We rolled out a massive behind-the-scenes update this morning, touching on just about every part of the site with cleanup and consolidation. This change is largely invisible but if you experience any bugs, let us know in this thread. Include links, browser and OS info as well as screenshots if possible / helpful.

Known bugs: This update broke Postybirb (third party app) posting, where titles and ratings data are missing. Hopefully a Postybirb update will address this but we'll also look into possible workarounds. The visible HTML markup bug has been fixed!

One fix you might notice is if you ever edited a post with video embeds and the embeds were invisible in the text editor, they should now load in properly. Our long-standing issue with occasionally losing images in posts should also be resolved and no-longer buried in bandaids.

Other news - Round 1 brackets of the NG Audio Deathmatch have been announced.

Your votes are in and the Best of July have been decided!

Top Five Movies ($100 each + $200 for best Original)

The top movie based on original material and winner of $300 total is Salad Fingers. Congrats @Doki!

Top Five Games ($100 each + $200 for best Original)

The top game based on original material and winner of $300 total is Worm Paint. Congrats @TristoneThePerson!

@FuturecopLGF made a Best Games of July post, including a video where he plays every featured game and gives feedback!

If you’d like to help keep these prizes going, please consider becoming a Supporter!

Runner-Up Animation

6. Shotgun leg

7. Blamformers!: Revenge of the Blammed

8. The Legend of Zelda - Malo Mart

9. Scorchscape Part 2

10. SHAGGY vs SCOOBY

11. What If DELTARUNE was a Fighting Game [Pixel Animation]

12. lambs

13. Dragon Ball Deez: Cancer Arc

14. Immortality Killed The Witch

15. Shadow Wizard VS Mall Wizard 🧙‍♂️💥🧙‍♂️

16. GAMECADE | ep1: coin thief

17. The Magician's Brick

18. Memories For Sale

19. 64 Bits - Helldivers 2 Demake for Neo Geo/Arcades

20. The Fates Align

21. AIRBORNE - Episode 2 - Creations

22. 64 Bits - Dark Souls 3 Demake for NES

23. The Curse of Dracular - TRAILER

24. Aron or Kogan: Two Bowling Boys and a Baby

25. OCTOMOON - Short

26. GAME NIGHT

27. Solace: Letters

28. COMMERCIAL BREAK

29. ESOTERICA (CalArts film 2024)

30. Brain Dead

Runner-Up Games

6. The Newgrounds Bug Collab

7. Nefarius - The Last Wizard (Updated)

8. Summer Game

9. MEATY MAYHEM (The Full Experience) - Play this! Third on FutureCopLGF’s list.

10. HELLFIRE!

11. Late Awakening

12. Shaman Steps - Play this! Second on FutureCopLGF’s list.

13. the ancient little wizard

14. Wallpaper 2.0 Collab

15. MEATBALL the MITE - Play this! Top of FutureCopLGF’s list.

16. Pumpkin's Sky Tea

17. Patter

18. Planet Orbit

19. Add Town

20. Seeking Peace - Zombeez Jam Winner

Voter of the Month

The voter of the month and winner of honorary Supporter status is @seizureday!

Featured Art, Audio, Collabs and other highlights below!

Top Featured Art of July

@Maxicranky organized a downright splendid Darkstalkers 30th Collab, with various artists contributing to a mock player select screen!

@kinjir0 signed up this month and unloaded a feast for the eyes.

@creamjuicer69 graced the walls of NG with wonderful art.

@DeimosArt blew our minds with New Vegas fan art.

@Dreaminerryday shared a dreamy series of Darkstalkers art.

We were blessed with additional Darkstalkers art from @Speedo!

@IbraH-Toonz illustrated Some Yoshi.

@SuperPhil64 made a pixel art tribute to legendary Acadian country/folk musician Cayouche.

@KYOJXN fanned out on Sanji from One Piece.

@ImaSiphy animated a series of atmospheric pixel art pieces.

@AntonM keeps illustrating inspiring art of interesting characters.

@deernozone pondered Hellbenders in 2024.

@Zals illustrated official card art for a The Binding of Isaac 4 Souls booster pack!

@HushPuppE celebrated the Doctor Doom news with some villainous art.

@AnaPijamas introduced us to Entitty and enkitty.

@violxivc created a lowpoly Super Famicom throwback.

@SkeleMun imagined electrobots as umbrellas, with more great Alien Hominid Invasion fan art.

@TheShammah gave us our Ena fix with Digital Nightmare.

@PkBlitz announced his debut as a cover artist for Coffin Comics!

