The funkin.me Blog

WEEK OF 2024/03/12: the funkblog with factorio references...

2024-03-12T00:00:00+00:00

welcome back everyone to another fnf weekly digest! this week is week where we hear about some fun inside behind the scenes tech at funkin crew that that help make FNF that no one knows about... it's time to dive into some fun tech goodies!</p> +</span> +

Chart Editor: Playtesting!</h1> +
by Eric</em> </p> +
Eric again with another Chart Editor feature breakdown! This time, I wanted to go over exactly how testing your chart works.</p> +
At any time while charting your song, you can press ENTER to be redirected immediately to the level with all the characters and stuff where you can playtest your song. However, if you press SHIFT-ENTER, instead of being directed to the level you are directed to a minimal play state. No characters, no stage props, faster loading times.</p> +
</p> +
There are a bunch of options available to customize the playtest mode too! You can enable Practice Mode (don't lose if you have zero health), or Bot Play (the CPU plays the song for you). There is also an option to start playtesting your song at the playhead rather than at the start, so if you're charting the middle of the song, you don't have to wait to test that part!</p> +
</p> +
These features come together to make previewing charts easier and more fluid than with the old editor. Quicker playtesting of specific sections means quicker iteration and improvement!</p> +

A challenger approaches</h1> +
by hazel</em> </p> +
cue 2013 dubstep intro</em></h2> +
There’s always things happening behind the scenes when making a game. I’m one of the people building the stuff behind the curtain, and we haven’t met yet, which is a shame!</p> +
So, heya, I’m hazel (they). I’m doing subtle software & scalable server sorcery for The Funkin’ Crew since January 2023. And it’s time you get to hear about some of the things I’ve built! And also time I stop procrastinating writing a blog post. I’ve wanted to since last September!!!</p> +
+
Frenzy with friends</h2> +
If you’ve got keen eyes you might’ve noticed one of our Kickstarter goals going unaddressed so far: Online Leaderboards</em></p> +
Earlier this year, I’ve built the API for that — which is the actual brains. It handles things like storing and sorting the scores you submit, returning them in the right order, filtering them by song, user, score range, …</p> +
+ +Nerd stuff: Scalability</strong> +
The API is written in Elixir using Phoenix Framework. +I chose this combination because it allows us to painlessly scale up in the future. For example, there are going to be a lot more people playing at once right after release, or after a new update. +The reason Elixir is great at this is thanks to BEAM, the virtual machine used by Erlang which Elixir is written on top of. Erlang was originally built for Ericsson (large Swedish telecom) with distributed systems (a lot more than one server running thing at once) in mind, and therefore makes it super easy to just add or remove capacity based on how many people are currently actively using it.</p> +</aside> +
+ +Nerd stuff: A little functional programming, as a treat</strong> +
Another reason for this combination is developer experience. +Elixir follows functional programming paradigms, but in a way that feels very practical. You end up getting a lot of the benefits (avoiding side effects, straightforward state management, elegant recursive solutions) with not a lot of the usual drawbacks. +Phoenix Framework is a framework (duh) for making web applications, which is also incredibly convenient. It bundles a database driver, live updates via WebSockets, and frontend and backend routes all in one convenient package — which is just about everything we need.</p> +</aside> +
Once we integrate the leaderboard system into the game (hopefully soon), we don’t want it to rely on the game to do any computation (like your final score). This avoids issues like a bug in the game (or the score display) completely voiding your amazing #1 run, while also helping us prevent malicious submissions by being able to audit the inputs server-side.</p> +
+
Integration hell</h2> +
There are a lot of moving parts here, and making them all work reliably took more effort than I initially thought. Here’s a list of steps that happen when you play through a song:</p> +
+
the game records all of your inputs </li> +
the game turns your inputs into a package that can be easily shared between computers</li> +
the game sends that package to the leaderboard API</li> +
the API receives that data, and unpacks the inputs from it</li> +
the API plays through the song using those inputs (it doesn’t actually play the song, it instead does some cool math!)</li> +
the API calculates your score from the hits, misses, etc.</li> +
your score gets tagged with a bunch of metadata and stored</li> +</ol> +
An issue in any one of those would change your score, and tracing back where exactly that happened can become messy quickly when it’s more than just one issue.</p> +
Fortunately, we had a lot of technical documentation already written, like how score is supposed to be calculated, or how that data package is laid out.</p> +
Unfortunately, despite that, some bugs with parity between the score shown by the game and the score returned by the API were really subtle and mischievous. For example, I had an issue with scores being consistently off by a tiny amount that took us a solid week to get to the bottom of, and in the end came down to a mistake each in both steps 2 and 4.</p> +
+
On the next episode of Funkin’ blog…</h2> +
If that wasn’t behind-the-scenes enough for you, get ready for my collection of tools you’ll never even interact with when playing the game! Only when developing it!!</p> +
Making games is like playing cookie clicker</h1> +
by hazel</em> </p> +
A scientific breakthrough</h2> +
Idea: Invest a bit of extra time now to build automations and tools, and in the long run save everyone from repetitive and overwhelming tasks.</p> +
During the last couple months I’ve done exactly that with two goals:</p> +
+
writing and testing the game should be as uninvolved as possible</li> +
things that run outside of the game should be easy to set up and easy to maintain</li> +</ol> +
+
The factory must grow</h2> +
With multiple people making one game, we work on lots of different versions (“branches”) in parallel. These branches each contain a small set of changes, like a fix for a problem, or a new feature.</p> +
After going through testing and review, those changes then all get merged into one main branch (sometimes still referred to as “master”). This is the version that eventually will be the one you get to play.</p> +
The goal is to, for each branch, automate:</p> +
+
getting the code</li> +
turning that code into a playable game (”building”)</li> +
getting the built game onto the computer of our testers</li> +</ol> +
Doing these steps manually can easily take upwards of half an hour, and multiple people doing them over and over again is a lot of time and electricity needlessly spent.</p> +
Upgrading assembling machines +I’ve done a lot of upgrades to the automations that build the game for us. +Since we now have someone dedicated to managing server shenanigans (that’s also me!), we decided to ditch paying GitHub for server power and set up a bunch of our own for way less! +After doing that and then dedicating time to just cleaning up all the automation code and investigating issues caused by third party tools we use, we finally have builds that work all the time across MacOS, Windows, and Linux. +Speeding them up is another thing that was desperately needed, turning this:</p> +
+A screenshot of an automation result showing: success, create-nightly-win, took 50 minutes and 33 seconds</small></p> +
With caching (avoiding doing the same work twice by saving tasks that take a long time), some code cleanup, and a lot of bug fixes, into this:</p> +
+A screenshot of an automation result showing: success, create-nightly-win, took 4 minutes and 45 seconds</small></p> +
Adding conveyor belts</h3> +
A cool internal tool we now have is the Funkin’ Launcher (don’t worry: the final game will not ship with a launcher</strong> — we’re not a AAA studio).</p> +
This is how we can quickly get the built code to everyone who needs it to test. Here’s a screenshot:</p> +
+</p> +
+a MacOS application, which is currently downloading a build of the game.
+The application is titled “Funkin’ Launcher” and has a 16:10 aspect ratio. The upper 85% are taken up by a drawing of Boyfriend and Girlfriend in a test chamber.
+At the bottom there are three interactive elements that are greyed out currently:
+The left one is a selection for the game platform (showing “html5”).
+The middle one is a selection for the game version (showing “html5-rewrite/master” followed by the current date).
+The right one is a button. The button text has been replaced by the download progress in percent, followed by the estimated remaining download time.
+Below the three interactive elements is a progress bar for the download. +</p> +</small> +
+ +Nerd stuff: When to make sacrifices</strong> +
The launcher was built in Electron. If you’re someone who pokes into the apps you use on a daily basis, you might’ve had a bit of an allergic reaction hearing that name, given the fact Electron isn’t very efficient with storage space nor memory usage. +I knowingly chose it despite that to make an important tradeoff: getting the launcher working and in the hands of testers in a very short time. +Funkin.2160p.BluRay.REMUX.HEVC.DTS-HD.MA.TrueHD.7.1.Atmos-FGT</p> +</aside> +
To make sure everyone gets access to all the files, tools, and services they need (and only the ones they need), I’ve also set up something called single sign-on</em> (SSO) service.</p> +
It avoids having a bunch of passwords and accounts to access different tools and data. Instead, you get a single account for everything Funkin’ (except GitHub</a>).</p> +
+ Nerd stuff: Picking the right tool</strong> +We use authentik</a> for our SSO. I chose it for us because:</p> +
+
It’s open-source <3</li> +
It’s free and reasonably straightforward to set up. There’s always a balancing act between time saved and tool cost, and luckily this one’s a pretty clear winner.</li> +
It’s versatile, meaning we can more easily integrate with a bunch of third-party services that we don’t have control over.</li> +
It’s battle-tested.</li> +</ol> +</aside> +
All the tools</h3> +
One of the internal services we have is a download page for all of our tooling. It automatically figures out what tools you have access to from your SSO login, and then lists all of those for you.</p> +
+</p> +
+A screenshot of Firefox on MacOS, navigated to tools.funkin.me/applications.
+The website is a very dark grey with white text.
+There is a list of applications, currently only showing “launcher”. The application name is followed by download links for different platforms (e.g. MacOS, Apple Silicon) and how long ago it was last updated.
+</p> +</small> +
All the data +Another, less pretty looking site we have is the log viewer. It allows developers to see the output of applications they put on our servers. For example, here’s the log output for when I solved an issue where one of our staff members couldn’t access game builds.</p> +
+</p> +
+A screenshot of Firefox on MacOS, navigated to logs.funkin.me.
+The website is black with white monospace text.
+The text reads:
+[2023-08-13 22:15] Block logged in with groups [ authentik Users ]
+[2023-08-13 22:15] FAIL: GET /uploads/ (Block with groups authentik Users)
+[2023-08-13 22:29] Block logged in with groups [ authentik Users, Staff ]
+[2023-08-13 22:29] GET /uploads/ (Block is staff)
+</p> +</small> +
+
I’ve never actually played Factorio lol</p> +
PINS PROGRES</h1> +
by ninjamuffin99</em></p> +
This week hot off the presses we have fresh news about pins, which is the packaging process for the pins has begun, and after that... should be shipments! </p> +
+
</p> +
+
+2,000 individually packaged pins, out of 24,000! For some reason there's still 400 pins left for the manufacturer to send... In total we have in our hands 23,600 pins! Do remember, that if you are in a pin tier, you get all 4 pins for Boyfriend, Girlfriend, Pico and Tankman! Shipment estimates as of right now is starting with about 500 orders being shipped this week or so (our pin shipper is a bit sick this week!), and then likely ramping up more towards 1,000 orders being shipped per week. These are estimates from our pin shipper... so if they are off we will make sure to kill him...</p> +
</p> +</div> +</div> +
outro for the week</h1> +
by ninjamuffin99</em></p> +
hazel made fun little factorio references in their blog... and that mf aint ever play it!! die! I do want to say that the factorio blog is one of the inspirations behind this blog and it's writings, I very much love reading factorio friday facts and love to dig through all of the old ones and see about what they're working on and what got implemented. As we get back into funkin bloggings, it is fun and nice to also look back at some of our old posts by now! </p> +
SONG OF THE WEEK:
+ </iframe> +</div></p> +

