What do you think about horror, and what’s your opinion on Halloween?

It's funny to me, because I have never considered myself a fan of horror, yet horror was always very much present in my works, whether through stories that I wrote or early animations of mine (my most viral video is a horror animation), and despite that, I have never been interested in any horror movies or games. Today, I'm more aware of the horror genre, and I enjoy it quite a lot, only just discovering what I've been sleeping on. Frankly, I don't really get scared by them, but it's still a fun world to explore.

As for Halloween, I don't really have that much of an opinion. It was never really that big in Poland and is annually declining in popularity. Sure, stores go crazy with the decorations, but the actual October 31 is kinda lame. I was probably living in the wrong neighbourhood, because I had only one group of kids trick or treating every year. That being said, it's still a fun month, one of my favourite vibes of the year actually. It's not about trick or treating, it's about the vibe, the spooky games and movies that come out, the oranges and purples. Halloween can be celebrated in plenty of different ways, especially on the internet, where no matter if Halloween in one's country is dope or lame, we can gather in a global environment and celebrate holidays in ways that we understand them. I myself try to keep a little of my Spooktober spirit in my artworks, even if it's just an OC in a silly outfit, contributing to the aura.

Q: What is it like living in Poland?

Despite having a bunch of nitpicks, mainly on economical levels, I think it's a great country to live in, which is something I came to realize as I grew older. The „grass is always greener” mindset is very common among Polish youth, who are often bashing the entire country only because they don't agree with some politician or there's some random inconvenience. In high school, I've met a lot of teens like this, who were often enchanted by the thought of living in countries like Germany, UK, Canada or even Japan (of course, lol). And I have to be brutally honest, I was one of those teens, romanticizing life abroad and painting Poland's picture as a sad conservative dystopia, until I grew up and learned to appreciate my country for what it is. I'm not a patriot by any means, but I just think Poland is neat, and I'm not gonna pretend it's not. It's a safe and rapidly developing country, which I wish had much more attention globally.

Q: How did you become obsessed with recording the flow of time and immortalizing random things?

I honestly don't know. I was, however, always fascinated by the very concept of archives and how important they are. I'm a very sentimental person. I think the point in my life that triggered this trait was the day I threw out all my childhood stories I used to write, because I thought they had absolutely no value. To this day, I still regret that decision, and I'm obsessed with keeping my stuff archived instead, to never make that mistake again. And naturally, this did not apply to artistic projects only; I keep old photos, screenshots and random snippets from the news only to discover them years later and feel nostalgic. One of my digital „time capsules” from early 2018 includes contemporary heads of governments, info about the Winter Olympics and... Ugandan Knuckles...

Q: Why do you write logs for your projects, and what do they look like?

As I said before, I love archiving stuff and monitoring changes made throughout the years. A prime example of such log is the update channel, a channel on my Discord server dedicated entirely to writing down updates, changes and additions to my passion project, which my inside friends are aware of. The entire channel features quite a lot of updates, written for 4 years, in the style of video game patch notes. Because of this, my friends and I can easily keep track of the many changes I have made to the project.

Q: How would you describe your experience of writing stories for 16 years, and what’s it like writing in Polish?

My writing adventure wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for my dad, to whom I dedicated my first ever fully written story. Since late 2008, I used to write all of my stories on a horizontal sheet of paper, with text being written on the left half of the page, while on the right side, there was the colorful illustration, more or less illustrating what happens in the provided chunk of text. I've produced probably way more of these sheets than I can think of, which they're all sadly gone now.

The first story I've ever written was Volcanic Monster, an illustrated superhero cartoony type story about an Italian guy named Peter who defeated a lava monster from Mount Vesuvius by carrying him to Antarctica and freezing him. Later episodes of the series (yeah, it ended up being a whole series of stories) revolved around Peter taming the lava monster, naming him Sylvester, and going on various adventures. Over the years, the series grew to universe levels, eventually spawning sequels, spin-offs for various characters and countless iterations. All these stories were later remastered and compiled into five volumes of homemade „books”, made by sewing sheet of papers together. All of those volumes are also lost forever. But anyway, the remasters of the Volcanic Monster saga inspired me to write new stories on smaller sheets and compiling them all into these funny „books”. This is the era in which I experimented with different genres, from crime (it was obviously comedically bad) to slice of life fantasy. The latter is the only handwritten book of mine to survive to this very day.

