NG TREASURE HUNT: SWASHBUCKLER’S LOG

Day 1: Sails Away! (March 16, 2024)

Ahoy everyone!

For those who don't know, I'm SplatterDash, and I'm one of the people heading the second recent Treasure Hunt alongside my amazing partner-in-sailing, @The-Great-One . We're excited to host this event once again, and in keeping with tradition similar to last year, each day of the hunt you can find a log with some highlights of things we've received, as well as some light updates with the hunt, here on my news page (because we're not here to clog the NG News section of the BBS)! With the submission process becoming more streamlined (with a few bugs, but nothing that'll set us back too far thankfully!), that means TGO and I will have more time to focus on other elements of the hunt, such as these logs and judging.

Speaking of judging - yesterday I received a flurry of people looking to judge, so a HUGE thank you goes out to everyone who applied! We'll start reaching out to judges within the next day to get things settled and also include details so that you know what to expect as a judge. We're looking forward to what'll happen this year, as things have already been busy across the board - below is just a taste of some of the things we've gotten!

HIGHLIGHTS

This section will showcase some of the works that have been accepted into the NG Treasure Hunt, with due credit to their creators. Note that this is not an indication of their placement or ranking in the hunt. If you're seeing this and aren't familiar with the Treasure Hunt or what's going on (or what's in it for you!), you can find info on that here!

Animation

There's been a ton of animations coming in of all types, which also includes music videos and animations synced to the background music. One such gem was made by @Zalay , who created this video using a retro 90s animated style.

In classic Newgrounds fashion, @Octavyan played off of the classic Spider-Man and Elsa meme and turns it into a funny, modern adventure when they run into an unexpected visitor (or two)!

Similar to Friendly Neighborhood, there's been plenty of animated series here on NG, some of which go on to become shown on national and international televisions and streaming services. One such underground series, started last year by @Nicotoon and @MimiScappini , takes place in an animal mental asylum and is a great setup for the later episodes to come!

Another series, created by @NewgroundMediaGroup , released a trailer last year. For those who are into the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game series, this trailer is worth a viewing!

Games

While we haven't had too many games found so far, the ones we got are pretty good. There's even a good collection of multiplayer games, both local and multiplayer - including this local multiplayer lasertag-style game from @UnevenPrankster (with shoutouts to @Ugasisvelta for beta testing!).

Another local multiplayer game comes from @BestLeatherEver and @venoMantis , with this one being a Touhou-inspired bullet hell competition. Grab a friend and battle it out!

Of course, the singleplayer environment has even more going on. In this unique gem from @FreakyDAYZ , jump around this retro platformer and collect items to move along!

Lastly, this game from @saadisaadi1 and @MasterCannoli is a platformer where you can manipulate the items in the stage as you get stronger - and the way to get stronger is to be around candles!

Art

In a similar fashion to last year, the portal with the most found gems so far is the Art Portal - there's actually so much that at the time of writing this, I was able to plan out four and a half logs worth of gems! And there's no lack in quality with these artworks - to get us started, @aw0 created an album cover for a Bandcamp album, and it looks fantastic!

All kinds of art are submitted to the hunt - and I do mean all kinds! One prime example is this self portrait from @digitalpops , which is haunting and stunning to look at!

Original characters aren't the only thing you can find in the art portal - there's a lot of fanart for other characters, both on and outside of Newgrounds. For those who are fans of LEGO: Monkie Kid, check out this fanart from @Missis-Maple394 of one of the show's characters, Chang'e!

Late last year, Newgrounds rolled out a new feature for the Art Portal - multi-image support. This was huge in enabling artists to create comics, galleries and much more, and a few of the found gems used this feature. In addition to being another original character, one of these gems comes from @Waterina , who created both a color and B&W version of a character named Goth Annie from League of Legends. You can view both on one submission thanks to the feature rollout!

Audio

Starting off with a chill but refined quality, this found gem from @Tyhond is perfect for a peppy, but not overly energized, cafe in the early afternoon.

If you're looking for something more energetic, this gem from @Rici-Ellipsis is perfect for listening and getting pumped to!

On the shorter but sweeter side of things, @KatdotBrush created this short loop that sounds perfect for a video game of a bygone retro era. I'm also hoping they enjoy Newgrounds - it's always good to see new faces!

We've had a few remixes show up as gems too, which are always nice to hear. Take a listen to this upbeat bounce-y remix of Ebimayo's "Goodworld", with the remix done by @EXT4NT !

ON THE HORIZON

Like last year, my hope is to do one log for every day of the submission phase. With the automation of submissions occurring (although it's not 100%), it gives TGO and I more time to pick out some unique entries for showcasing here.

On the subject of submissions - we've had to disqualify a bunch of gems, some of which fell through the cracks of our form, but others that went against the rules and our form can't detect it (such as the date when entries were published). I will clarify a little more tomorrow, but make sure that you look at the rules and check to see that your gem fits within them. If your entry did get disqualified, have no fear - you'll hear from me and be able to resubmit new entries to replace the disqualified ones.

On one final note, if you want to modify your entries, you can message TGO or I at any point in the submission phase with clarification as to what entry you're replacing and what you're replacing it with. Once it's hand-vetted by TGO or myself and cleared, we can make that change happen!

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