@Gimmick - No worries, trust me I completely understand. I just wanted to reach out and touch base with you. I would prefer my new identity to remain as a fresh start, this is the reason I reached out in more of a private message. Personally, there are a few good people here so far, but I wouldn't want to publicly advertise anything we spoke about, as most people are naturally selfish and would love an easy ego boost. I am here if you ever need anything. Thanks for getting back to me :)

Golden Axe - Sega Master System

First Game Played on Newgrounds = Water Balloon Drop 3 (est year 2000)

OFFER NO LONGER AVAILABLE

I just posted a help wanted and wanted this available here for anyone interested.

Thanks for checking it out.

https://www.newgrounds.com/collab/view/15274

I am completely in favor of believing it being natural and not tampered. Most people, including myself, are always more in favor of a quick game to pick up and quickly waste a few minutes, and this site is a perfect way to spend a few minutes here and there. Completely understandable people aren't looking for a AAA release experience. From one dev to another, I can tell how much work goes into something, that is all I meant by the comment. You probably are correct, in a quick few minutes: the quick enjoyable experience > full story of a cinematic playing out and having to read stuff when you don;t have time.

Hello reader,

I am a new game dev to Newgrounds (except played a lot on here in the late 90's early 00's), but I have been around the block when it comes to game dev and troubleshooting. I would be happy to help anyone who need assistance with a problem or needs playtesting or just some advice on your project, I got your back.

This advice has been said in great detail within thoughtful posts of above, but I will say it what I feel from my heart:

My best advice is to start with baby steps and keep your goals small. If your first game you are trying to make is a AAA Rpg open world game with 10,000 features, chances are you will disappoint yourself. Start simple! Keep it simple!

Try to learn a simple skill every week. When you watch a tutorial, make sure you understand what is being said. Watch it more than once. Do you best to find video / format you understand. Find the person you understand. If you are just simply following along with a tutorial and copy and pasting the code, it will be highly unlikely you can re-do this on your own without needing help.

Practice makes perfect. Join game jams, and make simple games. Practice the skill of making a game front to back from scratch over and over again. You will start to see patterns and begin to write you own code. Coding is like math, you can come to the same answer with multiple paths. Example: What is 16% of 25? Did you know that you can flip the percentage and the number and get the same answer 16% of 25 AND 25% of 16 = 4

Last but most important: Take breaks and set work schedules. A huge percentage of game development is trouble shooting issues. Game dev is not like the perfectly edited game devlog videos that make it seem like everything snaps in place. A lot of time spent will be you trying to figure out a new way of how to do something and you need to be ok and also be having fun while doing it. So anytime you are frustrated or angry and can't figure it out, GET UP and take a break! Walk away from it. Play a game for 30 mins and come back. Accept nothing is going to be perfect the first time and you will save yourself a huge amount of frustration by adhering to your set work schedules.

I will always post monthly progress reports like this on my news feed. I will aways keep up with this thread if anyone needs anything.

We are all in this together. You are not alone and we / I got your back! Take the leap!!! It is the greatest time it has ever been to become a game dev, and it cost ZERO DOLLARS to start learning and getting motivated!

I am trying to improve little by little. It is rewarding to no longer have to blindly follow tutorials for everything. It is more of a trail by fire process for everything so far.

HAHAHA exactly, those low effort comments seem very 7 year old to me as well.

Thanks for pointing out that Suggestion Thread, that is a good idea to have something like that.

Super inspiring to see this quality of goods. Everyone did such a fantastic job!

Congratulations to the well deserved winners!

It's been over a month, to anyone reading this still, I will update you on my journey so far. I know I don't have much experience, but I have learned a thing or two since first posting:

The other day, I uploaded a project that I spent almost an entire month on, everyday, a few hours a day perfecting, even included a few buddies of mine to playtest before releasing. I uploaded this with a tiny goal of one person enjoying it and I am so happily proud to have met that goal!! :) As a indie dev just starting out, you have to have your goals small / obtainable to keep momentum moving forward.

You want to succeed: Karma is real! If you are a game developer, or someone interest in making the leap, you can easily start by playing and providing feedback or even just a simple sentence of encouragement to the many, many games here. As someone who long hands all of my code, as in I never copy and paste anything, it takes a LOT of effort and work to make a game. For example, two people made me feel on top of the world with encouragement, while just as easily, two others made me feel like shit, so one thing for sure is everyone here has their own tastes. Do not take it personal! You must take criticism with a grain of salt, but honestly from a dev prospective, it is super annoying to receive a non-coherent sentence attached to a bad score with zero feedback for improvement, but I see a lot of this here so be prepared :).

***Just note that I am always coming back to check the Under Judgement and voting on everything. If you didn't get a comment from me, just know I probably played it and you more than likely got a 5 stars. Not writing this for clicks, but to let anyone who has no comments yet: people are playing you games! Don't fret!

30 days Later:

Pros

• I avoided coming here from fear of toxicity from immature people, but that has not been the case. So far this feels like the type of community I want to be a part of, instead of being afraid, like I was before.
• If you spend the time to look around, you will find many different styles of everything, there are all types of engines and genres of games / movies being made everyday. This is great to see as this shows a variety of audience.
• Newgrounds offers everything! You have Audio, Art and Game Devs all in the same place. To anyone coming from else where, this place has it all! Not to mention the forums are a gold mine mixed with a time machine mixed with a sprinkle of wisdom.
• There are many encouraging and helpful people if you know where to look. I have had a great deal of luck so far running into a positive mature bunch so far.
• If you ask for help, someone will try to help
• Your game is still on the front page when its "Under Judgement" There is a Latest section

Cons

• Without assuming, it seems a few uploaded games are very unfairly graded. I have personally have had zero issues but I also witnessed two extremely well-made, professional games (clearly not my pieces a shit lol) have a similar or less rating to a prototype game jam project. These games were so well made I assumed within the first minute I played them, that they 100% would be featured, but they didn't even come close. I see that as something that needs to be fixed. Not sure if it was sabotage, but those games I am talking about are at least a 4.25-4.75 in any developers eyes. It is hard to say if it was simply bad timing, or foul play. **Note I am speaking on behalf of those 2 perfect games, not at all my projects, trust me my stuff sucks lol...**
• Lack of comments / feedback on projects sometimes makes you feel discouraged. Instead of feeling down, go brighten someone else's day with a comment of encouragement of your own!
• Bug on this site I have ran into more than once, is when you click on Latest Games, you will be listed will much older games, like past features from weeks ago and not the latest to come out of judgement. This will lessen the chance your game will even get seen. If you notice this bug, just click the filter and put This Week. It happened to me at least 3 times over the last few weeks.

Worst comes to worst, I got your back. Feel free to message me anytime for help or just to game dev talk.

Any other new game developers want to reach out and comment their opinions or prospective, please do! We are all in this together and could learn from one another! I would love to hear what anyone has learned here. That could help us moving forward. How's your journey going so far? Good, bad? Explain :)

I will be back with a 90 Day breakdown in December. Hope all is well with anyone seeing this!

Anyone who needs help and finds this in the future, reach out to me. I got your back.

Gimmick, you are a hero regardless. I actually had been pointed in the right direction earlier. Forgot to remove this post. Thanks anyway

Problem Solved. Huge Thank you for taking the time to walk me through that!

Thank you so much. I will make those changes. I will also remove that line loading the initial scene as well. I really appreciate it. Let me see real quick

Thanks for the help. I just followed the steps of the pdf and just added the first scene to load when signed in. I also prefab'd everything and added it to each scene. Should I only use one instance of the NGio and carry it over with a Singleton like you suggested?

I have looked through these and still can't figure it out. There has to be a hero out there, someone here who is about to be the hero of all heroes... Someone HAS to know.

I followed the pdf every step of the way and am left without a clue of what else to do to get the metals and highscore posting. I have the correct API keys(copied directly), tried with and without the Output Network Data bool checked and the function is being called (tested with Debug.Log) but nothing is working..

What I am working with:

My Nghelper
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;


public class NGHelper : MonoBehaviour
{
    public io.newgrounds.core ngio_core;


    void onLoggedIn()
    {
        io.newgrounds.objects.user player = ngio_core.current_user;       
        SceneManager.LoadScene(0);
    }


    void onLoginFailed()
    {
        io.newgrounds.objects.error error = ngio_core.login_error;
    }


    void onLoginCancelled()
    {


    }


    void requestLogin()
    {
        ngio_core.requestLogin(onLoggedIn, onLoginFailed, onLoginCancelled);
    }




    // Start is called before the first frame update
    void Start()
    {
        ngio_core.onReady(() =>
        {
            ngio_core.checkLogin((bool logged_in) =>
            {


                if (logged_in)
                {
                    onLoggedIn();
                }
                else
                {
                    requestLogin();
                }


            });






        });
    }


    public void unlockMedal(int medal_id)
    {
        
        io.newgrounds.components.Medal.unlock medal_unlock = new io.newgrounds.components.Medal.unlock();
        
        medal_unlock.id = medal_id;
        medal_unlock.callWith(ngio_core);      


    }
    
    public void NGSubmitScore(int score_id, int score)
    {
       
        io.newgrounds.components.ScoreBoard.postScore submit_score = new io.newgrounds.components.ScoreBoard.postScore();
        submit_score.id = score_id;
        submit_score.value = score;
        submit_score.callWith(ngio_core);       
    }
    
}

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

// I am calling these fuctions by:

FindObjectOfType<NGHelper>().unlockMetal(55555); // for metals -

FindObjectOfType<NGHelper>().NGSubmitScore(55555, myVar.GetScore()); // for scoreboards

The only thing I haven't tried yet is storing them in a variable instead of hard coding them. Is that required?

If anyone has any experience with this issue and wants some good karma... Please save me!

I have been almost 5 hours of trying everything and still nothing! Any help would be beyond appreciated

I know there is someone here who is about to be the hero of all heroes... Someone HAS to know

I followed the pdf every step of the way and am left without a clue of what else to do to get the metals and highscore posting. I have the correct keys (checked over 10xs), tried with and without the Output Network Data bool checked and the function is being called (tested with Debug.Log) but nothing is working..

What I am workng with:

My Nghelper
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;


public class NGHelper : MonoBehaviour
{
    public io.newgrounds.core ngio_core;


    void onLoggedIn()
    {
        io.newgrounds.objects.user player = ngio_core.current_user;       
        SceneManager.LoadScene(0);
    }


    void onLoginFailed()
    {
        io.newgrounds.objects.error error = ngio_core.login_error;
    }


    void onLoginCancelled()
    {


    }


    void requestLogin()
    {
        ngio_core.requestLogin(onLoggedIn, onLoginFailed, onLoginCancelled);
    }




    // Start is called before the first frame update
    void Start()
    {
        ngio_core.onReady(() =>
        {
            ngio_core.checkLogin((bool logged_in) =>
            {


                if (logged_in)
                {
                    onLoggedIn();
                }
                else
                {
                    requestLogin();
                }


            });






        });
    }


    public void unlockMedal(int medal_id)
    {
        
        io.newgrounds.components.Medal.unlock medal_unlock = new io.newgrounds.components.Medal.unlock();
        
        medal_unlock.id = medal_id;
        medal_unlock.callWith(ngio_core);      


    }
    
    public void NGSubmitScore(int score_id, int score)
    {
       
        io.newgrounds.components.ScoreBoard.postScore submit_score = new io.newgrounds.components.ScoreBoard.postScore();
        submit_score.id = score_id;
        submit_score.value = score;
        submit_score.callWith(ngio_core);       
    }
    
}

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

// I am calling these fuctions by:

FindObjectOfType<NGHelper>().unlockMetal(55555); // for metals -

FindObjectOfType<NGHelper>().NGSubmitScore(55555, myVar.GetScore()); // for scoreboards

The only thing I haven't tried yet is storing them in a variable instead of hard coding them.

If anyone has any experience and wants some good karma... Please save me!

I have been about 5 hours of trying everything and still nothing!

First time in my news I was able to easily add a gif. Next attempt today and every gif file is becoming a still webp file. Any help on this? Anyone else have this issue or know of an easier way of adding gifs to posts?

Gif not working :(

Added mobile controls Friday night, incase you think I am pulling your leg...

I wish I could have edited the original post for a different tone. Guess it was more along the lines of wanting to gauge any tips from both developer and player here to help mitigate the early troubles of first starting out. After spending a little time on here, I am seeing that this community is full of helpful and talented people. My intent is to always make NEW games and not just add game jam games or try to revive old projects here, so I wanted to come respectful and ask. I didn't mean at all to seem like a dig on mature content, just an observation. Text never sounds as it was intended imo.

My next project is coming along nicely and I have implemented Joypad, as well as Mobile controls. Thanks for the advice, as for now on I am going to be adding joypad and mobile support for everything moving forward.

I did start here many, many years ago enjoying all the early flash games on here and was 100% planning on doing a tribute to those good ol' days, as I still use Paint more than most other software to edit. Thanks for reinforcing that idea.

Taking advice from others, I will attempt to integrate the API for a highscore and metals, but I don't want to break this build, so I may try on my next project instead. May end up jumping off Unity in the future for another route to ensure they work.

Great advice, I really appreciate all of you taking the time to look out for one another. I will be making games and only releasing ones I am proud of and confident will bring a few minutes of enjoyment for free.

Curious if anyone knows the ideal size for thumbnails for Games/Movies and profiles icons on this site? Playing around with trial and error at the moment.

Thank you so much for the warm welcome and thoughtful response. I more meant "site like this" in the terms of edginess and I did add that bitch to try and feed into that sadly. I am going to relook at the rules and makes sure that the one word is E, thanks for pointing that out. I should have more integrity to myself and the art, and not muddy it to cater to anyone but myself, or something a younger version of myself would enjoy. You are reinforcing a lot of my beliefs.

I appreciate your time very much and am glad to see that this community in such a short time, has already been a welcoming place. I was intimidated for a while with the common toxicity of the internet and prevented myself from doing this sooner.

I hope my observation on adult themes doesn't at all come off as a dig to anyone who enjoys that. I simply meant in terms of short term gain vs long term gain and I thank you for reiterating my belief that I would rather a game speaks for itself, rather than a quick, forgettable click bait.

I will do my best to continue my learning schedule and provide as much content as I can, with the quality that I am proud of. Focusing on learning and growing for now. I suffer from perfectionism which is a high level form of procrastination, so I am always doubting myself and it took a good self convincing to make this account and post my learnings with all of you as a give back.

I look forward to growing and providing the best I can without procrastinating on each too long through the illusion of perfectionism.

Hey! Just recently made the decision to start back up game dev and give back to the community. Not looking to make any money, sell a product, start a kickstarter or take clicks away from Newgrounds in anyway. Simply put, I am looking to give as much back to the community as I received (+20 years ago). More in the mentality of how can I serve you all, rather than how can you serve me. Trying to learn through practice, so making as many games as I can and will only post the ones I feel are fun or engaging enough.

I originally set out to try and stray away from the easy and cheap "sex sells" type of games for clicks, but I am noticing that it is not easy for an Everyone rated game to escape what is referred to as the judgement-hell. Every adult game posted after mine has 100x's more views.

Understandably, I am very realistic about starting out and appreciate the few views and plays on anything I put a good amount of time into. I guess what I am trying to ask is:

• What type of games would anyone reading this be interested in? Is there something missing that you would like to see?
• Should I stay true to my Everyone only games, or should I lose that idea quickly, especially on a site like this? I would want the games to speak for themselves, but is a simple sprite swap to something more provocative going to bring in the plays and feedback more constantly?

As a kid, this website was always a go-to and I was always a huge fan. As an adult, I realized I need to contribute back into this world, so I have decided to get back into game dev and give back as much free stuff to the world as I can, to make up for all the good times I have had on this site. I was trying to stray away from adult themed stuff but after experiencing the first 24 hours in judgement-hell on my very first game release, I may reconsider that in the future. I had injured myself recently, which has providing me a nice window to get back into game dev and start cracking out some games.

Not looking for any clicks or favors, just a simple man here to give back what I can. Solo dev by trade, but am willing to work with someone or a team on a game jam in the future for practice.