Obviously, I don't write my stories on paper anymore. My first exposure to computer writing was at the beginning of the last decade, where I discovered Polish forums, in which people my age would write their own relay stories. I fell in love with the forum and immediately saw it as a digital library, in which I could write my own stories in forum posts. I immediately digitalized a couple of my childhood favourites, and years later rewrote them on Wattpad. Sadly, the website with the forums had been shut down, but my friends and I have managed to save some relays we used to write. My very own stories, however, are still possible to access via Wattpad. However, I've never translated them. And that brings me to the second part of the question. The language barrier.

Every story of mine is written in Polish, because that's my language (duh), the language in which I used to read books. There were a couple of attempts made to translate my collection of digitalized stories, but it never happened, mainly because there was not enough interest for that, which I totally understand, these stories kinda suck. But even now, as I'm planning my biggest story ever, I am not gonna bother with translating any of it. Writing for me was always a very personal thing, not really meant for international audiences, but rather for inner circles.

That being said, nowadays I'm more of an artist rather than a writer, mainly because I spend a lot of time on foreign sites, and because as a non-native English speaker, it's much easier to present my ideas in a visual way, rather than through raw text. So in other words, I'm a writer in my own country and an artist everywhere else.

Q: Your experiences with the Internet

I've witnessed the Internet ever since I can remember. I was there when Yahoo was bigger than Google, funny videos were aired on television, Google Earth came on discs, and cartoon violence was all over the place. Looking back at early Internet, it was a magical place, which is just a modern day observation, we obviously didn't really think about it that much 20 years ago, and only started to notice it when the Internet culture has become progressively worse and more corporate.

Anyway, it's safe to say that I've been exposed to the Internet way earlier than I honestly should've. My earliest memories are those of random videos on Yahoo, flash games and, of course, writing forums! The Internet at first seemed pretty exciting, but in the 2010's, I was starting to get a bit overwhelmed by it, dare I say scared. At one point, it was considered to be a dangerous place, especially for children. I can totally see that. Luckily, I always knew my netiquette and spent the decade without any serious troubles. I created my Youtube channel in 2012, where I used to upload MS Paint animations, very much influenced by stuff I used to watch earlier. I can't describe it, it was such a fun time to be a creator.

Q: How did you discover NG, and why did you join?

My earliest memory of NG was, you guessed it, flash games, which is probably the most common answer. I used to play those in the late 2000's, not really caring about what „Newgrounds” is exacltly, I only knew it from the little tank man.

That being said, the whole website kinda went under my radar for the next decade, and I only joined as recently as 2020 (as DrSaturn), when I discovered that „Hold on, this is a website for art creators too? It's not just old flash games?” when I was browsing audio on the site. And then, I stayed. DrSaturn was my first account, which was doing pretty poorly, because I didn't really care about it. I deactivated it a year ago, and returned this year as DrSaturn2 (because the previous one was already taken, what a bummer!). I rejoined Newgrounds after having extremely bad experiences with sites like Instagram. Nowadays, I really appreciate this site, and I do everything I can to keep this account in great shape. I do art, and I love it. Thanks, NG.

Q: The story of your username: DrSaturn2

Alright, this one is a fun one. I usually tell others that it's a „long story”, but I'm gonna share it anyway.

Dr Saturn is a character from my childhood story, a minor villain in the Volcanic Monster saga. His name comes from a permament helmet he used to have welded on his head in the shape of a ringed planet. I've been using this username on pretty much all social medias since the mid-2010's, from Youtube to Discord, and NG is no exception.

The reason I picked this random insignificant character was because he made a cameo appearance in one of my early Youtube animations, Spongebob & Patrick: Haunted Night 3, where he pretty much served as a self-insert. The character was received positively, eventually evolving into my channel's mascot, as well as becoming my channel's name itself.

And of course, I've mentioned this before, but the „2” just means that my original username was taken and this is my second account.

