Before I jump into this, let me just say:

Newgrounds: A B.B.S. Story is my top priority and it will be released, regardless of whether anyone still cares or not. Haha...

Now that that's out of the way, I'll tell you why I was gone. I'll try not to dwell too much on it though. I mean, everyone got issues right? The internet, and NG of all places, probably isn't the best place to discuss said problems.

Why I was gone:

It all started with my HD failure It was an external hard drive but I wasn't using it for backup. 500 gigs gone, or so I thought (but we'll get to that later). I would have tried to see if anything could be salvaged, but shortly afterwards something else happened. I lost someone who was very close to me. At the time I was really depressed and I regressed into a state of "fuck it," as I've come to call it.

Go to work? Fuck it. Study for this test? Fuck it. Hell, should I even go to class? Fuck it. Work on these animations? Fuck it. Tell my voice actors I'm not working on the flash anymore? Fuck it!!!

You get the idea. I lost my job and I came really close to being on academic probation, but thanks to my support system I'm back on track.

The Beagle has landed... AGAIN

So, I eventually took a look at my busted HD, turns out I was able to salvage about 60% of the lost data. I recovered a lot of the source files for my animations, but not everything and it set back a lot. I even had to decompile my own flash here on NG to get some stuff back.

That's when the other half Flash-Beagle Studios stepped in, The-Real-Joe-Cool. You see, NG: A B.B.S. Story wasn't really an official F-BS project, so I was the only one working on it, but after hearing about my situation, Joe reached out, put his own projects on hold, and gave me a hand.

Current situation:

With Joe and I working together things are progressing nicely and we've made a lot of improvements, we've set a release date for Q1 2008. Newgrounds: A B.B.S. Story is our number one priority, but we've also got some other flashes in the works. We just released Peanuts - Groovies 01 and you can check my Deviant Art profile for some trailers for our other projects. I don't want to clutter NG with promo so go there for future previews.

In Closing:

I just wanted to say I'm sorry to all those affected by my leaving so abruptly. Especially the voice actors, Joe and I we'll make sure you witness the fruit of your labors, and maybe you'll even feel that it was worth the wait.

I recently released the teaser for my new series. I'm feeling good about all the feedback I've received. I even managed to snag my first daily feature award, so I want to thank everyone that made that possible.

In this blog I want address an issue that's been brought up several times. Which is my decision to use stick figures and silhouettes for the character designs. Well, it all started with Zhu (of Xiao Xiao fame), I've always been a big fan of his work. He showed us what a single animator can do with just stick figures. With the amount of action in his flashes, animating full body characters would have been a very difficult task and possibly not worth the effort. So Zhu took a different route, and he used stick figures in such a way that people didn't say "This is pretty good for stick figures," but instead "This is a good flash movie, period."

Later I discovered Rob-D (Joe Zombie) and Get-lost (Castle III). These two artists, among others, took stick figures to the next level. They showed us that not only are stick figures good for stylish violence, but they can also be used in a flash with character development and an epic plot, resulting in a truly exciting experience.

It was with that in mind that I chose to use stick figures, and I want to bring something slightly different to the table by also incorporating silhouettes. So, I hope you can all keep an open mind when you watch the first episode. Hopefully the wait for it won't be too long. I know the voice actors are eager to see the fruit of their labor, they all did awesome jobs.

That's all for now, feel free to hit me up with anymore questions/comments.

Hey everyone I just submitted a teaser for Newgrounds: The Series - A BBS Story.

Click Here To Check It Out

Here's some info:

Synopsis for the series:
It's been 5 years since Pimp and his advisor Bedn took control over Newgrounds. In his arrogance, each year Pimp has held fighting tournaments in which teams of 4 are allowed to compete, the finalists are given the oppurtunity to test their might against Pimp himself and attempt to relieve him of his throne. So far Pimp has remained undefeated.

A Few Notes:

1.
I started this flash series before the recent upgrade, which is fine because the series is dedicated to the history of the BBS, specifically level icons. Though, who knows? Maybe I'll tie in the new icons if I make a sequel.

2.
The characters seen in the teaser only represent a small number of people that will be seen in the series. So yes, Wade, the other admins, many of the moderators, some important community members, and even some regular members, will all have appearances at some point within the series. (Also, Pico is in the teaser, did you spot him?)

3.
Q: Why the hell is a Level Nine of old, taking on the Number One, and how is it possible that he seems to be holding his own against a Level 30 Icon with just a glove?

A: You'll have to wait until the full first episode is released to find out. Or you can check out some info via my blog here at NG. I also made a thread in the Flash section, though I haven't updated it in some time now.

4.
Q: What's up with the big circular heads and no hair?

A: They're stick figures, or detailed silhouettes, depending on what the scene calls for. So it makes sense to have circular heads/no hair. Tom is the exception to the no hair rule, being who he is and all.

Any Questions? Comments?

S'up people. I have a semi-announcement. I just released my last game for the moment (ECO Battler - Part 2) and I'm switching over to animation mode.

Why should you care? Well honestly you don't have much reason to as it stands, but hopefully I can change that as time passes.