WEEK OF 2024/03/03 - another lil funkblog

2024-03-03T00:00:00+00:00

Hello there everyone can you believe it! another effin funkin blog post!!! a bit of a shorter one, mainly aiming to post to keep our own internal consistency with writings bwah!!!</p> +
To quickly go over past week or so of work, we have been working on gameplay implementation stuffsies and funzies! it has been satisfying work to see progress get made in this particular sector since it's easy to notice differences in what has gotten done. We can nicely look at a list of things and go through testing and see with our own damn eyes on iteration happening in real time! Anyways that's just my cute lil anecdote about past week of work... onto da WRITINGS!!</p> +</span> +
Chart Editor - Back It Up!</h1> +
by Eric</em> </p> +
The feedback on last week's blog post has been absolutely wonderful. I'm sure a lot of you are excited to try it for yourselves, but please be patient.</p> +
My main task for this week was... whoopsie! That's classified! That happens a lot, but unlike the last five months where I therefore would have nothing to say and therefore nothing to contribute to the blog, I can instead use the chart editor as an endless source of little discussion topics!</p> +
</a></p> +
Hey wait, I showed you this image last week! However, I was being cheeky, and didn't talk much about what this feature actually does for you!</p> +
The chart editor will regularly make auto-saves of your work! It does this if the chart has been changed since you last saved it, and either:</p> +
You've gone 5 minutes without saving. +You just playtested the chart. +You just quit the chart editor (or closed the game) without saving. +Your game just crashed (yes, we can detect that now).</p> +
Your backups go into a folder next to Funkin.exe, and you can open up that folder and load your charts from there! Plus, if the backup was made because your game died, it will nag you next time you open up the Chart Editor, just in case you didn't know the backups were there!</p> +
I'll have more blogs queued up for the future, so see you later!</p> +
kickstarter status updatesies</h1> +
by ninja_muffin</em> </p> +
allo there ninji mofin here with lil status update of how the reward fulfillment has been going!</p> +
As a reminder, we have a few different distributors for our rewards, so some of them are sent in different batches of sorts! I will cover each reward "distributor"</p> +
Pins and Posters</h2> +
Posters</h3> +
If you backed, and you got a poster without a pin in your rewards, you SHOULD have a poster in your hands!!! We have shipped 99% of all solo poster rewards (people who pledged for a poster, without getting a pin of any kind)</p> +
Pins (and rest of posters)</h3> +
If you got pins of any kind, the good news is that the finalized manufactured pins have ARRIVED in USA, and are being shipped VERY very soon, likely within the next few weeks is when people are likely to get their pin rewards! As mentioned, if you have a poster AND pins, you should get that as well with your pins!</p> +
Physical OST (CDs, cassettes, vinyl)</h2> +
Physical OST stuff has been shipping over the past while, and we are in the home stretch of all of those too! I believe Needlejuice has a couple thousand orders left to ship, which may seem like a lot left... but that's a couple thousand left out of over 10,000 orders I believe! (Don't quote me on that 10,000 number exactly however, just going off some messages I've scoured through. )</p> +
So with the physical OST stuff it's just a matter of time until you will likely have your order arrive to you!</p> +
Shirts</h2> +
We have been slowly working through crazy contract and document work with t-shirt manufacturer people, and that is likely going to be wrapped soon and then the manufacturing process can BEGIN for the shirts! </p> +
Along with that as lil FYI, people who have T-Shirt as a TIER have NOT gotten a survey yet! In case you are in that section of people, we of course haven't forgotten about you! And survey of course will be sent out once we are close to fulfillment / shipping!</p> +
kickstarter.funkin.me</h2> +
General reminder that for stuff like changing addresses, or changing "name to appear in credits", you can sign into our homemade little backend for managing Kickstarter backers!</p> +
As we are getting close to having everything shipped:tm: of course there have been orders that have slipped through the cracks. Often caused from inaccurate addresses for shipments, return to sender shipments, etc. there are people who haven't gotten some of their stuff, when they should have! </p> +
All this preamble is just to say that if you have issues with orders of any kind, you can email support@funkin.me</code> and we will aim to get you all sorted out and help you with anything related to Kickstarter rewards that either have fallen through the cracks for one reason or another, along with any issues you may have with accessing or logging into our kickstarter.funkin.me</code> backend portal system!</p> +
outro for the week</h1> +Last week eric wrote the intro and outros, and this week... it's me ninjamuffin! In the time since I first spun up the funkin blog (about a year ago!) to now, I've gotten much more wise with website related things! I've learned a lot! I notice things I could have cooked up better, and things that need some spring cleaning with our blog posting process! Our little discord bot we use for blog posting needs little update with new github keys or something like that... trolled again... We are always hopeful to be able to put out and write cute little blogs though, don't think lack of blogs are because we don't want to share what we are up to. In any case I do want to thank Eric for helping blow the dust off our blog and giving us a fresh start for the year, and also pushing me towards writing all this up today! On a damn Saturday!! the day off!!! There's been many advancements in how we work and all that which have become natural to our way of life and workflow, so we might not think of those things as even blog worthy! As the weeks go on hopefully we can get some fresh writings done by people you haven't heard from who have been working with us for a while now! If you are reading this miki... that means you!</p> + SONG OF THE WEEK: + </iframe> +</div></p> +
WEEK OF 2024/02/23 - Charting a Course From Frustration to Delight 2024-02-23T00:00:00+00:00 Hi, this is EliteMasterEric, full-time Funkin' programmer, and guest author of today's blog post.</p> + Absence</h1> +Writing these blog posts isn't super easy at the best of times. Creating a concise breakdown on the inner workings of something you spent a lot of time on, that's digestible for a wider audience. It gets exponentially harder if the thing you worked on is tied into something else that's secret. I could write a blog post about all the work I did on some waveform renderer, but it would be hard to talk about if it's intended for something that we intended to keep secret.</p> + And sometimes the thing that's being worked on is something that's completely secret/under an NDA, or not even for this update, to where if the person could even say anything about what they worked on it would look like a bad SCP article, full of [REDACTED] and [DATA EXPUNGED] and ████████████.</p> + Compound that over the entire team, and you get a situation where maybe one person has something they actually want to talk about, but we can't put out a tiny blog post that's like one paragraph long from one team member, so that ends up sitting around waiting for more people to make blog posts...</p> + And then you get in a situation like "wait, it's been HOW long since somebody put out a blog post?" and people getting mad that we're not communicating and saying that we spent all the Kickstarter money on crack† even though you've been working full-time on this thing or even more and just want your work out there so people can appreciate that you're using their money and your time to create something with actual worth.</p> + INHALE</strong></p> + Yeah.</p> + I think the solution is to make a show of good faith. Bring something big out of the vault. Show off a little of what I've personally been developing on-and-off since... Git says September 7, 2022? Wow.</p> +Frustration</h1> +Charting (i.e. the process of mapping out the notes players have to hit for each difficulty of a song) is an incredibly important step in the development pipeline. It's basically the level design for Funkin'! In order to make good levels, you need good tools in place to make them. Take for instance any Super Mario game. The game could have great graphics and interesting mechanics, but if the level designers can't quickly iterate and improve to create interesting experiences, it can't be fun, and they can't do that unless they have a tool which makes it easy, nay, FUN to build a level. Building your own level CAN be fun, that's why Super Mario Maker even exists.</p> + During development, (this would have been shortly after I officially joined the Crew as a full-time employee, I had previously ), I specifically recall being in a call with Dave, and him asking me how to access the chart editor from that build of the game. At the time, that looked something like this:</p> + </p> + You could only see one snippet of song at a time, and the best indication of where you were in the song was a little number in the top left. Your only controls were pressing Space to play and pause the song, and you had to use your mouse to place notes. The controls available on the right side required you to manipulate unlabelled fields in a little tabbed view on the right side. The player and opponent switched sides every few bars for no discernable reason. No selecting to move them around or copy-paste them, only placing and removing individual notes. Convenience features like waveforms and hitsounds were completely absent. If you needed to place a note between the grid squares you were out of luck. Placing hold notes involved placing a note and then fiddling with one of the aforementioned unlabelled fields. Saving the chart was a massive pain. Getting anything specific done was borderline torture.</p> + Dave got REALLY upset about this, and began going on a tirade about this being one of the worst pieces of software ever made (no offense to Cam! He made this in a couple hours during a game jam and had only made a few usability tweaks since then). When Dave asked how to load a new song into the editor to start charting it (that's the neat part, you don't), we both knew that for something that would end up being a core pillar of our develpment workflow, something need to be used THREE times over, for EVERY song in the game, and EVERY remix for that song, in PERPETUITY, we needed a tool that was capable of making that process less of a chore.</p> +Focus</h1> +As I looked at what other engines had done with charting at the time, and as I looked at our internal discussions of what we wanted from a "revised" chart editor, I knew for a fact that the chart editor would have to be an entirely new chunk of code, built completely from scratch, with these capabilites in mind from the get-go, and the rest of the game built around supporting those capabilities.</p> +This ended up becoming my primary focus for more than a year. I'd get assigned to work on other things on and off (Redo the input system! Get cutscenes working! Redo scoring! Work on ████████████</a> (I told you about that NDA)! Fix issues with gamepad!) but once I was done I'd get back to work building, and iterating, and adding important features, and inserting little bits of convenience and flair.</p> + As I worked, I drew inspiration from the tools I (and the coworkers I sought feedback from!) used and enjoyed every day. VSCode, Adobe Flash, Arrow Vortex, FL Studio, Project DIVA F 2nd, Mario Maker, and even Psych Engine all made their mark on what is now my single largest programming project to date.</p> + Accompaniment</h1> +Oh, yeah, almost forgot, put this on in the background while you read.</p> + + </iframe> +</div>Delight</h1> +</p> + Enough fanfare.</em></p> + Where to start? All my biggest gripes with the old chart editor are gone. No more of weird logic that dividing the chart into sections, just one long scrolling view. No more having camera changes flip the chart; the opponent is always on the left and the player is always on the right. The waveform underneath character's icon (which can be clicked to switch character!), the measure ticks on the left side, the colored note preview on the far left, and the video-player-like controls at the bottom provide redundancy in the important task of making sure the player always knows exactly where in the song they're looking.</p> +The UI is powered by HaxeUI</a>, which is so much faster to develop for and much more powerful than the existing Flixel UI that I wonder why we even used it. HaxeUI provides a wide variety of components, automatic flowing layouts, menus, dropdowns, tooltips, dialogs, and more. This infrastructure allowed me to recreate something I loved from GIMP; toolbox windows. Many of the controls that used to be in one clunky immovable menu are now divided up into little dialogs that you can expand and collapse or rearrange to create your OWN layout.</p> + +</video> + Expand 'em! Collapse 'em! Rearrange 'em!</em></p> + It also leaves space for neat tools that would never have fit in the old UI.</p> + </p> + Here's a view which lets you set apply an audio offsets for the instrumental or individual vocal tracks.</em></p> + The toolbar at the top is the kind you'd expect from other editors, and has menus packed with commands. File emphasizes that the editor handles charts like normal files now, with a New Chart button taking you to a wizard to import audio and the options for Open, Open Recent, Save, and Save As that you'd expect from a modern application. Edit includes features like Copy/Paste, a robust Undo/Redo system with unlimited history, select all, Note Snapping precision options, and toggles for Live Input mode. View is pretty bare and currently only houses a theme selector and a difficulty switcher (Easy/Normal/Hard are all in one chart now and you can switch between them with a hotkey). Audio includes a metronome, hitsounds, and volume sliders. Test lets you playtest a song, in either a minimal mode with faster loading times or in the full stage with all characters, stage props, and scripts in place. There's an option to start playtesting at the position of the playhead and buttons to time travel (those ones stopped working I gotta get around to that!). Window contains checkboxes to bring up any toolboxes you closed, and Help just has a dialog that lists all the keyboard shortcuts.</p> + </p> + The Edit menu. Fun fact, copy/paste actually uses the system clipboard!</em></p> + </p> + The Audio menu. Having custom controls in the dropdown is a little quirky but HaxeUI supports it just fine!</em></p> + </p> + The Window menu. No the screenshot isn't cutting anything off you're imagining things.</em></p> + For those wondering, FNFC</code> files are our new standard for developing charts, created to simplify the process of saving and loading. It contains the chart data, along with all the audio files inside it so you don't need to fiddle around with telling the game which files to use every time you load it.</p> + </p> + The "Renamed ZIP" technique is a tried-and-true method of creating new file formats in the software development world.</em></p> + The grid area itself is divided up into measures and beats to help orient yourself while scrolling. The bright red playhead in the middle represents your actual position in the song and can be moved by clicking and dragging in the time ticks on the left side, or by holding ALT while scrolling. Pressing SPACE will smoothly scroll the grid as the song plays. With regards to keyboard shortcuts, there's probably several dozen, to where nearly every option has an associated keyboard shortcut, so you can navigate around and do work without having to move your hand constantly from the mouse to the keyboard. There is also an optional "Live Input" mode, which lets you place notes at the playhead with WASD/Up-Down-Left-Right. Notes placed this way (or with the mouse) will use the current snap setting you've defined, so you could easily chart a section of 24th notes by placing the playhead at the top, tapping out some notes, and then proofreading after.</p> + +</video> + Conveniences like dragging notes to move them and Ctrl-F to flip makes copying sections more intuitive.</em></p> + A big feature I haven't talked about yet is the Song Events feature, which vastly improves how we create charts and will become even better in the future. Song Events are manipulated in the ninth column on the right side, and don't appear as notes on either player's strumline. Instead, an appropriate chunk of code gets run when the event is hit. The main thing it's used for right now is camera control; previously, camera movement was tied to specific sections, but you can now focus the camera on either character (or Girlfriend, or a specific position on the stage!) whenever you like. There's only a couple built-in events right now (such as one that triggers a character or stage prop to play an animation) but this system is very extensible and mods can add new ones, so I expect to see people implementing Blammed Lights with it very quickly.</p> + +</video> + The form under the dropdown is generated dynamically using data provided by the event type!</em></p> + There's still a bunch of features I want to add in the future, from little things (I have some ideas on how to select notes with just your keyboard) to larger features (I had to cut an animation preview feature because character sprites weren't working in the little dialogs, it might come back eventually). The visuals could definitely use a bunch of work too, but the artists have simply been busy with other stuff, so the interface is mostly a mix of polished assets (like the cursor), default styling (like the dialogs), and programmer art (like the playhead and event icons).</p> + I think I'll leave things there, I've covered large swaths of the editor's functionality and can go over some of the more specific stuff in the future, but the best feature of the chart editor is... the kind of thing you can't show in a screenshot, or a video. I think it's all the feedback from a large variety of people, the thorough quality control it's gone through, that makes it feel FUN to use. Dave in particular is probably the best at giving feedback that helps make things JUICY. It takes a programmer to come up with an undo/redo system, and an artist to suggest that holding Ctrl-Z should repeatedly undo actions and make a zesty little sound effect every time. It's all those things that make it feel like any member of the team has the ability to take charting into their own hands and make a fun level now.</p> + Plus, it pretty much never crashes!</p> + </p> + ...except for when it does.</em></p> + Creativity</h1> +We're finally done, and since this is MY</em> blog post, I</em> get to choose the fanart and song of the week!</p> +I personally really like this Senpai art</a> by IGJH</a>! It just oozes charm it's so great.</p> + </p> + As for the music, here's a taste of the kind of stuff I enjoy.</p> + + </iframe> +</div> +†Only most of the Kickstarter money was spent on crack.</p> + WEEK OF 2023/09/18 - FunkCoin 2023-09-18T00:00:00+00:00 funkin blog fo the week... . big announcement... FunkCoin. Yep you heard right. FunkCoin. Web3 is looking more... awesome!! </p> + just joking, this week is just a week of Friday Night Funkin' development team blog posts!!! Mostly me this week derp! I need to get more people from crew to cook on blogs of where their brains are at.... this week we have Sunni</em> who wrote her first blog post for us woohoo!! </p> +</span> +Funkin' Spirit</h1> +by Sunni</em> </p> +Since it’s my first time posting to the blog, I figured I should write up a little intro for myself. Hello! I’m Sunni and I’m ½ of Windflower Games</a>, a game development and publishing consultancy. I work with the Funkin’ Crew in areas such as production, biz dev, and general operations. Cam likes to refer to me as an “industry veteran”, which I guess means I’ve accumulated a bunch of valuable knowledge over the years that I am now able to provide advice and perspective to help the Funkin’ Crew steer the ship in sustainable and smart ways. </p> + I must be doing all right by them because the Funkin’ Crew invited me to the Toronto on-site work trip a few weeks back. We not only got a lot done there, but we also learned more about how to work together and enjoyed fun shenanigans, too. Hopefully the success of this trip means more to come in the future. ^_^</p> + A lot has been said about this trip already, so I’ll shine a spotlight on one of the less obvious aspects: the important task of decorating our shared work space.</p> + Leading up the event, we were scrambling a bit to make sure a conveniently located coworking office was booked for our trip that didn’t cost a bajillion dollars. We were able to snag one just in time and it was the kind of modest and blah space you might expect from a room that didn’t cost a bajillion dollars. To be clear, functionally it was completely fine but it was missing some flavor, especially as a space for us to be working together in person for the first time. </p> + So, thanks to ingenious use of the coworking space printer, we got to work infusing the space with the proper Funkin’ spirit: fresh fan art and Dave’s Very Nifty and Professional presentation deck went up on the walls to inspire and remind us of why we were there. Our “office” may have been temporary but it felt better once we put in some effort to make it our own.</p> + </p> + Can’t share most of the wall decorations, unfortunately, since it’s full of secret stuff, so instead here’s a photo of whiteboard jokes.</p> + The decorating wasn’t a big deal. It was just something that naturally fell into place. Of all the events of that week, of which there were many, this is one of those easygoing memories that manages to stick out in my mind more than most. Maybe because day-to-day thoughts and actions have a way of revealing more than grand gestures. So after spending a week working together in person, here’s what I’ve learned about how the Funkin’ Crew rolls:</p> + +The details matter a lot.</li> + They put a great deal of care into their work</li> +They care about the people they work with. </li> +</ol> +And that’s pretty darn impressive, from this industry veteran’s perspective</p> +fanart of week - HeyIce</h1> +by ninja_muffin99</em> </p> +this week is a bit of a self indulgent pick... it's BF and GF and RITZ!!! from newgrounds game... RITZ</a></p> + Ritz is a game I made at the beginning of 2020, the same year that we first made FNF! I did programming, and Kawaisprite did the music for it, it was the first project me and him worked on together! So the light headcanon is that Ritz is BF's brother since me and Isaac are his fathers lol. It's very self indulgent to share dis art... but also.... the artwork is very good and cute!!! MKMaffo (artist / Ritz' mama) was also working on Ritz mod WAAAAAAAAAAAAY back in 2020... before Funkin' modding was crazy!!! I used her sprites as fake leaks and whatnot for laughs and lols, so also shoutouts and lov to maf</a></p> + I especially like Ritz hiding away when bf/gf are kissing... that bit is awesome... </p> + gf meets bf's brother by HeyIce</a></p> + </p> + go to HeyIce's newgrounds page NOW!!!!</a></p> + lil tease</h1> +by ninja_muffin99</em> </p> + I'll debrief a smidge about some stuff we r close to wrapping up on without spoils </p> + over past few months we've had some coding assistance with some very particular and specific visual work, and this week we are aiming to put a nice little bow on it!!! The person working on it, I stumbled across their work online, and found their stuff to be VERY impressive! Turns out, the super cool impressive work they did was made in Haxe! I ended up contacting them, and they were down to work with us on this lil venture! To give a smidge of specifics about their credentials, they are studying for some PhD level work, so you can be assured that the work they put into FNF is VERY delicious and tasty and awesome. Past few months has been on and off with them, as they balance their studies and other things, as well as learning their way around how certain things in HaxeFlixel work. What they worked on is something me and Dave wanted in the game since 2021... and damn does it feel good to finally see it in action, working and looking not just how we imagined it, but exceeding our expectations with it!! We are a noticable chunk closer to having our brains put into video game form and things. It's been very nice and pleasant to work with them, and hoping the next batch of work we toss at them can be implemented even faster with what they now know about haxeflixel!!! thats all I will tease for now about it, hopefully the vague details are enough to satiate and let people know that certain things we are working on with funkin is in MORE than capable hands, I like to hope that me and dave have a good eye at scouting out and picking people to work with!!!</p> + this work hopefully is very visually impressive, so we are keeping it under wraps until either closer to update, or until the update itself!!! bwah!