Heyo!

So I usually never do a recap post because I don’t feel like I’ve done enough to really fill one of these up. Usually it’s small things about project blahblah or whatnot, and I don’t usually talk in detail about my indie works.

Well, uh… a lot happened this year, so why not!

I just wanna recap my 2025 and all the projects that got done, worked on, and everything in between this year.

Garbage ‘n Hiatus

So I won’t lie, the year started off personally like garbage.

To put it very simply: everything stemmed from two projects I was formerly on, more specifically from two people on each project that were equal or higher in power than me. Despite the fact that everyone else was a joy to work with, it felt like those people invalided my opinions, my perspectives, and even my self; I felt like I had to cut all communications on every platform with them, because I was afraid that they’d continue to come after me if I didn’t; and I wasn’t okay with how I was acting and was afraid of my behavior spreading, even if it was just in response or in fallout to those two projects.

So starting on the same morning that I left the second of those projects, from early February to May, I went on an online hiatus. I only checked Discord maybe once a week for 30 minutes tops; I checked my Newgrounds account even less frequently; the only way to really contact me was through my phone or email.

On the one hand, it sucked what I missed. I wish I could’ve been with TGO for this year’s Treasure Hunt; I wish I could’ve taken some time to interact with people; I wish I had the chance for some opportunities that passed. I missed some stuff, and it sucks, but I have to accept that I can’t change that.

On the other hand, I refocused myself on my IRL endeavors and took more time outside, and it felt super refreshing. Granted the area I was in was appealing outside, but I needed that hiatus to take in the view. Basically I was soul searching in the first half-ish of this year, which is why next to nothing really came out of me during that time.

Who Dun It?

While Who Dun It was published early this year, my part for it actually was done late 2023.

I helped @AhWham and @MasterHand4444 on creating the script for this radio dramedy. It was basically a back-and-forth between all of us, but we knew the story before we put our hands on our keyboards.

Looking back at it, with this being one of the first scripts that I ever wrote for a project (alongside Vs Dami’s, more on that later), I’m lukewarm to my portion of it. It’s okay, but a signal that I need to really work on my comedy skills, which I’m hoping to continue working on going forward.

I was also interested in working on some music for it, but I ended up not having enough time and instead did some audio placements here and there. So really my only thing to show is the script.

I'm super happy MasterHand and Wham were able to get this done and I'm happy with how the final project turned out too! I'm lowkey curious in doing more things like this, but it may or may not come next year, who knows.

Whittle Me This

Back around October/November 2024 I found @ashmageddon ’s Collabinator post for their Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) capstone project. I hopped on board but didn’t do much until around February/March. Since I was already on hiatus, I kept in contact primarily through email but also found an excuse to wrap my IRL work into the film’s soundtrack.

Nothing that I did in the film is published, neither is the film itself, because it’s currently in its festival run. Once it gets out beyond the trailer, I’m happy to pop it up here!

It’s been a blast working with the team at SCAD. They’re all really good folks, and working with them also fed into my soul searching at the time: I wanted to make music for multimedia like animations or films, not just for myself or a few FNF mods (as much as I enjoy working on them!).

Indie Works

I didn’t have many indie works this year, since most of my time was taken by IRL time or projects. But I did have a couple releases this year!

One of them was “Hypnagogic”. It wasn’t originally an indie work, but its intended project got cancelled for lack of motivation. I liked it a lot though because it just had that vaporwave-y vibe that I’m really starting to enjoy and perfect as time goes on. So I got permission and published it on NG as an indie work. I still like it, and I think it was a good stepping stone to really dive into the genre.

The other was “the rainbows (above storm clouds)”. This one started off as indie, and I had gotten inspired from a label known as GWAVA, which is a calmer-house-esque label. I had also started really nailing down some production techniques at the time of making it, and I think it came out… okay? Decent enough.

School Night Seance

I actually hopped onto School Night in late 2024 when @Bleak-Creep posted a mockup and I expressed interest in making it happen. Back then, I was going to be the coder; however, due to both my insane lack of experience and the hiatus, someone else stepped in to code instead (honestly, really for the better).

I was actually originally a spectator for development at that point until I made the original Seance theme on a whim, and then that brought me on as a musician for the project alongside the wonderful @effieVision and @DjDieswyx . Being with them, as well as being with the team, was good since I got to work and learn with incredible people.

Working on an honest-to-goodness indie game was super refreshing, and to see the support that the game got is incredible. I’m really looking forward to helping Bleak’s game become reality, so look forward to more music for Seance in the near future!

