Twenty years ago, I created my Newgrounds account. I had just turned 15, a kid who had already been lurking around the site for a year. I was a huge fan of VGDC (rest in peace, Randy Solem). When my cousin showed me the Rise of the Mushroom Kingdom series, I instantly knew I wanted to learn how to make Flash animations like that. Honestly, I became obsessed with sprite animations.

I downloaded Macromedia Flash MX Professional and, like many others, spent the first few months making a lot of garbage no one would watch. But eventually, I felt ready to share something. My first public animation was so simple:

It marked the beginning of something bigger. The few reviews I got on Newgrounds were positive, and honestly, they gave me life. I felt inspired to keep going. The truth is, I was really struggling in real life at the time. Things were tough, and making animations to later share them became a real refuge. This place gave me purpose, joy, and a sense of belonging I couldn’t find anywhere else.

Not long after, I uploaded Legend of Pokémon, which I had to translate into English with help from @setsuna956, because my English was terrible. To my surprise, it got an amazing reception. Today, it has over half a million views and more than 650 reviews. That really boosted my confidence, and from there, I dove headfirst into Flash, lol.

Around that time, I discovered @RupeeClock’s animations and got really interested in joining the Clock Crew to be his friend. I eventually did it under the name @SharinganClock (though I was never a Naruto fan). Later, I switched to @ParappaClock, which felt more like me.

I started making short Clock animations, but I was too shy to post them on Newgrounds. Instead, I shared them privately with friends or uploaded them to SheezyArt, which became my "safe zone" for stuff I didn’t dare to submit to the Flash Portal.

Then came All Your Base. February 2006 was huge for me, my tribute animation to that meme made my first Front Page and even won three awards. Incredible.

Around that time, I also started meeting incredible people through Newgrounds, artists and animators like @Rebaz, @GoldenFox, @FrozenFire, @Dan-Dark, @Rule, @MichaFrario, @SuperColoroid, @DuDuL, and others whose names I sadly no longer remember... but their presence meant a lot to me back then. It really felt like a community. I lost contact with many of them.

That year became my most productive on Newgrounds. I released my first Furry Random Stuffs movie, a collection of mini-animations I never dared to post individually. I also joined my first collab and even hosted a Clock Crew one:

And here on Newgrounds, on Valentine’s Day, I met Markanime, who’s been a close friend of mine for over 18 years now. You can even check out a remake of the animation Marco uploaded that very day:

I also remember proudly winning a Christmas animation contest organized by @Godlimations, where we had to make a short holiday-themed animation. It was a small event, but meant a lot to me at the time and felt like real recognition for my work. With the prize money, I got a Wacom, which I sadly never used much.

That same year, during the Power of Three game jam hosted by Newgrounds, I created JOYCOT Entertainment and designed Kazami with @Cris-Fox, the girl from my avatar. She was born out of that spirit of collaboration and experimentation, and even if the project didn’t go far, she’s stuck with me ever since.

As I couldn’t dedicate as much time to animating as before, I teamed up with NinJaco, a very close friend at the time, and together we made The Magician and SWEET GRIM, before he eventually adopted the name @TwistedGrim.

Then I fell into a deep depression. Life got harder. But hey, these days I’m doing alright! Nowadays, I’m more focused on programming and music. Thanks for reading, and if you were there during those early days, thank you for being part of something that truly kept me going.

Oh, and I ended picking up a legal Flash 8 licence. Pls, don't sue me :)