</p> + blog brain</h1> +by ninja_muffin99</em> </p> + we started the FUNKIN blog about 9 months ago, and I like to hope have our brains starting to get wrapped around the postings, where it succeeds, where it fails, so now I like to hope we are starting to brew with where it goes from here! </p> + of course one of the main things is to have a general revamp of the FUNKIN.ME website! I wrote it all solo when it started, and maintainted it heavily in the beginning when resources were stretched very thin, as well I like to hope it helped get me out of a work slump, where along with the weekly meetings we have, I also had a PURE weekly duty that I could reasonably achieve each week or so. NOW we have more resources to stretch, more people helping us with admin work, devops type work, etc. So we've been slowly brewing on how to go about SITE IMPROVEMENTS. Nothing concrete set in stone just yet, but ideas are cooking again with it all, to hopefully make it something that everyone keeps an eye on each and every damn time we post! that is all</p> + outro text</h1> +by ninja_muffin99</em> </p> + another cute lil postings of blogs! I believe the last blog posting was about 2 weeks ago, and I feel that's definitely a muuuch easier distance of time to handle and do blog postings! I do generally handle most of the blog stuff on the day that it's due, rather than slowly build and accumulate blogs over the week, so it's same sorta saturation</em> of work in the day, I suppose it not being on a hard week-by-week schedule is nice, nice to have a break week to have PURE focus on week of work rather than blog posting day, and lets people settle down to write if wanted/needed! </p> + We will see how we feel in two weeks though, lol!</p> + SONG OF WEEK: + + </iframe> +</div></p> + WEEK OF 2023/09/04: BELATED BLOG POSTS ABOUT TORONTO LOL 2023-09-04T00:00:00+00:00 we wrote a small handful of blogs about the funkin gang out here in Toronto earlier this month, but me and Dave have been so damn busy, that I never got around to working on blogs and writing up anything else! So here's a few blogs from earlier this month we wrote that we are finally getting out heheh.</p> +</span> +</a></p> + Phantom Says: Workin in Toronto!</h1> +by phantomarcade</em> </p> + Yup, what the title says. Hung out w Kawa n Sunni n Eric n Cam, shit was cash money. Busy animating rn, ttyl</p> + -PA</p> +Funkin' In Toronto continued...</h1> +by ninja_muffin99</em> </p> + allo everyone. Last blog I believe we mentioend that we had a handful of our crewmates here in Toronto!!!</p> + I will seperate it out into two sections.... how the OFFICE work turned out, and how it's turning out now! Dave is still at my apartment workin with me!!! Wahoo!!!</p> +HOW DID THE OFFICES GO???</h2> +About at the beginning of August, we had some of our crew here, as mentioned. It was a smidge of the ADMINISTRATIVE crew / help, and also Eric! Towards the end of the week we ended up getting Dave to come from Philly too!! +We had two offices during the week. For the Mon-Thurs, we had a small little room that juuuuust barely fit 5 of us by the end of the week. There was a cute little TV in the room, which we used to project up and have Notion up as a bit of a "digital whiteboard" of sorts, to organize our tasks. Through the week we all aimed to be there at about 9-10AM, which was VERY different for me, but a welcome change. It's weird to say, but it felt like.... an actual job.... in a good way!!! I've had two jobs my whole life, grocery store, and Friday Night Funkin'. Working from home has it's benefits for sure, but it does take a certain discipline to have a normal schedule for yourself in your day, that I don't seem to have just yet! It felt very refreshing, and after the theatre meetup, I was really in the mood to get back into FNF work.</p> + We got a LOT of our biz and administrative internals reorganized and whatnot, along with a decent handful of programming work outta the way and bug fixxins and whatnot. </p> + It was fun showing the team around TORONTO and was nice broad.... TEAM BUILDING WAHOOOO!!!!! That may seem cringe to say... but it really does damn matter WHO you work with, and if you are happy to work with 'em. </p> + ANYWAYS the funkin CREW toronto meet was all nice and lovely and at the end of the week we all got matching purple shirts from UNIQLO, the funkin crew uniform begins...</p> + CLASSIC PHANTOMARCADE AND NINJAMUFFIN99 GRINDS</h2> +Once the smoke cleared, it ended up being just me and Dave working in my apartment now. We kept the 9-5 habit... except now we are on the 9PM-5AM schedule! HOWEVER we are getting a DAMN lot of work done. One of our major features of the update is almost wrapped, which was REALLY on our todo list for a long ass time. It truly feels like a large block of what we have left is closer and closer. monster energy, la croix, nicotine gum, and tim hortons double doubles keep this damn game afloat. During the day me and dave will hit the sunlight a bit, and do some chores, etc. etc. Life been upside down!!! There's a few DDR machines in Toronto that we've been hunting down, and those are our R&D missions.</p> +FAN ART OF WEEK - Mimyko</h1> +by ninja_muffin99</em> </p> + this week I am picking da pic of the week... and I pick..... PICO MAID!! by Mimyko</p> + idk where the origin of Pico maid comes from but everytime I see it, it just feels correct. Mimyko has made this particular Pico very cute and awesome and lovely! I was actually looking at Mimyko's stuff from another art piece on Newgrounds, and then saw Pico maid in sidebar and had to toss it some rep this week.</p> +Pico maid...ah by Mimyko</a> +</a></p> + Head to Mimyko's page on Newgrounds for more awesom art!</a></p> + a few things about toronto</h1> +by procgenkawa</em> </p> + +I was too shy to say hi to anyone at the Newgrounds meetup but it was really cool to watch happen! everyone is so creative and cool as hell!</li> + i will never view pigeons the same way again though, thanks for nothing /j</li> + Streetcars are very cool and the service is pretty good! Support your local public transit!!</li> + I thrifted a very good shirt in Kensington Market, and in general I recommend hanging out in that neighborhood a whole lot! There was lots of good food and crafts and thrifting, exactly the kind of stuff I like! </li> + it was neat to run into big festivals about immigrant/diaspora communities, and that happened a lot!</li> +</ul> +tickets, please</h1> +by procgenkawa</em> </p> + The thing about a big project is that there's just...a lot to do! It's so easy to get lost in the sauce of what's in the air and who's waiting on you for what, or to spend too much time focusing on something that wasn't even that important! It's really easy for something to stall because you don't know what needs to happen next to make it real, etc. </p> + Wise sage Sakurai [1] presents a quick overview of the solution most PROFESSIONAL GAME STUDIOS use: a ticket system! + + </iframe> +</div></p> +Funkin has tried this a few times in the past, but if no one is tending to the ticket list, it's easy to forget to move them forward and track them as you go. There can also be random mental hurdles to using a tracking tool, because all our brains are funky like that. Luckily, they have me now, and since I'm usually not directly touching game content creation [2] I can</em> be the one making sure this is all up to speed as one of my major responsibilities! </p> + We're using Notion for this, as ninjamuffin mentioned - it works well for my brain, and I like that I can also make general pages-full-of-notes (for things like documenting how to test the game) and calendars (for holidays and time off) that are really trivial to link inside each individual ticket. </p> + Sunni [3] and I jammed on making the Notion board for the team while the others cranked out content and programming improvements, making it easy to use and pulling together information that had been scattered to the winds and hard to find before, and I'm so hype to see how it'll help everything else go way smoother! </p> + [1] If you're interested in the world of professional game design and development at all, we at Funkin can't recommend Masahiro Sakurai's channel of bite-sized gamedev wisdom enough!! We refer to it a lot around here! +[2] Remember, I'm not musician extraordinaire kawaisprite! I'm Kawa, an employee who got here at the start of the year to iron out stuff like this! +[3] Sunni is one of the wise sages at Windflower Games https://windflowergames.com - bizdev and production experts for hire!</p> + outro text</h1> +by ninja_muffin99</em> </p> + here is the funkin blog about toronto! as im writing this, me and dave are likely nearing the end of the Toronto work hustle. We did a lotta crazy work and all shoutouts to hatsune miku shoutouts shoutouts we got da gooncave setup and shiiiiit we (I) am getting obsessed with lil miku toys and art prints, there was FanExpo here in toronto last week so I gooned out and got some nice lil miku art and figures heheh</p> + SONG OF WEEK: + </iframe> +</div></p> + WEEK OF 2023/08/01: The Funkin' CREW in Toronto! 2023-08-01T00:00:00+00:00 Hello everyone welcome to Funkin' WEEKLY-ish blog!!! Bit light blog this week since there's a busy week ahead of us! But wanted to share some words and thoughts of what we're up to this week!!! zoo wee mama!!!</p> +</span> + Quick Update on Portal</h1> +by Shingi✨</em> </p> + So over the past week there were roughly 55 more Backers added to the Portal, and nothing broke which is pretty fun.</p> + This week though we plan on adding 20x the number of Backers spread throughout the week so if you're checking your emails one of these days, don't be surprised to see an email from Funkin Kickstarter</strong> about your credentials and access details!</p> + Anyways, sleep deprived as usual so time to take a quick nap and wake up bright and early to make sure the rest of the Portal onboarding is a success!</p> +FUNKIN' IN TORONTO</h1> +by ninja_muffin99</em> </p> + WE HAVE SOME CREW HERE IN TORONTO!!!</p> + We have </p> + +ME</li> + ERIC</li> + KAWA (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH KAWAISPRITE... LOL)</li> +SUNNI </li> +</ul> +hopefully in next few days we can get dave out here</p> + we spent a smidge of coin to rent out a little shared office wework type office space, and the benefits are already pretty damn fruitful, ESPECIALLY with kawa and sunni here to help organize things in person! When me and Dave are in real life, we often spend time on working on GAME THINGS that benefit from realtime communication and chatting with each other in real life. With Sunni and Kawa, there's a LOT of very fruitful organization things that we've put off / neglected that are already being sorted out immediately and nicely. It's very nice....</p> + Starting the day really felt like going to a real ass job. Maybe to others it may seem tiresome and eye rolling, but for me, I've worked from home all my life, and over past year I've just worked in my little basement apartment with just myself! It's very nice to have a schedule of work, with people who show up and talk to and whatnot. Nice to go to lunch with each other!! Maybe one day we will have Funkin' HQ somewhere.... Funkin' North branch downtown Toronto.... </p> + Progress for the week is already going pretty damn well though!! There's an arcade around the corner a bit and it has DDR, so you all better believe that we are having a company evening there for research!!! bwahahaa!!!</p> +Fanart of teh Week</h1> +by phantomarcade</em> </p> +</a></p> + Now this one is only FNF loosely, but this just really grabbed my eye recently. </p> + Creamjuicer69's Pico's School piece is just so awesome. So chunky and stylized, I just adore these kinds of works where you know the artist was goonin imaging and daydreaming about the scenario.</p> + Being a huge fan of NG growing up, I was always immersed in fan-made Pico stuff, yet never played the OG game until around the time I nabbed Pico for the 3rd level I was planning for FNF to make w the team. After that, I feel super in love with it as the one Tom Fulp game I never played and day dreamed about it non stop.</p> + BASICALLY, I just really adore when I can notice someone else has that deep autism for something, and it results in bringing a world to life. I dunno how else I can really say it, ya know?</p> + CreamJuicer69</a></p> + They've been posting a lot of goodies lately, so be sure to peep the sauce that makes the meal delicious. +-PhantomArcade</p> + closing thoughts for the week</h1> +by ninja_muffin99</em> </p> + As mentioned before we're light on blogs this week, today I have big pile of real life work ahead of me lolol!!!! Hopefully a small blog is better than no blog!!! But as I watch Eric get coding next to me, and Kawa and Sunni organize our INTERNALS and all that.... it makes me thirst to get real ass work done!!! Not that writing blogs is NOT real work.... but do need to get into work brain!!! We have an office this week!!! Gotta make all the use I can outta this for the week!!! wahoooooo!!!</p> + SONG OF THE WEEK: + + </iframe> +</div></p> + WEEK OF 2023 / 07 / 19: WE ARE SO BACK EDITION 2023-07-19T00:00:00+00:00 the friday night funking blog resumes... today!</p> +</span> + GLENSIDE GAMERS PT 2</h1> +by ninja_muffin99</em> </p> + As eric mentioned in his blog post, we got more of the crew in PHILLY for workin at the end of june! The trip entailed NINJAMUFFIN99 (PROGRAMMER), KAWAISPRITE ( MUSIC), PHANTOMARCADE (ART/ANIM), and ELITEMASTERERIC ( also PROGRAMMING!).</p> + At the end of my last visit to Philly, I brought the idea up to bring MORE of the crew to philly to see each other in person. While you TRULY can make a MEANINGFUL connection with someone online, I think it’s VERY enriching to meet people in real life, AND work with people in real life. You CAN spend more time with someone and talk more about things. It’s easier to “schedule” meetings, easier to get a conversation going. You definitely always can send a bit of a cold message to someone over discord, but they may miss it, ignore it, be scared to answer! In person, you can be on a walk, in the car, working next to someone, and have DISCUSSION about anything, and have it for much longer and more nuanced than over discord, even voice chat! SO with all that being said, I do feel many things HAVE been worked out for the better when we were in Philly, certain production questions were answered or have had thought put into. One such thing was GAME MUSIC and additional composers. To some people it may come as a genuine surprise to hear that we have a small handful of extra musicians helping us! Not just Kawaisprite! Things discussed is a bit of like… creative lead</em> things. How do we keep the musical aesthetic</em> reigned in so that it’s not just a billion random remix songs? How do we keep the musicians own autonomy and their STYLE? Along with DISCUSSIONS, some extra cute lil features have begun implementation work. SHIT LIKE DAT!!! There is nothin more blessed than seeing Isaac make the most delicious music u ever hear right in front of your eyes, and then seeing exactly what a feature should look like from Dave, and then cookin it up in game code all nice and dandy</p> +FUNKIN CREW IN TORONTO</h1> +by ninja_muffin99</em> </p> + In 10 days (July 29th) there will be a NEWGROUNDS MEETUP in Toronto, Ontario! I want to try and organize them about yearly. Along with that I believe is a good time to have another FUNKIN IRL MEET AND WORK! So the week after we are aiming to work IRL together with a handful of our STAFF, including people who’ve been helping us with administrative work!!! Wahoo!!!! </p> + If you’re near the Toronto area, you should come by!!!</p> +PINS POSTERS, SHIPMENTS IN PROGRESS</h1> +by ninja_muffin99</em> </p> + PINS AND POSTERS ARE FINALLY BEING SHIPPED!!!! About last Monday is when the first batch of posters got picked up by the mailman, and I believe some people might already be getting posters in their hands! For all of our physical rewards, there are a LOT of people who need their rewards shipped. The people we work with are usually very small teams of people. We appreciate everyone and their patience! If you filled out the survey all good, you will get your rewards eventually!!!</p> +Finally out of Q&A Hell, time to get the Beta Portal on the road!</h1> +by Shingi✨</em> </p> + Sup everyone! We're back from being out of existence for a while to bring you this special message!</p> + I finally finished all the necessary renovations for me to move into my new place (still pretty jank but the most important things in life namely internet</strong> and plumbing</strong> are there so who cares) and the blogposts coincidentally are returning on the same day so double cheers from me!</p> + Now onto the news that you actually want to hear: After being thoroughly vetted by the project manager and the rest of the team (shoutout to Kawa) as well as spending many days with the ever talented DevOps person on the team figuring out the intricacies of Automated deployment when your packages and database aren't playing nice (kudos to Ravy, you go girl!) - we're finally done cooking and ready to bring the Portal outta the oven and into Beta</strong>!</p> + Before that though is a Test Run</strong> this week, with some of the first Backers ever to donate to the Kickstarter to test it out and make sure that it's the smoothest possible launch. Basically the equivalent of Early Access where you get to test the product out with the people who actually need to use it the most and see if there's anything that's wanted/needs fixing.</p> + Also a slight update (that i'm sure Ninjamuffin will mention but just to be sure): pins and posters</strong> are finally getting into people's hands! Once the Portal is out you'll be able to check for yourself whether those are still awaiting shipment, or on their way to your doorstep (with tracking numbers ,yeay!). Needlejuice rewards on the Portal already supports this feature (and updates whenever something changes from their end) - which took quite some time and collaboration to finally figure out and intergrate and i'm proud i can make the wait for Rewards just a little bit more convenient for everyone.</p> + One of the other things i've been doing on the side as part of the Backend work i've been doing is running weekly(ish) reports on Needlejuice rewards and roughly 60% of Rewards have been shipped at this point with calculated projections of 90+% percent shipped by the end of the year! +I kinda know there's a lot of people worried on the Kickstarter page about that specifically and yeah, the backlog is slowly being shipped out every week until all the rewards make it into your hands so don't panic just yet - the team is working on it and it'll be on your doorstep hopefully sooner rather than later.</p> + Also, getting T-Shirts out is probably the next item on our agenda and although i discussed that a while back with Ninjamuffin i'm pretty sure the Surveys for those will probably be through the Portal which has support for more specialised surveys (in this case being able to pick multiple different sizes and variants depending on how many tshirts you ordered!!)</p> + yeah, i think that's it for anything Kickstarter related since i've seen a lot of questions about it lately. Anyways peace out for real this time</p> +About the blog hiatus</h1> +by ninja_muffin99</em> </p> + hello there!! Many of you may be wondering where the blog went!!! Well I have a few reasons / excuses!! ha!!! For a while our blog posting system was actin buggy and whatnot. If anyone wants the tech details, first it was my github key expired (I created it in january, and set the expiration for 6 months… which is June!) and it was a bit fussy to figure out how to do that again… And then the deployment was acting all fussy as well!!! Somethin buggin with that so had to fix it up. In general it was a small handful of tech things that needed to be upgraded, which was a bit of backburner work since it was generally busyness of June.</p> + Next is that I will admit I was a bitchass and felt a bit demotivated about it! Sometimes I can work on it and wonder what the whole point of it is. When we didn’t do it, we simply got people asking for more COMMUNICATION. Now when we DO the blogs, if we were late or missed a week, we would put MORE effort into things like that, but it felt like we still got the same amount of people unhappy with our COMMUNICATION. Double the stress!! That is a bit of a selfish reason though, but I think needed a smidge of a hiatus to refocus MYSELF on things. I am the broad LEAD of blog postings, I am the one that posts the most and pushes others to post the most, so I semi-intentionally decided to focus on other aspects of Funkin’ work! Is this work that a social media manager can and should do… probably!!! But I do THINK it’s good habit to get a TASTE of what it entails yourself for things like this. If we just hired someone BEFORE this little “experiment” of sorts, I might not know what I particularly WANT out of something like a FUNKIN BLOG. In any case, for now it sits in my brain, and for the forseeable future we are HOPEFULLY back to business in terms of blog postings. Sometimes may be late, sometimes on time, bwah!!!</p> +Eric Visited Philly!</h1> +by Eric</em> </p> + Hi everyone! Long time since I posted a blog update.</p> + At the end of June, I got to fly out to Philly! I got to meet and hang out with Cam, Dave, and Isaac, and meet a whole bunch of other Newgrounders at TooManyGames! All the people I met that week were awesome and chill peeple to hang out with.</p> + In terms of dev work, I've been hard at work on bug fixes, I've finished fully retooling the input system, and did a bunch of work implementing some new animations Dave has cooked up. I also reworked how the game renders notes, which should result in better performance and a cleaner look (especially on hold notes). A bunch of the other stuff I've been working on (and will continue working on later) is secret though, so I can't really talk about it, sorry!</p> +If you're in Toronto at the end of this month, be sure to stop by the Newgrounds meetup on July 29th! A bunch of us will be there. https://ninjamuffin99.newgrounds.com/news/post/1360856</a></p> + Fanart of teh Week - ghospel</h1> +by phantomarcade</em> </p> + </p> + Fanart of the week? Absolutely gotta be Ghospel’s Flipnote FNF!</p> + Just when I start to wonder if a mod could possibly be anymore charming, something like this rolls along. Sorry Rappets, but this one takes the cake. ( I’m pretty sure I animated in Flipnote before I ever even touched Adobe Flash…)</p> + Maybe the mod will even have a secret Swapnote stage…. who knows!</p> +Peep Ghospel’s arr on Newgrounds</a></p> + Til next time! +-PhantomArcade</p> + closing thoughts for the week</h1> +by ninja_muffin99</em> </p> + again apologies for delay in blog!!! But our little blog posting bot is back working, and feel much more refreshed coming back to blogs! I still do WANT these to come out weekly definitely!! Although I feel like our own expectations of the blog can bog us down. I feel like each time I start writing, I want to go very in depth with details and topics, when really, I can also go as LITTLE detail and just make quick notes and whatnot about things. oh well</p> + SONG OF WEEK! + + </iframe> +</div></p> + WEEK of 2023 / 05 / 30: GLENSIDE GAMERS EDITION 2023-05-31T00:00:00+00:00 hello everyone... apologies for missing blog from last week!!! Last monday I was spending a lot of the day travelling, I'm in Philly at the Newgrounds office with PhantomArcade! Trading back the work trip together after he came to Canada. As of writing, I have another week left here, but I will hop back over soon, since I have some personal things to take care of back home!!! But then I also want to aim to be back in philly in a few weeks!! </p> + anyways.. here is bloggs</p> +</span> + in philly</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + (written may 23 2023) +hello everyone... this weeks blog post is intentionally delayed!!! On Monday I had a flight and travels from Toronto to Philly to work physically with PhantomArcade!</p> + We even delayed our weekly Monday meetings into today, Tuesday! So today we got all updated on each others work, so that's why we waited til today to post blogs!!!</p> + Anyways enough cope. Trip went alright and we are generally hitting the ground running. I went through a bunch of mail that Dave has had lying around addressed to the company that he didn't want to open... bwah!!! Payroll mischief!!! Healthcare bullshit! Taxes! Dental!! Just a buncho dipshit paperwork like that, but we got a cute little scanner and archived em, so that we can use the Newgrounds office industrial paper shredder and watched it eat a lot of paper. Anyways, looking forward to the next few weeks of work for us, me and Dave's work towards the end of his Canada trip, really hoping to pick up some of that momentum and get cookin pretty much immediately! Unfortunately the AC at the Newgrounds office is busted... and it's been gettin sweaty here... but work shall continue....</p> +Phantom Says: Tame the Wilderness</h1> +by Phantom Arcade</em> </p> +</a></p> + Hello NEW YORK!!!!! ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?????</p> + Nah im just kiddin, no concerts here. Not yet anyway. Just another friday night blog post. Been a minute since my last one, but I'm not too into giving updates often since I want to avoid talking too much about the art that should be speaking for itself. However, the blog is here so we can reach the die enthusiasts of the project in these dark, update-less times, and shine a bit of hope in the long wait. So, let's dig into what we can.