Stop using this shitty one...
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen /35393

Use this optimized one...
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen /180427

Cant edit or delete the original, so I've had to resort to this.

A revenue cut is also appreciated. My tracks been heard over 2 million times, and its my shittiest composition. In addition, its incredibly unclear when submitting audio where this stands in terms of commercial-ism... You submit and agree to a Creative Commons non-commercial license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b y-nc-sa/3.0/)... yet its encouraged that flash developers use this music, which is then used to generate insane amounts of revenue....

That made sense before revenue came in, where money could be made through Newgrounds monthly prizes, which are effectivly a 'gift' from the staff... but now, you can set out to make a game and use as much music from the audio portal as you want, breaking the terms of the license you agree to when you submit music.. Now revenue has come in, surely these are commercial products.

Thats why I've now boycotted the audio portal. There should be a greater range of control for musicians submitting their work to the portal. They should have the power to specify a minimum revenue cut should people choose to use their music, as well as choose whether users can download music and/or use music in flashes... Newgrounds has evolved and the audio portal has stayed in the dark. Ugh, annoying.

Dick out.

Well I have been for months and months... but for those of you who dont know.. here I am...

twitter.com/mrSimon

For those of you who dont know who I am, I used to make a few odd shorts ("The Portal" Clock crew matrix parody... "For Illwill" Neurotically Yours parody.... "Bananabeard II" and anything under the name 'Koalaclock')

Although I'm not doing much now apart from games over at work in a specific video games company I cant say.... I've been working on the past year on a point and click engine, based upon the crude "WADEANGRY" I made years ago... Its about 85% there now, and once complete, I'll be producing a full game with Munglai (Best known for 'Easy Way Out', nominated for best movie of 2008 on Newgrounds)

Griswold.. be afraid!!! Be very afraid!!!

I hope to get an engine preview complete for early Summer this year.. Follow my twitter, and maybe you can have a try sooner!..... OH FUCK IT, heres a work in progress version right about now....

Click here to try my point and click engine

PLEASE BEAR IN MIND.. I'm developing the engine only.. so graphics arnt particularly nice... I'm after functionality right now... It might be buggy too...

Heres how my point and click engine is looking now.

I hope to have a final engine preview ready to share with you guys in April.. although it may not be in the Flash portal as the preview will have little point.

Once the engine is fully complete, then I'll be working with an artist to produce a full length game. I've got lots of bugs to fix and features to add before then though. So full steam ahead!

I've been developing a flash based point and click adventure engine for quite a while now, and I'm near the final stages of development. I've based everything around the simplicity of just using a mouse and the left mouse button, whilst aiming not to sacrifice the amount of depth you can develop with a point and click adventure.

I'm hoping that rather developing a point and click game where you have to manage items, travel the world and think about the strangest combination of items in order to solve puzzles, I'm hoping that games put together with this engine will serve as a method to better connect with the story and characters.

Meeting a few major bugs during development, I believe I've ironed out shit like this, so I should be ready to go soon!

What I'm after is a little feedback from you peeps..

In typical point and click adventures, be it online and off.. what are your pet peeves? What little bits and pieces in a point and click game piss you right off?

And in addition, what would you love to see in a point and click adventure?

I hope to debut an updated version of my now canned "WADEANGRY" game on Deviantart within the next fortnight, before beginning to develop a full game in collaberation with an artist... (Not sure whether I should say yet... but he is an artist currently nominated for Movie of the Year)

Please leave a comment!

The following I posted on Sheezyart.com... I dont have much time here at work, and tonight I want to get coding, so I'm going to be a bitch and just copy and paste my post from Sheezyart.com =)
____________________________________

Sheezyart, its been mighty splendid, we've had our good times, and our bad.. but the time has finally come for me to depart Sheezyart, I feel the time is right.

I started on Sheezyart as an enthusiastic Flash animator, compared at the time to those like Joanime, Sqeezy, Eddsworld, Nef, Smiffy, you get the idea. I made the odd funny flash and we had a laugh.

The next few years however, things got shakey. While a few members began to post more on other sites such as Youtube, Newgrounds and Deviantart a little more often; others left Sheezyart altogether. Whether this is because of changes made to the site, or just people getting older and more mature; I honestly still cant figure out. Whats clear though is that the vibe that was once felt on Sheezyart had gone.

