Come join Luis, Afroninja, Mike (the NG lumberjack from the staff page), and myself for some sweet, kickin, sexual StickAM. Emphasis on COME.

That having been said, I have finished a little thing I like to call a HUGE GAME. GO play it. It's called Mastermind: World Conqueror.

STICK AM!!!!

Not only am I not dead, but I'm COMING BACK IN STYLE.

By that, I really just mean that Mastermind: World Conqueror is painfully close to finished. It combines strategic infrastructure management with base defense, and features dynamic cutscenes voiced by MY favorite Newgrounder, Tomamoto. Expect cameos by other phenomenal Newgrounds contributors, including Andy "But She Looked 18" Dennis and Will "I Tan White" Arbuckle of Edible Castle fame, Rina-Chan, Afro-Ninja, and of course everyone's best friend, Tom Fulp (what a sport).

It seems a shame to me that 5 months of intense planning, studying actionscript, and building this game will yield only a simple Flash game that players might only get lost in for an hour or two, but I knew what I was getting into when I started this project. If you guys enjoy playing World Conqueror even a little bit, then mission accomplished. And who knows, MAYBE YOU'LL HAVE A FEW LAUGHS ALONG THE WAY HAHAHAHA.

While you wait for the release, why doncha go check out some of the music I wrote exclusively for MWC?

Stay tuned...I'm aiming for release in one week or less! And then there'll be a new Mastermind toon to follow, and a 2008 Ghostmas episode! I do miss little Blockhead :(

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p.s. Apologies to my English brothers who missed me at the Newgrounds London meet - it just turned out to be terrible timing. But I'll be there in January if Luis pulls through for another event like he always does, and I really hope to meet you cats then!

I made a quick Blockhead cartoon for you.

Watch it please?

There, I asked nicely so now you have to do it <3

Also, if you're a 20 year old animation student from Seattle with a face like Skeletor, leave me a 7 or less review score so I can send you an angry PM. You're adorable when you're pissy xoxo

The day's almost here. For those of you who enjoy the Mastermind series, you'll have a riot (...LITERALLY?) adopting the role of the Mastermind himself and taking on the world powers. And for those of you who HATE Mastermind, this is also good news; it means I can move onto other projects at last, not the least of which will be Blockhead: Episode 11. FINALLY. I must have more Weevil.

Below you will find that South America has become the target of my wrath as I proceed to blow up one of its cities. Different mission types, targets, and territories will have different effects on the game, such as lowering the health of spawned enemies or increasing the success percentage of missions. Also,
it's fun to press a single shiny red button and blow up millions of people.

The structure of the game is simple, although the way you interact with the game is complex enough. Combining a base defense game with a strategy base simulator in real time has been a painful challenge for me, but I am almost confident that the effort will have been worth it. And DO NOT FRET, it's not going to be anywhere as difficult to play as the Blockhead game was.

I've also written some music for the game. Check out the Mastermind World Conqueror game loops:
Loop 1
Loop 2
Loop 3

Also, I'm in love with you. Thought you should know. LATER SKATERSSSSZZZZX

*UPDATE: OH YEAH, I forgot to mention that I have a link to an alpha version of my defense engine on my site if you wanna check it out! Help me test it and lemme know how it performs before I plug it into the main game.

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So I'm thinking of trying something new this time. I wanna release Mastermind 4 and Mastermind: World Conqueror at the same time, so I can DOMINATE THE PORTAL ok not really. But I've always been curious what happens if a game and a toon are released at the same time. Will one steal the thunder of the other? Will they compliment one another? I guess we're gonna find out, and it won't be long.

Then comes Blockhead 11. I promise it.

I've been missing in action since I decided to start coding this game on my own. It's been a real journey trying to figure out the ass end of Actionscript, but thanks to the tutelage of Afro-Ninja I might just survive. Ahh, the love of the community, it keeps me powerful.

Oh and speaking of community, who is going to the convention in New York? Apple Con seems like a real riot, so I'll be joining up with Luis and Mindchamber to help sell crap and get the Newgrounds name out there. More than anything, I'm totally stoked that we'll have a Newgrounds booth that won't be overshadowed by a much larger and more popular Behemoth booth. Time for this sucker to shine or die trying. Any of you east coast guys who missed us at Comicon last year might like this convention more; we picked it because it was much, much closer.

The day's coming up on us quickly so grab your plane tickets or beg your mom to drive you, whatever it is you do to get your way. SEE YOU THERE NUMBSKULL.

BELOW: The lieutenants from Mastermind: World Conqueror, some of whom are memorable characters from here on NG. Can you spot Convict, Wadolf, or Dr.Mocha? They're all side-by-side so it shouldn't be hard :/

*UPDATE*: Click to view the image below, but with text!

The time is rapidly approaching. Yeah, it's not a question of "if". But I don't wanna rush into this without knowing what you guys think, EVEN IF YOU HAVE NO INTENTION OF GETTING ONE. I love feedback, which I have been known to cover with milk and eat from a bowl.

Shirt designs really should be aesthetically pleasing while still capturing the essence of the series. I couldn't figure any way to make the logo "cool" and keep it funny, so I ended up with this noir-ish silhouette design. It ended up much more serious than the cartoon itself, but then again, the series wouldn't work if it weren't half serious and half silly. Also, it's got Doomlaser.

I know red is an obvious choice, but what other colors would you care to see this logo on top of? The examples below are just that: examples. Nothing is final, and I'd like to figure out what the crowd favorite is first. Just remember, NO BLACK! The logo itself is only black with some white, meaning it looks best on lighter shirts, but anything too light kills the darker mood of the image.