</p> + In general, it feels like the wind finally fills our wings. The pace of late has been brisk, and consistent. That's not to say there aren't shortcomings we'd still like to fix, but I think I just look around lately and I see that there's an entire ecosystem that's just running, and I like it. I see that every bit of planning, every bit of direction, and generally every bit of non-art work I did to get things where they are has paid off. Funkin is a team effort brought to life, and MANAGED by a swath of people. And really as a director, I may know what I want in a creation, or a scene, or a vibe or atmosphere or gameplay... but I think it's really shone through lately how Newgrounders arm n arm keep each other afloat. </p> + When I told Cam long ago I felt like things could be more orderly, it was him who self-actualized on finding a project manager. And now I can't imagine life without Kawa helping us out. I'm able to request what I need and see it come to life through the pipelines we've created in ways that're more satisfying and sustainable than they were even just a few months ago. Yet we're still small enough of a team and the work is manageable enough to where there's still infinite room for rogue ideas and randomness. Every ounce of the project is still able to feel personalized on a larger scale thanks to the management, and that makes me look around and just love our staff more everyday. </p> + It feels so fucking weird to call people 'staff'. Though I guess that's the word? I'd say friends but like, I'd take a bullet for my friends. But these guys, I mean I like em a lot, but I wouldn't take a bullet for em.</p> + Honestly though if a barrel was pointed at me, I'm not even sure I'd take a bullet for my friends. I feel like human reaction would be to chicken out. I mean like, I'm skin n bones from drawin all day, the bullet would pass through me anyway. I guess I could slow it down? I mean I guess it really depends on the thickness of the friend....</p> + But hey, just because I wouldn't take a 12 gauge to the brain doesn't mean these dudes aren't the dopest fucks in the world. Everyone here is chill, real recognizes real.</p> + Anway... Catch you next time! +-Phantom</p> + Oh also</p> + Breath of the Wild is fucking amazing, it's the ultimate after-work game. There's so much shit to do in it that while you could play it all day, it just makes for such a great unwind after a long ass day. My contrarian ass clowned on it when it came out since it looked mid, and people were gassing it so hard. People saying it was better than Ocarina drove me insane, but I've learned the error of my hater ways. </p> + People always bitched about no-dungeons, but like... even though it sounds like a cop out, the overworld really is the dungeon... It just doesn't feel that way since there's billions of solutions to every issue you can face. People also bitch about weapon degradation, but that too I've found makes it so you use a HUGE variety of weapons, so combat ends up feeling super varied. Plus it plays into the scavenging / survival aspect where you're constantly trying to live off the land.</p> + The combat too, holy fuck. The game essentially have WITCH TIME in it??? WHat the fuck? No one told me that!!!! And the game has contextual dialogue?? Like, if you discover a village at night, they'll acknowledge you're new + it's night. People even react to if you're carrying certain shit or not.... it's fucking awesome.</p> + blog fixings</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + last night (as of may 24th) i was trying to fix up and create a few new features for our funkin blog bot. Unfortunately that sucked up my night, and I ended up falling asleep on the newgrounds office couch for a few hours until we all went home at 6AM.... I will keep banging my head onto the wall.... also yesterday I fixed the lights in the conference room.... pico shines bright once again...</p> +KICKSTARTER PINS / POSTERS INCOMING</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + a few days ago, me and dave met with our boy COBY who is handling the fulfillment for us for our kickstarter PINS and POSTERS tiers!!! We already seen the posters print final... and now he came by the Newgrounds Office to show us and give us a big bag of finished samples of the PINS!!!! They look and feel pretty damn perfect... so with the finals in his hands, it should all be out the door and begin shipping in a week or two!!! People are finally getting their pins!!!</p> + Very soon we also want to have our kickstarter shirts begin manufacturing and all that, will keep you all updated!!!</p> +Fanart of teh Week - HighwayBlues</h1> +by Phantom Arcade</em> </p> +</a> +Fanart pick of the week, for me, gotta be HighwayBlues</p> + Chillin with pals is what's up, any piece that shows off the characters hangin out as though it's just every day as usual, that's a fav. </p> + Plus, HighwayBlues has been chillin out on NG pretty consistently since '21, ya love to see a familiar face.</p> + HighwayBlues.newgrounds.com</a></p> + We're always peepin' through art on NG, so if you're postin, especially with tags... we'll prob see it!</p> + closing thots fo week</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + here's another lil blog for the week.... sorry about the delay!!! But keep in mind that when we miss blog posts.... it's usually out of being crazy busy with other things!!! Rather than us being lazy!!! Keep in mind that other companies often have people dedicated to social media... blog postings... sharing fanarts... all of that!!! On top of the work we do we try our best to keep up with a Funkin' blog!!! I don't wanna feel like a cuck and apologize over blog all the time though, we know that we are workin' !!! And that the blog is fun!!! Anyways I'm still in Philly for another week, and I'm looking to FINALLY finish up the lil part of the project that I've been on and off working on since 2021.... things are going nicely...!!!! </p> + SONG OF WEEK + + </iframe> +</div></p> + WEEK OF 2023/05/16: PILLS EDITION 2023-05-16T00:00:00+00:00 I couldn't figure out what to title this blog post. I got a tiny lil infection or somethin on my insides and the doctors gave me antibiotics, so that's why this one is called pills edition. (nothing dire btw thanks for asking)</p> + blog is day late... but it's nicer than when the blogs were on Friday when they would slip friday, and be released on monday, a whole 3 days later!!! Now they are just a day late when I slip on them teehee</p> +</span> philly upcoming</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + cant remember if i mentioned it or not, but next week I will be pullin up to philly to meet with dave and work with him out of the newgrounds office for two weeks or so. we r trying to shout at isaac kawaisprite to come thru also... lol!!!</p> +more math....</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + im at the point with this lil feature where da math is juuuuuuuuuuuust slightly over my head... but juuuuuuuust slightly within my reach.... it's all a matter of banging my head against the wall with it, and then the feature will be COOKED. Along with that, I do want this feature to be NICELY INTEGRATED into the game's code and all that, so that modders and whoever can easily look at it, and understand how to use it and customize it however pleased, since WE will definitely want the same thing for base game itself! We want to be able to customize and use this feature!</p> +Kickstarter backend + t-shirt stuff</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + the little kickstarter backend cooked up by Shingi seems to be making pretty damn good progress!!! I believe we aimed to be done before the end of May, and I think it's looking to be the case! I think what we are going to do is slowly roll things out to people, specifically t-shirt backers!!! Then slowly roll it out to all the other backers!!! So finally T shirt surveys will go out!!! Wahoo!!! Apologies for long ass delay... but it does finally feel like we are getting all of our shit together. Again, this also accomodates for things like NAME CHANGES!!! SO for anyone asking about that, it will come in this nice fancy system!!!</p> + Kickstarter simply does NOT accommodate for things like this, and there WILL be future indie game developers who run into the same exact issues as we do, but will be left with either dealing with it themselves, or going to something like backerkit. According to backerkit pricing (https://www.backerkit.com/pricings), a campaign like ours which raised a little over $2,000,000 with 58,000+ backers, their fee is $27,850! So we would much prefer to use that money we saved by NOT going with them, and creating a system that hopefully any Kickstarter campaign in the future can use, absolutely free of charge. That is the IDEA at least. BackerKit is all nice with their wording, but we will flat out say it. Kickstarter's system is pretty shit, and straight up needs fixing. Things like BackerKit should not need to exist! They should be built right into damn Kickstarter!! But oh well. I will continue to trigger their DDOS protection every time I want to export the backer list. Rant over...</p> +the kawa situation....</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + the title is purposefully more ominous than it actually is lmao</p> + just wanted to clear up something i see ON-LINE!! </p> + KAWA</strong> is our PRODUCER / PROJECT MANAGER for The Funkin' Crew!!! They help us with a billion things administrative related, and REALLY help oil the whole machine and keep it going NICER THAN EVER BEFORE! </p> + KAWAISPRITE</strong> is Isaac Garcia, the musician for Friday Night Funkin' !!! He is awesome and makes the best music you have ever heard!</p> + They are NOT the same people!!!! I see on twitter some people get confused a bit about it when Kawa writes a small little blog post or something like that! Just wanted to clear air a bit lol</p> +fanart of da week - BePixel</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> +da fanart this week is by BePixel</a></p> + they been around da block wit FNF related things... but I knew of em way back when they just joined Newgrounds in mid 2021!!! It's very cool to see them improve how they have!!! </p> + this art is 'senpai blasted' and it's pretty damn awesome and stylish piece. I am a sucker for well done glitch effects like that too. Nothing overdone... damn class act that BePixel....</p> + follow them on Newgrounds BePixel.newgrounds.com</a> +</a></p> + if you want your art featured, post it on Newgrounds with the tags fnf</code> or friday-night-funkin</code>, and we will hunt em down!</p> + closing thots</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + closing thots for the week is that it has been a week where mostly everyone has been pretty heads down and working, nothing too crazy or scandalous but that's okay. There will never be a creative project where every single week there's something awesome and crazy epiphany that happens each week. Everyone is doing their work nicely and making good progress teehee</p> + to end it off, i will recommend the movie BLACKBERRY! Matt Johnson is one of my fav people ever and he makes all my fav things ever.... specifically Nirvanna The Band... It's extremely well done, and I really hope it makes it's money back and all that and is very nice success for them! I saw it on Saturday, and Matt did a QNA afterward in the theater I saw it at here in Toronto! The actual company Blackberry / Research In Motion was created in Waterloo, which is basically the same city as Kitchener, which is where I lived for the early days of FNF development! As Canadian... it's always nice to get some rep lol...</p> + anyways GO WATCH BLACKBERRY IN THEATERS NOW!!!</p> + SONG OF THE WEEK + + </iframe> +</div></p> + WEEK OF 2023/05/08: PICO DAY EDITION 2023-05-09T00:00:00+00:00 HELLO EVERYONE, over the weekend... was Pico Day on Newgrounds!!! I hope everyone had fun lil weekend, there's a lotta damn awesome contributions... so go check em out NOW.</p> +</span> Upcoming trip stuff</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + Dave had a good time in Toronto, and we got a lotta damn good work done I feel and got good MOMENTUM for ourselves going. Now it's back to my turn to travel over to Philly so I can work outta the Newgrounds office with all those fellas and hopefully... go even FASTER!!! That's all on that front though heheh. Need to book tickets and all that, and also want to try and help Kawaisprite get to philly too... his ass needs outta Arizona NOW</p> +math stuff</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + past week+ I been doing a lotta damn math.... soon you all will see the fruits of labour.... it's work that I've wanted to do since late 2021, and finally I'm getting it cooked up and it's coming along nicely.... I'm still unsure if any mod has implemented a similar feature, but once the update is out, 100% its like... every mod WILL implement what I've been working on heheh</p> + thats all for now</p> +new day for weekly blog posts... MONDAY!!!</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + I feel like each time I neglect weekly blog posts on the Friday, it eventually always slips into the Monday, since that's both when we have our weekly crew meetings where we all update each other on our work, and since it's after the weekend, which most of the time I spend with my gf! </p> + SO </p> + I think the NEW official day of week for weekly blog posts... IS MONDAY!!! I think it's easier for me to get cookin on it, and easier for me to stay consistent with it, although we will see how that goes hehe. Already we have a lotta damn work in the week!!! Buuuut I try to look at it as an exercise in discipline in a way, to try and slowly get more and more consistent with it and how it goes, as well as nicely keeping track for ourselves at what we get up to!</p> +Funkin on a Monday night</h1> +by Shingi✨</em> </p> + Uhh, happy belated Pico Day everyone?</p> + Soo, it's been a busy week as you can expect from these blog posts happening super late haha. My week was personally spent mostly working with the new person on the team on getting the Deployment for the Kickstarter portal up (finally!) It's been a long time coming and finally seeing it up has been a pretty cool sight (as i before the DevOps person prepares to kick my ass for my scuffed deployment scripts lol)</p> + One thing that i've been thinking a lot about though is ARGs and interactive content outside of the medium it's in, and Friday Night Funkin'. I remember enjoying the Deltarune Sweepstakes a lot and how much fun the community had with that and I even remember mentioning wanting to do something similar for the Kickstarter Portal (with a couple of Funkin' Crew approved teasers of course) +Something i've noticed though is that the community is already active and interacting outside the game in their own way through things like the (super active) Modding scene, the Roblox stuff (lol at that one roblox game though) and stuff like that. +I'm still considering doing it later on, but i dunno. I did try making a slightly cryptic tweet to gauge interest on whether mysteries and stuff like that would be something people are interested in but the reception was mild at best so i guess we'll see?</p> + Anyways see y'all later! </p> + +thumbs up in progress</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + for one of our upcoming levels (something that ISN'T coming out next update btw lol!) we laid out some groundwork. For this we are working with outside musicians of some sort.... top secret..... they are people we really damn love and respect, and we tossed them what we have so far, and they really loved it :3 essentially getting thumbs up from them that we are on the right track with it! There's a tale for another day with this level / music, that will likely be told by someone another day... but for now.... that awesome ass level is slowly moving along, on the backburner as we work on current update things!</p> +funkin for the people</h1> +by Kawa</em> </p> + Something we've been thinking a lot about lately is like...what does it mean for Funkin to keep its underground, for-the-people vibes, but not let people with Bad Intent try to rip people off using the assets we've made? What things are open for people to riff on, what things are cool with fanworks-but-not-serious-profits? How do we spread the wealth amongst our collaborators while also having enough in the war chest to make all the ambitious things we wanna do? </p> + Lots of stuff here i can't talk about in detail, but i wanna shout out the rest of the crew for being hella thoughtful about this stuff - it's hard, and it's always awkward as hell to talk money. but we're all aligned on wanting to see the cool shit y'all make while not letting gross people microtransact your fandom to death!</p> +fanart of da week - BenzBT</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> +this week gon show off awesome little artwork from da iconic BenzBT</a>! </p> + they are required viewing for not just FNF fans, but art work appreciators in general!!! This one is awesome as fuk and cute af baby gf artwork.... we all lov benzbt in dis house... this is awesom....</p> + follow them on Newgrounds BenzBT.newgrounds.com</a> +</a></p> + if you want your art featured, post it on Newgrounds with the tags fnf</code> or friday-night-funkin</code>, and we will hunt em down!</p> + closing blog thots fo week</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + closing thoughts for the blog... I feel like I'm always apologizing for a late blog! I'm partially hard on myself with blogs, and other people can be too. +For the most part, it really is trying to squeeze in extra work into an already overloaded brain for ALL of us. There was a time when we didn't even do +blogs at all!!! I like to hope that no one holds it against us when we slip on blogs here and there. We are programmers, animators, and musicians... +not writers!!! If it makes you all feel better about blog slippin or being lackluster... just know that on the weeks when we seem to skimp on blog posts... +it means we either have had a super productive week, or very lazy slow week... and this week... was very productive!! bwah!!!! I'm rambling now!!!</p> + SONG OF WEEK (AS CHOSEN BY KAWA!):</p> + + </iframe> +</div> week of 2023/04/23: Devops edition 2023-04-25T00:00:00+00:00 hello everyone welcome to da funkin weekly again!!!! Apologies for the mischief and posting on the Sunday today!!! I need a better habit for myself to write first thing on Friday morning to write a buncho blog posts!!! I got busy later in the day!!! </p> + In anycase, it's been a pretty damn solid week of work I like to think!!! This blog will simply recount it... as always!!!</p> + One thing I want to try to start doing is small lil community highlights, whether it's sharing a cool piece of fanart, or funny posts or memes or interesting videos.... I will share em below!</p> +</span> cross-class XP</h1> +by Kawa</em> </p> + yeah, there's a lot of stuff I've done directly for funkin this week - chatting with various wise sages, nudging admin things along, testing stuff for the kickstarter portal - but in my downtime, I've also been trying to learn a lil haxeflixel myself!! just slowly working through the dungeon crawler tutorial on the website with my own comments, nothing really even worth showing off. i hope after finishing the tutorial i can work on a very silly project for myself, and i'll let y'all know when that happens but don't hold ya breath!!!!</p> + i don't view myself as a programmer</em> per se - i'll never replace ninjamuffin or eric, they're real great! but i've done bits and pieces - my own projects in Twine, contributing to a big Typescript online event space, some database/SQL stuff in a past life. it's fun to occasionally gain the cross-class XP, get a bit more insight into how otherl mfs are thinking and doing, and just generally learn more and not get stuck in a rut!! i recommend it to everyone!</p> +contractors refixin</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + last week I mentioned getting contractors sorted out, and i have generally (with help of kawa filling out some paperwork for me cuz im lazy with paperwork) we are back on track with 2 of our programming contractors!!!</p> + One of them is Shingi, who is continuing / finishing his work on the KICKSTARTER BACKEND!!! We are aiming to have that FINISHED at the end of May by the LATEST! Shingi is doing pretty dang good work on it!!! </p> + The other is the person who was working on a bit of a secret task relating to the next update... they are Ravy! She has been re-contracted for various crazy devops type work, since we WILL need that infrastructure in place and working all good. I am complete noob with all that shit. She knows damn near everything about hosting and deployment and all that crazy fuss.... god bless em.... anyways as mentioned there's definitely a lot of work cut out for her, and she is damn good at it!!!! The current task they are working on to ease into things will be helping Shingi with DEPLOYMENT and all that, and helping us with some backend TESTING WORKFLOW work. Maybe Ravy will elaborate on how and what they will work on at a later date, but for now, thems the plans!!! Looking forward to having Ravy help with GAME related things for the people, whether it's helping figure out online multiplayer infrastructure, sharing network tech, leaderboards, or any other damn crazy task we need!!!</p> + Over the past few years I personally have been on GAME PROGRAMMING, so all this other world of networking, hosting, and whatnot very much intrigues me!!! And it makes me happy to have these other programmer people around me that are super smart with it all and be able to work wit em hehe 🙂</p> +On Cleaning Up After Yourself</h1> +by Eric</em> </p> + A lot of the work I spent developing over the past few months was focused on getting NEW features into the engine, and refactoring old stuff to be more extensible, but last month I looked behind me and realized I had left behind a mess, and almost all of the original game was basically unplayable, doh! I had to spend up until now going through and fixing shit! Then last week, when I was cleaning up and sending things to Cam, I realized I basically had gotten tunnel vision on the actual fixes, and should have been merging them into the main branch piece-wise, and now Cam has to review a month's worth of changes, double doh!</p> + My mom gave me some good advice recently, the basic gist being to "Look for things you can do now to lessen the load on your future self." I've been trying to improve myself in this regard, in life and in my work. I keep hyperfocusing on the task in front of me, and I need to take the time to do those tasks that aren't necessarily fun to do, but are important and necessary to being an adult. Like this pile of dishes sitting on my desk, triple doh!</p> + My main task for this week is pivoting back to the input system! I've got a friend helping me do playtesting and initial bugtesting (hi FoguDragon!) and you should hear more from us on that soon.</p> +On Priorities and Developing Stuff</h1> +by Shingi✨</em> </p> + Dev work is one of those funny things where the creation of any functional software is a minor miracle, and game dev is probably even worse in that regards.</p> + I remember when i used to pour through tons of books on software development, engineering and the dev process and hearing the adage that "95% of Software projects fail" and i'd always scoff at that notion. I mean I could make myself a cute lil app in a week or 2 by myself</strong>, why can't 5 people make a software in a year? </p> + Then i started going out and making projects for friends and small businesses as a student. Oh boy, was that a trainwreck X-D +(although to be fair it taught me a lot about working with other people and valuable lessons like being able to speak the language of the people you're working with - and not constantly spitting the latest jargon and technical crap that nobody except you really understands)</p> + I think part of the reason why software (and especially games!) end up taking so long to complete and make work is due to priorities</strong>. +Like the first thing is figuring out the difference between what you want to do</strong> and what you need to do to ship X product</strong> and that's just the start of it! +Like a perfect example of this is current FNF - we actually have weekly dev related meetings and there's always this constant battle of being like "Okay, so there's this cool thing that if we do will make the Engine work better or make the dev work for Week ▇ easy as pie, but does that take priority</strong> over this scuffed Boyfriend glitch that's been there since week 5?". Stuff like this doesn't really have a correct answer because everything would be great to do, but when it comes to shipping an update certain compromises have to be made between balancing new stuff and fixing old stuff. </p> + Also to close this off and show even i'm a dumbass: I had this vision for the Portal to do with certain Logistics stuff that i spent a long-ass time working on just to realize that it's better done manually! Doh!