TMG 2K23

I went to the Newgrounds meetup at Too Many Games! I feel lucky that I got to go, and I wanted to express my gratitude by doing my own recap post!!

I joined Newgrounds last year, but unlike a lot of other people who joined in the 2020s, I don't feel like I came in "late". I think I found out about this website at just the right time, for me at least. As I've said many times on this account, Newgrounds helped me a lot. Before I joined, I was drawing, but I wasn't getting better, because I didn't care. As a young teen, my ideas seemed endless, but as an adult, that passion was replaced with art block, and art became a major slog. I wasn't enjoying the process of drawing or the final result. But when I joined the site, I saw the kinds of things people made on here, and I thought they were incredible. I was devoted to getting better once I had a reason to. It was almost ten years of art block and I think it definitely hindered my improvement progress, but the good thing is I'm back in the saddle.

To name a few creators on this site I really looked up to from the get go, Tom Fulp obviously, MindChamber for his absolutely badass animations that exude that ‘90s and early 2000s edge, and creators newer to the scene like the funkin’ team who are almost single handedly responsible for reigniting my love for campy 2000s aesthetics. God, there's so many more, I can't name them all here. But I was raised on flash games, playing them on miniclip every time I got the chance on a weekend on the family PC. Or on my cousin’s PC in their half-unfinished basement back in like ‘06. Had no idea a lot of those games were on Newgrounds. I think this site does speak to me in that way.

I rarely ever travel. I get nervous in crowds and around new people. And once the pandemic hit, I went full shut-in mode like everyone else, but I found it hard to get myself back out of it again. When I saw that there was going to be a meetup not too far from the state I live in, I thought that it might be good for me. It was my first trip in a long time, and I was definitely a little nervous. But going to a city I'd never been to before and then talking to artists, game devs, musicians, and animators I'd looked up to, it was a bit of a dream come true.

TL;DR - i write too much but i like newgrounds

We've finally reached the part where I talk about the con lol:

I definitely feel like I acted a lot more like a starstruck kid than I would’ve liked to, but I guess that’s how it worked out. I pushed myself to talk to as many people as I felt I realistically could. Someday I'm sure I'll say hi to more of you, but the people I did talk to were so much nicer than I could have even hoped for and I'm so glad I got the chance to meet you!

I ended up having a really good time. And that fact still feels a bit surreal. I was very anxious and didn't think I'd end up having such a good time! But I stayed at the con the whole weekend, and I had fun just looking around at all the cool stuff that was there! I'm not afraid to talk to strangers anymore.

There were a lot of newgrounds people there, and it was a little overwhelming, but eventually I started talking to people! Due to how few people I talked to (let alone built up the courage to talk to long enough to tell my username to) a lot of you probably don’t remember I was there. But I have brown hair, I was wearing this really gaudy button up shirt with the ugliest fire design in the world (which I love), and I’m less than 5 feet tall. xD

A few of the people I talked to:

@ErasmusMagnus - Thanks for coming with me to the con xD I'm glad you had as much fun as I did!

@RavioliBox - I talked to you for a bit, and you were literally such a sweet person aaaa! You make amazing art, thanks so much for signing my sketchbook!! <3 I think you were one of the first people I talked to and you were so welcoming and that genuinely helped me feel more comfortable.

@TomFulp - It was really cool to meet you!! I think I came up to you and said something like, "Oh, I'm a big fan of your work." Aaaaa xD. What I meant was I really appreciate all the work you put into this site and really defining a lot of early internet history. Not to mention how much you've helped creators grow and get their own work out there. If it wasn't for Newgrounds, I don't think the internet would be what it is today. Thanks for showing a lot of people that, with the help of the world wide web, art and games and animations and music are things everyone can do if they put the time in to learn and grow those skills. And I like the games you've made obviously aaaaa. But to cut myself off before this post gets too, too long, thanks so much for signing my sketchbook!!! You were really chill to talk to for the short time that I did!

@vividlance - Thank you so much for the bracelet ;___; I'll literally keep it forever. It's so so so awesome, and it also proved to be really helpful, since we could identify other newgrounds people at the con after the meetup when people took their name tags off!! I'm so grateful for the bracelet, thank you for taking the time to make SO MANy of them holy crap!! You also just seemed like a really nice and upbeat person! I wasn’t afraid to come up and talk to you, because I knew you’d be kind to my anxious little self lmao

@EugeneDoesArt - I hung out with you and ErasmusMagnus for a while on.. i think saturday?? Thanks for playing that crash bandicoot racing game with us LMAO! I was terrible at it but I had a great time! You were really chill :D

@Hibachi - Your art is legendary, and I love it. Thanks for the posters!! I did not bring a poster holder tube thing as we were advised to do, and i regret it since it got a little drenched in the rain on the walk back to the hotel xD But it survived!! It's another thing I got at this con that I'll keep forever. I talked to you for like 5 seconds but you were super nice!! :)

@PKettles - This list is actually labelled incorrectly, because you're on this list and I actually didn't get the chance to talk to you. But I wanted to because I love your art so much, and you're such an inspiration, aaaaa!! You were one of the first newgrounds artists I saw when I joined and said, “oh my gosh, this site is so cool. The artists here are so cool.” Your pico day art this year was amazing, and it was so cool to see it in poster form xD

@ninjamuffin99 - I met you on saturday, which was really really cool!! You were also just super, super chill and easy to talk to??? But yes, thanks so much for the stickers and thanks for following me ;___; obviously I love your work haha

@SrPelo - Thanks for signing my book!! :D You make incredible stuff, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to meet ya!! You drew the spooky kids in my sketchbook for me, thank you so much *cries*

@NeatoNG - I talked to you briefly! I love your animations, and I love your art. Portal Squad was a freaking awesome pico day movie. Loved the one from this year too, it was incredibly badass!! You seemed cool as well! :D 

@emizip - I loved your ENA cosplay!!!! You were definitely easy to spot from a distance, so especially on like saturday, I could see you and I was like, “oh, yes, there’s newgrounders over there.” I talked to you briefly, and I thought you were really cool, you might not remember me

I talked to a few other people, but I don't know everyone's username!! It's definitely weird seeing people's real faces and not their profile pictures lmao. I should get out and go to these things more!! :0

Here are some more highlights from the trip! Just like, fun and memorable things that happened!

James Rolfe literally just walked over and sat down at a table a couple feet away from us at the hotel when we were eating dinner. I didn't wanna say anything cause he was like, having dinner with his friends. Vinny Vinesauce was in the same room at the same time. Kinda wish I said something xD I binged like all the AVGN videos last winter.

I saw 30th street station which was HUGE! Didn't get the chance to see more of philly, but next year, next year!

I really wish I'd taken more pictures!! I didn't take nearly enough... But I took this lowkey kind of aesthetic photo on the train home of my sketchbook with some of the stickers I got!!!

Anyway, yeah, this was my hashtag emotional recap of my unforgettable, incredible, lifechanging time at the newgrounds meetup at too many games!! Hopefully I'll be seeing you guys again somewhere, sometime soon!! And by then maybe I'll be able to talk to you long enough that we can be friends xD