On my artworks, I sign myself as „Dr_Saturn” with an underscore, which is how I prefer my username to look. However, I don't think underscores are allowed on NG, so I had to settle on whatever I had.

Q: How can you tell if a text has issues with pull, formatting, presentation, or execution? What are the defining features, and how do you address those problems?

This is just a nitpick and it bothers me only from the perspective of a Polish reader. I'm aware that English language novel structure is different, for example, dialogues are written in quotations.

„I'd love to eat a pizza” said the character.

In Polish writing, it's a bit different. We use dashes instead.

-I'd love to eat a pizza. - said the character.

It's not really a mistake to use quotations in amateurish Polish writings, but Christ almighty, have you ever read a book? Poorly formatted text, with little to no paragraphs, dialogues all over the place and lack of proper punctuation just makes the text hard to read for me, not even as a purist, but as a self-respecting reader as well. I know I'm talking about literal children trying to share their first ever story, but it got real annoying in threads for relay stories, where you HAD to read through this absolute mess and comprehend it in order to keep writing.

I've never addressed this problem to anyone who has been writing like this, I know I'd just be a prick if I did, but it's something that really bothered me on a personal level.

Q: What do you like about creating art?

I'm an artist, I can draw anything I want! Isn't that a cool superpower?

Q: Art and writing advice

Let's start off with writing. As I mentioned earlier, text formatting is very important, if not more important than the actual content in the text. I don't care if your dish is delicious, if it looks like shit I'm not gonna eat it with apetite. First of all, read a book, please. Pay attention to how dialogues are laid out, how to convey a character's thoughts, learn to use proper punctuation, use paragraphs where needed, and please please please use full stops!!! Reading through an essay that is nothing but an endless chain of clauses divided by comas is very disorienting. Just keep that in mind, and I will happily read your text and judge it based on content.

As for art, I don't even know where to start, people have a lot of different troubles with that. So let me tackle two, with which I have some experience with.

First off, if you want to do art as a hobby, learn all the principles yourself at your own pace, there is absolutely no point in going to art school if you're not aiming to work in the industry professionally. From my own experience, art school was a tremendous waste of time and money. I used to enjoy drawing comics before signing up, and after graduation, I was left completely drained from imagination and creativity, having only drawn realistic still life every week for 4 years. If you have a cartoony artstyle that you're proud of, chances are that art school will discourage it, so learn what you wanna learn all by yourself, be your own teacher, be your own judge. If you wanna improve, learn it yourself and don't be afraid of it!

And lastly, this isn't really about the craft itself, but rather how art is being handled online. I've noticed that a lot of beginner Newgrounds artists are discouraged by the frontpage system and often feeling like giving up when their art doesn't get enough attention. Always remember that the little frontpage badge isn't by any means a fixed boundary between good and bad art, and you should never give up when numbers are low. This is not a good mindset. Instead, you should KEEP doing art until you earn what you're aiming for, with high hopes and a big smile with each posted artwork. Interact with the community, nobody gets exposure by doing nothing. Your art has little votes? Make an art thread! Join a collab! There's so many great ways of expanding your audience, often even overlooked. Rome wasn't built in a day. Thus you should never ever give up when things are doing poorly. If you fall on your face, get up and keep marching. That's what we do, as humans.

Well, that concludes my answers. Thank you so much for inviting me!

@ShangXian - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: What is the Internet about? Your experiences with the Internet

My experience with the Internet is mostly overwhelming positive because after I could finally access it (I had my first PC when I was 8 but I could finally use Internet only in 2005-06 during my high school period) a world, or better worlds opened to me. Ofc knowing English helped me a lot and helped me to make friends (that's a reason why this language has a special place in my heart). With Internet I gained more knowledge, I could meet people from across the world, I could see and interact with different cultures, I could improve my English, and overall I enriched my life.

I think the reason it was positive as experience (and still is) it's because I can avoid conflicts with people who ask for them even if I was involved in some drama caused by a manipulative, narcissistic person met on DA that caused my friends and I some annoying problems. Hopefully it was solved in the best way possibles: cutting ties with them. Now my friends and I are more than happy.

