It was a brutal August, but I FINALLY finished writing 5 episodes to debut the Ben and Teddy comic project with, as well as the design plans for the four main characters I have in mind. Exciting!
Work on "Ben and Teddy" continues as I start to write some new characters for the two to interact with, along with some other general updates like the shelved travel video and the Stickmen 2020 spanish dub someone recently made
Recently: I killed Call Wavetro, unlisted some YouTube uploads, finished a new Videos page, and made some progress in sound design and comics (teasing the possible return of Teddy and Ben)
I've decided to stop writing little status messages on this page here. Instead, I'm doing longer update posts on my newsletter that happen every month, since they fully talk about what I'm up to right now and what I want to do in the future!
Might shout out a non-Call Wavetro upload here occasionally but otherwise, here's a link to the very first State of the Wavetro:
Call Wavetro is a REAL series!! Episode 2 dropped with more on the way, hopefully weekly. I'll also write a separate newsletter soon about stuff I want to do outside of this phone show
I am 100% trying to make this voicemail show something very frequent! I just need more time on this next episode. trying to throw a fresh coat of paint on it before I start rolling out more episodes (like picking out a new game or finally making a 2024 outro)
πΌ 2024-MAY-05
just stayed up until 5 AM listening to all the voicemails. god this was such a good idea
βοΈ 2024-MAY-02
we're giving voicemail-centric videos another shot!! check out Call Wavetro's debut episode now, and maybe send a voicemail or (US-based) text to 918-WAVETRO if you can! you could be in the next video...
this is gonna get a mention in a future newsletter post at some point, but I recently decided to leave Odysee.
I've said before that the site has been slowly dying, but I don't want to stay until its final days anymore. what kind of stagnant platform doesn't even let its users know their parent company has been dead for months??
π‘οΈ 2024-APR-21
shit, I was gonna launch that phone number this weekend but I got sick. stay signed up for that newsletter though so you'll know when it's finally up
π² 2024-APR-19
Finished setting up the new wavetro phone number, this is gonna be so sick. Make sure you're signed up for the newsletter, that's where I'm gonna roll this out first
π 2024-APR-15
It's finally happening... the world of Stickmen 2020 is now in your hands (if you know how to use Blender.) Check out my latest video talking about how anyone can now download the files that made Stickmen 2020 possible!
I just bought a custom phone number! yes, that's a thing you can do. it's gonna take a few weeks to get it ported over to my phone, but that should give you a hint on what video idea I'm finally making a sequel to. many, many sequels in fact
π₯ 2024-APR-06
the secret project...was using a 3D printer to try and bring back Stickmen 2020 without animation, and I couldn't figure out how to do it in a way I liked!
while it unfortunately means the show may never come back, I'll still be posting other stuff soon. some of it will still be works of creative effort, and some of it will be random videos. I have ideas of what I can do next now that filmmaking is off the table. thanks for being patient and see you around!
it was a long journey of trial and error, but unfortunately I'm gonna have to call it: the secret project is NOT viable. I'm gonna post a video this weekend showing what I tried to do
π‘ 2024-MAR-31
just finished moving into a bigger place, having even more room has been helping my mental state tremendously. still looking to finally finish something new with this secret project soon too.
also happy 14 years of coolernow123! can you believe it's been that long now?
πͺ¨ 2024-MAR-15
honestly, I'm finding that the scariest part of trying to create anything as a working adult is having to choose between finishing something for yourself or spending time with friends/family/relationships. it's draining when you get torn between both and then end up doing neither, since you're already working with what little time and energy you may or may not have at the end of a work day
πͺ¨ 2024-MAR-10
these days, it feels harder and harder to finish anything
β 2024-FEB-27
nevermind the last status! I've conquered my fried dopamine receptors and made some 3D decorations after all (with the help of some free asset libraries.) the shop looks so much better now! ok back to working on the secret thing
π 2024-FEB-25
looks like I finished setting up the shop early. I wanted to make a bunch of decorations for it but I am literally so burned out by Blender that I couldn't model a single object. lol. lmao. back to working on the secret project then!
