@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.