I hate conflicts and I can sense when something potentially bad can happen, this is why I could experience the best even in a site like DA which is known for being full of drama.

Internet is a tool that must be experienced with awareness and this might be achieved with a good internet education in schools, and a informed family about risks you can find there.

I will never forget the feeling I experienced when I was 8 and I saw Internet icon on my PC: that world icon was a window to a world I could never open or reach because at that time my family couldn't afford it. I had goosebumps looking at that icon. It was a forbidden world I could only dream about. A window, that once opened, would allow me to see the real world outside my small rural world.

Now Internet is part of my soul and helped me to cope with difficult, sometimes extremely difficult stuff, in real life. Without it, but most importantly without the amazing friends I made thanks to it, I would have collapsed. Thank you!

Q: The story of your username: ShangXian

My username is a fusion between my love for Vajrayana Buddhism (I practiced it and I still study it, I will probably return practicing it since it gave me a lot especially in tough times) and the name of one of my OCs, a female microraptor. Let's answer the easiest part: if you write Xian in Chinese the character means "soar" and it fits perfectly for a dinosaur that evolved flight and its associated features (fused sternum, alula, etc.) independently of the ancestors of birds:

https://digitallibrary.amnh.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/1aecf683-c43c-4c5b-a657-25e1c7dc37b5/content

https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0960-9822%2820%2930999-4

https://peerj.com/articles/7247.pdf

Her name in my username is a way to express my love for Jehol Biota of Jiufotang Formation of dinosaurs you find in China, and Microraptor is my favourite dinosaur. Originally it was the Tyrannosaurus rex, but after discovering this small, crow-sized, black iridescent-coloured dinosaur my love shifted to paravian dinosaurs of China.

Now the difficult part because I need to give a bit of context in order to better understand why I chose "Shang".

The first part of the username is a reference to an important figure of Tibetan Medical Tradition, lineage and texts. The full name is Shanglon Dorje Dudul. He is often included in the Mahakala category of protector deities, is the special protector for the Yutog Nyingtig Cycle of Terma (revealed treasure). The main deity of the cycle is Hayagriva with consort. I know these names say nothing to those who don't know much about the esoteric branch of Mahayana Buddhism developed in Tibet. The two Yutogs, known as father and son, are regarded as the founders of Tibetan Medicine. It is also speculated that the first of the two famous Yutog physicians is a creation of Desi Sanggye Gyatso in the 17th century who popularized in art Shanglon because we don't find images of him prior the 17th century. Both traditions of Shanglon, and the Yutog Nyingtig are descended from the terma of Draba Ngonshe - responsible for the discovery of the Four Medical Tantras in the 11th century. 

Shanglon can be counted as a form of Mahakala and Mahakala is an important protector of Dharma and is commonly regarded as the emanation of different beings in different cases, such as Hevajra, Vajradhara, Amitabha, and Avalokiteshvara or Akshobhya Buddha. He is a wrathful protector and in Vajrayana wrathful beings help transforming mental afflictions (kleśās) into wisdoms by using those negative mental poisons in a way similar to the concept of fighting fire with fire. Because one of my flaws is wrath, this name has a dual meaning for me: fighting it, being reminded to always fight it in a constructive way and my love for Medicine (I plan to study Medicine in future) since Shanglon is linked to the Tibetan Medicine.

Q: How did you discover the NG website? What made you decide to join the community? Do you feel differently about the site now compared to when you first joined?

I originally discovered it via games I used to play back in 2006 between study breaks. Wiesi's games were the first I discovered and loved to death. I also discovered the first game made by Tom Fulp I ever played was Samurai Asshole, I love it very much! I mainly associated NG with flash games and movies, if I only knew how cool and awesome this site is I would join it ages ago. Now I associate Newgrounds with creativity and user-content generated stuff. What made me decide to join the community was the alternative to AI stuff that was promoted on Deviantart. I was searching for a different place. I joined Furaffinity for the same reason, they don't accept AI stuff but the site didn't appeal me that much unlike NG that is what I want from a site aimed at art (whether it's a videogame, a movie, visual art or music). Newgrounds is everything that DA lacks and it's a shame because I discovered DA in 2006 but I joined in 2014 and stayed until November 2022. Most of my online friends were met there and I am still in touch with them.