π¦₯ 2024-FEB-23
nevermind! the secret project is back on track, but it's still going horribly slow. it is such a monumental pain in the ass to finish anything these days with how badly my attention span has been cratered by some internet apps. think I'll take a break from this and finish re-launching the store first, actually
𧱠2024-FEB-20
well I recovered from the injury, but now I hit a really bad brick wall with the secret project. gonna have to stop and re-think things for a while, maybe even change my approach entirely. this is me basically saying that if I switch gears again, I'll finally talk about the "secret" stuff I was trying to do
welp! had to go to the ER and get stitches because I accidentally stabbed my hand with a box cutter. also my Bambu A1 printer got recalled and I have to mail it in and wait for a voucher to get a P1S. also had a lot of overtime at work. life does NOT want me finishing the new wavetro secret project lol
βΎ 2024-JAN-22
recently had a friend going through stuff move into my place and it's thrown a curveball into my life (in a good but also busy kind of way.) still working on that secret project, still gonna be quiet for some time. hope you understand!
π¦ 2023-DEC-20
My last video of the year is just gonna be a new episode of Ask Wavetro. I would've done something more complicated had it not been for recent life stuff! In fact, I'm gonna lie low for a while to pursue an exciting secret project that could be a major wavetro comeback. No promises though! Stay tuned and I'll see you in 2024...
I think I'm gonna embrace my (temporary) channel death and just make the next Ask Wavetro already. No high effort stuff right now, just looking to slow down for a bit
π₯ 2023-DEC-07
Remember the phone number I handed out to everyone in the last video? It's finally time to see all the voicemail you guys left me!
little held up with life stuff right now! it's gonna be a bit longer before I get out this next video. don't worry, you will hear people's voicemails soon
π€ 2023-NOV-30
I have closed the wavetro phone number as of today. you guys left so many voicemails! gonna go through a couple of them in my next video
also I noticed my video has AI summaries on YouTube now. the future is weird
βοΈ 2023-NOV-21
when I filmed this video, I thought it was going to be an unfunny trainwreck. one trip to the editing room later and it turned out amazing instead, and I'm STILL trying to save and clear the voicemail inbox on the phone so that others can leave messages. if you don't know what I'm yapping about... you better tap in to my latest video:
I never participate in Newgrounds collabs...but when I saw the one for Gogo's Crazy Bones, I had to jump in and do a take on Wanted Egbot. check out my final (standalone) vector artwork on the Extras page!
it's the final one because I changed my mind about using vector art for my secret project. I will talk more about it in the newsletter soon
πΈ 2023-NOV-19
listen, I didn't upload a whole lot this year. BUT I most certainly got a lot of edits of that one chinese dat boi shitpost I made 4 years ago, which I will gladly use to make the 2023 fan art page. also someone went as Andy for Halloween last month :)
just went on an emotional roller coaster. I will explain what happened another time, but just know that the video thumbnail for Ask Wavetro 1 now has Gangster Spongebob
π» 2023-NOV-12
Sorry for going quiet there- I've finally emerged from the other side of a brutal editing sprint with this latest video (while somehow still being alive, holy shit.) It's a 35-minute masterpiece of travel vlogging in which I return to a familiar city in the southwest US to meet up with ThatGuyNamedAndy.
FINALLY, actual content! Sit down and get cozy for the very first episode of Ask Wavetro, where I answer viewer questions for over an hour and a half while playing Superflight. Jinjo Gaming fans are eating good tonight...
DAMMIT my computer somehow erased a Blender file from my secret project that had tons of work poured into it. I'm so mad I HATE TECHNOLOGY ARGH!!!!!
π 2023-OCT-24
In a surprise turn of events, I have returned to posting regularly on YouTube and calling myself a YouTuber. The animations are still dead but my uploads sure won't be!
lately I've been feeling like I have almost everything I could ever want, except for one small thing that's been bugging me. will be posting a video about it very soon (yes, a video!)
β³ 2023-AUG-15
okay one last status before I actually disappear:
it's nice to work on my new project and not feel bad about taking breaks from it for days at a time, even if "a few months" turns into a year or more. hope I don't scare anyone for however much time I'll be gone for! life outside of wavetro is going so well that I don't really feel any pressure to work faster
π 2023-AUG-07
even though I'm gonna be quiet for a while, I'm writing this status to let you know that I've never been happier in life than right now. I highly recommend moving out of your parents' house when you can, it's been a real adventure out here. βββββ 10 out of 10 experience
πͺ¦ 2023-JUL-31
Wrote a new post about my leave from Instagram, along with expanding on everything else I said in my previous status messages. I promise I'll stop talking about social media now lol
I'm now gonna go disappear for a bit to start working on something bigger with this vector art stuff, see you later!
