You know what really pisses me off? People down voting my flash cause I'm black.

That was a joke.

But all joking aside, I wanted to post something on the issue of racism. This is really a stream of my thoughts.

I've been visiting the Website of Stormfront.org, and it's really been wracking my mind. I'm black, and the people on SF blatantly hate me and everyone else of African descent. If you ask why, they'll flaunt statistics in your face. They'll bring up history. They'll say Africans haven't contributed to the world in any way. It makes me feel mad and sad at the same time. Why can't I just dig up some great African contribution to the world from the back of my head. Why can't they accept everyone in the world as individuals? I've done nothing to harm them but once I told people on the website I was black I was shunned out.

I mean, I can't deny it. Black people do have a tendency to crime more then other races. Very few communities in America have a black majority and are not excessively into gang culture. Could I say that the white man keeps up down? I could, but that wouldn't mean anything. Facts are facts, and that's all that people from SF flaunt in your face. (I'm using Stormfront as generalization for all White Supremacists)

Is it fair that just because I was born black certain people hate me. No, and I accept that as the way things are, but still. I spoke to a Neo-Nazi a while ago, and the first thing he told me to do was get a job, not knowing anything about what I do or who I am. I actually came to him looking for him to do sprite work for one of my sponsored games. He told me he was a neo nazi and I told him I was black and he went into a rage.

I dunno, I just think it's so stupid for people to look into race like that. I mean, people on SF seem to let race rule everything they do in life. One guy said that he wasn't happy with his life because he had a child with a woman of a different race. Then he turned around and agreed with someone who said that anyone who isn't 99% white is a "mud". I mean, hypocrisy at it's finest. But then he goes back and says that he loves his daughter and that he's showing "White traits'

I was born in a majority black town, and I never got into Hip Hop culture, into gangs or anything like that. It's like it all just floated over my head, I still don't listen to much Hip Hop today. But just going back there feels so much different then where I live now. I don't want to say it's dirtier, but it is. And I just can't deny it, that the place where I grew up isn't as good as I want it to be.

Letting the comments of people on SF get to me is really just what they want, but I can't help it. I don't feel inferiority, cause I know that I, as an individual, am no better or worse then most people. But African American's as a whole could do better on crime statistics. I wish I could just go and tell people to shape up, and they would.

I was watching a show of the boondocks the other day about Martin Luther King coming back to life and guiding black people in the right direction, and I wish I could just make some smart comment to get people on track, but I can't. And it's fustrating. The most I can do to show these people that the black race doesn't spawn crime is to do well myself, and live my life to the best of my ability.

www.Stormfront.org

Go there if you want to read more. I hope no one gets converted to their way of thinking by this post.

My train of thought.

Why don't people review as they vote? Or at least review and vote better. A lot of people vote either 0 or 5 based on if it was decent or not, and that really seems ridiculous. Why only use the top and the bottom choices for voting. I think it's because people are too lazy to actually review a submission fully.

Like on reviews, when people give a movie a review score of below 4, do you REALLY think that the flash you reviewed deserves a score of 4? I can understand if it's not your type of movie, but when you give a movie a 0 is basically saying that you feel that it shouldn't even be on the site. If a movie isn't your cup of tea, you should still review apathetically (did I use that word right?)

At least that's what I think. A review is always going to be your opinion but I think you should try to take some of the personal feelings out of reviewing and voting and look at work from a neutral standpoint. Like, every so often I'll go to one of the top 50 submissions and look for people who 0 it. I mean, do these people really feel that those movies deserved to be blammed?

Look at these reviews for Waterlollies. I can't really say it makes me mad, but damn.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/revie ws/408967/469/score

Good animation, but who wants to see something hopping around for 8 minutes? Waterlollies didn't even have much hopping in it from what I remember, seeing as how he was incapacitated. Like, people are giving Waterlollies a 4 because they think that the story sucked. Does that submission really deserve a 2.00 because the story wasn't up to par with you?

Look at this guy. http://nosoupforu.newgrounds.com/revie ws/

I mean, if your going to try to review things, at least try to be consistent. He gave Waterlollies a 4, Awesome Racer a 6 and Awesome Center Redux a 9. IMO there are so many contradictions in that kind of reviewing.

I dunno. Just something I was thinking about, I had to put it somewhere. I'm not complaining about the site or how it's going downhill blah blah blah, I'm just saying that reviews don't really seem to correlate to what people think the movie should be rated anymore.

I'm looking for an artist for this game.

http://spamtheweb.com/ul/upload/160808 /49134_Ship_Wars.php

Someone who can do overhead pretty well, and draw overhead cities, islands and some cutscenes.

