I wanna point out a game, released today, made by a fan of my game First Fantasy - Tiandiren: The Quest for Xirang. This game is heavily influenced by First Fantasy, but has a story drawing from centuries of Chinese legends and mythologies. Check it out!

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/658876

The developer, FlyingColours, is considering a sequel if it's received well, so play it and let him know you liked it if you did and want to see more!

1/1/16: Happy New Year! Updated the extension to 1.1.6! Fixed the options page, apparently it was just plain missing for two and a half months.

Introducing the unofficial (of course) NG Mature Thumbnail Filter Google Chrome Extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/newgrounds-ma-filter/phchlhgfejopgcopjdndleaohemaddim

What is it?

This Chrome Extension filters M and A rated thumbnails from view according to your specifications. You can choose which ratings to filter and which pages to filter them on. Any flagged thumbnails will be replaced with the NG M or A icons.

What it is NOT?

The extension does not BLOCK any content. You can still get to all content by clicking the filtered thumbnails.

Why?

Perhaps the biggest problem I've always had with NG is the ease with which M and A thumbnails are shown on the website - even the main page in the case of M rated stuff. This problem was remedied a tiny bit with the redesign a couple years ago (at least it seemed to me), but it's still a problem, and there's no account options to get around it presently as far as I'm aware of. So I looked at this as a good opportunity to mess around with Chrome extensions. I made this fully aware that many would not require or want such a thing, and maybe I'd be the only one to ever seriously use it. But maybe this would make taking a quick peek at NG during work safer for some of you, I dunno :)

So what all does it do?

Here's a full list as of now:

Can filter thumbnails from M and A rated content site-wide (and if there's a page that isn't covered, it's an error and I should probably know about it). Additionally, you can choose to filter thumbnails based on content type (Art, Movies, Games) or rating (M or A) via an extension icon in the omni-bar or whatever Google calls it.

Places a warning on playlist pages that there is currently no way to tell what playlist content is rated from that page and you should proceed with caution.

Anything else?

Remember that all NG content is user-rated, and this means that the extension is not going to be effective if somebody submits a mature thumbnail for a E or T rated entry.

Also due to the nature of the extension, all blocking occurs after the page is fully loaded. If you have a slow connection, the blocking may not be instantaneous once you go to a page.

Lastly, since this extension relies on the website being exactly how it is right now, any changes that the staff make may break the extension. But I don't expect any serious changes like that until another redesign.

I've just published a Google Chrome Extension that makes Newgrounds a little safer to visit. Not by blocking any content, but by filtering some thumbnails for M and A rated content. It's version 0.95, which means that it's not tested a lot yet, but it's otherwise finished enough. Once it hits v1, I'll make a proper post about it, but for now, this should do quite nicely: http://www.brianorchosky.com/chrome/ngfilter.html

And for a direct link to the extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/newgrounds-filter/phchlhgfejopgcopjdndleaohemaddim/details?hl=en&gl=US

It's been around six months, so I SUPPOSE it's time for a new blog post.

I've become as active on NG as I was during my peak a couple years ago, minus not having really submitted anything yet (there's been one piece of art, but I'm not counting that). But I have been lurking in the Game, Movie, and Art portals, occasionally reviewing when I care to, reporting bad reviews, bad flashes, etc. Who can say if I'll actually submit a game, although I will say I've given up on Flash for most types of games and am investigating Unity (particularly Unity Javascript) for my next game. Or maybe I should just call it a concept right now, because that's really all it is.

BTW, if you want to see what a team of six people including me did for our final game class, look here: http://www.brianorchosky.com/games/Spellements/Spellements.html

It's not perfect, but it does indeed have its moments. (The screenshot on the site is ONE spell - you can get really impressive wide-area effects in the late game).

Anyway, things have been slow for me on a lot of non-important tasks because I've been trying to get off of some stupid anxiety medication, which basically amounts to going down a little, feeling worse for a couple of days, getting better, going down again, feeling worse, getting better... repeat. But I am at the end of it now, and although I could still be doing better, I'm also better off in some ways too. In a month or two things should definitely settle down what with all the med changes and then I'll know where I stand.

I did graduate college last December, and I do have a great job now (not in game development - I never really wanted that). Also planning to move to an apartment this summer.

So I guess I'm like, my own person now or something.

So... I'm still around, just college has been insanely busy. But it should pay off in around four weeks when I get handed my shiny new Computer Science degree.

Until then...

I've started a donation drive for my girlfriend's family in the Philippines. They were hit hard by Super Typhoon Haiyan (they're on Samar island, one of the first and hardest hit), their house took quite a beating, and times are tough (in fact, my girlfriend just had her wallet stolen mere hours ago. No lie. She's taking it way better than I would have). To pitch in, start here: http://www.brianorchosky.com/blog/?p=433

I've been making a game (LE GASP!) for a class that I have. This one's in Unity, and it's with a team of six people (including me). The game is called Spellements, a rougelike RPG. It's, erm, *cough*, supposed to be pretty much finished at this point, but there's still a few content gaps here and there, and bugs/glitches also here and there... Either way, we'll be done in just over two weeks from now. My job is being 'the networking guy', which is a nice challenge, considering I've never done anything like that in any game before.