@Kyontara created a stylish series of Smiling Friends fan art.

It's raining aliens in this Invasion piece by @Oswelt.

@KornArt3 once again delivered the goods with Sonic and DBZ fan art.

@Kotico visualized a vibrant Rhythm Heaven Fever poster!

@DynamicAfro took us on a friendly stroll.

@ZeroSetsu shared their status with drawing Sagat over the years.

@Crisppyboat celebrated 25 years of SpongeBob with their signature style.

@izzzybopz and @Jmanvelez both illustrated R.O.B. for @DALAP's Subspace Emissary Collab.

@DoctorSpectre revisited Shin Godzilla with scary pixel art.

@ciralincixx warned us not to click those shady pop-ups.

@blu-pixl made groovy Jet Set Radio art for the impending Dreamcast Collab.

@cyangorilla shared illustrations made for Wizards of the Grimoire.

@inksaji took us underwater on the train with OC Spii.

@omegachainoboy shared a set of mythical pixel art commissions.

@jekstein made mesmerizing Ib art.

@donpeppi made PKettles pixel fan art!

@Frosty has been having Picayune Dreams.

Top Featured Audio of July

Winners of the Art Inspired Music Contest have been announced!

@maxxjamez and @RUNNER-BOY released Damage Control!

@HEXebyte shared an astounding series of songs made for a canceled game.

@littlbox and @Bitbeak teamed up on ROUNDABOUT, a comic and soundtrack album.

@JensVide made a series of free songs inspired by the vibe of popular game franchises.

@Barzoom created an alt version of a spirit forest theme from last year.

@Rostof crafted a Hideki Naganuma inspired beat for his OC, Kevvy.

@datboi7os shared lots of great music this month, including Precious Toxic Love.

@TheNewAge made an impressive song with only his voice.

@Reganati has the music for your video game.

@iammodus shared what started as a film score experiment at the start of the pandemic.

@JinZ organized the NG Touhou Music Collab!

@theforge128 composed a fanmade interlude for Terraria's Calamity mod.

@JoeyFreezeMusic performed a piano groove with an Eastern vibe, accompanied by synths and various instruments.

@QuartzoneTunes crafted musical lore, with a track that describes the events that led to the establishment of the Kingdom of Crystallia.

@MarquinRobes composed an 8 minute musical odyssey inspired by Chopin's ballades that tells the story of a person finding and gaining love.

@RogerThaKraken made a new take on Father-of-Death's song from Raze!

@SockDotClip shared a grand song with accompanying visuals.

@StarSignMusic created a catchy bop.

@ThatAndyGuy made background music for people who feel like they're in a visual novel or somethin'.

@MasterHand4444 and friends celebrated Christmas in July!

@shletty turned up the heat with a fun Summer Music Collab.

Listen to more in my July playlist!

Collab Roundup

@CrockettDK, @BeefyThunder and @Gray organized the new Transformers Collab.

@Emizip and @Frosty organized the NG Bug Collab.

@ElRandomGMD and @ejulia14 organized the Wallpaper 2.0 Collab.

@Maxicranky organized the Darkstalkers 30th Collab.

@Chuw-Croissantier organized the The Awesome Bird Collab.

@Stonmann organized the Pickle Collab.

@Samium69 organized The Great American Collab.

@ShyeNewgrounds organized the Forest Nature Art Collab.

Thank you everyone who puts in the work to make these collabs happen! It always feels great to see people all come together to create something.

Closing Thoughts

There were heavy hitters this month, with Salad Fingers celebrating 20 years, new episodes from big series like Bridge Kids, Nox, Melvins Macabre and NOXP, not to mention a new music video by @TheWeebl!

We saw impressive new arrivals, too, like @RileyWiggleWood, @ToadBurgerTV and @tunatigerhobbes, alongside all the other talented people who continue to make NG a magical place.

Thank you @Random-storykeeper for running the Art Inspired Music Contest!

If you missed it, Treasure Hunt Winners were announced. Thank you @SplatterDash, @The-Great-One, the judges and everyone who contributed gems!

Behind the scenes, we performed a massive cleanup and overhaul to the feed system, to improve performance and keep long-term growth under control. That project wrapped up this morning alongside the other site updates that rolled out.

We also introduced a New Calendar, linked from the front page, so I won’t be listing all the upcoming events in these posts anymore.

Thank you everyone who keeps making Newgrounds special! Thank you for also being patient while we do a lot of behind-the-scenes work this year. We do have more exciting updates coming before the year is over!

Congrats to the winners!