Hermit Hero

…SplatterDash assisting in making a vocaloid song was nowhere on my bingo card either, but it was a pleasant surprise hehe

Back around September, my friend @twinkletraveler was interested in making a song for the competition involved with the upcoming Miku Expo. I of course was down to collab with them, and then that led to me hopping onto the song with aple and TheOnlyVolume!

It was tricky at first, since bringing stems back and forth between GarageBand and Ableton is not exactly easy, and we learned that the hard way. We learned that the hard way a lot. But at the time I was also learning Logic Pro, so that made the transitions a thousand times smoother. GarageBand plays way friendlier with Logic than Ableton, take my word for it.

Either way, I mainly added some smaller things in terms of composition and effects. Most of Star’s composition was already really solid, aple did the Miku tuning, and Volume did all the production-related stuff, mixing and mastering and whatnot. Honestly, what I did was kinda tiny compared to them and I legit don’t think I deserve a credit because it’s kinda insignificant-

Anyways, while we didn’t win (I wouldn’t be talking about it here if we did), we all had a ton of fun making it and it was a blast helping a friend make their debut as a Vocaloid artist. The music video’s coming soon, but do check out the audio-only version as there seems to be a hiccup with it not showing on my credited audio works…? Curious, but we ball.

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/project/7307269

Vs. Alfie: Moonlight Serenade

I know I keep talking about how refreshing it is to work outside of FNF mods, but I legitimately do still find joy in the FNF mods I work on. Alfie is 100% a mod where I find massive joy in working on it, even for the second/third time.

Moonlight Serenade includes the remix of Forest Fire that I did for the mod’s anniversary back in 2024, but soon after that I was thinking of doing a remix of Minimized from Megamix. I started on it, but I had trouble in the middle portion because I couldn’t separate my version from the original.

Mk later talked to me about doing a sequel of Minimized for Moonlight, to which of course I said yes. I took many of the ideas from the remix - the rock aesthetic mainly - and put them into something original but still distinctly Minimized-derived. Probably the hardest part was the first half, since I had trouble making a synth-pop portion that didn’t sound boring. It’s a lot harder than it looks.

We actually had more ideas for the song originally, including a sung verse or few in the final quarter as everything was distorting. Not even joking, I took a txt file’s worth of in-depth notes just to get the song right and put down lyrics for the original version.

I of course was still garbage at mixing and sound design, so Zeroh entered in and helped with advice for mixing the instrumental and creating Minus Alfie’s sound design. Of course I gave them credit in the song, but I don’t wanna understate how much help they were!

Later in the year Mk asked about pause themes for each character. Mk specifically asked for one base theme that could vary slightly between the characters, and since I saw the VHS aesthetic going on I decided to lean into more vaporwave! The approach I took was similar to this tutorial, only doing vaporwave techniques to the rendered audio instead of future funk techniques. Pro tip: if you want to do future funk without running into copyright, make and manipulate your own 80s pop songs!

Lastly, Mk asked me to do the general game over theme. I decided for that to just go simple and with a synth pop aesthetic. I was also experimenting with a Max 4 Live instrument in Ableton that’s part of Ableton’s Inspired by Nature pack. It’s kind of like a granulated synth, only the sample can vary speeds and go in any direction, including up. It was honestly really fun, even if it was simple, and I’ve been enjoying experimenting with this pack!

So yeah, working on Moonlight has been similar to working on previous Alfie projects: an absolute joy!

Vs. Dami

There are two mods that I’ve ever actively worked on for more than three years. One is @JRetrioX ’s Funkin In Time, which I’ve been working on since the Funkin Animation Jam back in March 2021 (and I really need to put more time into that honestly, which I hopefully can with newfound mixing n sound design skills).

The other is Vs Dami, which I started working on back in 2022. And just like how FIT is close to a demo, Vs Dami has its demo finally out and available!

Originally I was brought on for music, with the tutorial being the first song I ever worked on for it. I don’t remember what my thought processes were for the original pieces I made back then, which is fitting because barely any of the original piece’s drafts made it to the final cut. In fact, most of the original versions of my pieces never made it, I just didn’t like them, so most of my songs in the mod are second attempts at the tracks - as in, full from-scratch restarts.

The only ones that were first-attempt successes were the Credits theme (which was originally produced for the title screen) and the remix of Improbable Outset. It goes to show just how flexible you have to be when working on projects!

Of course, that’s not all that I did. The way I was given the chance to write the script was when the original script writer took a year before saying the script was “deleted” on one of their accounts (although we don’t know if they actually did anything or not because they never showed anything), and I just stepped up and did the entirety of V1’s script in a few nights. Obviously the script’s been through revisions, and as I looked at it later I tried making it tighter, but it’s… something. Again, just need to work on my comedy skills and still need to work on tightening things down, alongside some natural things. But it’s okay to me at the end of the day.