I do feel differently about the site. As I mentioned above it became from "a collection of edgy but funny and violent flash games and movies" to "a place where you can express yourself and have to put effort even in the smallest creation". And this feeling evolved throughout the months I decided to become active. I will explain a bit more in depth when I will write a blog about my experience after a year I joined the site because I also want to express my opinion if I would recommend the site or not (spoiler: yes BUT under some specific conditions).

Q: Why do you like to draw birds? How did you get interested in art?

I love drawing many subjects and I like to vary it (stylistically and thematically) but birds have a special place, because I love animals (minus ticks, mosquitoes and chimps). Birds are among my favourite reptiles (I'm using the phylogenetic classification that groups each clade only by their ancestry, and characteristics are only used to discover the ancestry. I abandoned Linnean classification after Evolutionary Zoology course) because I love their intelligence, overall look, different behavioural patterns and calls (I sometimes like to "troll" birds of my area with calls of birds from different continents and notice their behavioural change). Feathers can be a pain in the ass when colouring but the final product pays off if you are patient enough.

My interest in art started when I learned to grab a pencil and draw. I was 4 years old when I drew my first subjects (animals, both real life animals and fantasy animals, notably dragons). Art is a way to channel my emotions both positive and negative, but since I'm on Newgrounds art is also a tool to study my skills, to see myself under a different perspective through other people's reviews and comments. Art is a way to nourish my mind, soul and heart. I couldn't live without it.

Q: Why do you love writing in-depth reviews? On average, you tend to spend about an hour and 15 minutes writing a review.

This stems from my tendency to take very seriously relationships and interactions with others. I know I tend to write tl;dr type of reviews but because the people who made works that enriched my mind and daily experience of my life I want to give parts of myself by writing detailed reviews on the aspects that struck me the most. I have two approach when writing a review:

1) sandwich technique review

2) in-depth review

In the first case I highlight what I loved, emphasizing each part that I loved (especially if it's an art piece because I know the lingo around it), then I talk about things that I think deserve improvement by giving suggestions and most of all resources in order to be more effective in helping others. After this I conclude my review with a positive last comment because I want to help but also to support and motivate the person to pursue what he/she likes. This type of review is used for people willing to listen to the critique so I take time to see if the person I mature enough to accept them.

In the case of an in-depth review I share everything that the work evokes to me whether it's a sensory activation (in my recent audio review I experienced a sensory activation while listening to the song) or cultural elements and I like to connect them with those I know. These types of reviews are mostly used for games (for example when I reviewed the Pico-Cross collab 2023 and Coming Out simulator game) and videos (I have yet to review Field of Rapes I discovered thanks to Takeover Tuesday), it can be applied to artworks and music as well.

The core of both types of reviews is my will to help, support and share my limited knowledge I acquired during these years.

The reason I take so much time to write them is that because I need to re-experience the work over and over to fully see it in each aspect that I could see and if I need academic sources to give substance to my claim I have to find them via Google School and verify the journal reliability via the Scientific Journal Ranking website along with abstract and citation database. And this takes me time because I have to read the study and cite it the proper way when linking to the review. For me the works I review are experiences to live, not products to use.

My motto is: either things get done or not at all. I apply this to everything I do and sometimes it can be draining from a mental energy point of view but that's the way I am^^

Q: What makes a good review?

Nice question, it's a really subjective answer because each person has different life experiences that shaped their view of "what is a good review". But let's get straight to the point: for me a good review is a review aimed at helping others, it doesn't mean it has to be long like the ones I do. I've read some cool, short reviews that pointed out in a simple but effective way elements of a work I didn't immediately noticed. By helping others I mean both helping them to see their own creation under a different light and giving them tools to improve or simply maieutically (formulate latent concepts through a dialectic or logical sequence of questions) guide them through the process of seeing flaws and parts to improve.

