In my quest to get under the hoods of indie horror games I love and inside the heads of their developers, my next stop was a mysterious golf course that had already closed. Yep, this time the interviewee is @yatoimtop, and we're talking about his game Greener Grass Awaits! It's tense, it's surreal, it's even darkly comedic at a few points, and you will probably have no idea what's going on - but one thing is for sure, you must golf!

Just like the Mike Klubnika one, this will eventually be made into a YouTube video. (I haven't forgotten about the former, I just kept getting distracted and not working on the script. :o) )

Spoilers ahead for Greener Grass Awaits! (Go play the game first! It's free, only about an hour long, and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.)

Inspirations/Process

I see you make games, music, and animations. What got you into each of these creative media?

I got into video when I was 10 because I wanted to make animations, and started with stop motion stuff before I eventually found blender. For music, I'd always wanted to make some, but I only started during COVID. COVID was also when I also started really getting into game development with pearl grabber. I did dabble with gamedev in high school, making some point and clicks!

Where’d you get the idea for a golf horror game in general?

How hard was it to get the golf physics to work like you wanted them to? How about the enemy behavior? Was the staring response something you came up with from the beginning, or was it something you added to keep the player from becoming too powerful?

This has a half cynical answer- I knew I wanted to make a horror game because they were popular on itchio/YouTube but I wasn't quite sure what my angle would be. The golf inspiration came from my addiction to the mobile game Desert Golf, which I had discovered from reading Tevis Thompson's website.

On a whim I had decided to make a prototype in Godot of a golf setup based on Desert Golf, and found it surprisingly easy to make? At some point I started thinking about how I could make it a game when I remembered my goal of making a horror game. So I began thinking about how it'd work, planning out a bunch of holes and writing out the game mechanics and what would happen hole to hole. I got far more wrapped up in it then I had planned!

Initially, the game was going to be all on one map and have enemies that patrolled the course. You'd see them in the distance and have to hide. When I found that I couldn't make the game all on one map and I also didn't want to figure out how to make the NPCs work like I had wanted, I pivoted. I programmed the NPCs to do the only move when you look away thing and liked how it worked with putting. I eventually found it goofy how you could stare forever and they would just stand there without moving so the stare timer was added. I ended up liking what I had built far more than what I had initially imagined- it's more confrontational and ties in with the golf mechanics more directly.

My process is basically bumbling into something that works.

Greener Grass Awaits has a really distinctive style for its visuals and music. Some people call the graphics “PS1-style”, but I think there’s more to it than that. I really like the posterization with different color palettes. What influenced you in designing the look of the game?

I also wouldn't describe my game as PS1- I think of it as sort of lo-fi and fuzzy. Some of the reason I went with the posterized look was it sort of covered up the eh graphics, but also it helped scenes remain legible when it was dark. Keeping the game dark was one of my main priorities. I also just like the reduced color look! I'm pretty bad with picking visual inspirations, I just go for what looks right to me at the time.

The soundtrack is probably one of the game’s biggest strengths, it absolutely carries the atmosphere and the buildup of tension throughout. How did you come up with the music? (Also, what programs/plugins do you use :O )

Soundtracking things is something I love doing- it helps me pick a musical direction with much more clarity than my other music projects. I wanted to match the fuzzy visuals so I went with sounds that were dark and distorted. I had a lot of Aphex Twin and especially Boards of Canada in my mind.

I did a lot of slowing things down, lots of brushing random things against the mic, and a lot of shimmer delay. I also did a lot of singing and chanting for any forest bit.

My most used plugins for this project were Sketchcassette 2, Valhalla Delay and Valhalla VintageVerb, and Arturia Pigments. I also used an old Casio keyboard someone was giving away for free for the boss theme and some percussion on the Greener Grass Awaits song!

What about your art/music/animations in general, independent of the game?

If you're asking about software I use Godot, Blender, FL Studio, and Procreate. If you mean my process for coming up with things, usually I'm just randomly struck with some idea that captures my mind.

You did a very good job of making the antagonists feel like a part of the world, and making their presence feel justified by the story and environment instead of being solely there to make it a horror game. How did you come up with your antagonists and flesh them out? What made you choose to make the game’s main threat some kind of murder cult masquerading as a lawn care company?

I came up with most of the big ideas of the game in a day or two where all I could think about was how I'd make this golf horror game make sense. I'm not sure where the evil landscaper idea really came from, or where most of the ideas came from for that matter. My guess is that I asked myself "Why is a cult at this golf course and why do they only move when not looked at" and then started answering that question.

My overall goal was to know exactly what was happening and why, even if the player didn't.

Success

What was your initial reaction to seeing people and YouTubers start to pick up your game? How have you felt about it since?