</p> +tools thoughts</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + over the past few months, I would even say over the past year, I think a LOT about WORKFLOW and TOOLS. Haxe is the coding language we use for the game, and support for it feels very grassroots and community oriented. It's very likely that if you write Haxe, you know a few people in the Haxe community. Maybe it attracts me a bit for that reason, reminds me of Newgrounds in a way! Similar to Newgrounds though, it simply won't have all the bells and whistles as the shiny popular kid on the block. I think about both a lot! </p> + For any sort of work, the tools you use affect the quality and output you have. If you have a dull kitchen knife, then even simple things like chopping veggies can become tedious, and an unpleasant experience. Unfortunately Haxe has some of these dull edges, but it has sorta felt hopeless up until recently. It has felt like recently it's been within reach to change workflows however needed or pleased in terms of coding. It does feel like if something starts to get in the way, there's a solution of some</em> kind. </p> + One recent example is that the haxe vscode autocomplete has been acting fuckie for..... a long ass time.... at least a year or so. Eric coded up some crazy macro code for polymod stuff, but that makes the autocomplete for vscode shit itself. So now what is essentially one of the base essentials is... gone.... as if we're writing code in notepad. It was pretty painful to write code, not even tab completion! Eric got me woke on Github Copilot though (this is not an ad fuk you github !!!) and it has made programming... tolerable!!! Sometimes copilot can nail pretty much exactly what I planned to write, in which case, it can even work BETTER than autocomplete!!! So it balances itself out nicely. This example shouldn't be seen as an example of a solution, moreso a bit of an example of having something feel out of your control, and doing some jank bullshit workaround. We don't have the bandwidth to fix whatever crazy thing is going on in the Haxe language server for VS Code, we aren't smart enough for that!! I barely understand macros!!! But having little things like this able to be solved, it makes my brain feel good.</p> +on blog writing</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + ideally blogs CAN be short snippets, but there's definitely an expectation of them to be thorough and packed with info or thoughtfulness. Likely just an expectation from ourselves and what WE want out of not only OUR blog, but game blogs in general! We like it when game creators express themselves in more than a thread on twitter! But also it can seem daunting!</p> +fanart of da week - Kor0kke</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> +this art is by Kor0kke</a> on Newgrounds!!! </p> + ever since they've joined Newgrounds I've always enjoyed seeing their work pop up in my feed! Very colorful and cute and awesome</p> + Go toss them a follow on Newgrounds!!! +https://kor0kke.newgrounds.com</a> +</a></p> + If you want ur art featured... post it on Newgrounds!!! that's mainly where I personally will be browsing for art! (although sometimes I will stumble across somethin on twitter here and there hehe)</p> + Phantom Says: Bye Bye Toronto!</h1> +by Phantom Arcade</em> </p> +</a></p> + Hello everyone.</p> + Here in Toronto in the dead of night... there's some bittersweet news...</p> + I'm outta here, fellas!</p> + It's been an amazing time here with Ninjamuffin, Cam's been a great host. We got a decent amount done work wise, and even better than that... I think in this odd era of Funkin as we navigate a large scale multi-staff game production we're coming to find there's a lot of work that's beyond the normal "draw now code now". Don't get me wrong, daddy likey the draw now code now, but as much as it pains me to admit it.... thinking critically is important. I know, I know, tragic. </p> + Jokes aside though, there really is more to running all of this than just hammering away. I think having a lot of discussions about the project irl, late night musings on various factors... it really does help. Maybe because the human element of being in person makes the follow and understanding of conversations different, or maybe because the proximity of each other means better focus.... I'm not entirely sure. But I think understanding your team well is good, and I feel like even though he was already a good friend, I understand Cam even more having basically lived with him for a month and a half.</p> + Ideally, this could mean things like being able to work faster now that we have a clearer idea of each other's concepts, and using that info we gained in person even when we're remote again. Maybe it means with lingering ideas from one n other we're able to continue work remotely with a stronger idea of goals. Maybe odd end discussions now will end up having relevance when remote, and we'll already have answers and clarity we need. Basically, understanding someone better = good. </p> + But honestly, fuck all that shit man. At the end of the day (or month n half lol) I had a fuck ton of fun. I wasn't cramped in a room all day, I wasn't ever bored, and I wasn't ever scrolling social media too long. Getting out, seeing a new country, playing games with a friend, working on art, discussing game design, cookin food, 3am walks, trying new stuff... it's everything I ever wished life could be since I started animating. Life in PA at Newgrounds has been a blessing since day 1 of animation giving me friends and fulfillment, and now I have trips like these offering the same feeling. It's everything a man could ever want....</p> + Except for like 2 weeks ago when I fell off an electric bike n broke my ankle, that's kinda sucked. I miss being able to walk normal n like, go to Tim Horton's n shit. Or play 3DS / Vita on the street car. But ah, that's whatever. If a wizard said he could rewind time and I could either do this entire trip or NOT do it and my foot wouldn't be broken.... no question man, I'd do the trip a million times over. </p> + Now it's back to PA, back to Newgrounds! Back to the lab again! Bye Toronto, bye CN tower! Bye Cam! +-Dave</p> + P.S. oh yeah and we got a lot of work done and focused on putting art assets in this week pog</p> + closing thots</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + I'll let dave sing us out with that one, aiming to have Friday be a blog day!!!! </p> + SONG OF WEEK (chosen by Kawa!)</p> + + </iframe> +</div> week 2023/04/14 shoutouts da greenhouse edition 2023-04-16T00:00:00+00:00 earlier today i participated in a local smash melee tourney for the first time ever and i didnt win any damn matches!! but it was an awesome time!! shoutouts da greenhouse in toronto!</p> +</span> more payday stuff and also taxes</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + this week also got payroll sorted for 3 of our EMPLOYEES!! wahoo!! </p> + and also everyone do ur taxes!!! we are doing ours!!</p> +polish and playin</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + hello everyone im doing my homework roght before class starts once again</p> + this week was gettin things sorted out with dave again, i polished and FINISHED the puece of work i was on last week, i will call that a W and now i am onto fixins and shit!! work goin good and today i woke up at damn 6am, real hustlin hours</p> +Sleep deprived on a Friday Night (Portal Stuff though, Yeay!)</h1> +by Shingi✨</em> </p> + It's already Friday? Again??? Sometimes i feel like time was designed just so that people can constantly be in a state of freaking out when it comes to deadlines.</p> + On that note, this week is probably what i would call the calm before the storm: where everyone has been in their own little bubble working away on this and that in preparation for the final stretch. Although my own week productivity wise actually started late due to holidays and let's just say an incident with some "exotic food" that ended with me fighting for my life in the bathroom...don't worry, i'm still going to eat whatever weird dishes i see lol</p> + That said, catching up on work using the remainder of the week i had on some Auth stuff i've been cooking and the general fixes and bugs for the system has left me sleep deprived AF. I'm actually not sure whether i'm actually typing this or dreaming that i'm working so let me cut this post short (with info and probably the actual soft launch details of the Portal next week?)</p> + But before i go, enjoy some screenshots of the Portal. And for the Backer i picked to show off what the Info and Rewards looks like, you're a madlad for having 9 different FULL COMBO MEAL add-ons! Salute on that one!</p> + </p> + </p> + </p> +Senpai in the featureless black void, what will he say</h1> +by Eric</em> </p> + </p> + The last week of March was really productive, but I don't know how to feel about this week. I've been trying to bring Week 6 up to snuff, which means reworking the dialogue system, and getting it to a place where I'm happy has been a slog. I was having various issues getting the cutscenes to display the way I wanted, and I ended up rewriting a big chunk of it. I simultaneously feel like I got a lot done and not a lot done at the same time. I know the work to make this code nice will make things easier to maintain in the long run, and that the modders will be happy to have this in place, but I just want to get it done so I can go back to fixing other stuff.</p> +A new version of Haxe came out with a bunch of new features in it, and that's really fun. I really like safe navigation and null coalescing, it will make the code for handling json SO much cleaner. Shameless plug, if you are a programmer, check out my personal blog post</a> about it.</p> + contractor rush</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + some of da contractors been finishing they programmin work.... so i been on and off trying to get their stuff sorted out!!!! nothin too glamourous just showbiz baby!!! im scared of paperwork!!!</p> + </p> + closing thoghts for the week</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + closing thoughts hermmmm.... +lil bit of light week, dave was planning on heading back to philly but he is still in canada!!!! that mfer!!! but people like kawa have been on the grind this week as always. it is very relieving to be able to take a breather but still have things moving forward on the game!! </p> + SONG OF THE WEEK: DO YOUR TAXES EDITION + + </iframe> +</div></p> + WEEK OF 2023/04/07: GOOD FRIDAY 2023-04-08T00:00:00+00:00 hello everyone... welcome to the funkin blog for..... Friday!!! Actually posted on a damn friday!!! Yeehaw!!! Good handful of blogs... mostly written by me!!! bwahahah!!</p> +</span>fnf kickstarter / rewards roadmap</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + back in 2021 I drafted up (and pretty much completed) a cute little trello page for all the FNF Kickstarter Rewards / Survey progress</p> + it's easy to post updates to keep people informed, but as well as that it's also good to have a CENTRAL place where people can reference to each other, and point towards, as well as for US to reference and point towards!!!!</p> + it's updated as of now, and alongside working on general updates and kickstarter things, we will keep this up to date as well and make sure to reference this in newsposts when we can!!!</p> + the reason I didn't mention it before? i simply forgot!!! I whipped it up closer to the end of 2021, and things were getting damn hectic at that time. We were setting up company things, bank accounts, lawyer stuff, and kickstarter fulfillment fell to the wayside a bit unfortunately!</p> + In any case, if you are a Kickstarter backer and want an easy to see visual roadmap of where things are at, take a peak here! There's details with each thing also!!!</p> +Kickstarter Reward / Survey Progress</a></p> + pin progress</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + the pin / poster progress had to be halted for a week or two, but we're back on track now. The recent progress update is that we have "proofs" of the mass manufactured ones I believe!!! Before we've only had essentially "test pressings" type ones, but these ones are getting closer to the mass manufacturing!! </p> + it does feel like damn inches away from being able to ship these and the posters... I do hope soon we are able to also begin shipping of posters which are produced domestically</em>, opposed to the pins which are made in da big overseas factories!!! Hopefully by next progress update there's news on posters and such!!!</p> +pet taxes</h1> +by Kawa</em> </p> + Buttertart (fluffy cat, she/her) and Winston (leggy dog, he/him) say hello from my girlfriend's family's house, even as I'm sneezing all the damn time!!!!</p> + </p> + </p> +the dave and cam toronto report</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + this week me and dave worked on some POLISH things for funzies, getting closer to the tail end of his visit to Canada, we are trying to get nice little routine together and working same times and whatnot. Not to sell him out too much, but he don't wake up til like 5PM! Bwah!!! That's okay though it gives me a bit of time in the afternoon to do lil errands and take time to MYSELF and whatnot. It's nice!!! </p> + Making progress on things all the time, what we worked on this week was a bit of implementing things, and trying to get consistent work out of ourselves, and always on the grind to optimize our workflows and how we work. Lately I've been reading the book "Atomic Habits". There's a lotta self help books that either state the obvious, or give you some pseado bullshit that you don't care about or doesn't apply to you. So far this book is decent and good I will say!!! It's all about the tiny 1% improvements to things, that build up into large change as time goes on. And that feels like it's been the case over the past half year I'd say. Feels like the way we work slowly gets shifted via small changes, but comparing our work input/output from now vs. 6 months ago? Feels like different world! When I say WE I really do mean the whole crew around us. It's one thing to have talented people working on something, but it's another to be able to FULLY utilize them, and let them reach their potential as well. That's the showbiz with TEAM MANAGEMENT and shiiiiit. COLLABORATION. There's shit that's intuition, and shit that you gotta shove into your brain.</p> + May sound like a broken record, but we really do try to keep an eye on how to improve our own workflows! Reading Atomic Habits is very reassuring and feels like we are on the right path of things. </p> + As me and Dave are together in PERSON, and as we we pretty much the only people we talk to IRL for the past week or so, we've gotten our brains together on many topics especially relating to FNF and shiiiiit. It might not sound too meaningful, but making sure everyone is on the same damn page is VERY worthwhile. Often when you are working with friends it can come naturally, but as more complexities come into play, people start to see things differently, and if those things aren't kept in check, things get mismanaged and disorganized!!</p> +the blog is for the team</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + one of the thing with this blog is that IDEALLY there should be a wide variety of authorship going on in these blogs. Every once in a while Kawa or Eric or Shingi will post a blog about what they've been up to... but i want MORE.... I PERSONALLY want to see what their thoughts and opinions of their week of work, as well as just what topics interest them to write about. The first aspect of that is to have blogs be easily accessible to write which I think is checkmark emoji ✅</p> + Another piece (which falls on me) is to get blogs posted consistently. It might be unpleasant to write a blog, only for it to be delayed for the planned weekly blog post!!! People like instant gratification!!! So getting blogs for the week out and released ON TIME I think is where I come into play. HOWEVER I think to kill two birds one stone, I think making it easy enough for ANYONE on the crew to essentially take the RESPONSIBILITY of the weekly blog. Maybe next week it can be Dave's turn to wrangle up everyone's posts! Maybe the week after, Eric can! And then each of them go through the PUBLISHING STEPS. In which case, I also need to make the PUBLISHING STEPS as easy and accessible as possible. Right now the workflow is: </p> + +People write their blogs</li> + If they don't, I give a bit of a rollcall for blogs, IF anyone wants to write them</li> + On Friday, I get them all posted to the "queue" which is basically spitting the selected blogs from our discord channel into github via a discord bot (shoutouts discordeno)</li> + Close the github issues, so that it gets put into the ACTUAL queue.</li> +When the blog is ready, run the github action to post the blog!!!</li> +</ul> +It's a bit more fussy and complicated than that, such as writing the BASE post / intro to the blog. I need to get things like that sorted. </p> + In any case, I DO want EVERYONE on the team to write blogs, and it takes more than just willpower and team spirit</em> to get people to do it. Can't shove a square peg into a round hole! I think we can get there though. If you are on the team reading this.... I look forward to your future blog posts!!!</p> +Phantom Says: Chiggin Newdle Shoop... sluuuuuurrrrrppppp</h1> +by Phantom Arcade</em> </p> +</a></p> + Hello, one and all! Each and everyone of you, yup, even you!</p> + It's hard to believe my time in Canada is almost over, though that's probably from how it's been broken up. Between visiting San Fran and then this past week, I suppose the time skip feeling makes sense. This past week was the most unfun, the most dreadful... bed ridden sick as fuck.</p> + An unfortunate risk travelling a bunch in densely populated spots; dirty nasty stupid ass sickness stuck it's claws in my body and ravaged my anus. Basically, it sucked. It was one of those good ol' fashion classic sicknesses. Just pure agony, waking up for medicine only, and back to sleep. No games, no movies. Just a haze of pain and sleep. Been a damn minute since I been through that typa deal, a sobering refresher lol. Tho, sarcasm aside, I suppose it's not the worst price to pay for having had a very nice and blessed trip seeing so many Newgrounders.</p> + That being said, unfortunately it's really accelerated Toronto trip since it pretty much straight up deleted a full week of life. I'm not too happy about how it's messed up me n Cam's flow of sleep times, and general focus honestly, but even if this trip serves as setting a foundation for understanding Toronto rather than being a hardcore grind... I can accept that.</p> + All n all, I think in general traveling is just good for the brain, no two ways about it. Traveling pulls you away from your usual routines, and especially if you're staying with a friend, you get to live in the shoes of someone else. Honestly, even with the money to technically facilitate nicer traveling, I've still been opting to just stay with pals, no matter how cramped it is or how much agency it deprives me. One on hand, I'm too lazy to book hotels and figure out transportation, and on the other hand it really is just good to have that closeness to people. You really get to live when you have no option but to just BE with someone, have them show you around, travel w em. Almost form a small temporary new life just planning your days around what you and your host will do together. It can really open up new ways of looking at a lot of things you've probably never thought of.</p> + I always really loathe having to travel, and usually put it off as much as I can... but when I finally bite the bullet (or am straight up forced lol) I always am super thankful, and usually don't want the trips to end. I'd really recommend to any artists reading this, especially if you're 19 or 20, try gathering up juuuuuust enough cash to visit a good friend you trust and see a new city. Rough it, spend frugally and enjoy the city together, or wilderness! Whereever! </p> + The other fun part of travelling: limited games. It's a good opportunity to focus on select titles! Teeheehee.... This trip, what's the focus been? A last minute e-shop grab: Pushmo! Though I played Stretchmo years ago when it was new unaware it was the last in the trilogy, I'm returning to the origins now to complete Pushmo. And honestly, it's crazy how far the mechanics advanced between games. But, just as I felt like Pushmo was too simple, the late game has really been fucking my ass. By the veeeeeery end, you begin to miss the mid-challenge puzzles. The very very end game Pushmo puzzles are a good insight into how far you can push a mechanic in a game, they're fucking devious... one puzzle can take an hour or more if you get stuck... and the solutions sometimes come from an hour of pulling your hair out and moving a piece into a spot you only accidentally tried after nearly slamming the 3DS against the wall...</p> + Though maybe playing that after work when Cam's asleep is contributing to mishmash work hours.... yaarrrhhggg!! +-Dave</p> + P.S. THE MARIO MOVIE FUCKING ROCKS!!!</p> + closin thots fo week</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + cute lil closing thoughts for the week.. hrm hummm.... i am glad this is finally being posted on a friday again... i don't want to jinx it bwah hahah!!! it's about 11PM friday night and me and dave are just chippin away at workin and last minute blogging!! looking forward to next week where we 100% will post exactly on friday right guys!</p> + SONG OF THE WEEK + + </iframe> +</div></p> + WEEK OF 2023/03/27: VITAMIN D EDITION 2023-03-30T00:00:00+00:00 HELLO FUNKER FREAKERS!!!</p> + As I am writing this late post on monday night west coast NA time.... me and dave are waiting for our flight back to canada!!! it was rainy for the for the first few days of GDC, with a pretty nasty storm on the way home, but afterwards it was the california i damn expected to see, nice sunny days wahoo!!! I live in a basement apartment in toronto, so i get very little sunlight unless I'm heading out to work out of the local Toronto Public LIbraries... it can be rough out here!!! Gotta eat up my vitamin Ds like candy when I'm in canada!!! The sun is nice and is very rejuvenating... anyways here is the post!!!</p> +</span> + Of Backend codes, balancing loads and creative modes</h1> +by Shingi✨</em> </p> + Hi hi everyone! It's ya anxiety riddled gremlin Shingi, barely surviving to write this update.</p> + This past week or so has been like challenging one Superboss after another for me personally, although I did manage to wrangle it towards the end and actually did a couple of productive things towards the Backend!</p> + The Big One: Status of shipping on the Music tiers</strong> should be more or less up and running by the time you might be reading this, so you'll get to spend less time bothering all of us and NeedleJuice records on where your stuff's at! +Other tiers are still in the pipeline pending more collaboration with the funky suppliers we're working with, but those should be on the system sooner rather than later.</p> + Other stuffs: the Backer portal will pretty much move from Dev</strong> to Testing</strong> on the first week of April, and once I manage to polish the system off a lil bit more and make it public we'll be going live!</strong> +Hopefully it won't be like the launch of every MMO ever! So if you see an email from Funkin Kickstarter</strong> in the near future, that's probably your invite to access da Portal.</p> + March and April sure seem like they're going to be a busy period for the whole team, whew! Hopefully you'll enjoy what we're cooking.</p> + This week has tuckered me out so no crazy rants from me (even though I want to), but I'll totally say this one thing I probs will expand on in the future: Make stuff and publish it!</strong> Even if you think you're young or nobody will like your stuff it's even more important!!! Like I know Ninjamuffin and PhantomArcade shill Newgrounds a lot but it's totally for a reason! Whether Mods, music, art, writing, YouTube videos or even posting kawaii edits of you spinning a pen - that's shit's powerful and you never know when or how it will open doors for you.</p> + Okay, rant over. I need to sleep and regain enough energy to freak out and stress all day. +Peace out!</p> + gdc lil recap stuff</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + this week me and dave and kawa went to game developers conference and it was pretty fun wahoo!</p> + the rundown was we have some new biz people we r gonna be workin with, so figured itd be nice to see em in person! as well as seeing kawa in person and some of the other people we work with!! i find it very enriching to meet people and talk to them in real life. as time goes on i feel im becoming less of a dweeb that can barely talk to someone who can at least hold a conversation…. big moves!!!</p> + my official gdc rankings +kawa: shorter in person than I though +our lawyer man: longer hair than I thought and also taller than I thought +da biz people we are working with: very blessed and very nice.... cute lil story, in jest I said "we are scared of people" and very genuinely and concerned one of them asked me what made me so scared, like a damn mother would. God bless their souls, very much looking forward to working with them :3 +distance from san jose to san fran: longer than I thought. we was drivin 1+hr there and back every damn day... +puffballs united: met that mf and he got the jokes!!! he's going places!!!</p> + overall recap is that GDC was success, part work, and part refreshing break a bit. the vitamin D will very much help as me and dave go back to my canadian dungeon and work away on the game for the next few weeks, before he goes back to philly!!!</p> + the other extras of the week</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + when the blog is late from friday, instead of working on it through the weekend, I try to wait til monday when we have our weekly meetings, so that I can try to catch up on other peoples happenins!!! I will post a few of em here!!!