I thought I got an Art shoutout, but turns out its a shoutout for other's works in my collab, lol

Either way, all the art is great! Looking forward to seeing what August brings us!

'doh I had almost included Justice in there!

Packed up with good games and movies, as usual :)

Thanks for the mention! I really appreciate it, NG has been a warm welcome so far :)

Congratulations for all the winners of the Month!

And thank you Tom, for frontpaging the Wallpaper 2.0 Collab for 1 or 1½ weeks?, i am glad to contribute the collab!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR FEATURING MY SONG I'M REALLY GRATEFUL!! <33

Congratulations to all the winners, one day I'll be just like you.

Its always a great day when a talented individual makes their debut here - whether just starting out on here or migrating from somewhere else, you can never have too much talent in a place like this.

Its nothing flashy, but its pretty important - and when the rest of the web's enshittifying, any boost to site performance is a very welcome one.

Its by no means perfect IMO, but the new calendar's still a pretty great change. The changes I recommended aren't anything that major, so feel free to leave them on the backburner.

When those exciting updates arrive, I and many others will almost certainly welcome them with open arms.

For a more personal note, there's definitely been some crazy shit going on in the tech industry.

Between Google being legally deemed a monopoly, YouTubers filing a class-action against OpenAI for stealing transcripts, global stocks plunging off of disappointment in AI, and God-knows-what-else (I'm almost certain I missed something), it feels like we're on the cusp of a sea-change that will have some major consequences for the Internet at large.

I don't know what lies ahead, Fulp, but I feel the future of the web's gonna be just a bit brighter once the dust settles.

(Too bad Dragoneer isn't gonna be around to see it - poor bastard died last night getting fucked by American healthcare. May he rest in peace - with all that he did for FurAffinity as its owner, he's earned his spot in history.)

Wait, I don’t think I saw salad finger on the voting page

Thanks for mentioning my free game music, helps get it out there to game devs in need. ^^

Pretty sure the Collabinator is broken. Can't change the tab from 'Open for Paid Work', and I can't change the sorting order. Tags and 'Available For' options still seem to work fine.

https://www.newgrounds.com/collab

Browser: Firefox

OS: Linux

Super thank you for organizing absolutely awesome music collabs! I am very tankful. It’s nice to see that you’re keeping up the tradition of Christmas in July, MH4. Thank you! JinZ, Thanks for introducing me to the fast-paced music of Touhou! And Happy summer shletty! It's great the collab went well!

@JinZ

@MasterHand4444

@shletty

You are truly awesome, Big G Playa, for being patient with all of us. A special thanks for listening to everyone. It is challenging, Newgrounds is special—people can openly communicate their ideas and feel heard when providing feedback. I’m excited to see more updates!

Kind of impressive people still luv salad fingers after all these years. Like it’s almost multi generational appeal which is tuff to do!

also first post

Thanks for featuring my remix of Father-of-Death's 'x_x', I FEEL HONORED! <3

Oops I meant to include the music collabs in the collab roundup! Will have to fix in a bit.

Wow! Congrats to the winners! and thanks for putting Commercial Break as a runner up!

Oof, lots of good stuff didn't make top 5 this month. No offense, but I'm always a bit sad to see more ambitious projects lose to a 12-second animation.. but the people have spoken!

Still a hearty congrats to all the winners, of course! Glad to see Salad Fingers still swinging.

Congrats to all, Doki & James! Huge thank you Tom, Josh, and team for working hard on getting the image disappearing problem fixed. Thought it was me uploading too many images or they were too big.

found a glitch in the matrix, i have a bunch of links leading to other ng pages in the art description but they're all invisible in the public version, I'm using google chrome on an android

liljim did the big text editor overhaul!

Oh damn I won! thanks everyone who played my shitty game! :O I was not expecting to get first of all places waow

Congratulations to all the winners... But especially to me!! >:)

Jk

I'm so stoked. Thank you Newgrounds!!!

Congratulations to anothers who get some support except me... :(

Another great month of games! Congratulations to all of the game devs, and congratulations to the Treasure Hunt winners that have finally had their games featured after being lost in the cracks for so long!

As usual, I've got my top 10 featured in my news post. I definitely agree with the picks here, but don't miss out of checking these games too (and thanks to Tom for highlighting them in the runner-ups!)

Speaking of the Treasure Hunt, I found this hidden gem from @MoonMoleGames that I'm surprised wasn't featured last month. Maybe consider checking it out if you like twin-stick shooters like Enter the Gungeon!

Thank you for the opportunity