Thanks for helping me build a better tomorrow, guys. SWAIN OUT

(p.s. I finished the majority of the script for Mastermind 4 today, which I intend to release ALONGSIDE my new game, Mastermind: World Conqueror. Then it's on to Blockhead 11, uh oh!)

Anyone watch that (the BBC one, not the garbage American bastardized conversion)? I'm watching it now, and am completely obsessed with it. Good God, tell me I'm not alone.

And if you haven't done so yet, go watch Mastermind 3. It's the last time you're going to see me recycle those backgrounds, so go make use of them while you can. /PLUG

Oh, last question. What would you look for in a game based on the Mastermind series itself? Not a board game themed around the series like the one I've already done, but an actual game where you play the Mastermind? I've got my basics down but I'm looking for themes or general interest that can help me turn this thing in the direction the fans want. AM I NOT MERCIFUL.

Ok so here's the issue, fellers'. Today I wanted to get some feedback from you guys on a few topics, namely my present and future approach to cartoons. I've always made it a point to read the reviews my audience leaves me for inspiration, motivation, and direction on my projects, but with my toons being released more slowly as I learn how to up their quality, I get that user advice less and less often.

Blockhead

Ok, this is for you Blockhead viewers out there. My darling little Blockhead has been around for years and years, ever since I was a wee lad of about 12 or 13, but making his cartoons is such an involved process that I've had to make all kinds of new decisions about how to portray the character. It was different when I was sketching still comics on notebook paper between classes in junior high. Since then, all these new windows for exploring the Blockhead character have kinda taken my attention away from the fundamental qualities that he had in his earlier episodes.

My problem here is that when I go back to my old cartoons to remind myself of the "oldschool" Blockhead, I sometimes confuse the poor quality of the cartoons with the character humor that I used to find funny but am now bored with because I'm too used to it. Basically, this means that it's hard to tell the difference between what parts of my cartoon sucked outright and what parts are just played out...then, when I make a new cartoon, I start to steer my characters away from what might actually be a funny theme. For example, you'll rarely see the Conscience character saying "You're stupid," or "Shut up idiot," etc., because even though he has no actual reason to stop saying it, it's a played out joke for me and I don't like reusing it, even if Blockhead's fans love it every single time.

I hope that underlines my problem for you all. I think it's an issue a lot of people have with their creative work - I was watching the BBC3 program "Mighty Boosh" the other day, and I noticed that their third season is remarkably horrible compared to their BRILLIANT second season, and for those of you who have seen the show, you'll probably agree that they recycle too many played out jokes while avoiding the elements that made the second season so funny (which is worse even than MY problem). I felt the series would have turned out much better if they'd stopped to ask their fans for a reality check.

So THAT HAVING BEEN SAID, I wanted to get a solid set of opinions from all varieties of fans, be you old or new to the Blockhead world. What are a couple things in the series that you like most about the older and newer episodes? Was it better for you when Blockhead sat around the house and was picked on by his Conscience? Do you hate the house scenes entirely? Do you care for the Weevil, or does he sneak into your dreams and creep you out at night? Do you like destructive Blockhead, mean Blockhead, crazy Blockhead, etc. the best? Give me anything you can think of that you love or hate the most about the series, and I promise I'll pay attention.

Flash Graphic Novels

Speaking of novels, I'll try to keep this section short. Now I know I've kinda asked this question before, but I want to get some solid opinions on what you guys think of the Graphic Novel scene in Flash. I'm talking about cartoons like Thamesis or Broken Saints. Even if you haven't watched them, then let me know that, because I want to have a picture in my mind of how popular they are. If you have, is there anything redeemable about them, or do you maybe look at them as intrusive elements in the Flash world? I am of the firm stance that Newgrounds is a FLASH site and not an ANIMATION site, and that what a person does with Flash is up to them so long as they're doing it to entertain people. My goal is to figure out if these graphic novel toons are succeeding.

This, by the way, is to improve my approach to Starkston Crusade, which will be more like my Blockhead Ani-comic theme than any graphic novel. But I'm not fool enough to confuse them for being completely different.

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Ok, time to do some actual work now. Below is my next project, TRY TO GUESS WHAT IT IS JK ITS MASTERMIND 3.

P.S. New Racist Vampires webcomic...I guess it's Easter themed, I just dunno anymore.

Pass-My-Flash 2 - It's a dangerous world out there, so make sure you watch it before you accidentally die or something.

I was a last-minute addition to the project, barely even an afterthought when one of the other artists bailed, but being the unquestionably awesome friend that I am, I spat in Luis's face and then said "Yeah ok sure I'm in," when he asked.

And because this is MY post, I get to mention that my part is the finale to the project. Everyone else got to enjoy seeing how the artist who followed them could recover from the strange situation they'd left the animation at, but not I...my task was to bring it back together with some kind of conclusion. Easier said than done with only 8 seconds to work with. BELOW IS A SCREENSHOT OF MA BOY LOLOLOLOLl

Didn't see the first Pass-My-Flash? I wasn't a participant (actually I threw something together for the project but it was left on the cutting room floor), but you can check it out here for background on the project series: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
415373

Valentines Day, eh? If you're like me, then you'd want it to take corporeal form so that you could wrap your fingers around its greasy little throat and choke the living essence out of it, and then ditch the body in a snowy meadow where it isn't discovered until next season when the ice thaws. If ever a holiday had an ego, it's this one. Thanks for everything Hallmark.

So, in anti-celebration, I've whipped up a Racist Vampires webcomic, as well as a second Blockhead Ani-Comic. FOR YOU.

For those of you who aren't keen to my made-up terminology, an Ani-comic is like a still comic with voices and intrinsic pacing (i.e. it's like animating, only unbelievably lazy). It's what I do when I've been stagnant with the content updates and have no regard for my own dignity.

Happy V-day, suckas. Don't kill anybody I wouldn't kill.