</p> + Secret contractor</h3> +One of our contractors that are working on part of the game is pretty much done their work, and has a few days left of their contract!!! Can't say what exactly they worked on, but my hint is that it's one of the KS stretch goals!!!</del></p> + +correction: what they worked on was a very core game feature... but NOT a stretch goal per se... i was mistaken and thought it was something on that initial stretch goals list!! once it's revealed maybe you all will understand how I got myself confused heheh</p> +</blockquote> + What they've done has been mostly prototyping phase and whatnot, but we more or less have working proof of concept for ourselves, and they did pretty damn good work!!! They have been very pleasant to work with, and I will definitely find more contract work with em for Funkin stuff... bwahahaha!!!</p> + Eric stuff</h3> +Maybe Eric can elaborate a bit more on bug fixings and whatnot he did... but that's mostly what he's been up to in the past week!!! Things like the story mode menu and generally playing through story mode has been busted up, so I think he's been cleanin up that fuss!!! It's lookin good heheh!!!</p> + youtube testing thingie</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + this is merely a funny test to see if the youtube embed stuff works nicely... lol!</p> + here is stickerbush symphony! + + </iframe> +</div></p> +this is a nice lil feature that makes it easier to link youtube videos... it automatically gets the youtube link via regex and then converts it to the proper shortcode type shit all ez ez, just a blog update!!!</p> + should make it easier / more pleasant to write / update blogs and stuff!!!</p> + closin thoughts fo tha week</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + closing thoughts for the week is that blog stuff been a bit back in my mind for funzies, each week that goes by where I miss our little arbitrary "friday deadline" makes my bones ache and quake!!! so it's feeling more and more pleasant to get all the stuff figured out where it's easier to make these blogs now!!!</p> + SONG FOR THE WEEK + + </iframe> +</div></p> + WEEK of 2023/03/20: SPRINGTIME 2023-03-21T00:00:00+00:00 the wip title for this post was "basically springtime" but those of you who noticed.... we missed a blog post or two!! Apologies for that, things have just been a bit hectic for past few weeks!!! Blogs have been written in the weeks.... just haven't gotten to posting or anything like that.... I need to super streamline the blog posting process.... Right now there's a lotta manual busywork I gotta do whenever a blog gets posted... so making it so that I can just post everyones blogs...dats da dream... anyways... here's all the blogs you fools!!!</p> +</span> +I keep the lights on</h1> +by Kawa</em> </p> +I support a Minneapolis-based indie record label, called Doomtree Records. Primarily, this means that if there's a Dessa show where I am, I move heaven and earth to go - but I also toss a few bucks to its Patreon</a> every month. This means that I have a shirt with the phrase "I keep the lights on at Doomtree Records" on it.</p> + I tell y'all this because it feels like my role at Funkin' is also about keeping the lights on. There's a weirdly large amount of just...stuff, that goes into running a business, into treating your collaborators right. A lot of bureaucracy as I alluded to with last week's BDG video, but also just...getting in touch with people, individually. Checking they're okay, supporting them, clearing the pathway for them to get the nonsense out of the way and do more of what they're best at and love. </p> + Like electricity and Internet access, utilities that you don't necessarily think about until they're gone - I want to enable</em> the rest of the crew, on a person by person level. And sometimes that means hounding someone to fill out a form - and sometimes that means having a heart to heart about how we show up for each other and support each other's badass art.</p> + funkin in toronto</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + this week PhantomArcade is visiting me in Toronto! After me making the trip to Philly a few times now, it's his turn to hop on plane so that we can physically co-work together and beat each other when we slack. This week was a smidge on the chill side as we get ourselves settled and I show him around the city a bit, but there's always damn good progress that gets made when we are together. I can't say what exactly we worked on... secret features!!! But I can say that it reminds me that Funkin' is one of my fav games visually and I feel blessed to work on it!! I love adding in all the crazy animated ideas that dave comes up with, and makes the game feel especially closer to a polished state. </p> + and u know i hooked dave up wit da tims on the daily !!!!</p> + Eric's Squashing Bugs!</h1> +by Eric</em> </p> + My current project is doing playthroughs of the whole game and trying to locate bugs. This is sadly really easy to do right now, Story Mode is practically held together with twine and duct tape right now.</p> + I've succeeded in cleaning up a bunch of stuff but I'm dreading the prospect of touching Week 6, I think it legitimately hasn't been looked at in over a year and the dialogs are probably super fucked up.</p> + I swear I'll work on inputs again soon(tm) I want a wide range of people to playtest it before it goes into the final game.</p> + the redacted post</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + a lil handful of the work I've done this week is lil secret teehee for secret features teehee. But I will still run down what I've been up to a bit</p> + first few days of the week was to fix up somethin REDACTED</strong> related for one of our contractors. It was easy quick work so it was nice lil W for the beginning of the week heheh. </p> + Then through the rest of the week was slowly poking around some of the code that Eric wrote related to REDACTED</strong>. He codes in a different way than me, and in general it's the classic thing of code being easier to write than it is to read. But anyways, I was parsing all the code into my brain to get to working on it and adding small lil (but essential) feature to it. I'm almost done that aspect, just need to finish up REDACTED</strong> part of it!</p> + Since it's in my brain, once I end up doing more feature work on it, should be a bit easier for me to add and change things how I please, as well as have better understanding of how Eric codes heheh</p> + funkin in san fran</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + just as we get ourselves settled in toronto... me, dave, and kawa are heading over to san fran for GDC.... the punk days are over when me and dave would rebel against GDC and despise anyone who would even think of going.... those days are long gone.... life is different now.... BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT I will say I'm at least lookin forward to it. All that talk about working with dave and how enriching it can be will apply to kawa too!!! it's a good excuse to go over and meet kawa!!! and as we find ourselves getting more legit™️</em> with our work, we are finding more and more people in the industry</em> who go to these sorts of events. and as I personally become less and less of an anti-social basement dweller and finding myself becoming at least somewhat of a more normal</em> human... I think I appreciate talking to people more :3 I think the magic that you get from talking to like minded people ONLINE can be even more powerful when it is transferred to REAL LIFE!!! So I am very optimistic about my first time going... even our damn lawyers are going!!! lol!!!</p> + gdc plans we keepin a bit lowkey, nothin to big and dazzling but if ur at the event and happen to see me and/or dave say hi!!!!</p> + Phantom Says: It's Fucking Cold in Canada!</h1> +by Phantom Arcade</em> </p> + </p> + Hello all u guys, been a minute, huh?</p> + This week, I'm writing this update from Ninjamuffin's couch here in Canada! The time finally came to return the favor of Cam visiting, which meant for me to roll on up to Toronto and jam out some work. Though it's mostly been a week of settling in, we've been off to a good start of diving into what needs to be done.</p> + It's pretty odd being outside the US for the first time ever, but it's been super nice already. The vibe is like if Philly was less harsh, essentially. Somehow, everything feels a bit relaxed on these streets. Maybe it's all the weed smoked out in the open? Who knows, but as we walk around with the CN Tower always partially in view in someway like the fucking Erdtree, it's a fun way to turn even more work into more of an adventure. </p> + I suppose to sum up what the week's worth of work has entailed, it's been a matter of oversight on various aspects, even IRL. Being able to work with Cam and instruct what I need in-person is always much easier than over the internet. I guess right now for art, I'm mostly handling... how to say it.... hmmm... well, special</em> art this week. And probably a few more weeks beyond his, lol. I just can't bring myself to reveal any secrets!</p> + That being said, one thing in Toronto is there's quite a few retro game shops, and they all seem to carry cheap second hand Nintendo Power issues. It's been pretty exciting to read the upcoming game previews for games I remember beating, as well as seeing the layouts using special art from the production teams. Reading those makes me want to draw even MORE! I really hope eventually we have a nice huge stockpile of art that if we ever get a cool magazine feature, or make our own, that we can have a really sick display of art that excites fans.</p> + Honestly, even seeing famous pieces of art kinda re-contextualized into the pop-art way the magazine organizes the pages gives art I've seen a billion times a fresh spin that feels so juicy. It's hard to describe, but it's a very fun and good feeling to see it. Being steeped in that kind of graphic design, while also being in the graffiti heavy Toronto definitely is exactly a big part of what I want FNF to feel like. </p> + Basically, it's good to be here in Toronto; Tim Hortons for breakfast every day, wouldn't have it any other way.</p> + Til next time, cock, balls, penis.... and cum! +-PhantomArcade</p> + closing thots for the wek!!</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> + as me and dave are doing last minute prep for a lil flight... i am doing last minute to finish this blog!!! I really do hope we are able to get these blogs out on a more consistent basis!!! we were on a streak for a while, but then things started piling up and I never fixed em woops!!! I will try to get em sorted!!! things like whenever I post a blog, I'd have to format a lotta things, and redo some dates, etc. etc. </p> + SONGS OF THE WEEK (MULTIPLE!!!): </p> + https://youtu.be/H7HmzwI67ec +https://youtu.be/dTVebUPyQqg +https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TeMpnr3F8k</p> + WEEK OF 2023/03/06: FONKING... 2023-03-06T00:00:00+00:00 ANOTHER WEEK ANOTHER SLIGHTLY LATE BLOG POST!!!</p> + apologies.... was partly waiting for some things on Friday, but then the weekend rolled around, and figured I'd just wait til Monday!!!</p> + This week has a nice handful of mini contributions from people here about what they've been up to, and as always, how progress in general has been going with the game!!!</p> +</span> + POSTERS INCOMING SOON</h1> +by ninjamuffin99</em> </p> + A few days ago, the shipment of POSTERS arrived! As mentioned in last week's post, it's a small batch, but we should be able to get started with shipping posters out to people soon, along with having people be able to update their addresses and all that!!</p> + Within the next week or two, posters shipments should start coming out and being sent to people!! Similar with the physical OST stuff (and pretty much all other rewards) to get through EVERY reward to be fully shipped, it will take time!! It's a whole lotta damn orders!!!</p> +the testing shenanigans</h1> +by ninjamuffin99</em> </p> + over the past while, I like to hope we've been a lot more mindful of our WORKFLOWS. A major aspect that we've been neglecting a biiiiiiit has been TESTING the game. While we feel like there's a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel on the work we are doing, it's ALWAYS good to be constantly testing with not just yourself, but with OTHERS especially if they're on the team with you.</p> + For a long while, it was really just me and Eric, the two programmers, alongside PhantomArcade, who would be testing the game and playing around with builds. Even with JUST that, things caused snafus!!!! Having more than one programmer working in a codebase requires a LOT more coordination. They both need to be able to understand each other, and understand what the goal of the project and code is. Know where to put complexity, and where to simplify shit. Basically, there have been a good handful of times when either me or Eric do something to code, and it busts up for the other!!! </p> +plural programmers, singular source code</h2> +As what you can call the "lead programmer" I do let this fall into my territory of responsibility. I've never had a full software job or anything like that, I've only ever made small games where I was pretty much the sole programmer! I've always been cautious and a bit wary of working with other programmers. The classic saying of "what one programmer can do in one month, two programmers will do in two months." or someshit like that. Basically, adding more people onto code doesn't exactly means things get done faster!!! One thing however that I always feel haunted by is the bit of the cautionary tale of Yandere Simulator. This isn't hate post or anything lol, I really have nothing against him or his game. BUT when I was a teenager when he got a deal of sort with the publisher TinyBuild, where one part of the deal was to get a programmer to help him rewrite the codebase. But that lead to development issues it seemed, and they went their separate ways. ALSO DISCLAIMER, MAYBE THAT STORY IS ALL BULLSHIT LOLOL but anyways I always looked at it as a bit of a cautionary tale. Software is very delicate, and more cooks in the kitchen doesn't always lead to the best stew. However, after spending a lot of time on Newgrounds and working with people like artists, musicians, animators, AND on the rare occasion... another programmer... I've learned that collaboration IS a skill, and of course, collaboration between PROGRAMMERS is a skill as well (as seen by like... every major tech company obviously working decently well with more than one coder, lol).</p> + So I think working with another programmer and getting through some of the growing pains will be good for not just the game, but me and Eric too. To get back on track with the point of this all, we are slowly making workflow strides together. Learning how to work WITH each other. One thing we've been doing (that really, we shoulda been doing FULLY from the start) is having the main github branch be protected, and having each others work need to be approved by each other. Working just 1:1 with another programmer it's nice, we both need each other and work closer with code that way, or I at least hope so! This week we merely started it though, the plan could be a dud, but I think it's always worth keeping an eye on these things, and trying out different strategies of like.... development workflows and shiiiiit. Code gotta be clean!!!</p> + testing pipelines</h2> +this ones a bit less verbose than the previous part of testing workflow. To get test builds for the game, we use Github Actions to compile the game, and spit it out to private itch page. That was busted for a while tho!!! I did some research into lix, but it ended up bein a dud, so I just fixed the busted shit (and by that i mean a new haxelib version came out that fixed my issue, lol) SO now we have auto builds again yahoo!!!! also github gave us beta for the 64bit action runners and god damn those r fast.... lol</p> + Here's Eric's Update!</h1> +by Eric</em> </p> + I haven't posted an update in a while! Cam got into a lot of the stuff I was going to say, but I do feel like we work well together, especially when we divide up tasks based on our skill sets (for instance, Cam is good at getting features off the ground quickly, while I tend to be more interested in architecting systems and thinking through what may need to be added in the long-term).</p> + Most of what I've been doing in the past couple weeks is fixing bugs related to the game itself, as well as implementing stuff for cutscene and animation playback. We've got a lot of spicy stuff coming that would melt your computer if we tried to play them as a frame-by-frame spritesheet, so using a combination of videos and piecewise texture atlases is the solution to that. Further changes to how assets get loaded, cached, and unloaded will be needed too. Did you know that the web build of the game downloads EVERY character sprite before loading any song?</p> + This week in particular has been heavily focused on a pet project of mine. I've been keeping it fairly secret since I started, but it's been going through months of development on-and-off and I'm really proud of how far it's come. Let's just say that a particular subset of the FNF community that has been starving for a while will be absolutely FEASTING after the update.</p> + Input survey has been delayed because of the above work, but I'll be certain to get it out to people fairly soon.</p> + Also since Shinji went on a rant about games here's my rant I heard Bloodborne was really good and I was like "I'm gonna go buy it and try it out" but then I learned it was one of those dumb shit console exclusives that I can't play and now I'm upset</p> +About Changing Name in Credits</h1> +by Shingi</em> </p> + Yes - you will be able to change your credits once the new Backer Portal is done. (ETA for that is roughly a month from now)</p> + In less interesting news, i just started Stardew Valley after being a long time fan of Harvest Moon (Friends of Mineral Town on the GBA to be more specific). Is it just me or do the newer HM/Story of Season titles not feel as interesting to play as that one? I think i might end up ranting about games one of these posts...</p> +bdg is my best friend, reply if bdg is your best friend too</h1> +by Kawa</em> </p> + I have done many things recently, most of which are secrets or too boring to share. I did, however, make PhantomArcade watch this Brian David Gilbert video.</p> + + </iframe> +</div> +As far as my Thoughts About Video Games, either you want all</em> of my opinions about Like a Dragon: Ishin</em> and thus get stuck in a very long ramble, or you don't. Maybe next week, or if the people demand they want my feelings about "what if Yakuza, but Victorian-ish samurai with guns?"</p> +Phantom Says: Testing, Testing, 1 - 2 - 3</h1> +by Phantom Arcade</em> </p> +</a></p> + Hello, one and all! Phantom Arcade here, for another Friday update. (I'm writing this at like 11:59pm on Friday night... it counts!)</p> + I'll keep this one relatively short, so here we go! As I even write this at this very moment, Eric is breathing heavily into his mic, not realizing how close to his face it is, and how hard he breathes when flustered trying to solve a bug. Each breath is the breath of a man knee deep in hard work, I won't lie, I'm charmed. This week I wasn't even really drawing so much as I've been on a testing binge with some changes to the game's underlying foundations. One of the fun things about being a director is you get to visualize what you want and work with a team to bring it to fruition, wahoo! One of the bad things? Well, if things aren't right, you need to be on top of it to make sure it's all working as intended. When it comes to how the actual game plays and presents, if anything is wrong in that department, I take it as a personal failure.</p> + Now that being said, if there's any issues it's often not really a matter of fault. No one's a mind reader, so it's just a process to make sure the things you build are implemented right. And we're not a large enough team to have a planner who's drafting down the ideas for a programmer, it's a matter of me sitting down one of one with everyone who's needed. This is usually done at the start of an idea, then people go and create that work with pretty much full autonomy, and then it's back to me to make sure it passes what's needed, and then worked into the game itself. So in instances like now, where grand changes have been made as we beef up to a stronger larger game, it means moooooore testing! But everyone on this team is a charmer, so these late night cram sessions are always chill.</p> + That aside, all my creative work this week has been on the graphic design side, and I've had fun noodling around with fun new designs and banners that'll christen the return of Funkin, so while I'm excited to be back to drawing, this week of boots on the ground w the team definitely is satisfying seeing in-game</em> progress move by leaps n bounds.</p> + But importantly, while I haven't had much time for video games due to these things lately.... hah... well</em>....</p> + Demon Slayer season 3 premiered in America today, *IN THEATERS!!!</strong> </p> + They showed off the final 2 episodes of season 2, the jaw dropping conclusion to tale of the Oiran, and then we got to see episode 1 of season 3... and wow! It was just as amazing as it was when I saw it during it's initial airing, maybe even better! The theater added so much to it all, and they had the sound in that bitch cranked up to fucking 11, some of that shit was makin me go deaf, but it was soooooooo juicy and satisfying. Season 3 seems to be off to a seriously crazy start, and having a full theater to hear and be apart of the reactions with, made it such a blast. It was just what I needed after a long week, and it helped get my mind off how sad I am we won't get a Puss N Boots Last Wish sequel for years to come... Oh lord, the theater's really had some good shit lately, not long ago Shin Ultraman was playing, and right before that was Shin Evangelion... what a time to be alive! In my greatest hopes and prayers, just like Demon Slayer coming back fills me with whimsy, I hope Funkin's return makes all fans eyes glow and shoot loads 10 miles high. That's my goal every time I sit down to work!</p> + So much for keepin it short, lol. Enjoy the weekend! +-PhantomArcade</p> + closing thots fo the week</h1> +by ninjamuffin99</em> </p> + does feel like we are slowly and slowly making progress towards an end goal of not only getting a new lil update out, but also feels like we can somewhat see our path forward on working on the FULL GAME from here. Feels like our processes are getting smoothed out and all that. Only has taken a few years... but not bad for our first ambitious commercial game that most of us have worked on!!! We are really appreciative of the fact we have the chance to make this game, not just for THE PEOPLE but for OURSELVES. This is a game that we do want to work on, with people that we really enjoy working with, and doing it generally HOW we want to do it. The full independent dream... Does feel like despite the stumbling of working ourselves to this point, we are grateful to be able to do this for everyone. I look forward to not just the game coming out and being done, but also where I will be personally at that point in time. The experience and know how we all will get by the time that happens.... It's a lot to look forward to!!! </p> + SONG OF THE WEEK (chosen by Shingi)</p> + + </iframe> +</div> WEEK OF 2023/02/27: It's Friday Somewhere Edition 2023-02-27T00:00:00+00:00 HELLO EVERYONE welcome back to the WEEKLY FRIDAY NIGHT FREAKING blog web channel.... i hope everyone's friday is going well heheh</p> + this week is a bit light on person by person blogs! But I'll try my best to round up what everyone's been up to this week!</p> +</span> + music mischief</h1> +by ninjamuffin99</em> </p> + one of the tasks that producer kawa has been takin care of has been helping with organization of the CONTRACT musicians we have. We r gonna have a lotta dang music... and sorting it out requires workin with a small handful of lil additional musicians to help out with remixes, vocals, etc. the processes are slowly smoothing themselves out, with kawa, and our other lil helpers for management on that side of things!!! getting contracts, payments, and sorta an "approval" process for ourselves is all going pretty good it seems!!!</p> +kickstarter backend shenanigans</h1> +by ninjamuffin99</em> </p> + our contractor SHINGI has been in the process of working with some of our nice lil fulfillment homies (Needlejuice for physical OST, Coby Win for Posters/Pins, and soon Sharkrobot) to flesh out more of the backend work needed for THEM to start poking around and using the backend. Things like figuring out API keys so that eventually USERS would be able to log into OUR backend to see things like shipment progress and all that!!! And then along with that, working and sorting out things like proper formatting, so it could essentially work the other way around, on our fulfillment homies backends, THEY can get all the info they need as well. I believe once it's alllll fleshed out for the FULFILLMENT side of things, we should be able to start work on the USER side of things, and even slowly start tossing tests to people to try out and whatnot!!! It's coming along very nicely!!! Lov dat shingi!!!!!</p> +KICKSTARTER POSTERS INCOMING</h1> +by ninjamuffin99</em> </p> + quick lil one, posters and pins are still in the manufacturing process!!!