Q: Your advice for art

First: have fun! Seriously doing something just because it's popular, as way to compare your work with other people's works or to appease people who follow you it's the first step to frustration and maladaptive coping mechanisms.

Second: abandon the image your mind built on your "ego" because the more you are attached to your "ego" the more hurting it will be when people will critique or criticize (those two verbs have different semantic nuances) your works. If you are open to accept constructive criticism but also to move on when someone acts in a negative way to your work, your artistic experience will improve a lot. Plus you can always report the review if it's not helpful at all, rules speak clear.

Q: What various pieces of media do you enjoy, and why do you think you like them?

I love internet and more specifically YT for videos, NG for overall fun, and photography to enjoy nature and animals and acquire new skills. But if by piece of media you mean on an artistic level in that case I like both traditional and digital media even if I tend to post more digitally-made art in these years.

Mhhmhhh, I think I like them because they have become a way to help me see the perception of my self, the growth as person and knowledge of how human mind works.

Q: What qualities do you think are important in a community member, and why do you believe those qualities are beneficial?

Empathy and compassion along with good communication skills (listening to others, and being clear and direct in conveying messages) and ability to self regulate in a constructive way emotions are nice qualities that make a member a great person. If you are empathetic and compassionate you can understand on a deeper levels others' experiences and the Otherness in general (both as a concept of Phenomenology and Anthropology). You can help others and yourself by putting yourself in other people's shoes. Empathy and Compassion shall go with a good, solid ethics (I like to combine both Kantian and Utilitarian ethics along with Buddhist principles) that doesn't hurt others. Having good communication skills help to diminish misunderstanding but it's also important to see if the person you are interacting with belongs to a high-context culture, a low-context culture or a mix of both (my review on Coming Out Simulator game explains the first two "briefly") and consequently adjust your communication to it, so again Empathy plays a role.

Regulating emotions and expressing them in a constructive way is not easy, I sometimes still struggle with them, but again I try to put myself in other's shoes and this helps me greatly to avoid useless conflicts. Art is a great tool to regulate emotions, isolating from others when I am fully enraged and simply doing nothing but listening to the surrounding environment is another way that helps me to regulate emotions. If you have difficulties by yourself, getting help from a professional may help but be consistent in your journey.

Q: What does it mean to be happy?

Damn, that's a tough question and I like it. Happiness can mean many things, depending on who you ask. For me happiness is linked to helping others (I've been a Red Cross volunteer for 18 years, I had to temporary stop due to University but I will get back to it and I am also thinking about joining a charitable organisation devoted to the protection of birds), being honest with yourself and not harming yourself and others. I am also happy when I study and learn new stuff because I am basically a philomath, I love knowledge whether it's for the sake of knowledge or to help others. Happiness it's also a state of mind like Buddhism taught me and in this case I have to train my mind and develop qualities that help me not to fall victim of my own mental poisons.

Q: How did you become a Red Cross volunteer?

It was when I was 18 years old, I always wanted to be more active in terms of helping others and one day I saw leaflets about Red Cross courses for the public. I took advantage of this and I signed up for the course. It started in February and ended in June. 11th July is the date I started my very first shift and I had to help an elderly person with pulmonary embolism.

Q: Describe your experiences of Red Cross volunteer, good, other bad, other extremely sad

If I had to describe my experiences with one single word it would be: powerful. Powerful both positively and negatively. I initially volunteered during the week when it was summer, then once University started I opted for weekends (first Saturdays but then Sundays).

I had several experiences, many of them relatively calm but others were wild rides. The wildest experiences I had was going to this person who got his face covered in blood because the neighbour hit him with a shovel, scratched and bit him on the head just because he was removing snow from his garden at early hour (around 06:30 AM) and this neighbour wanted to sleep. Even the dogs were petrified by fear when we arrived, and the "funny" thing is that the assaulter ran away with the wife and 1 years old child. I always wondered what this person will teach to his son, beating people to almost death because you don't want to hear noise...

The family of the victim sued this person eventually.