From around 2006 onwards, I continued to post bits and pieces on Sheezyart, however this was more to please my ego rather than provide a valuable input to the creative community within Sheezyart. The quality of my work dropped to such a level that I began the "Flashes" seires, which was meerly a number of productions based around a crazy flash template. I was foolish enough to let this, and related "Flashes" contests occupy my time. After that came the "Youtube Poop" craze, which I have been an active part of ever since.

After I stopped "The Flashes", I was then made a DJ for Sheezyradio. Although fun, this is the simular kind of quick and dirty production that I now want to avoid. I may do the odd show in the future, however this will no longer be regular, and it will no longer be on Sheezyart radio.

This weekend I had attended the Newgrounds UK meetup, and I had a blast, primarily with Wonchop. However something very quickly became really clear, something I should have realized at the end of 2005...

There is still an active and creative flash community, but its no longer on Sheezyart, and I am no longer a part of it, and I have nobody to blame but myself.

Its up to me to attempt to become as creative as I used to be in 2004, and no amount of "Sheezyart Design / Staff" bashing and ranting is going to fix that.

For the last month, I have been making an active effort to avoid Sheezyart, but I have decided now that I will leave permenantly.

Everything that once was on Sheezyart, I will post on Deviantart at http://mrsimon.deviantart.com . I dont want to remove it from the web, however I feel the majority is not a high enough caliber to share with Newgrounds.

I hope that from now on, I will spend the majority of my time on Newgrounds again, watch some flash and play some games, and gather the same vibe I had years ago.

So yesh, due to this I've been looking at whats going to happen with everything I have on the go currently..

- ROFLtrax.com and all my albums
I'm going to continue to maintain ROFLtrax and produce music.

- mrSimons wonderful jam
I'm considering broadcasting on Clockcrew.cc Radio. However, the jam will most likely become a seires of albums for ROFLtrax.com rather than a radio show.

- Youtube Poop
As I have been for the past year, I will continue to produce Youtube Poop, but when I feel like it rather than activly.

- WADEANGRY
Although I have scrapped WADEANGRY, I am still using Wade's room as a method of developing my point and click engine. I hope to release a point and click game in collaberation with an artist in the next few months. However I'll no longer post in-development versions of the game.

- Sheezyart Youtube account
I want somebody to take this over. I will contact site staff, however if there is no interest, or unless I've recieved contact from somebody who is interested in obtaining this, I will close the account at the end of the month.

- Project Lazycat (AKA Sheezyart competetor)
I have scrapped these plans. The CSS layout I had displayed in my "Sheezyart: Good, Bad and Ugly" report will soon be used as a new site layout for ROFLtrax.com

- mrSimon.co.uk
This will purly remain a placeholder site, until the time comes when I need to develop an up-to-date showreel.

- Journals / Blogs
For now onwards, all posts I create will be on my Newgrounds userpage.

I would say thanks to the guys I care about here, however they left years and years ago... so to the rest of you, I'll say.. good going peeps; Keep it real.

http://mrsimon.newgrounds.com

mrSimon
____________________________________

So yesh Newgrounds, all in all, I hope to create more stuff than I have been these last few years, stay focused and dedicated. =) Hope to post in the BBS a little more too. Stay cool =O

OH HAI

Koalaclock returns once again in this Clock Day special!

=)

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
454642

Take a watch, I gave it some love :'(

I've been very busy as of late... creating music, websites, not to mention commercial video games such as LEGO Indiana Jones for DS..

I've set up a new blog specifically to post all my latest going on's right here. Hope you enjoy ;)

Simon McClure's Blog

Hot diggity damn.. I never knew you could post Youtube videos on Newgrounds!

Well lo and behold, here is one of my classic "Youtube Poop"s =P I post on Youtube.com as "The Electric Cheese". Youtube Poop is everything and nothing. We take clips, and other assorted shit, mash them up and create humor from bizzare context and odd sequencing..... Well take a look you...

In other news... IGN likes my first game >=(
IGN's LEGO Indy DS preview
I did Indy jumping onto a ledge from a rope... and a bunch of other stuff you cant really see.

And all my super gay music is on Last.FM now. Way more awesome than the poxy stuff I have here at Newgrounds =O
My stuff on Last.fm

Hello thar. My name is Simon, and I feel like sharing some advice. For a couple of years around 2003, I created some Clock Crew movies which were fairly successful, as well as some original work which performed well. I then followed on to animate in an episode of "Tomorrows Nobodies", as well as study a computer animation degree. Souly focusing on the development of my animation skills outside of the web, I produced my CGI short "The Mascot", passed with a first, and I now produce video games.