It's fun but extremely nervewracking for me to watch people on YouTube play it. It's fun to see reactions but it's also a bummer to see problems I hadn't noticed in the game. I had a couple friends playtest the game, but seeing some playthoughs, I think I should've playtested more!

Based on the things some people who played it struggled with, is there anything you’d make differently about the game knowing what you know now?

I'd tone down the forest level a bit and add more signposting. I knew it had problems before I put it out, but the friends I saw play it didn't have that much trouble with it? So I let it be.

Can we get a sneak peek at any other projects that may be up your sleeve for the future?

I've been posting some pictures on my bluesky of a game I've been working on- the title right now is "apple seller supreme" but that might change.

I know you’ve got a lot of other projects. Here’s your chance to shill your other stuff. If you had to pick one to a few other works of yours that you really want people reading this interview to go check out, what would those be?

I put out a music video named LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND recently. Or the VIDEOPALOOZA series! (Editor's note: All of VIDEOPALOOZA can be found on his NG movies page, or YouTube!)

Misc/Silly Questions

How did you write the song for the Greener Grass advertisement? What does “dry and crispy like the thing in my head” even mean? Why does it sound like they’re using grass as a metaphor for a sense of purpose in life? (Is it because the people who lack that sense of purpose are most vulnerable to cult recruitment?)

I bumbled into the right thing while making the Greener Grass Awaits song. I was basing vibe/concept the song after another cult song I discovered off of a Redlettermedia video, SOS. I remember it being very catchy and upbeat while talking about how dissatisfied you were with life. It stuck out as a bizarre ideological Trojan horse, and a good fit for the game. I think I started with the synth riff and bass and just built it out from there.

There's an original version of the theme available on the soundtrack album- I canned it because it wasn't catchy enough and the distorted ending feels wrong for how the song is supposed to be used, in universe.

The dry and crispy line is referring to an unhappy brain!

Are you yourself any good at golf?

I had only ever played mini golf before making this game! But near GGA's completion, I went with some friends to a driving range where I nearly hit the person next to me in the head with a stray golf ball (twice)

What does your username mean, exactly/how’d you come up with it? What is yatoimtop?

I was in to making nonsense words when I was in middle school and that's what I happened to name my first instagram account. I've stuck with it since! Unfortunate -_-

So there you have it! This was a fun conversation and I enjoyed getting to hear Yatoimtop's thought processes!

Please go check out Greener Grass Awaits and Yatoimtop's other content on various platforms. It's all worth a look!

(I've been listening to this song in particular a bunch lately. It's very catchy and I can relate to the lyrics.)

Have a good night, everyone!

-Theta

Hey everyone!

As I said, nominally the deadline for Costume Jam entries is today, October 31st, at 11:59 PM EST.

However, due to changes in my IRL schedule, I will not be able to review the entries until November 9th at the earliest. That means you have extra time to finish up your games, or add updates and polish if you’ve already submitted them! My entry for the jam will likewise be finished in the grace period.

In other news…

PSA: I have a stalker here and on Discord. Ever since after last year’s jam, where we had an argument on the Costume Clash dev team and split up, Dieswyx has been making sporadic attempts to contact me or get around me blocking him for an entire year. I had to unblock him briefly to be in the Pokémon Gijinka Collab, thinking it was all over and he would be reasonable, but only got multiple other unwanted messages and friend requests - one while I was in the collab, one after I left it, and one more a day or two ago. I have put up with this for far too long. Don’t make efforts to witch hunt him necessarily, I’d rather let the admins handle this, but if you are someone he talks to, do not agree to contact me for him or relay any messages.

Next collab? @TheNorf has been planning an art collab that juxtaposes Christmas with horror themes. He is thinking of opening it in November to give enough time for artists to sign up, and I’ll be there to help with logistical stuff and possibly program an interactive gallery. More details will be available within the next month! (Also, if you have scary Christmas music you’d like to be in the gallery, DM me!)

Thanks, everyone!

-Theta

(Banner by @EmsDeLaRoZ! Can you identify all the characters?)

Here we are, last weekend before October begins. I wanted to do some quick housekeeping related to the jam.

I'm curious as to how many people are interested and have managed to start their projects for the jam. Let's do a headcount - if you're working on something for the jam, or planning on it, say so in the comments!

If there are any artists who can't find a programmer, I'd like to know if you'd be interested in using Meiker to make a game for the jam. Essentially, the website turns a PSD file into a functional dress-up game using tags in the layer names. While it will lack some functionality compared to coding something yourself, it might make it possible to participate. If there's enough interest, I could run interference between the admin and NG mods to see if it's acceptable for jam entries to be made off-site.

Thanks for checking in!

-Theta

(Banner by @EmsDeLaRoZ! Do you know who everyone here is?)

It's happening again. Another year of the Costume Jam is upon us, and I'm aiming to go bigger and better!

