Well I'm way too stressed to work on anything except this little animation I'm whittling away at right now. Everything going on around me has been pretty draining. I'm still doing some level-making on Platform Racing 2, though, so you might want to check that out if you play. No promises, but I might start getting real work done with one of my games in a month or so.

I've been mostly busy with my GED program, and on top of that I've been doing a lot more writing for leisure, so I'm not too likely to be making much in Flash. Diablo PSP and Moovlin PC 2 aren't cancelled, but they're probably going to slow to a crawl. I also have a lot of personal business to sort out, so my attention is really needed elsewhere at the moment...

If you're interested, you can see the tracks I'm putting into the MPC2 soundtrack. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R.

And here's a picture of a couple MPC2 characters:

Onto business... I'm working on a 100% API project! It's called Jamrock's Lucky Day, and it'll be based off of his infamous post. Basically it'll be the animation he describes, made entirely with ActionScript. Animating with AS2 is fucking brutal, though, so I'll cry if it gets blammed.

The Diablo tribute is still being procrastinated on, but once I whittle down my distractions it shouldn't be hard to finish up. And by distractions, I mean a really cool sword engine/idea I have where you have an arrow pointing toward the cursor, and clicking activates a slash in the exact direction the arrow is pointed. This is a neat little game idea that could blossom into something huge, or maybe just a cool little minigame in the future.

Last but not least, I may be making a Moovlin PC 2! I've got a rough idea for the plotline (involving Moovlin suffering from PTSD), plus an interesting battle system that will involve upgrading basic things such as movement and jumping that will eventually escalate into new tiers such as boosting and ground pounding. This would be an extremely big project, though, so I think I'll work on the big stuff first.

As for personal stuff, communication with my best friend has gotten a little better. It's still going to be hard to keep things moving, but right now it's looking possible and very doable. The next time I see her I'm going to do this to her. >:3

Haven't given up on Harvey Brawl or Diablo, but I'm procrastinating an awful lot. HB's multiplayer has SO much script and I cannot stand weeding through all of it. Also some bugs I can't get to the bottom of. Diablo requires a LOT of trial-and-error for me to establish a decent balance of stats, but I really don't feel like working on that either. Also I've been thinking a little about Twins V3, which was a noble idea but can't be expanded much. The presentation's still amazing, though, and it's black and white so I may release a demo and then call it quits on that.

Overall I haven't been too motivated to do anything, but at the same time I feel kind of restless. On the upside, I found a Sylosis music video in my subscription box from NBE, and I'm totally turned onto this band now. The music is truly incredible.

PS: I may end up in juvy in the near future. If I vanish off of Newgrounds, the few people who care will know why :P

I wish I still had my board game for that so damn bad. Sadly we gave it back to my uncle who had owned it originally. I guess it's supposed to remind him of his god-awful childhood while he dies of bowel cancer. Whoever gave it to him is a real nice pal. >:P

On the note of Harvey Brawl, two things are keeping me from uploading it now. One is I still don't have Tyson's voice samples. The other is that Multiplayer is a complete mess. There's TONS of script EVERYWHERE and fussing with it is too big of a hassle. I dread the day when the voice samples finally come in because I know then I'm going to have to go clean it up. *Shudders*

As for the Diablo tribute, it's coming along nicely, although there are a few kinks to work out. Most of it is balancing damage, which is going to require one golden line of code. The problem here is making sure that stats, abilities, and equipment are equally important, and even more crucial, making sure it stays that way as the game progresses. This means I'm probably going to have to have something like:
(((stat*?)*(*level*?)) * ((equipStrength*?)*(*level*?)) * ((abilityStrength*?)*(level*?)))
... The problem is filling in those question marks is going to be a nightmare. Stats increase up to 5 per level, equipment strength ranges from 1-9, but each new level the items you get are buffed 10% in all stats, and ability strength ranges from 1-9 and stays that way. If someone can give me an algorithm that stays balanced for a few dozen levels I'll be their sex slave.

Alright, time for stupid videos. Huzzah!

Well while I try to convince Taylor to get Tori's and Tyson's voice clips for Harvey Brawl, I might as well work on Diablo PSP. And I might as well make some cash off of it too.

I've been trying to get free stuff via SwagBucks... Which is a search engine like Google, only you get points for searching, which can be traded in for their prizes, one of which includes an Amazon gift card! The best part is that the site is free, so I can slowly accumulate points and get stuff just for searching on it. Maybe it's commercial, but look at Google! They've gotten more and more commercial, and the new Image Search and Google Instant are annoying as hell! The SwagBucks interface is much nicer, and more profitable.