And then there’s the code. I wasn’t always the only person working the code, but the other people either left or got thrown out, so I stepped up and learned a lot, alongside having fun, with source-coding the mod. Some things didn’t work out - for example, we planned on possibly transferring to a different engine, but that engine’s right now on the other side of a severed bridge, soooo… - but I think the code services it well! I also learned a bunch about HaxeFlixel, which is honestly a joy to work with.

We’ll be going to Codename for V1, which I’m intrigued with, but it’s been fun working with all that Psych has to offer and all that’s been on Vs Dami. There’s also plenty more music coming for that soon, but that’s V1 stuff.

In the meanwhile, there’s still a few things being prepped in terms of releasing my music from demo. But it’ll be here on NG soon enough!

YouTube

Of all the stuff I did this year, only the Alfie stuff ever made it to YouTube, mainly because Mk had the visualizers done by someone else already. It’ll be the same story with the visualizers for Vs Dami, but even then they’re not on my YouTube. The Alfie ones are on Mk’s channel, and Dami’s are planned to be on Audity’s.

I’ll keep it real: I hate YouTube’s anti-creator stance that much. And as the year keeps going, that stance gets worse and worse and you’ll hear a lot more creators getting wacked-out strikes and actions against them. Case in point: on Christmas Day, a variety streamer named CesarFever got an active subathon stream stopped because he was watching a live-action Mario parody where they used guns. The appeal was rejected, and so was his outcry on Twitter (which, if you have to have creators go public with their issues before you actually fix them, why do you want to kamikaze your company that bad). And again, worst part is that it’s apparently not an isolated case, as other YouTubers are going through the same thing.

Good to know YouTube cares so much about COPPA and AIs reading people and content like book covers but can’t be bothered to invest in PR skills.

I know I glaze Newgrounds a ton, and I completely understand that the site has problems. But I love putting my work on Newgrounds and participating in the Newgrounds community because it isn’t just “pro-consumer” as the cool business kids say, but it has a soul.

So, in response to the whole YT stuff, you might’ve noticed my YT link is gone, and it will remain gone for the foreseeable future. It’s a shame that my last video for a while is what it is, but I’m not putting up a happy ending there. I’m not giving YouTube any more chances to make money off of me or any possibility to treat me like garbage.

Screw YouTube.

Final Thoughts

…what a year huh.

It started bad and honestly went from having barely any uploads to working my uploads like an air traffic controller in the final week of December so that I have no chance of overflooding the Audio Portal. And that’s the weird paradox I noticed in comparison to other years: despite having next to nothing throughout the first half, I ended up doing and showing a ton in the second, probably more than I have before.

And of course, that’s just been what’s released or completed. There’s still more that I did that hasn’t been out yet - Pingbert’s Snow Ride is coming soon and that’ll include my music on its OST; Seance is planned to come out soon, meaning more music for that; Funkin In Time will come with its demo hopefully soon; I’ve heard a few other mods I’m on will also have releases soon, meaning more music from that; and other things down the roads that I haven’t even talked about publicly, but we’ll cross them when we get there. It’s a thrill to be working with so many people and projects, so 2026 is looking great going into it.

And then there’s the IRL. I won’t get into detail with the IRL items for this year because, like always, Internet safety is a thing I take seriously. But it followed a similar path to my online life this year, and now I feel like I’ve made massive headways but also don’t know where to go from here. There’s been highlights too, including taking a night in October to go see Tokyo Machine & The Living Tombstone live (it was a blast hehe), but right now I’m just looking back and feeling like I’ve gone through a ton of change, yet I can still recognize myself.

Honestly, that’s been a theme of mine this year. Earlier this week I started putting all of my stuff into playlists to make it easier to navigate my items, and listening back to some of my content from even just a few years ago… I don’t know how some of it got frontpaged, but it’s crazy to think that I changed a lot in that time in terms of my skillset.

I’m hoping to keep that change going and for the better in 2026. Not just the change in my music skills, but the me change, the change that allows me to help and bring happiness to others.

There’s of course a ton of people that I’m thankful for this year, and a lot of them are people that I expressed my thanks to directly. But honestly I can’t thank my friends and people who knew me or support me enough. At the end of the day, seeing the people around me happy makes me happy, and I’m happy my works reached the people they did.

So thank you all for everything this year. There’s a bunch coming in 2026, and I’m looking as forward as I can to it with all of you. 💙