A fortnight ago I yapped about Two Meeps (seriously, go get the album if you haven't already!), but I wouldn't be doing my musician friends justice if I didn't also talk about Those Fucking Snowflakes, and the fact that we opened Rebellion Festival in Blackpool today, playing to our biggest audience yet in the Pavilion at the Winter Gardens

This has been an absolutely stellar gig, with a rousing set, wonderful atmosphere, amazing crowd response, wonderful sound and light tech and crew

Photo's public on Instagram now so yeah, I figure it's right to share it here also

After the gig we had a bunch of stuff to tend to, then we had a great lunch and enjoyed the festival

If you love the sound of all of this, TFS has a Bandcamp page too where you can buy our shit, whether it be music or merch. If you live locally (Preston, Blackpool or wherever we happen to visit in future) and we happen to be live, come see us sometime if you haven't already, we'd appreciate it lots

I'm bushed now so I'm gonna go rest, thanks for stopping by x

Hey everyone, wouldja look at this absolute beauty 🤩

The album is out now on Bandcamp and all streaming sites. So go get it, tell your nan, your dog, your friend who likes RHCP, the annoying roommate who likes Bear's Den, etc., etc.

I've been working on this with @disomikron for the better part of a year and a half; some of you might remember that we submitted two tracks here on NG. Well, enjoy the album in its full glory~

I am keys, drums, vocals, comp on eight out of ten tracks, all artwork, and nearly all lyrics

Chris is guitar, bass, vocals, mix and master, comp on tracks 3 and 6, and some lyrics on 6

Once upon a time, there were two successive art pieces that made the front page on Newgrounds.

But it wasn't always like this, for, years ago, we had these for art submissions:

I guess it's important for me to put down some takeaways:

• My earlier years trusting much of the art forum were some of the worst decisions I'd made in my life with regards to my art practice. (Maybe the atmosphere has changed now, I don't know.) While some were helpful, many were quick to point faults without offering any practical help. Now not everyone learns the same way, but I can really only summarise this with: if it's toxic, find a different way.

• I ended up learning figure drawing from two non-Newgrounds friends, asa+kari and Alroetsue, both doujin circle friends and artists for the Aetherhythm releases. Over time, as I learned to copy better what I saw from reference images, I devised a system where the important parts would be tracked — head, shoulders, elbows, hands for example — and all we had to do was connect the dots. I'm far from the only one to have thought of drawing that way; I'm only saying that this thought process massively simplified the way I understood proportions and poses.

• I learned colour theory, composition, and environmental design from looking at, and taking influence from, @ForgottenDawn's artwork.

• Working with limited palettes has helped make my images look less wishy-washy and more pleasing to my own eyes. Thinking like a pixel artist has given me ideas on how to play with light and colour better.

• I was also incredibly lucky to have been gifted a tablet by my then fiancé, now spouse, and to have had the time and space to develop my craft. Between 2019 and 2021, when improvements could be seen in some aspects of my drawing, it could be said that the time I spent developing my craft was an unforeseen happy side effect of an otherwise bleakly unhappy set of circumstances, being an asylum seeker. Now that I am settled and working, I push limits in my work wherever I can.

Circumstances are going to vary from person to person but these things are crucial:

• Find your own way of understanding it and improving on it, because we all learn differently (if what I said about the "joining the dots" method sounds like your method, HMU and I'm happy to show it in a future post or conversation)

• Art, like music and language, has tropes. Once you understand them, you can wield them well

• Don't give up

• You can, and will, do that thing

It came out earlier this afternoon; go blow it up x

https://youtu.be/0WkBQZiKqZA?si=7p2TxlOcJNwny5nF

@disomikron and I have a new single out together, "I Am Afraid," the first from our upcoming debut album, "Valid"

This song has been incredibly prescient, far more prescient than I'd bargained for

Give it a listen, save it to your playlists, make a cheeky Bandcamp purchase, tell friends and randos etc, you know what to do

* Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/1mq5AkfOUfb5IcFAkDacqD

* YouTube: <https://youtu.be/uOO2b5xe_xs?si=L5JMsBIxnLru8oMa>

* Bandcamp: <https://twomeeps.bandcamp.com/album/i-am-afraid>

Oh hey folks it's Troisnyx from Two Meeps, a name you may or may not have heard in the last year and a half

Once upon a time I'd released a collaborative track with Christoph Jakob (@disomikron, my bandmate) called MÉTÉORE, as a solo track. From this endeavour came Two Meeps, and I'm pleased to announce that IT IS A SOLO TRACK NO LONGER!

MÉTÉORE is our debut single

Pick it up on Bandcamp, or on any streaming site outside of here where you might get your music, or don't, do whatever /gen

This one's finally been given the mixdown it deserves and we'd love for you to hear it!

Also keep your eyes open for future material for us; we are working on a debut album that is not related to this single, called Valid

Taaaaar byeeee

Presenting this beauty, Glue Globs!

The first ever non-game jam-related OST that I actually was commissioned to do!

If you run an Android phone, the game it was released for is a simple puzzle game which was made available on the Play Store with little fanfare, which you can find here.

If you love your chiptune, fakebit, and simple puzzle games, enjoy this one~

(Meanwhile, current project I'm working on is under NDA, a lot of us know that game all too well, this NDA)

My first collaborative project in a while.

All that remains is to sync up release dates. Please stay tuned.

For at least a year now I've made it a habit to join two teams per jam, if possible, as a contingency, so that if one fails, I'd have a fallback option that might manage to submit something. It's rare that both teams submit, and it's even rarer that they both place highly.

But this is what happened to the two games I scored at the recent GDevelop BIG Game Jam 5. The game I scored for Tulenväki Studios, called Unstable Dungeon, got third place overall, while the other game I scored, which was developed by @JJGamez64, and which had sound design by @rafunzel and art by @Sulfur-Cretin, got second place overall, a game titled Breathe In, Breathe Out. (Incidentally, an extended build of Breathe In, Breathe Out is being worked on at the minute.)

My usual method with these game jam soundtracks is to improvise on the piano, and then add other instruments as the need arises. I was working under multiple time constraints at the time, with an already tight schedule and several days' absence to factor in.

I'm sick at the minute, but at some point, I need to update the soundtrack list on my YouTube page. Until then, here is the main theme I wrote for Breathe In, Breathe Out.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=SIxTmSIkzpE

Some bandmates (not naming which band yet) brought in cymbals from their stashes and suddenly, I have access to the hardest going drum kit I've played in my life??? 😮✨

I wanna emphasise for the record that none of this hardware is mine. It's either belonging to individual friends, or owned in common by the band.