And because I'm trying to reel in free stuff myself, I'll let you see what I have so far in my Diablo tribute if you sign up under my referral link and win me SwagBucks. Cheap, I know... But I have stuff I want to buy. Once again, Diablo PSP will function on the PSP! Unfortunately, it's going to lag pretty badly but I'm going to optimize it such that it will run!

EDIT: Please post the name you used to sign up for SwagBucks so I know who to approve for viewing my game... I have two new referrals, but I don't even know who they are! :P

In other news, FlashChickBoom challenged me to an RHG battle and I'm currently winning in the poll on FluidAnims. Yay, Chakra Evo now has an arm! :D

Also, here's a small feature from my Diablo tribute; randomized equipment! See below...

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Chakra Evo is my new RHG. Anyone want to challenge him? Shoot me a message if you think we'd have a decent battle.

Harvey Brawl is kind of at a dead stop. I have pretty much what I want with it, but I'd be sad if medals weren't approved and I had to submit it... So I'll wait for Tyson and Tori to scrap up some voices for it, then submit. The bug with multiplayer is still there, and you can't view the tutorial after a Custom Battle. I'll have to find some way around those, but I'll probably just come up with a really lazy fix.

I'm also making a game for PSP Flash Zone, which is basically a Diablo tribute for the PSP. Shinsukelto has already done the music for me, and hopefully Dilan will help me debug it. This is my first project with stats, abilities, and equipment, so pinpointing how much damage you do based on all three is going to be a pain in the ass. Still, it could be worse.

Also, in the back of my mind I've been thinking about holding a game collab where you have to accumulate points, playing through each little game for about 15 seconds each. Nothing's confirmed yet, as I'm kind of busy with my own projects, but it could be kind of fun. Maybe I'll get lucky and be able to join someone else's collab instead.

Oh, and FlashChickBoom got back to me about the game we were going to do. We barely have anything yet, so I'm not sure where we're going with this, but I have all of the script necessary for the game engine so I guess I'll just put scripting on his graphics as they come in.

Lastly, here's a bunch of quotes. Brownie points go to anyone who can tell me where they came from:
"Love is of being; hate is of doing."
"Why be loyal to an authority that has not been loyal to you?"
"What good is heaven if we're all subjected to one idea of what heaven can be?"
"What character traits are present in a God who only surrounds himself with people who believe in and accept him?"
"If you're going to heaven then I get eternal damnation either way."
"God is Satan's favorite disguise."
"What we need is to think as individuals and act together. Right now we're thinking together and acting independently."
"When I see someone walking down the street, I try to be optimistic and acknowledge that they're slowly dying."
"Life is a race. The winners are the people that get to the end the fastest without cheating. On second, thought, maybe the cheaters win after all."
"We live in a world where everything is possible, yet everything is so infinitely improbable that nothing is conceivably possible."

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Oh, and I've been listening to Apocalyptica and Voltaire. Can you tell? ^-^

I'm still accepting beta testing requests for this game, but please put both your requests and feedback under this post, as I'm more likely to see it here.

WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE?

I think I've heard intelligence described as how fast you can learn, or how quickly you can pick up and store knowledge. This doesn't make sense, though, as a computer has an IQ of 0, yet we can transfer information onto it with a USB drive without 'increasing' a computer's IQ at all. This would also mean someone with no problem-solving ability who was still able to memorize things with astonishing ease would be highly intelligent. Subsequently, autistic children who have a special skill (such as a child who falls behind severely in most subjects but excels marvelously in one subject) could be categorized as intelligent. Within that definition of intelligence, there's so much debate going on but there are so many people that make really stupid decisions no matter how much they know.

So is intelligence your ability to apply the knowledge you have? Warmer. You might call that 'problem solving', and indeed people who can solve problems and puzzles very quickly, and oftentimes with unconditional answers and an ability to think outside the box, are thought of as intelligent, resourceful, or even ingenious. But if you tell someone the solution to a puzzle, they can't solve that puzzle without instantly recalling the answer that was given to them. So what trait does is possessed by an individual who can come up with their own answers to puzzles despite how diverse the puzzles are? (Diverse meaning math, physics, arranging things, etc.)

Adaptability. Adaptability is what gives us the edge over all of the creatures on Earth, and it's what makes us intelligent. We adapt to our environment like no other species... Now you may be saying a virus or a cockroach is adaptable, but their adaptions are genetic. In fact, a cockroach doesn't adapt at all! It's simply resistant to various sources of danger. As for viruses, they don't have to change their behavior at all; they mutate and continue the same pattern of behavior. We're the only creatures that physically change our behavior based on our environment.

