Newgrounds
is a very popular Web Animation and Web Games site created by Tom Fulp, where you'll find far over 240,000 Adobe Flash animations and games submitted, watched and played by over 6,000,000 users. It's quite big, in other words. The site's owner, Tom Fulp, started the site to showcase his flash in the late '90s, but soon other artists began to ask him if they could appear in the site too.
This eventually led to the creation of the Internet's first automated portal, where users submit their flash to the site and users of the site then vote to see if the animation should continue on the site ("saved") or should be deleted ("blammed"). The site has grown considerably since then. For a more detailed history of the site, see their page here.
Like YouTube and other user generated sites, you'll find flashes that are close to True Art (check out some of the stuff below!) and flashes that are as bad as you might expect from such a large collection of animation. Indeed, some groups like to submit bad flashes just to laugh at the reviews (the worst ones generally don't last long before getting blammed). And the site has great deal of very, VERY NSFW content (when they say adult content, they mean it!). You've been warned.
Newgrounds also features audio portal where people can listen and download user-made songs for free and use it in their works. They also have an art portal where the content differs greatly from the art found in DeviantArt.
If you wish to get an even better idea about with all this is about, check out this video by kaptainkristian about the site's history and role in the evolution of animation and Internet media. Newgrounds user thewax70 captures the spirit of the site and its motto quite effectively in this Flash animation, which features more than 40 of Newgrounds' original animations and games. There's also this interactive collab released for the site's 20th anniversary featuring several of the site's iconic creators and characters. In reverence to all of the above, the Tankman is set to appear as an assist in the Indie Mascot Fighter Fraymakers.
In preparation of Flash's 2020 end of life, Newgrounds is designing its own Flash player to preserve its 20+ years archive of content.
Notable content originating from Newgrounds:
- Abobo's Big Adventure
- Aether
- Air Pressure
- Alien Hominid
- Alice Is Dead
- Assassin
- BattleBlock Theater
- Belial
- Billy's Big Adventure
- The Binding of Isaac
- The Bright in the Screen
- Button Game Series
- Castle Crashers
- Coil
- Colour My Series
- Covetous
- Dad Series
- The Dead Case
- Depict1
- Don't Shit Your Pants
- Epic Battle Fantasy series:
- Everybody Edits Flash
- Exmortis
- Fancy Pants Adventures
- Final Fantasy Sonic X
- Freak O Lantern
- Friday Night Funkin'
- :the game: (2008)
- Goliath The Soothsayer
- Gretel and Hansel
- Grey Matter
- Gyossait
- Henry Stickmin Series
- Hot Dog Bush
- The Impossible Quiz
- A Koopa's Revenge
- Lab of the Dead
- Larry and the Gnomes
- Mad Karate Man
- Mad Sisters' Week Off!!!
- Mario Mario Ace Attorney
- Meat Boy
- Miami Shark
- Myosotis
- Newgrounds Rumble
- no-one has to die.
- Papa Louie Arcade
- Pause Ahead
- Perdition
- Phoenotopia
- Pico
- Platform Racing
- Pretentious Game
- Reachin' Pichin
- Relive Your Life
- Riddle School
- Road of the Dead
- Ronin: Spirit of the Sword
- The Room: The Game
- A Small Talk at the Back of Beyond
- Snailiad
- Sonic RPG
- Super Mario 63
- Super Smash Flash
- Time Fcuk
- Toss the Turtle
- Tower of Heaven
- Triachnid
- The Ugly
- USS Enterprise: A Cadet's Adventure
- The Visit
- Wasted Youth
- You Only Live Once
- Animator vs. Animation
- Arfenhouse
- asdfmovie
- Awesome Series
- Barney Bunch
- Baron Von Brunk
- Blockhead
- Bowser's Kingdom
- Brackenwood
- brewstew
- Broken Saints
- Bunnykill
- Burnt Face Man
- The Cartoon Chronicles Of Conroy Cat
- CCC
- Charlie the Unicorn
- The Clock Crew
- Colin Mochrie vs. Jesus H. Christ
- Decline of Video Gaming
- The Demented Cartoon Movie
- Dot Dot Dot
- DR. BEES
- Ducktalez
- Eddsworld
- ENA
- FF7: About Random Battles
- Final Fighting Fantasy
- Floating Hands
- Four Swords Misadventures
- Friday Night Hunkin'
- GHOSTBLEED: The Bio Horror
- Girl-chan in Paradise
- Greasy Tales
- Half Full
- HANDS UP (Joel G)