It all started with flash animation though. It is the perfect platform if you start to look at digital animation as a hobby. It contains the simplicity to quickly make an animated short, yet it houses a number of advanced features to develop something much grander. A lot of people make one or two simple, avoidable mistakes though, and can be put off by the flash experience, or stuck down to a poor production value. Follow my tips and you must do better I swear =)

1. MASTER THE BASIC TOOLS
There are five key concepts in Flash you must fully understand if you are to succed. Although there is actionscripting and other advanced functions, they are not essential to developing a basic short.

The essentials you must really focus upon are "Layers", "Frames", "Keyframes", "Tweening" and "Symbols". If you fully understand these basic concepts, and how they function in Flash, then you will learn more advanced tecniques and skills exceedingly quicker.

2. THINK SMALL
ALmost everyone I've spoken to when it comes to flash always plans something ambitious and huge when they learn some basic skills, and realize what is possible. Tempting as developing something big might seem, avoid it. Even if you dont realize it, animation is a lengthy process, expecially for those with no art or video experience.

I recommend developing something short to start off with, perhaps two minutes long maximum. If you have ambitious plans for a large story, consider splitting your idea into an episodic form.

3. FOCUS UPON YOUR KEY SKILLS
For your first few flash movies, consider what you really want to achieve in flash animation, and focus upon the primary skill required. If you want to present something good looking, dive into the drawing tools, but dont worry so much about animation. Or, if you just want to experiment, dive into the animation tools. If you want to focus upon menu or graphic design, focus upon symbols and tweening. The idea is to get fully adquanted with the Flash package, rather than really impress people online with your work.

Of course, you can explore other areas! However I really recommend knuckling down your key strengths fairly early on, so you do not hit any unexpected delays or bumps later on in development.

4. ONE PROJECT AT A TIME, NO MOVIES
If you settle into the 'start small' ideal, then you may be tempted to juggle various projects at once. WIth a lot going on, it may become hard to focus upon one, or stay motivated. I'd suggest attempting to stick to only one project whilst you explore Flash, however for a lot of people, juggling many projects seems to KEEP them motivated!

5. DONT BRAND YOURSELF
Whilst developing your skills in flash, its not irregular to grow a little of an ego. Thats normal, the life of a Flash animator! However, creating a 'brand' or referring to yourself as 'we' will seem quite abnoxious. Unless you already have an established website, refrain from using a 'sting' at first (An intro for your name). If you do not have an impressive body of work, this approach will be inaffective.

6. DEVELOP AN ANIMATIC
It is all too easy to consider jumping straight into an animated project without any planning. Sometimes this works ok, however if you want a real polished feel to your project, develop an animatic first. This is to make a very VERY simple storyboard set to time. Use quick doodles and text boxes to set up where you want characters, how you want shots to feel, and time everything out smoothly. You could also develop your soundtrack, this is very helpful. Once you're done, shift keyframes about to get your project unclogged out of your head and into clear motion.

Once your animatic is complete, replace your shots with finalized, polish artwork and animation. Voila =D

7. DONT DWARF YOUR FEATURE WITH CREDITS
Once you have discovered the basics of flash, you may be tempted to focus upon quantity rather than quality, and never is it more clear in opening and closing credits for a flash movie. Television shows will usually have ending credit sequences of around 30 seconds or so, however this is justified since the feature itself is typically around 25-50 minutes long, and a large team would have produced the show. Lengthy credits sequences is very very offputting for an online user.

I'd recommend sticking to the 'creator', 'animators', 'music' and 'cast', and if possible, stitching these in with opening visuals so viewers arnt forced to focus souly upon the text. (For example, shots of landscape, with "Mister Animator Presents" ontop).

8. LISTEN TO CRITISM
Constructive critism is the best thing you can ever wish for, however do not be put off by souly negative comments. It is easy to take insults and harsh comments personally, especially if you have not spent significant time on a social animation site, like here or Youtube. However you must remember than many of these people are looking for a quick personal laugh. Unless they go into magnificant length about how GHEY you are, you should not take the comments to heart.

Amongst the unimaginative one liners are occasionally very VERY helpful comments, and if you state you are after this kind of thing, then even more so. Learning to accept critism, good and bad, will help you knuckle down areas you may be finding difficult, or want to develop furthur.

___

I might be totally wrong, but I do hope some of this helps you out some. Stay cool and keep it real guys.