</p> +Posters</h2> +A shipment of POSTERS should arrive sometime this week, Monday at the EARLIEST, and then they would be ready to pack up and start shipping to backers who have posters as a reward or addon!!! </p> + Pins + Posters</h2> +People who have posters AND a pin would have to wait until pin manufacturing is done however, which will be in mid-March for the first batch, then they'll go through QC, and then shipped to America to be distributed to all the backers!!! </p> + LIL Kickstarter SHIRT UPDATE</h2> +Forgot to make an update about shirts one of the previous blog posts when I talked about Kickstarter, but those people should get their "surveys" essentially once we have our Kickstarter backend all sorted out for ourselves, so that backers can change or modify their reward info! So within about a month or two at the LATEST before that aspect is ready! And then the manufacturing turnaround is a few weeks I believe. Then it'd be the distribution and all daaaaaaat showbiz</p> + blogs i like and are inspirations for funkblog</h1> +by ninjamuffin99</em> </p> + despite everyone shouting at us for BETTER COMMUNICATION and whatnot, I will be a punk and say the inspiration behind the blog is.... NOT that LOL!!! </p> + I lov video games and readin about stuff, i love the people who work on games to talk about how their brain works, and what they work on, what they like, what their IDEAS are, all that shit</p> + and I like writing about stuff. the funkin kickstarter page updates have pretty damn extensive updates about merch and where things are at, but it being on kickstarter is a bit restricting. most people didnt even read it, and then would shout at us for not updating them on progress!!!</p> + anyways my baby bitch ranting aside, imma just share a few nice blogs that I love that I will always read away at</p> +Factorio Friday Facts</h2> +factorio.com/blog/</a></p> + I fukin love Factorio. I am a programmer it is in my blood to be a factorio freak. Through the development of Factorio, they've written weekly blogposts that would come out on FRIDAY (remind u of anyone teehee), and different members of the development team would write various things about their early access game, FACTORIO. Anything from programming anecdotes, to art style thoughts, or even how their merch was going! At the end of each post, they highlight a community post of the week! I think that's cute</p> + one of my favorite posts: </p> + factorio.com/blog/post/fff-356</a></p> + Dolphin Emulator Blog</h2> +dolphin-emu.org/blog</a></p> + Dolphin emulator is one of da best pieces of software ever made.... and I love reading and hearing about the development of it, even if I understand only 5% of how all the crazy graphics programming and debugging works!!! I think anyone who writes technical blogs should be keeping an eye on it, as well as anyone who just has a general interest in how software works!</p> + S&Box</h2> +sbox.facepunch.com/news</a></p> + From the studio that brought you RUST (the game, not the lang!) and GARRY'S MOD, Facepunch studios also has a nice little devlog that I like to poke through and keep an eye on, especially since I'm very much anticipating S&box!!! It's another devlog that has the concept of having multiple different authors aggregated into one monthly-ish post, so it's a bit of an inspiration of the FUNK BLOG too. Some of the blogs just have someone writing a quick little twitter post-esque sentence about what they've been up to, and I think that is very much inspiration with FunkBLOG</p> + Joel On Software</h2> +joelonsoftware.com</a></p> + ex-Microsoft programmer, co-founder of Stack Overflow, Joel Spolsky has a pretty damn essential series of blogs from 2000 up until today. If you are a software developer of some kind, take a poke through his posts. On the homepage he has a list of his Top 10 posts, and other various recommendations from himself, I would recommend starting there!!</p> + Discord Engineering Blog</h2> +discord.com/category/engineering</a></p> + Discord's ENGINEERING and DESIGN blog! You probably have Discord open right now. You probably have some unread notifications on your phone. You are probably in servers that you don't check. How does all that stuff damn work? With PROGRAMMING! That shit is magic.... There's something very fascinating to learn the in's and out's of what is at this point, ESSENTIAL EVERY DAY SOFTWARE. It's like learning how cotton is spun. It makes you think "wait... there's a LOT of effort that goes into this shit". Say what you want about Discord and how it functions, I think it functions pretty damn good!</p> + Their blog has a good handful of posts about Go, Elixir, and Rust programming languages, those are especially the ones I like to read about heheh. I have always been a Haxe mfer, but as the years go by I find myself more and more curious with the OTHER SIDE of programming / software development. </p> + Phantom Says: Life When Up is Down and Left is Right</h1> +by phantomarcade</em> </p> +</a></p> + Hello goons, what's cookin. </p> + For this week, the largest uphill battle has been busted sleep and fighting off the agony of a small writer's block. Writing for game story? Nope! That's never tough. Writing for gameplay? Nope, that one's never hard to cook either, only hard to implement!</p> + In particular, this week for me was mostly trying to cook up a special new interface design, that honestly I only just really cracked before writing this post. It's not huge, but there's something extra punishing about taking something small and mundane, and then figuring out how to spice it up to make it.... well, not lame! Funkin borrows a lot of things scene in other games, but I take pride in that I feel like Funkin offers small twists on things just enough to spice it all up. Even if we do take cues from pre-existing media, it's always important to add a small twist you think will elevate something above what you're inspired by. Or even if you can't elevate it, taking it in a slightly different direction.</p> + Don't edge yourself too hard, it's really nothing that crazy, but the small details are important to me all the same. I won't lie that on top of some small management, company biz, a busted sleep schedule, etc, it's not been the most exciting week.</p> + To elaborate on a post from our very own gorgeous Cameron Ninjamuffin, it's been nice having the larger team come together. The pieces are all getting pretty multi-layered, so making sure things don't fall through the cracks has been pretty stressful until recently with more people forming a net. And there's no facet more evident then how the music's coming together. A while while back, I asked Isaac if he'd be able to get started on Erect Mixes while we work on building up the pipelines and company, since Funkin is being made chapter by chapter with only portions in advance, this was the best move to make sure everyone was still on the go. And here we are all this time later, with a NICE selection of music from not just Isaac, but an entire team he gathered to help make it happen.</p> + Now naturally, this would have been a hellscape to navigate without more team members to help organize this all and make sure in terms of legalities and payments it all went smooth. It's all a bit much for a guy who used to just make funny Newgrounds parodies to take in sometimes, but I'm almost surprised how naturally myself and Cam have fallen into the roll. It's sorta draining to be away from drawing when other responsibilities demand my attention, but seeing this larger unit come together to make something so much larger than a 2 minute cartoon... it kinda does feel like an evolution of making the NG collabs with Ivan n Cory... like the next step in scope.</p> + It may not always be moving at lightning speed, but the skills me and Cam are learning definitely are fascinating and I really think will change the trajectory of how we work for the rest of our lives. Provided neither of us kill ourselves, I'm sure the future will hold many exciting possibilities! ❤️</p> + Summary of last week's funkin-resources additions!</h1> +by github-actions[bot]</em> </p> + +PR FunkinCrew/funkin-resources#97, "BSENGINE - ports" by MateuzinhoX02</a> merged at 2023-02-21T20:21:50Z, added: + +1 line: + +BS Engine Mobile</a> - A port of FNF' that work in Android with optimizations. One of the most famous android FNF' engines.</li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + PR FunkinCrew/funkin-resources#93, "Add Meme1079's Psych Engine Wiki" by CaptainBaldi</a> merged at 2023-02-21T20:21:25Z, added: + +1 line: + +Another alternative wiki for Psych Engine</a> - Made by Meme1079</a> and contributors.</li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +</li> + PR FunkinCrew/funkin-resources#87, "grammar mistake numba 2" by Burgerballs</a> merged at 2023-02-21T20:20:56Z, added:</li> +</ul> +closing thots fo tha week</h1> +by ninjamuffin99</em> </p> + cute lil blog posts and decent lil workflow.... i take breaks on weekends, but as monday rolls around I always look forward to seeing the new progress and changes to workflow we make that turn gamework from a chore into a pleasant job where it gets easier and easier to see progress!!!! </p> + ALSO GO PRE ORDER FNF BOYFRIEND NENDO, STILL AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER BAYBEEEE!!!!</p> +goodsmile.info/en/product/13980/Nendoroid+Boyfriend</a></p> + goodsmile.info/en/product/13980/Nendoroid+Boyfriend</a></p> + goodsmile.info/en/product/13980/Nendoroid+Boyfriend</a></p> + ** SONG OF THA WEEK ** (I need to fix this busted ass embed to fill out the page better... lol)</p> + + </iframe> +</div> WEEK OF 2023/02/17: SHOUTOUTS TO GOOD SMILE EDITION 2023-02-17T00:00:00+00:00 HELLO FIRST AND FOREMOST WE HAVE FRIDAY NIGHT FUNKIN' NENDOROID BOYFRIEND FIGURE FOR PRE-ORDER BY GOOD SMILE!!!</p> +</span> +PRE-ORDER ON GOODSMILE WEBSITE</a> +PRE-ORDER ON GOODSMILE WEBSITE</a> +PRE-ORDER ON GOODSMILE WEBSITE</a> +PRE-ORDER ON GOODSMILE WEBSITE</a></p> + dave talks about more of it later in the post go read dat fools post!!!</p> + as well as various mischief, our producer KAWA introduces themselves in the post!!!! go read about em and see how they r helpin funkiiiiin (they meant to post their blog last week but missed it, lol!)</p> + Hello Funkin', this is Kawa</h1> +by kawa-kitsuragi</em> </p> + Hi there! I'm Kawa Teaño, the newest part of the Funkin' crew. I've joined as the producer</strong> of this outfit! </p> +What is production, anyway?</h2> +The thing about games - and especially games as ambitious as Friday Night Funkin' - is that there's a lot</em> of moving pieces at any given moment over the course of its development. </p> + +Is that one feature implemented? +Should we prioritize bugfixing or a new mechanic? +What's the status of that new song, and which of the five saved versions is the most current one? +How about that one animation? </p> +</blockquote> + In smaller projects, smaller teams, it's mostly feasible to have the people that do the work also own this kind of management work - but it's very quickly overwhelming! It's my job to be the central point of knowledge, knowing the status of things</em> and keeping it moving</em> without getting too distracted by any other responsibilities. And on top of that, figuring out how to responsibly manage all of your trust - your money and your expectations! - is part of the work too:</p> + +What's the status on that one piece of merch we promised? +Can we find someone who'll make that thing who's willing to communicate our way? +Where's this one legal contract? </p> +</blockquote> + It might sound boring - and to a lot of other people it maybe is! But I love this kinda thing - getting to touch bits of every part of a game, learn how a bunch of lovely nerdy specialists work, while also making sure it actually exists in the world instead of just half-formed ideas, encouraging the best in everyone - it's extremely my jam. </p> +If you wanna learn more about this role in the industry, here's a community that's mentored me a lot</a> and here's a surprisingly insightful panel from a bunch of production vets</a></p> + Other stuff I've done</h2> +This ain't my first rodeo helping rad people make games happen, though Funkin' is definitely the most ambitious. For the last year and change, I've been helping out at Strange Scaffold</a>, a studio making lots of little indie games across PC and console, including things like Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator</a>, which is as weird a game as it sounds. </p> + I also help make a really cool virtual conference</a> happen, and enable a bunch of weird fake sports nerds to make data crimes</a>. Indeed, for the latter I maintain a chatty, relaxed tool directory</a>, which says a lot about how I do production as a whole! </p> + What all this should tell you is: despite being the most organized nerd in the room, I come by my weirdness honestly</em>.</p> + Get hype for the future of Funkin'</h2> +I'm so excited for y'all to see what we have in store for you! We've got a great update in the oven and merch in store, and overall I've banked a lot on helping make sure y'all get the rad game you all deserve. See you around! </p> + payroll mischief</h1> +by ninjamuffin99</em> </p> + this week i had a bit of a fever for most of it, so sitting down at my computer to code was pretty light until the end of the week (past few days as of writing lol)</p> + SO i decided to spend some time getting my mind sorted with some administration stuff. Getting KAWA on payroll I definitely wanted done this week, since it's about the time when they should get payroll anyways! </p> + payroll for us entails sending EMPLOYMENT OFFER LETTERS and all that to whoever we are hiring, and then once all hands get shook, we harass them for a W4 tax file, and bank info. We then simply toss that to our accountants, and they handle mostly the rest with the payroll processing company! Glamourous! One thing about being a REMOTE-ish company is that you need to register tax bullshit on a PER STATE basis. You have an employee in Nevada? Gotta send some documents to the STATE OF NEVADA and get all those taxes bullshit in order. Got someone in Washington? Gotta go through that process all over again. Most of this is handled by our nice lil accountants though, ur mileage may vary and also THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE OR ACCOUNTING ADVICE OR EVEN A HOW-TO</strong> </p> + BUT ANYWAYS every once in a while, the lawyers will need us to send something back or fill out an extra form, each state has slightly different rules and requirements. </p> + New York state requires you to sign an extra document, but also you need that shit mf NOTARIZED! I never got anything notarized before the fuk! Basically though that just entails hunting down a notary place in ur local area, and payin them some coin to NOTARIZE it and give you an extra stamp of approval. We got the documents on Monday or so, and it took us a day to catch our bearings (even if I had fever!). Had to make an appointment for WEDNESDAY at around noon.... the payroll company processes the weekly payments later in the afternoon the wednesday before the payment... so we really wanted to make it before then so Kawa could be paid this week!!</p> + I woke up relatively early for myself (10AM) and took the classic Tylenol + Ibuprofen combo, and biked to the notary place, since it was mostly downhill to there... and also because I missed the damn bus!!! Anyways to end off this boring ass progress update, got that shit notarized, scanned it in at the local library (who tf owns a scanner themselves) and got it all sent. Got back to my girlfriend who was dying in bed all alone for the day from fever, woops! We got payroll to figure out sorry! It all got processed all nicely and now producer Kawa is now a PAYROLLED EMPLOYEE!!!! </p> + TIME TO DO THAT WITH THE STATE OF ARIZONA AND THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA AND ALSO HOW TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET MYSELF ON PAYROLL AND ALSO FIGURE OUT HEALTHCARE AND MORE ADMINISTRATIVE BULLSHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT</p> + but anyways thats my major contribution for the week towards FUNKIN CREW stuuuuuuuf</p> +Phantom Says: Boyfriend Nendoroid is Out! 19 Page Comic Special Launch!</h1> +by phantomarcade</em> </p> +</a></p> + Well, it's a bit after Friday, isn't it? Heeheehehee, ahhh... yeah. This week has moved my sleep schedule all around, as usual.</p> + But screw all that!!! Boyfriend! GoodSmile! Nendoroids! We've kept the secret for so long, but finally, the Boyfriend Nendo has been shown to the world! And it's also finally on pre-order!</p> + </a></p> + Adorable lil guy, huh? When GoodSmile reached out a while back, it had us all pretty excited! Over months I helped greenlight this and get all the designs polished up to make it as much of a treat for fans as possible. And in the mean time, I felt I couldn't let the opportunity pass to write up a story that coincides with just such an event. So today I put out the 19 page FNF Nendo Comic Special: Smile Good, Boyfriend! While Boyfriend is over at GF's house to play horror games, the real horrors are the fucked up plans Daddy Dearest has in store for him, involving a special new cursed relic daddy is using....</p> + Check it out here!</p> + Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhantomArcade3K/status/1626780743660630016</a></p> + Newgrounds: https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/phantomarcade/fnf-nendo-comic-special</a></p> + Lemme tell ya, I'm beat! This comic was in the works alongside normal game development ever since I knew the pre-order was coming, I had always wanted to do a longer form comic, and finally a worthy chance to celebrate seemed to be a good reason. But god damn, the final hours of wrapping this were a lot, so please enjoy it! I have a new found respect for manga artists, I seriously can't believe they do shit like this every single week....</p> + Truth be told, there's 2 other long form stories I had in mind, but... only time will tell! As for now, this is the most tired I've been in a while, and there's still assets the team needs atm, yipes! Our newly hired project manager Kawa has been reminding me every few hours each day how much has piled up since the last few days were dedicated to wrapping this big project up. Haha, well that's life out here sailing the 7 seas of being an artist!</p> + Each and every FNF related thing I can possibly make, like this comic, I'll continue to do so with my entire heart in it, so please, continue to look forward to the many other fun surprises coming this year. As for me, I think that about wraps it. There's a lot left to do tonight, good thing I've still got a good amount of coffee left....</p> + -PhantomArcade</p> + Splatoon 3 Salmon run.... All Grizzco weapons this weekend? Hmmmm.....</p> + blog bot shenanigans</h1> +by ninjamuffin99</em> </p> + another effect of my fever based couple day vacation was it gave me a smiiiidge of an excuse to work and focus on the other aspect of the funkin blog…. THE BLOG BOT.</p> + funk blogbot is a discord bot made with DENO and discordeno deno lib. deno is a bit of a new kid on the block, but its juuuust different enough from what i know and juuuuust familiar enough to really let me damn sink my teeth into it. got to coding away and learnin how it all works, and ive gotta say… pretty slick and fun! discord bots r good excuses to work on something small in a new language and get sum exp</p> + got it all configured, even got that dipshit DOCKER stuff figured out too</p> + While trying to make sure I don’t get too derailed with work, I think it’s healthy to poke around with different things like this, different languages, developer workflows, etc. the package management is pretty nice, altho haven’t used it on big project yet…. but nevertheless its still inspiring to see the other side. I don’t imagine myself ever creating a programming language or the sorts, but it’s starting to get fun to imagine things like “oh I want this feature from this language, this feature from this one, etc”. Basically I want haxelib to work good...</p> + its all on github, I'll move it to the FunkinCrew github repo eventually, for now it lives right here</p> +github.com/ninjamuffin99/blogBot</a></p> + CLOSING THOTS</h1> +by ninjamuffin99</em> </p> + we got nendo for preorder... been a minute since we had MERCH for sale.... or really... since we had something releasing all nice!!! Shoutouts to crew of GoodSmile, they reached out ages ago, and slowly they toiled away at it and whatnot, and it turned out pretty damn good!!!! And as far as I know..... goodsmile isn't evil.... so it feels good to work with crew like that teehee... we hate evil people!!!!!</p> + SONG OF THE WEEK</p> + + </iframe> +</div> WEEK OF 2023/02/10: THE FUNK AND THE FURIOUS 2023-02-10T00:00:00+00:00 welcome to funkblog episode 4. i think i will use this beginning space of the blog to talk about the STATE of the blog, in terms of TECH, and where everything is headed with it in general!</p> + but in this intro blurb i will also give rundown on blog... posts about kickstarter mischief and lil writings by phantomarcade ensue!!!</p> +</span> + In terms of TECH, I added a cool lil table of contents to each page, nice lil copy paste from the zola website heheh. As well as that, i added a cute lil retro "hit counter" to the bottom of the site lol. At some point though I will probably setup better analytics tooling, moreso for funzies. Might be fun to have a "X amount of people reading now!" thing heheh. One thing about analytics is it def will be ANONYMIZED and whatnot, no cookies no bullshit like that. Pure and simple analytics! We don't give a shit about your data, we just wanna track views and whatnot! We won't market to you or any bullshit like that we promise!!!</p> + The next step for the blog I think is to get a small discord bot setup so that we can write articles / posts easier. At the very least, can draft up posts in discord, or even write smaller little snippets of posts or thoughts on our minds! The idea behind a discord bot is that everyone has discord on their phone.... so whenever and wherever we are.... we can write articles/ posts for the blog, whenever ideas or thoughts come to our mind!</p> + I've been dabbling with elixir, which I took notice of from one of our contract programmers we have workin on some secret sauce (for now). She is a super brain on that crazy functional coding stuff, and she also has experience with discord bot development, BUT I think for this little bot I will use it as a fun little side project hehe. And as always... source code will be open!!!</p> + anyways... here's the blog post!!!</p> + Quick Update on Missing Surveys</h1> +by Shamwayne</em> </p> + Sup everyone, quick update on everyone who's got missing surveys and stuff.</p> +THE PHYSICAL OST COMBO MEAL and Vol 1: OST COMBO MEAL addons</h3> +These are coming out to you as one big package with all the CDs, Cassettes etc. in it. Checked with Needlejuice and Cam and those are juuuuuuust about to ship so expect to see an email soon from needlejuice with those</p> + T-Shirts, Posters and Enamel Pins</h3> +Ninjamuffin already posted an update, but those aren't out yet. Expect to see surveys on those in the near</strong> future.</p> +Everyone else</h3> +You should have received an email by now from the kickstarter email. If you haven't that means either the Backer Names in the system and on the Kickstarter platform aren't matching (recent name changes could probably do that) or so reach out with your backer ID instead.</p> + There might be a quick lil update on KS about the blog soon (and some other neat stuff) so look forward to that!</p> + more fnf kickstarter mischief in progress: VINYL SHIPPING and PINS / POSTERS IN PROGRESS</h1> +by ninjamuffin99</em> </p> + its a bit intimidating to write a big ass chunky ass kickstarter update (especially after everyone be shoutin at me and it's been put off a bit long... yeowch!) so over next few weeks I'll try to at least draft up posts that would otherwise be included in a traditional Friday Night Funkin' kickstarter post to shake my brain a bit and make it less intimidating for myself!!</p> +Vinyl SHIPPING</h2> +After about 6 months or so (as of January) the the Friday Night Funkin' KICKSTARTER exclusive vinyl is finally being shipped! It has taken this long because vinyl manufacturing nowadays takes a long damn time. As mentioned many times in previous KICKSTARTER posts, there's a shortage of vinyl PVC or somethin like that! BUT finally we ended up getting em all produced! They are all in NASHVILLE, where Needlejuice Records HQ is! Needlejuice has been pretty damn close to us and really super has helped us out with all of the physical media stuff! In Nashville, they have a veeerrry small crew of 5 people who are shipping out everything, so if you have a vinyl, it may take an extra month or two before you actually get your vinyl! They need to ship over 9000 (no meme intended) orders ! BUT I think in Q1 2023, everyone who has PHYSICAL OST stuff SHOULD have those rewards for themselves!</p> + If you need to change your address, contact needlejuice email! contact@needlejuicerecords.com</p> + and take a peak at this twitter thread by them for more lil tidbits and info!</p> +Yes! We have the Friday Night Funkin Kickstarter vinyl. It arrived yesterday. We are beginning to ship it out. This is by far the biggest project we've ever taken on. It will take a long time to ship them all, so there are some things that may be useful for people to know. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/K0sXPOlf8S</a></p>— Needlejuice Records (@needlejuicerec) December 17, 2022</a></blockquote> +