...and that's it, I guess. Yeah.

I haven't been active much here lately, but hopefully that won't be the case for the entire year. Just some updates on what I AM doing:

- My website (http://www.brianorchosky.com/) is continuing to grow with stuff both new and old. All the tutorials I've done in the past two years are up in the Tutorials sections. The new Extras section contains random things, one of which may be of interest to Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire fans.
- As for game development, I have finished a small game called Peter Tefft Saves The World, a nice little arcade game reminiscent of Mechanical Ice Apocalypse in both style and difficulty. The reason it's not on Newgrounds at this time is because I'm planning to expand it in the distant future. It currently contains 10 waves of enemies, but 50 would be a good number for release here. Plus a few bosses.
- Project Nightfall has been canceled. In place of that, I've got a (smaller) idea swimming around in my head, but nobody will likely hear a thing about it until summer. And that's a favorable estimate.
- My current game project is Jack's Run ( http://www.brianorchosky.com/games/ComingSoon/Co mingSoon.html ), a collaboration with my brother and at least one of his friends. The game is a platformer which has been in development since September. Overall progress has been slow, mainly due to some 'fun' health-related issues I've been dealing with, but it's still on my mind. Currently the engine is undergoing a rewrite to fix performance issues. Ideally, that's mostly done, and then I'll get back to making levels again.
- I'm currently in the process of releasing my first Windows 8 app. However, it's kinda useless to go into detail about it here because it'll only be relevant to perhaps one or two of you who read this, if that. But the implications are what's important here: I can likewise turn future HTML5 projects into apps.
- I'm picking up Unity for one of my classes, and I really like it so far. So much that perhaps it may supplant Flash as my preferred game development software someday.

Hi everyone! A couple months ago, I finally took the plunge and got myself a website! Tonight I deem it complete enough to show it publicly, so here it is:

www.brianorchosky.com

It contains all the games I've done, and soon all the gamedev tutorials (in multiple languages) I've written too. The site also is now an updated first-fantasy.webs.com. Check it out, I expect to keep adding to it each weekend, at the least.

http://gamedev.osu.edu/community/forums/topic.ph p?id=514

I talk about what I'm working on now (another RPG), and announce that a large part of the development should see the game with publicly available source code.

Fish Simulator v1.1 is up. The most important thing added was the Newgrounds medals, followed by the most requested change to the game, the ability to lure enemies into the nets. On top of that, there's a second background song you'll hear if you get far enough into the game, and then a few minor fixes.

So here's a Call Me Maybe parody for no real reason at all.

I started making a game,
And then I gave it a name
I really don't have much shame,
So now I'm singing this

And then Ludum Dare passed,
I started work at long last,
Added those medals real fast,
And now that update's here

Come, it's unrefined.
It's a special kind, of
Challenge that I designed
"Where you think you're going, fishy?"

Hey, I just met you,
And this is crazy,
But here's my fish game,
So play it, maybe?

It's hard to look at,
With a straight face,
But here's my fish game,
So play it, maybe?

Hey, I just met you,
And this is crazy,
But here's my fish game,
So play it, maybe?

And all the other fish,
Try to chase me,
So here's my dumb game,
Can you play it, maybe?

You dodge all the other fish,
And hope that you get your wish
Not ending up a side dish,
You all are in my way

I'm just trying to survive,
But you've all taken the dive,
Whatever plan you've contrived,
Catch me to get your way

Stay, get ejected
Go up, get digested
Read the fish's message:
"Where you think you're going fishy?"

Hey, I just met you,
And this is crazy,
But here's my fish game,
So play it, maybe?

It's hard to look at it,
I'm not artsy,
But here's that fish game,
So play it, maybe?

Hey, I just met you,
And this is crazy,
But here's my fish game,
So play it, maybe?

And all the other fish,
Try to chase me,
In this weird fish game,
So play it, maybe?

Before this came into my life
I guessed it'd be bad
I guessed it'd be bad
I guessed it'd be real bad

When this came into my life
I guessed it's be bad
And you should know that
I guessed it'd be real bad

It's hard to get past,
my fishy fate,
So here's this one game,
Come play it, maybe?

Hey, I just met you,
And this is crazy,
But here's my fish game,
So play it, maybe?

And all of Newgrounds,
Prob'ly hates me,
But here's my fish game,
So play it, maybe?

When this came into my life
I guessed it'd be bad
I guessed it'd be bad
I guessed it'd be real bad

After this came into my life
Well, it's a bit rad
And you should know that

So play it, maybe?

So my Ludum Dare 23 entry (Fish Simulator X, http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/594297) is now rated lower than my Zero-Hour jam entry (sketch|fall, http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/583283) which I literally made in an hour and never improved since. It is impossible to get past 2500 points or so in that game.

Very amusing.

EDIT: Now it's tied with Monkey Lab Tycoon. That game doesn't even WORK.