I've noticed a lot of artists have made blog posts in the past day but none have made any on the front page, so I thought I should test it in case that part is broken.

@SushiGummy is a committed Alien Hominid speed runner and he recently broke his record. It's a fun watch, especially if you've never seen all of Alien Hominid!

In semi-related news, this past weekend my cat Charlie died. :(

Charlie made an appearance in Alien Hominid as part of the Norman boss battle, around the 38 minute mark.

This cameo was inspired by Charlie regularly sleeping on top of @DanPaladin's monitor while we were working. This was 2003, before flat screen monitors, so there was lots of room for a cat to lay around and it was warm.

I actually have a photo of Charlie sleeping on Dan's monitor but I can't find it anywhere on my computer, I think it's an actual physical photograph because all my digital pictures start right after Alien Hominid was finished. I hope to find it and update this post but here's an alternate pic for now:

My other cat Sherbert was more well-known around here because he was the face of Cat Dynamics and made appearances on NG during the college webcam days. Charlie was my favorite, though. I've had him since I was finishing up at Drexel and he's been through a lot with me. He was the best cat.

Tomorrow I'll be flying out to San Diego for Comic-Con, where you'll be able to find Nightmare Cops and myself at the Behemoth booth (#229) as part of the Friends of the Behemoth showcase.

This Nightmare Cops demo is the result of years of work, with a big push this month to have a demo build for Comic-Con. I'm the programmer, with @JohnnyUtah and @Spazkid on art and @Oney on music. Nightmare Cops will be an official Newgrounds release.

Guest voices in the demo include @RicePirate, @JazLyte, @RomeoJr and @L0LitsMonica! There's a ton of dialog in this game and it's all lip-synced using Talk Head. We made Talk Head in 2012 for this purpose, that is how crazy this project is.

So yeah, you're cops who fight people's nightmares! It's got a whole fully realized world with tons of people who have different perceptions of each other but more importantly you beat the crap out of lots of bad guys and can drive all over town smashing stuff. Pretty much everything in the overworld is breakable for no reason other than we know people will want ot break it.

Here are some teaser screenshots!

Heads up, I'll be at San Diego Comic-Con next month, showing Nightmare Cops at the Behemoth booth (Booth 229).

Nightmare Cops is the game I've been working on for the past five years with @JohnnyUtah and @Spazkid, along with @Oney on music. It's gonna be a Newgrounds release for console / Steam... SOME DAY! It's by far the biggest project any of us have ever undertaken but it will be worth it.

We've been pretty quiet about it because people seem to get exhausted with games that hype too soon and then have a many-year dev cycle. It's a delicate balance between wanting publicity but wanting to feel FRESH when we launch. Comic-Con is the first time anyone outside of the Newgrounds office will be taking NC for a spin.

Comic-Con is Thursday, July 20th thru Sunday, July 23rd!

So PewDiePie just released a one hour video where he plays our game about The Room.

I made this game in 2010 with @JohnnyUtah and @Oney. I love that people are still enjoying it.

If you haven't already, check out The Room.

I also recommend reading The Disaster Artist, about the making of The Room.

There's also a documentary, Room Full of Spoons! They interviewed me about the game.

James Franco is making a feature film adaptation of The Disaster Artist, so more fun is up ahead.

Here is some music I listen to while I'm programming, if I'm not listening to the Audio Portal.

I found Hussle Club via this Com Truise remix which is the one I actually listen to more:

I wish all these guys hung out on NG, I want to be friends with all of them.

I need to blog more often but I like keeping this game secret and I don't feel too interesting beyond that. What are YOU up to? What do you hope to get done before 2017?

I keep procrastinating on a larger Pico Day post because it's hard to put it all into words. We're planning a photo archive in the history section of the Wiki but here are some pics now:

The crowd on floor 1, where we project NG animation on the wall.

Photo by Bill Z.

Here's a panoramic of floor 2:

@The-Swain and @Krinkels, taking a break from Madness: Project Nexus 2.

Photo by Bill Z.

I drew @Stamper on a balloon and @ZJ tweeted a picture so I'll include that too:

Just about every person at this event was someone you may be familiar with here on NG. It's kinda the craziest event in the world for someone who likes web animation in particular. I just feel super grateful that they all came to the NG office for a party.

@RealFaction made a video documenting his experience!

That's all for the moment, I'm off to announce the Pico Day winners!

For the past three years I've been working on a console / PC game with @JohnnyUtah. @Spazkid came onboard too and @Oney has been doing music. Expect a ton of familiar NG voice talents when all is said and done.

We've been pretty silent about it because it's a big project and if we show too much too soon, it might feel like an old game by the time it actually comes out. I posted this Vine of it though so I thought I should share it! Turn up your volume because it's quiet (also click the speaker in the bottom right corner to enable Vine audio).

UPDATE: Vine shut down so the Vine content I had posted here is now gone.

At some point we'll do a more official reveal and stop being all secretive. It's gonna be a really neat game. Right now we're getting the other playable characters working so people can try them at Pico Day this May.

I once made a habit of documenting all the events and at some point I felt like I was on repeat / overwhelmed and there were just too many events to cover. I'm gonna make an effort to change that and at least blog some pictures after events.

PAX Prime was this past weekend in Seattle and we had the biggest booth ever for the Behemoth; I couldn't even capture it in a single picture. This is just part of it:

To the left is the Pit People demo area and to the right is a wall of arcade cabinets with Castle Crashers, Alien Hominid, BattleBlock Theater and Back Off Barbarian, a new mini-game to be released with Castle Crashers Remastered.

There was some great cosplay, including this Pink Knight:

And this Red Knight:

We also saw some cool tattoos:

If feels pretty amazing when someone has your game tattooed on their body.

Stamper was letting people draw on him so I added this:

But then I felt bad so I changed it to a badass skull:

That night I was having dinner with Tommy Refenes and his family and everyone was laughing at a fart joke while I was busy on my phone. Tommy's wife noted how I was the only mature person at the table, so I flipped my phone around and explained to them that I was texting Mike a picture of the dick I drew on Stamper. I'm not sure if this story was worth sharing but I was amused. And I got to name drop Tommy because he's SUPER FAMOUS after Super Meat Boy / Indie Game the Movie!

The complete list of NG people at PAX included @Stamper, @RicePirate, @Funy-mony, @Fungasm,@oryozema, @MisterChris, @PuffballsUnited, @Tommunism, @Glaiel-Gamer, @BoMToons, @Mike, @jouste, @BerzerkStudio, @TadakuniAmano, @DjCUTMAN and @Xerus. It was great seeing everyone!

I also got to meet lots of cool game devs and play lots of exciting new games. The Indie Megabooth and the PAX 10 are always two of my favorite spots to check out.

My typical day at PAX:

1) Wake up @ 6AM, call April back home.

2) Run downstairs for an iced coffee (quicker to consume than hot), yogurt, banana and muffin.

3) Hotel Gym (did a good job this year, 4 of 6 mornings)

4) Shower

5) Wander PAX

6) Bloody Marys for lunch

7) Wander PAX

8) Blood Mary Booster

9) Signings from 4-6 (closing)

10) Moscow Mules and some sort of dinner.

11) Reasonable bedtime between 11pm-1am (trying to get better at not feeling pressure to stay out super late).

The best news is I've been back for a few days and apparently have not gotten sick. Also no hangovers. I'm starting to feel like an unstoppable convention machine but I probably just caught a lucky break.

Here's a picture of RicePirate surprising me during teardown:

That's all, folks!