Once again, if you don't know me already, my name is Theta, and I'm the ghost with the posts! With Halloween coming, everyone’s thinking of a costume - which makes it a perfect time to resurrect a piece of internet history! Dollmakers and dress-up games were a staple of the early days of web games, but they’re still clinging to life even beyond the grave of Flash! So last year, I launched a jam to celebrate the spooky season with some old-school internet flair!

The basic premise of Costume Jam is this: Make a dress-up game with a twist in its game mechanics. It can be something as simple as having the character react to what you put them in, or something as complicated as a whole narrative game where dressing up is the main gameplay. Outfit challenges, minigames to get more clothes, selling to customers, the sky’s the limit! Here's a list of examples I collected for last year's jam.

This year, we have a second optional theme/prompt on top of the regular challenge! It's open-ended on purpose and you can come up with whatever you see fit to go with the theme.

The prompt is "More Like Me".

I'm excited to see how you interpret this for your collab entries! Halloween/horror themes are also encouraged as usual!

Other basic rules:

• Deadline: October 31st at 11:59 PM. Two months should be enough, I think!
• Rules: No shovelware, no hateful content, stick to the NG rules about AI art. Nudity is now allowed for artistic purposes, but no outright pornographic content. A-rated submissions will nonetheless be left out of the video review to keep it suitable for YouTube.
• How to participate: Tag your entry with costumejam2024, and I’ll look through the entries after the deadline has passed!

There is no contest/judging element to this jam, but just like last year, I will do a video review of the entries after the deadline! I'll also ideally be making my own entry again - this time, completely by myself. Last year's fiasco proved to be the kick in the pants I needed to finally start learning to code in an actual game engine.

Alright! Put any questions you have on this post! It’s showtime!

-Theta

After a lot of thinking, I have come to the conclusion that it's probably best to put an end to the Mystery Meat Collab and not pursue making a second, bigger game for it. The collab's basically already been dead for a while, and the ownership issue is messy, and at this point I've moved on emotionally from wanting to fight over it.

However: That being said, I still want to make this game project for its own sake. I just feel like having a looser theme would put less pressure on me to make it perfect, and to outperform my competition on this site.

Gameplay-wise, it will still be the same, except for the omission of planned story-related elements, collectibles, and NPCs, all of which would have made the project more complicated than it likely should've been for a first game. Gamedev is frickin' hard, and I wish I had known years and years ago that the right way to begin a first project is to isolate one aspect - whether it be doing the code first by making simple games with no story, or the story first by creating D&D modules or the like that don't require coding.

Theme-wise, we're also still keeping the dark comedy aspect, but expanding it outward to make horror spoofs of various types of kids' Flash games - not just the Pokémon ones that inspired the minigame approach in the first place. Expanding the theme opens up even more possibilities for minigames and aesthetics, too!

Working title is "The Forbidden Arcade". Perhaps I'll make a devlog of this, we'll have to see if I remember to post regularly about it. Either way, I'll see ya in the next news post!

-Theta

So over the past few days in the Art Forum, I've posted some art challenges that I'm calling "the hate series". The intent behind this is to drive artists into territory unfamiliar to them and test their commitment to the craft. Are Newgrounds Art Forum users willing to draw something they don't like, or spend time researching something they don't know, just as a chance to hone their skills? Will they possibly discover something that they do like buried in the rubbish, or at least a stronger knowledge of why they don't like those things? How will they even react to the very idea of doing so? I seek to find out!

Here's a list of the threads (will be continually updated as I do more of these):

• Draw yourself in a style you hate
• Do an art trend you hate
• Discover, draw, and describe an aesthetic
• Draw a design trope you hate
• Copy the style of someone you appreciate (it’s not hate related, but it definitely involves going out of your way to draw something you wouldn’t!)

I'll keep on adding new threads to keep the experiment going. In the meantime, it'd be fun if anyone else would like to join in! An experiment needs data, after all, and performance art needs an audience.

-Theta

(I kinda made this post for my own use, as a way to keep track of all these threads in one place, lol.)

You all have probably noticed that I logged off without warning a week or so ago. I apologize for my absence - especially to those I was going to help with their projects - but I had to take a break and take care of myself.

For your reading enjoyment, here's some of what I've been up to in the shadows. I can't do as much as I would've liked due to the job I'm working at this summer, but I'm determined to still be doing something.

Pokémon Mystery Meat is Not Dead

Yes, I'm going to make this "bigger game" I keep talking about real, and everything the project's been through has only added more fuel to the fire! Making a game of any size is difficult for a beginner like me, so I decided I needed to think smaller. So I revamped the entire concept, and will now be presenting the 37 entries and theme in a collection of minigames that I work on one by one to help me learn Game Maker.