Before I go any further, let me say this. I most likely won't give you 50% for doing any art on this game. Expect like 25-35%, unless you completely blow your ass off on doing art for this game. I know this may not seem like much, but my last game I made 4k$ from, at 25% that would be 1000$. I'm looking to make 5k+ from this.

really feel as though my job of programming and writing the story on this game is much more work. I understand how an artist contributes to a game, but seriously, in most cases when I work with an artist I do like 80% of the work. You can call me greedy, but yeah.

If I get a good artist I could expect this game to be done by Mid-late October. I'm found myself having to stop development quite a bit because I suck too much to even make decent placeholder graphics, and I'm just getting frustrated at myself for having such bad graphics in this game.

I am completely devoted to getting this project done.

EDIT
I think I found someone who would want to work with me.

Account name:

Skeik

Fuck, forget it.

What a time for my Xbox to break.

Now I know it's not much of an update on the Pirates game, but I have started working on it again :P

I want to go the project alone, so I'm going to be making all the art myself, no matter how much I have to trace and reference. It may make the game not as look good in the long run but I think it's kind of liberating to not have to work with someone on a game. The only limitations are the limitations I put on myself.

So here, this is basically how the game is going to start out, in the thundering rain with you fighting Leviathan. I'm not going to show any more story then that, and this little preview here shows you different cannon types.

Use WASD to move,mouse to shoot and P to pause. Leviathan is there only as an art sample.

http://spamtheweb.com/ul/upload/160808 /49134_Ship_Wars.php

I feel stupid most of the time when I get a sponsor :/ Apparently I made a deal too quick, like I do all the time.

But other then that, Best Friends Forever 2 is out. You can play it at this link.

http://www.mofunzone.com/online_games/
best_friends_forever_2.shtml

It'll be coming to newgrounds in a little bit :( Theres a few bugs in there somewhere, making it impossible to pass level 14, but yeah.

http://spamtheweb.com/ul/upload/190608 /33115_Main.php

http://spamtheweb.com/ul/upload/190608 /33138_Main_with_BFF.php

I got an idea for this last night, so I made it.

New stuff going on, new alpha out. Next update I put up is going to be a huge improvement from this. Speech will be improved with actual people talking, I'll have an island done, and HP will be implemented. So far I don't think I really need an artist, but I would like someone to make the HUD and GUI crap for me. When I'm more done then I am now, I'm going to advertise for someone to do that for me.

http://www.ucuaah.com/up/view/12504995 _Ship%20Wars.swf

Controls.

WASD to move, overworld and on the island.
Left Click to shoot your cannons. Hold down Q or E while shooting to make only one side of the cannons shoot.

When the red text DOCK is visible, press space to go into dock mode.
WHile on the island, you can talk to the cassette tape using SPACE. The rest from that point is obvious :/

I've begun work on having more landforms then just islands, and actually getting people to speak on islands. The system I have working on the islands for speaking is going to be very similar to the way Well of Souls (http://www.synthetic-reality.com/) does it, because I'm used to that. You guys should really play that game, it's awesome :D

http://www.ucuaah.com/up/view/Ship%20W ars.swf

But yeah, controls.

Space to dock on island, WASD to move, click to shoot.

On island, WASD to move, and when you're touching the cassete tape looking thing inside the house, Hit SPACE to talk to him, and click the mouse button anywhere to advance the convo. Not really finished, but I'm just so PROUD of what I have so far I had to show it :D

The conversation system will allow me to have NPC's remember things you've done, and have them affect you outside of islands, which I geuss is necessary XD.

I'll may be looking for an artist to most likely do 60-40% profit share (favor of me >_> <_<) in the future. Keep it in mind if you're interested, but I'm not looking for a partner yet, not until I have a good idea of where I want this to go.

This year I want to establish myself as a decent flash author. I don't want to make much more short and crappy mini-games. I want to have made games that don't just show me as a capable programmer but also as a capable game designer. Something for my portfolio, you know. Little things that I've made so far may be okay, but I want something to blow people away, to make myself look good and to get known a little bit.

So my goals for this year are to finish these games, which I already have a lot of things done for. I want to finish 2 of these 3 games, with assistance from no one but the audio portal and the occasional voice actor.

Gradium Number 2: Title Undecided.

This game will be a hybrid of a platformer, space shooter and an RPG. Highly inspired by the idea of Sigma Star Saga, even though I've never played it. I have a lot of ideas for this game, and this is the one game that I want to be done the most, but probably not first.

Ship Wars: Title Undecided

This game would be a game where you took the role of a pirate, sailing the seas and doing piratey crap.

Great Adventures: Title Undecided. I suck at making titles.

I have absolutely nothing done on this game except a few character designs and item designs. I don't feel like explaining it right now but this game could be something great. I'm pretty excited about this one too.

I want to get all these games done + 2 more before the end of my Senior year, but these are the ones I have planned already. Expect to see Gradium and Great Adventures soon, lol.