- Hartrup and Oatly
- The Kingdom Hearts Chronicles
- Kofi
- Las Estupideces De Mario
- Leo and Satan
- Little Runmo
- LOVEWEB
- Lucky Day Forever
- Madness Combat
- Melvins Macabre
- MILKDUST
- Monkey Wrench
- Monster Lab (2021)
- Mortal Kombat Vs Street Fighter
- Nameless (2005)
- Narez
- Nazo Unleashed
- NCHProductions
- Neurotically Yours
- Nintendo Old School Revolution
- Not Another Sprite Fight
- Pencilmation
- Perfect Kirby
- Phoenix Wrong
- Potter Puppet Pals
- Pube Muppet
- The Real Legend
- Retarded Animal Babies
- The Return Of Ganondorf
- Salad Fingers
- Saturday Morning Watchmen
- Siblings
- Sock Series
- Sonic Shorts
- Spooky Month
- Starbarians
- Starbomb
- Sublo and Tangy Mustard
- Super Mario Bros. Z
- Tankmen
- Team Teen Cartoon Heroes Unite
- T E T R I S ' D
- There she is!!
- The Thwomps
- TMNT Rebels
- TOME
- Tomorrow's Nobodies
- The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny
- VG Exiles
- Wacky Game Jokez, 4 Kidz!
- Waterman
- Weebl & Bob
- Xiao Xiao (originally from Chinese internet, made famous on Newgrounds)
- XIN
- Xionic Madness
- Xombie
The site itself features examples of these tropes:
- Achievement System: In 2008, an achievement system was added that allowed users to add medals to their games and movies.
- Animated Shock Comedy: With the dawn of Web 2.0, along with the release of the taboo-breaking trope codifier, the site's creators were encouraged to push the boundaries of both humor and technology. This trope would be phased out over time, as both technology and adult animation refined themselves throughout the new millennium.
- Ascended Fanboy: Several artists, musicians, animators, and various other notable artists have gone on to work for major studios, tour around the world, or start their own indie media labels.
- Butt-Monkey: The site's founder, Tom Fulp, is often on the receiving end of this, as people make him a target of their jokes or give him a silly cameo in their work, albeit mostly in an affectionate manner.
- Gotta Catch Them All: The secrets. With the redesign all but one are gone, but the crew is planning on creating new ones.
- Gorn: The "Ultra Violence" category is made up of ultra violent flashes.
- High-Pressure Blood: The site loves this.
- Mascot: Pico, Sergeant John "Tankman" Captain, and P-Bot.
- Medal of Dishonor: The "Turd of the Week" award was supposed to be this, as it was given to the lowest-scoring flash without being blammed. However, it encouraged many creators, particularly ones from The Clock Crew and other troll groups, to spam the portal with crappy flashes. While still present, it's no longer noted in the Classic Portal to discourage people from actively trying to go for this reward.
- Network Decay: The site gradually shifted away from its Vulgar Humor roots in favor of a more diverse portfolio of flash movies and games. This is reflected in the contrast between the old and new taglines. Raunchy works are still produced for the site, but they're no longer exclusively the focus of the site or its community.
- Not the Intended Use: After Geometry Dash update 1.9, many Geometry Dash players began to steal and upload content to the Audio Portal to use in Geometry Dash.
- On February 1st, 2017, Both TomFulp and Robtop announced fixes on both ends to resolve this issue ending conflict between both communities.
- Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: Most content lies on the silly end of the scale, but the website does have a "Drama" section for more serious works.
- Stick Figure Animation: A highly prevalent animation style seen on the site, seen across the spectrum of skill level and quality.
- Sturgeon's Law: Defied with the site's "blam" system, which allows users to vote flashes off the site. However, because Newgrounds has so many flashes to begin with, it's inevitable that crappy flashes will still slip through the cracks.
- Tank Goodness: The site's logo that has been used for years is the Tankman.
- Toilet-Drinking Dog Gag: There is a Flash animation called Water out of the Toilet. It is a faux ad where two dogs discuss the merits of drinking toilet water vs faucet water. The explanation for toilet water being better tasting for dogs is that well, humans do their business in the toilet.