I performed 6 times cardiopulmonary resuscitation over these years and sadly none of these people survived. There is this myth about CPR in which after performing it, the person miraculously comes back to life. No, it doesn't work like that; CPR alone is unlikely to restart the heart. Its main purpose is to restore the partial flow of oxygenated blood to the brain and heart. The objective is to delay tissue death and to extend the brief window of opportunity for a successful resuscitation without permanent brain damage. Administration of an electric shock to the subject's heart, termed defibrillation, is usually needed to restore a viable, or "perfusing", heart rhythm. Defibrillation is effective only for certain heart rhythms, namely ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia, rather than asystole or pulseless electrical activity, which usually requires the treatment of underlying conditions to restore cardiac function. When we massage we aim at inducing the heart even enter ventricular fibrillation because it's better it beats, even arhythmically than it doesn't beat at all. Remember we aim at distributing oxygen that is already inside the body through tissues.

I still remember when a man was literally alive just because I was massaging non-stop his chest in the ambulance (the very moment he was sent to red codes at the hospital, the heart collapsed), or another patient whose heart beat because the doctor injected 8 doses of adrenaline but every time we removed our hands from the chest the heartbeats dropped to 20 bpm and the patient was around 50.

The saddest moments were definitely the one involving the death of the person I tried to help. CRPs were one of them because you firmly believe you can save the person but sadly it isn't the case, you feel adrenaline rushing through your body, you don't feel pain on your knees because you are massaging for 30 minutes straight, you just keep doing your chest compression over and over, sweats flows, hope is still alive, your mind is hung in a crystallized moment beyond the present. I know it's difficult to describe all of this if you haven't experienced but this is the best I can describe.

Among these saddest moments the hardest thing I ever had to make was announcing to the family members the death of their beloved one...I couldn't use words, I just hugged them in tears. Yes, in two occasions I burst out crying...I think I never really achieved that state of mind most of my colleagues had when bad stuff occurred. I saw them keeping chatting and enjoying their company like anything happened while I was in a devastated state of mind. Don't get me wrong they weren't bad people, quite the opposite. I think they simply reached a detached state of mind of acceptance that life has both cool and bad stuff and sadly you can't always save everyone. For me all the patients I helped or tried to help entered in a personal family in my heart, so losing one of them was like losing a member of this mental family built on solidarity.

Among bad stuff I had to deal with three cases of suicides (elderly people, many people ignore that suicide can affect the elderly too). Two of these sadly resulted in the death of the person but in one of them we volunteers had to perform CRP on the body of this elder woman who threw herself from the window. I will never forget how bright blood mixed with vomit was the sunlight of this cold winter morning. In another suicide case an elder man stabbed himself on his abdomen and I was surprise he didn't die by cutting through the spleen. But I remember the sense of hopelessness in his face. I do truly hope he got the help he deserves.

There are two things that struck in my mind and I will never forget them: the colour of human bones (I saw a bone coming out the arm of an elder man who threw himself out the window of the hospital of my town) and a sentence a psychiatric man told me when we brought him to the hospital. To describe how useless medications were on him he used this expression: I am like a fallow desert.

I am still surprised he used the word "desert" instead of field because people don't cultivate deserts. He was one of the few psychiatric patients who didn't scare me, I used to talk to him when we had to bring him to the hospital of the main city because he was a regular patient.

In another case we had to enter in a house where domestic violence occurred, we had to call the police, who very likely beat the crap out of him because he man involved in the violence (he had a long knife with him) because strangely docile and obeyed our orders. It took almost three hours to solve the problem because we had to perform a TSO (a health treatment with which a person is subjected to medical care regardless of his/her will and to do this you need to call police and contact the mayor), the mayor was on vacation (it was July) and competent authorities for these cases were not available at the moment, hence we had to call the police.

I know I depressed very much with these experiences so I want to share the most beautiful I had: the gratitude in the shape of a sunny smile a woman gave me once we met at the supermarket because she recognized me as one of the volunteers who helped her during a moment of psychiatric crisis. That smile silently shouted "Thank you!". I know it may be a simple thing, but I could emotionally feel the power of that simple smile.