Posters</h3> +
If you backed, and you got a poster without a pin in your rewards, you SHOULD have a poster in your hands!!! We have shipped 99% of all solo poster rewards (people who pledged for a poster, without getting a pin of any kind)</p> +

closing thots</h1> +
by ninja_muffin</em> </p> +
I'll let dave sing us out with that one, aiming to have Friday be a blog day!!!! </p> +
SONG OF WEEK (chosen by Kawa!)</p> +
+ </iframe> +</div>

Pins + Posters</h2> +
People who have posters AND a pin would have to wait until pin manufacturing is done however, which will be in mid-March for the first batch, then they'll go through QC, and then shipped to America to be distributed to all the backers!!! </p> +

T-Shirts, Posters and Enamel Pins</h3> +
Ninjamuffin already posted an update, but those aren't out yet. Expect to see surveys on those in the near</strong> future.</p> +

The funkin.me Blog

WEEK OF 2024/03/12: the funkblog with factorio references...

WEEK OF 2024/03/03 - another lil funkblog

WEEK OF 2024/02/23 - Charting a Course From Frustration to Delight

WEEK OF 2023/09/18 - FunkCoin

WEEK OF 2023/09/04: BELATED BLOG POSTS ABOUT TORONTO LOL

WEEK OF 2023/08/01: The Funkin' CREW in Toronto!

WEEK OF 2023 / 07 / 19: WE ARE SO BACK EDITION

WEEK of 2023 / 05 / 30: GLENSIDE GAMERS EDITION

WEEK OF 2023/05/16: PILLS EDITION

philly upcoming</h1> +
by ninja_muffin</em> </p> +
cant remember if i mentioned it or not, but next week I will be pullin up to philly to meet with dave and work with him out of the newgrounds office for two weeks or so. we r trying to shout at isaac kawaisprite to come thru also... lol!!!</p> +

WEEK OF 2023/05/08: PICO DAY EDITION

week of 2023/04/23: Devops edition

week 2023/04/14 shoutouts da greenhouse edition

more payday stuff and also taxes</h1> +
by ninja_muffin</em> </p> +
this week also got payroll sorted for 3 of our EMPLOYEES!! wahoo!! </p> +
and also everyone do ur taxes!!! we are doing ours!!</p> +

WEEK OF 2023/04/07: GOOD FRIDAY

WEEK OF 2023/03/27: VITAMIN D EDITION

WEEK of 2023/03/20: SPRINGTIME

WEEK OF 2023/03/06: FONKING...

WEEK OF 2023/02/27: It's Friday Somewhere Edition

WEEK OF 2023/02/17: SHOUTOUTS TO GOOD SMILE EDITION

WEEK OF 2023/02/10: THE FUNK AND THE FURIOUS

Quick Update on Missing Surveys</h1> +
by Shamwayne</em> </p> +
Sup everyone, quick update on everyone who's got missing surveys and stuff.</p> +

The funkin.me Blog

WEEK OF 2024/03/12: the funkblog with factorio references...

WEEK OF 2024/03/03 - another lil funkblog

Posters</h3> +If you backed, and you got a poster without a pin in your rewards, you SHOULD have a poster in your hands!!! We have shipped 99% of all solo poster rewards (people who pledged for a poster, without getting a pin of any kind)</p> +

WEEK OF 2024/02/23 - Charting a Course From Frustration to Delight

WEEK OF 2023/09/18 - FunkCoin

fanart of week - HeyIce</h1> +by ninja_muffin99</em> </p> +

WEEK OF 2023/09/04: BELATED BLOG POSTS ABOUT TORONTO LOL

WEEK OF 2023/08/01: The Funkin' CREW in Toronto!

Fanart of teh Week</h1> +by phantomarcade</em> </p> +

WEEK OF 2023 / 07 / 19: WE ARE SO BACK EDITION

WEEK of 2023 / 05 / 30: GLENSIDE GAMERS EDITION

WEEK OF 2023/05/16: PILLS EDITION

philly upcoming</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> +cant remember if i mentioned it or not, but next week I will be pullin up to philly to meet with dave and work with him out of the newgrounds office for two weeks or so. we r trying to shout at isaac kawaisprite to come thru also... lol!!!</p> +

WEEK OF 2023/05/08: PICO DAY EDITION

week of 2023/04/23: Devops edition

week 2023/04/14 shoutouts da greenhouse edition

more payday stuff and also taxes</h1> +by ninja_muffin</em> </p> +this week also got payroll sorted for 3 of our EMPLOYEES!! wahoo!! </p> +and also everyone do ur taxes!!! we are doing ours!!</p> +

WEEK OF 2023/04/07: GOOD FRIDAY

WEEK OF 2023/03/27: VITAMIN D EDITION

WEEK of 2023/03/20: SPRINGTIME

I keep the lights on</h1> +by Kawa</em> </p> +

WEEK OF 2023/03/06: FONKING...

WEEK OF 2023/02/27: It's Friday Somewhere Edition

Pins + Posters</h2> +People who have posters AND a pin would have to wait until pin manufacturing is done however, which will be in mid-March for the first batch, then they'll go through QC, and then shipped to America to be distributed to all the backers!!! </p> +

Posters</h3> +
If you backed, and you got a poster without a pin in your rewards, you SHOULD have a poster in your hands!!! We have shipped 99% of all solo poster rewards (people who pledged for a poster, without getting a pin of any kind)</p> +

philly upcoming</h1> +
by ninja_muffin</em> </p> +
cant remember if i mentioned it or not, but next week I will be pullin up to philly to meet with dave and work with him out of the newgrounds office for two weeks or so. we r trying to shout at isaac kawaisprite to come thru also... lol!!!</p> +

more payday stuff and also taxes</h1> +
by ninja_muffin</em> </p> +
this week also got payroll sorted for 3 of our EMPLOYEES!! wahoo!! </p> +
and also everyone do ur taxes!!! we are doing ours!!</p> +

Pins + Posters</h2> +
People who have posters AND a pin would have to wait until pin manufacturing is done however, which will be in mid-March for the first batch, then they'll go through QC, and then shipped to America to be distributed to all the backers!!! </p> +