Flash Forward 2021 has come and gone (and seems like it'll be an annual thing) and BOY has it been the coolest thing I've ever been a part of! To all 51 entries to the jam (50 not counting mine), you all did an amazing job!! I still have to play a few more of them but what a turnout! I literally just came off of being a guest on the Newgrounds Podcast but I wanted to pen my thoughts on the whole thing.
I pitched the Flash Forward jam to Tom after seeing the "Welp flash is dead for good, Newgrounds will die with it probably" posts on social media begin to set in. And although they didn't last long, It still kinda got to me a little bit. Plus, Ruffle was getting good enough to emulate most flash games coded in ActionScript 2! So after a shower I was like "I'm gonna just do it. I'm gonna get a prize pool going and pitch the jam idea to Tom". Originally the jam was called the "Flash Isn't Dead Jam" but after some back and forth and Tom liking the idea, the Flash Forward Jam was born!
Shortly after the greenlight I wanted the excuse to make a flash game too, so I went with the idea I had for a while, a faux operating system environment with some evil kids edutainment game or whatever. And that became Randy Learns Science! My first game with a crap ton of fanart flowing in shortly after release, which was new to me.
Originally my idea for an entry to the jam was one where it was like the game ROM CHECK FAIL, but Newgrounds themed. Mike from Ruffle's dev team would have messed somethin' up with the big fat machinery in the game's story, and suddenly all the Flash games got mixed together, oh noooo! Though, I didn't really know which NG game mechanics would have blended well together.
The first jam game to be completed to my knowledge that got frontpaged was Type Help, the text adventure...engine? I wanna finish the adventure it comes with eventually.
Then came Drop Cannon shortly before the flood of deadline-making entries including mine. I was hyped for this one, I mean, a new Tom Fulp web game?! I didn't care what it would be, it would just be amazing when it came out, I knew. And I did end up enjoying it on release, playing it with a huge grin on my face. It definitely feels like a Newgrounds/Nitrome hybrid.
Another notable entry for me was I'm Outta Here by @TheCarpetBaker - The Riddle Transfer feel to it was off the charts, and feels like what Strobe Interactive and I wanna do with our Henry Stickmin fangame Attacking the Tower, just pure attention to the source material. Only got stuck on one puzzle for a bit, can reccomend!
Cat Burglar by @starBlinky was a fun time, played that one mostly on my phone. Got the addictiveness of those kinda games down, 'cuz I didn't stop until I beat the game.
@matt-likes-swords of EBF fame got in on the Flashy goodness too, which was cool to see! Though I still have to play their entry Bullet Heaven 3.
The most ambitious entry had to be Roguebot Rumble by @PsychoGoldfish and friends. They tried to cram as much into the game before the deadline as possible and crunched for it too. And in the end Ruffle's mileage varied for people playing the game and it was switched over to Newgrounds Player. Ruffle will run games like it better as it is developed, but it's still sad to see that after their hard work on the game.
I could go over all the rest of the entries to the jam, but I'd be here all night.
What came after the jam though, and that just happened today, was my guest appearance on @TheNewgroundsPodcast! Man. I had never been on a podcast before and I was admittedly nervous before heading on to chat about the jam and my entry. It didn't help that there was an influx of big NG names on this particular episode, with Tom Fulp, Jeff, and the other devs they brought on. Even with mental preparation days before, I STILL got on the recording sounding like I was spontaneously brought to the stage from the audience. People afterward commended me for staying cool while being obviously starstruck. What an amazing feeling though, would absolutely be on again, and I'm proud to call myself among the NG boys.
Years ago I had felt like I had missed out on the web game "hayday" online, making cool stuff and making a name for yourself online creatively. I learned Flash a little bit when I was younger but by the time I felt I could put out polished stuff, it was too late before Ruffle - Flash was dying. But all of this made me realize that infinite well of creativity online, doesn't matter your tool as long as you're comfortable using it to create - that well is still out there. Alive and very much well.
<3
(In other news, my brother caved and joined Newgrounds himself! He's @PinkTopHat and he'll be posting his creative work and definitely will be collabing with me a lot since we're very close creative partners.)