In another shift I befriended a woman who was sent to rest home. She was very smart and well-educated. I even went to visit her at the rest home and I brought some foods for her and other patients during Christmas period. Sadly COVID-19 prevented me to visit her again but I plan to go visit her again. I still remember her name (I usually suck at remembering names, I remember easily faces) and I miss her and the people I befriended there. Every time my colleagues and I went to a rest home to bring a patient to the hospital, I tried to make them smile because I could see how abandoned some of them were.

The more gross stuff like being puked on, having blood on your clothes, helping the patient to urinate etc. never bothered me because I have a strong stomach since I was little and in such emergencies a person's life is more important than being covered in bodily fluids.

Q: How did you get interested in Vajrayana Buddhism?

My interest started thanks to Saint Seiya anime along with Taoism studies that prepared my mind to allow this powerful experience in my mind. Shaka Virgo is my favourite Gold Saint and the fact the anime had heavy references to Shingon Buddhism and general concepts of Buddhism like Six Realms, mentioned in Shaka's technique Rikudo Rinne, which means literally "Transmigration to the Six Paths", made me fall in love with this character. From Rikudo Rinne I started studying by myself what Bhavachakra was, then I learned about the twelve nidanas and so on. Along with this personal experiences made me understand the Four Noble Truths and I saw in Buddhism, especially the esoteric branch, a way to experiment those doctrines. Before getting into Buddhism I started with Lao Tzu and Taoism, and I still keep it at heart because it helped me to ease tension when dealing with some problems.

Q: Your favourite food and drinks

I love Mediterranean cuisine, so veggies and fish (I also love it raw) are my favourite foods while when it comes to drinks I love water, tap water specifically since you can drink where I live and because I want to use less plastic as possible, orange juices and green tea.

Q: What advice would you give for dealing with mental health struggles?

First I am not a professional, I'm just a person who happened to be a volunteer but the main advice I want to give is: you are not alone and seek help from professionals because the chances are high that you will need more than just your support, and you will need it for the long haul if you are dealing with mental health struggles. You are a person, not a monster or oddity to avoid or even worse to be put in an 40s asylum.

I also suggest to contact info of family members and friends that can offer support, phone numbers for local crisis numbers and mental health organizations (more than often I provided numbers and resources to friends who had friends with mental health issues and didn't know how to help).

Starting a conversation is another thing I feel to suggest: it can feel uncomfortable bringing up issues surrounding mental health, but showing an interest in a discussion is the first step in creating a safe space for those who might be struggling. Also carefully select people who genuinely love you and are willing to listen to you, not lecture you: at the core of most mental health disorders is feelings of disconnection and lack of belonging. To the people willing to help individuals with mental health problems, keep always in mind that individuals with mental health disorders are more likely to feel understood and seen, if you listen to them instead of lecturing them or feeling the urge to give advice. This opens the door to them receiving more help.

Remember that mental health issues can take a long time to resolve so be patient and consistent with the therapy but be comfortable and ready only when you feel it's time to seek help, don't rush it and to the people who want to help them, don't push them to seek help. Give them time.

Even after receiving care, be aware that challenges may remain. There may not be a quick fix. To people willing to help those struggling with mental health, you need to be prepared to potentially support your them for an extended period of time, and possibly over the course of their lifetime. And again when you talk to them, remember that you don’t necessarily have to talk about their mental health issues. Often discussing everyday things is a welcome distraction from the narrative that may be replaying in their minds. Reminiscing about old times, "spilling the tea" about recent events within your social circles and sharing humorous quotes, memes or videos can brighten their day.

I remember when I spent almost an entire night (timezones can be quite a hassle sometimes but I don't care when it comes to helping a person in need, if I know I can help even a bit) with an American friend of Irish origins who had a hallucination crisis on Discord and we talked privately about Irish history, listened and sang to Irish rebel songs and touched the most random topics in order to make him feel less alone. He felt better after this, I hope he's doing fine because it's been ages since last time we talked. I wish him all the best.

Last but not least: remember that if you seek help you are not "weak" or "broken", you are a person in need and your mental health is as important as your physical health since both are related. But at the same time you can always stop if you don’t find it helpful and seek for another professional or therapy, but at least give it a try because what you are going through is more than what you might be able to handle on your own in the moment.