In terms of intellectually and socially, more intelligent people tend to adapt better as well, although some are much more adaptable than others. People that are willing to see things differently and form new neural pathways are simply smarter.

Now for the origin of stupidity: Someone who can't adapt is a victim of our surrounding environment. Someone who easily buys into tradition and works happily under a boring or repetitive lifestyle is usually less intelligent, and are positively creating FEWER neural connections than someone with more variety in their life. However, many people remain largely unintelligent, or fail to live up to their potential because we still have a tendency to repeat ourselves the way other organisms do, and the organisms before them, and the physical principles before THEM. We live physically within a cycle of birth, maturity, reproduction, and death, while living a cycle of consuming food and producing excrement. Our lives our dependent upon water and sunlight, which go in a cycle of evaporation and rain. Our planet revolves in circles, and we have a repetition of seasons, as well as a cycle of day and night. Music is also very much a product of our life in this universe, as it too is dependent on repetition.

Whether we adopt these mementos of repetition consciously, subconsciously, or if we are metaphysically linked to the world around us can be debated.

SECRETARY REVIEW:

Secretary is about a former mental patient coming home from an institution (Lee) who tries to find a job. She finds one as a secretary working under a lawyer (Edward) and their relationship takes a more personal turn from there. Thankfully the film is not boring, as it's spliced with scenes depicting BDSM and other sex stuff, but it lacks what the film is desperately trying to provide. Secretary was written with the intention of showing the viewers that the D/s scene isn't as alien as so many people make it out to be. No matter how rough it gets or how much rope you use, doms and subs care about each other as much as any other couple. What annoys me about this is that it fails to deliver this, having little middle room between romantic scenes and scenes that are just plain wild, and the film portrays little connection between the two. As if to patch this with more romance, the last few scenes of the film become increasingly cliche and lovey-dovey. Furthermore, the film is geared very much women who are new to the D/s scene entirely. I say women because the film exerts tons of effort into making Edward as appealing as possible, almost to a fault because of how overdone it is. And the bondage itself is never really discussed that much, and there were no conversations about social norms or acceptance at all. All in all the film seemed very empty and the scenes were sometimes cliche lovey-dovey shit or borderline pornographic, but seldom in between. Interesting idea but poor execution. 6/10

I've realized if I want my (not so) secret project to be any good, people are going to have to test it, and the more the better. Harvey Brawl is my fan tribute to Electric Man 2, and it's also the first game I've made about specific people. The characters in it are my sister's boyfriend and his two brothers.

I have the beta uploaded in two places. On the Newgrounds Dump is a version anyone can view, but I will update it less often. The one I'm going to be updating more often is the beta testing page, although you need my approval before you can view it. Just leave a comment and I'll add you.

The reason I'm doing this is to hear about any bugs in my game and general gripes, so while I like to hear praise, criticism is way more important. Also, I've been adding people and they haven't been pointing out any bugs or telling me what they like or don't like at all. GIVE ME FEEDBACK!

THINGS TO MENTION:
- I'm thinking about mixing up some of the players' stats, such as how much damage they take from attacks, how much damage they take before being knocked over, how quickly they knock over opponents, etc. Tell me what you think of this idea and if you have any additional details.
- Currently Taylor is the only character with any voicing, as I'm getting voices done by the original people. Tell me what you think of the voice acting, how to improve, and what you might like for the other characters.
- Multiplayer is currently working for Taylor vs. Tyson, although there are a few bugs I'm trying to iron out. Point them out!

THINGS NOT TO MENTION:
- The scoreboards are not currently functioning.
- The whistle-blower is currently a placeholder. It will be replaced with the characters' mother later.

This is how my game looked two weeks ago, though I've done lots of work on it since:

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Did you know that every time someone looks at your page, you get money from ad impressions on your profile page? I know it's awesome, right?

Thanks to all of you poor suckers who clicked my profile from this thread. You just gave me money! Don't you feel so generous now? :D

Moving on to actual news, I've got a big new Flash project coming along (keeping the specifics secret) and I'm trying to get medals and ads approved for it. As projects go it's coming along REALLY quickly, although it's still going to be a while before I get the NG API figured out. Not only that, but I'm soloing the graphics for this one and I have to trace over stick figures with full-body... For hundreds of frames. The AI is going to be hard to make, too. Picture unrelated, just to fool people who aren't reading this.