my final Inkscape practice piece has debuted on Newgrounds and Instagram. I won't preface it with anything, just go check it out... and with that, it's time to say goodbye to Instagram tomorrow and post on my newsletter next week
β 2023-JUL-24
twitter's userbase and their new idiot boss are a match made in heaven. not only do you get to watch their site slowly crumble but also witness the only profitable thing they have left get crossed out with an π. lmao
πΈ 2023-JUL-17
in light of recent drama that went down in the Godot community, I can no longer recommend the game engine.
itβs not a βscamβ per se, but there are detailed accounts of seasoned Godot developers not being able to finish their games because all of the engineβs features are perpetually unfinished once you dig deep enough into them. beginners like me would have never noticed this until I'd become advanced enough to file a bug report to the team, only to have it ignored for over a year and counting.
it seems like commercial game engines are currently the most viable options for long-term learning. oh well, maybe O3DE will be better
𫧠2023-JUL-15
got a lovely new piece done and uploaded to Newgrounds and Instagram! it makes great use of gradients and blending modes while continuing on the theme of going outside. (don't tell the Instagram people that I'm leaving them after my next piece though...)
β―οΈ 2023-JUL-11
following up on my last status, I also wanted to mention something about my presence on Odysee. their business model of using LBC to stay afloat isn't viable, and I've been expecting them to go bankrupt like Vidme for over a year now. however, I'm going to stay on Odysee until it actually shuts down, because I'm not interested in making the jump to any more YouTube competitors like Rumble or something. it's not worth the trouble.
YouTube isn't perfect, but it's gotten really damn good over the last few years. I don't think there's really a point in joining another free-to-use competitor unless it's actually challenging YouTube's dominance, or if YouTube bans me for some reason. so if Odysee dies, I'll probably just self-host my videos with a PeerTube instance as my new backup
π· 2023-JUL-05
seeing all these Twitter competitors launch made me ponder on why I still post to any major social media platforms other than YouTube. I think that Threads, Mastodon, and Bluesky have all the same fundamental problems as Twitter.
I've been holding onto my Instagram page these past few years to stand in for my Twitter absence, but I'll be leaving that too next month. my Instagram was a fun little community to interact with, but I'd rather cut another tech giant out of my life while I still can
βοΈ 2023-JUN-30
do you like ducks in the rain? made this piece on Newgrounds and Instagram intending to capture the outdoor experience I've been having since my move to Texas- it's a really cool switch-up following two decades in New York. (there's so much more I wanted to add, but this is just for practice and I gotta move on)
πͺ 2023-JUN-15
bit way more than I could chew on my latest project, so I dropped it unfinished on Newgrounds and Instagram so I can move on to simpler pieces (instead of spending more weeks tracing a billion lines lol)
π 2023-JUN-11
speaking of cavefolder, I was watching an old YouTube video today and this frame from around late 2013 caught me completely off-guard. history truly loves to rhyme
π 2023-JUN-08
someone wrote a wonderful email to me today asking what future plans I had for cavefolder before I cancelled it. I was about to reply saying I didn't really plan much, but then the same person wrote again after finding this PDF containing everything I planned for cavefolder. I completely forgot I wrote this until today. it's quite terrifying how often I'll completely forget I made something once I finish it, since I tend to overwork myself so much and move on to new projects so fast. now I'm wondering what else I forgot
π¦ 2023-JUN-04
So lately I've had to get into the habit of logging into my dead Twitter every now and then so it can stay online as an archive instead of winding up auto-deleted. Today was the day I finally decided to unfollow all the accounts I was still "following" on it, but not before taking this screencap! Hope you enjoy this time capsule of people I followed on Twitter from when I still used it (excluding the four shmucks at the top of the list who wanted a post-account death follow lmao)
ποΈ 2023-MAY-31
Hello again, I just finished going through what's felt like the longest three months of my life in a good while. There's a newsletter post I did that explains everything that happened, why my game dev ambitions died, and whatever the hell's next for wavetro. I'm even back on Newgrounds too, you should give it a read:
yeah I don't want to do this game dev stuff anymore. going outside to touch grass more often
ποΈ 2023-APR-27
Job-related events in my life have finally been going better lately, but I'm still not closer to posting anything new yet. Had a moment of clarity recently where I've become unhappy with the future prospect of sitting in front of code for hours as a "hobby." