Alright so, with things now winding down on matters involving the hunt I wanted to do like I usually do and reflect on things. Since the hunt has also taken so long, and I didn't wanna do much talking until the results were out, there's stuff that's been happening as well that I wanna share!
NGTH 2024 Reflection
@The-Great-One and I hosted the Newgrounds Treasure Hunt again, with some differences in comparison to last year's hunt. Our aim was to fix a few problems on this year's iteration, and while some of those problems were fixed, others still need work. And most of this year's issues, I'll be completely honest, are issues I have to work with on my own, especially since I guarantee if I don't then they'll carry over to other projects.
This year, we had around 250 qualifying entries over all four portals, which is impressive in all honesty. I expected lesser numbers this year given that the amount of entries that can qualify were much more limited than last year's, but I honestly think the amount of cool and creative stuff was far more interesting than the pools we had last year (with no disrespect to any of the entries from last year!). The portal that once again dominated the entries this year was the art portal, clocking in at around 170 qualified entries - a landslide amount compared to the other portals!
That said, not everything that was different this year worked. For example, we had technical difficulties with our Google form, which I was already impartial to since it's outside of NG (the workaround to make sure people weren't submitting more than two entries per portal was the Google account login, which I wasn't too thrilled about). We at least had hope because upon research, we found there's a way to implement scripts on Google forms, so we implemented a script that would determine whether a link you were submitted had already been submitted - a kind of copy protection, if you will.
It would've been nice if the script turned on.
Despite the research I did, that script didn't want to properly function on the form. And it's a much harder case than just "press a button", since apparently some scripts ask for permissions from Google accounts, and I wasn't too hot about that so I tried to avoid it as much as possible. But it would never tell me when the script was turned on or working, even though it was working in tests.
The only benefit it had was ease of just "copy the cells on the Google sheet to this Google sheet", but when compared to what the sheet had in terms of costs, I don't know if I wanna go about that method. I'm going to take a look at another method for submitting entries with next year's hunt - although the ideal is to have the submission process here on NG in a similar manner as the submission process for monthly voting or the Art Secret Santa, I don't want to bank on that being a thing because I know the programmers behind NG are working on more important things involving the entire site. It'll be a trial and error kinda process, since the system I want to use would ideally be easy to submit but also easy for us to manage on the backend.
Speaking of the backend: that technical difficulty, in all honesty, made up about 30% of why the results took as long as they did. The other 70% was because of, I'll just say it, a problem I have with time management.
I refuse to pretend time management has always been my strong suit, but this year it was especially more prevalent. The issue was that I wasn't utilizing my time well between all of my commitments - both here and IRL. Especially online, my style has been kinda freeflowing, an "I'll get to it when I'm in the right mindset" style. It's perfect for making things that have good quality, but it leaves timeliness with said work to suffer, and that especially came into play here. I have no doubt that if this issue continues then it'll bleed into other projects, so I want to take some time to basically focus on that and get some plans going on how to fix that.
I take full blame of why the results were out as late as they were - TGO was working with things he couldn't help, and I could've helped and stepped up and I didn't. Before the next hunt, and with other projects as well, the focus for me is time management.
Overall however, I think the hunt was once again a success despite its problems. There were a ton of great works that were showcased, and a bunch of people that asked, like the judges did, "how did these not get recognized or awarded?". That to me is a good indicator that what I'm doing is helping. Is it the best, no, but it's still a learning experience on how to get this the best it can be.
I want to end by giving a MAJOR shout and thank you to the judges for this year's hunt - @LexRodent and @YendorNG on animation, @TharosTheDragon and @FutureCopLGF on games, @Xinxinix and @Template88 on art, and @Cyberdevil assisting me on audio. All of the judges did a really great job - Tharos actually provided a tip that helped on a goal of mine from last year, which tackled the judging system - and I can't thank them enough for the help and time going through the entries and looking for the best of the gems! And of course, a thank you to my partner in crime TGO for being an incredible person to work with on these hunts. In fact, I think he's probably one of the best impacts on the current NG community, especially between this, The Interviewer and The Tank Tribune that he's working on!
The Everything Else
In the time that the Treasure Hunt's been going on, there's been a few things that have happened with me that I'll talk briefly about.
Back in April an FNF mod called FNF: 3D released, and I worked on both the code and some of the music for that! I'm a little hesitant to pop up my music from the soundtrack here, but I did pop it up on my YouTube since that's by far more expendable than Newgrounds. You can check it out there!
After that happened, I worked with @Mkv8 on a mod celebrating Alfie's third anniversary! It's a simple one-shot, but I made the main remix for it and you can find that here:
One other song I really want to bring attention to, despite it not being for any project, is this one. I wanna mention it because it was a joy to make, and honestly I want to explore making more personal music and not just making FNF music (despite how fun that can be).
I'm looking forward this year to more of my songs from other projects releasing, and possibly getting a few more personal songs out as well. There's an idea that's been forming in my head about a new EP that I wanted to experiment with, so I'll give it a shot and see what that yields this year as well.