Pokémon Gijinka Collab is Not What You Think

Yes, I am participating in the Pokémon Gijinka Collab hosted by @KittyhawkMontrose. I am aware that many people - be they minors, on the asexual spectrum, or those suffering from body dysmorphia - have very strong feelings about this. But many of us are more interested in the character design aspect of designing gijinkas than in the encouragement of sexual content. I know I am. It's been an enjoyable atmosphere in the collab server so far, where we lift each other up for our artwork and design choices. So if you fit in the age requirements and would like to give it a try, I'd highly recommend you apply to join in. And if you aren't interested... let us be.

I Am Not Stopping Now

Here's some of the other stuff on the horizon:

• Creature Collab participation - I've been having a great time in @Zfert's collab server! Everyone's monster ideas are so much fun, and I've been enjoying chipping in with my own iterations on theirs for the planned "evolution" mechanic. I can't wait to see how this comes out!
• Horror Comic - I am working with @awd91 to turn my original horror story "Rapunzel Tower" into a comic, and hopefully get it into the horror comic anthology that @Artist-Lost is putting together. We haven't heard a lot from the organizer, though, so if not, it'll just be posted to the Art Portal in multiple parts.
• Future Events? - When I get closer to releasing Mystery Meat in some capacity, hopefully by October, I'm hoping I can start another spooky event like last year's Costume Jam. I don't know yet whether I want it to be another Costume Jam or just a thematically appropriate event, but there's still time for me to decide.

But for now, I will be continuing my break from Newgrounds and focusing on my creative stuff until I've gotten myself sorted out.

Big thank you to everyone who's stuck by me and stayed supportive throughout all of this - including @Creeperforce24, @Billy-SuperSkullz, @TheGarbager619, @AlmyriganHero, @tarutrit, and @awd91. I can continue with confidence knowing I have people I can depend on.

I'm not dead. I'm not quitting. I'm not backing down.

-Theta

You can ask @TomFulp anything, and even ask for his autograph, if you get Supporter!

Supporters get exclusive access to a general-topic forum all their own, and one of the most persistent threads is an AMA for the man himself!

Credit to @ShockAbe for having the original idea to ask Tom to sign his profile, lol.

Today I finally hit 500 fans. It's really surreal. As someone who has a hard time fitting into most other online communities, I sure am hitting it off pretty well on Newgrounds. How'd this happen? Why me of all people?

Well, thank you!

Thanks to @Looink, @EnzoMoon, @NikoN1nja and @FunnyPlush for being my 500th through 503rd fans. You've given me quite the sense of accomplishment.

As part of the celebration, I wanted to do mini-reruns of all the big community projects I've enjoyed doing that got me to where I am. So we're going to have a series of mini-events running in backwards chronological order, starting with something for Pokémon Mystery Meat and ending with a short version of the "I'll Make You An OC" thread which was my first big break. I loved getting together with the community to make these happen, and though I've got that big game in the works for Mystery Meat, I'm still itching to keep engaging with people!

I'll add these events to the post as they happen! In the meantime, don't forget to take the survey from my last post to have a say in what collabs I do next!

Event 1: Pokémon Mystery Meat - Second Round of Submissions

Since the collab's closing, I've met a few people who had an excellent sense for Pokémon horror but hadn't had the chance to join. I'd like to give them a chance to enter.

All valid entries in the collab totaled to 38, which was quite a few to quiz people on in "Who's That Pokémeat?" But since the original game project is still in the works as promised, I still have the capacity to support more entries from a gameplay standpoint. I'd like to round it out at a nice 50 entries total, so I will offer 12 spots for new artworks to be added.

However, there will be some rules:

• Any artist who added something to the original collab will not be allowed in this second round, to give as many chances as possible to those who didn't get to draw something for it.
• To keep our lore streamlined and disentangled from anyone else's fan content, the focus should be on Pokémon themselves, not human characters or OCs.
• Otherwise the rules of the original collab will apply.

Send the artworks to me by PM and I'll approve them for use in the collab!

Once again, thank you for everything. I love you, people of Newgrounds, so very much.

-Cass (Thetageist)

Update 5/7: New logo just dropped too, I was thinking of updating it and this was a good excuse lol

Hi, I'm posting this really late because I got distracted.

Ever since the success of Pokémon Mystery Meat (which still isn't completely done!) I've had a ton more collab ideas, and a desire to figure out what exactly I want to do next, either once the bigger game project is done or in the meantime while I'm working on it.

Considering I'll soon be taking on more responsibility in real life, I can't guarantee that any of these will happen, but I'd still like to do a survey regarding my other collab ideas to see what exactly the people want.

Come take it here!

The art collabs would be held over on the Collab Forum, whereas the audio collabs would be in the NGAP Collab Center Discord server (maybe also in a BBS thread).

Let me know if you have any further questions regarding any of these! Thanks!

-Cass (Thetageist)