Final Thoughts: The Animation Department
I wanted to close this newspost out on something that also happened during the hunt. I'm sure the whole thing that Pete Docter announced with Pixar is old news, but long story short: Pixar is moving away from autobiographical tales and instead making films that can be marketed to everyone. I don't think this change is meant to be apparent, as Inside Out 2 seems to be going generally against this, but needless to say, this change hasn't resonated well with the general artist conglomerate. And despite the fact that I will never be able to pick up the pen and animate, I too am an artist at heart in the same way these animators are artists at heart. That must explain then why I'm against that statement too.
Lemme start with saying: this honestly doesn't sound like Pete Docter speaking from his heart, this sounds like Disney muppeteering Pete Docter to say this stuff. If you really think about it, does this sound like the director who brought you classics like Up and Soul, or does it sounds like the company that decided that the mediocre, bland, mushy pop-enfused worthless film that we know as Wish deserved the title of being the 100th Anniversary film? Does it sound like a director who knows how to create ideas and tell us interesting lessons in genius and risky ways, or does it sound like the company that would easily greenlight ten more straight-to-Disney+ Star Wars spinoffs because burying the franchise into the core of the Earth isn't enough for them?
Now, I could talk about how the Pixar statement is anti-art and what being an artist really means, but I think everyone's done a good job of bringing up that point. Instead, I want to connect what's said here to another problem that's going on, even today.
Recently, there's been a whole talk against animation being called a "genre", and even further stereotyping of the "genre" of animation being just something to entertain kids before moving onto the "grown-up" live-action "genre". And it doesn't take someone in the film industry to tell you that animation never was, never is, and never will be a "genre" - it's a medium, a form of expressing the same concepts that live action can express. I mean that honestly - we've had pieces of film before that are animated yet are for adults (like South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, which is turning 25 this year!) or for adults as equally as for kids (think the Disney Renaissance films for these); on the other hand, we've had pieces of film before that are live action yet are for kids (Sesame Street, Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood, Lazy Town, Mary Poppins) or for kids as equally as for adults (ET, Back To The Future, Indiana Jones - honestly, a lot of the Spielberg classics fall under that category!). If we were to put this in a perspective we're all aware of, it's like calling texting and speaking a "language" of communication, when in reality they're methods of communication - you can talk in plenty of languages on both methods! No, what determines what audience a film works with is the story and ideas being communicated as well as how they're communicated.
I bring this whole thing up for two reasons, but let me start by connecting it to the Pixar statement. It seems like people are underestimating the potential of animation, and really of film in general, and both the "genre" statements and the removal of autobiographical elements are two key elements of that misunderstanding. The potential of animation is exactly the same as the potential of live-action, and the choice of what medium to use to communicate a director's message should fall as a purposeful choice from the director of the film. In fact, the beauty of what makes films connect with audiences is that they take risks that are calculated and clear (possibly resulting in what we consider as "suspension of disbelief"), all to help artists communicate a clear vision and message - the purpose of art. How do you expect directors, animators and anyone else working on these projects to have clear visions and messages if the environments and people they create are unfamiliar to them? This problem plagues both live-action and animation, but to see it flaunted here is robbing a story of a heart and turning it from the equivalent of a beautiful sculpture to the equivalent of a residential house - lifeless, drab, and caring more for its functionality rather than having a soul. You can tear a residential house down with little to no lasting consequence; tearing a statue down is destroying the voice it holds.
The second reason pertains to the animation industry as it stands today. I've heard a bunch about what general animators are going through today, and assuming all of it's true, that sucks. It sucks knowing that an animator's voice is ultimately worthless because the stock markets say it so, when that's far from the truth. Give a person value and they'll pour their heart and soul into their passion, and that's exactly true for artists as well. Audiences realize when animators and project members have passion and soul behind their work and aren't doing it for a paycheck - even cheap films, like Hoodwinked, aren't considered lazy because they go the extra mile with their ideas and have clear passion. Yet it sucks that passionate animators are being driven out or told their passion means nothing next to a film or franchise's monetary or marketable value.
If I had a choice? I have plenty of things that I would love to make with passion and bring on some of these animators for. I know this is gonna sound stupid, but there's one FNF mod that I'm desperate to get going on the story for because it's so interesting to me - without giving too much away, it's a story that can very well benefit from the visual storytelling and meanings behind actions, movements and vision. It's a story that has passion, wants to take risks, and wants to be methodical and interesting. There's another that I've already started that isn't as deep, but has something meaningful to say and can also hugely benefit from visual storytelling instead of just straight-up dialogue throughout the whole thing. And if I had the cash, I would pay the animators for such projects so that they can pour their hearts into it without worrying if they're going to make it to the next paycheck. Heck, why stop at FNF projects - I would happily pour ideas of passion and even risk into films that could benefit from the talents and souls animators can pour into their projects.
It sucks that in reality, I can't do anything except use my voice to help these people out. And while it helps, that's not what they really need.
I hope that not only can the animation industry find its footing again and give these people a chance to pour their souls into films again, but that this idea Disney has - because let's be honest, this truly isn't a Pixar idea - can die. Animation is a medium to express the same thoughts, feelings, entertainment, passion and craft as the medium of live-action. And a film in either medium is only the same as a residential house without a soul - a voice from its directors, animators, musicians, and everyone else contributing to the project.
Anyways that's my little TED talk of the night
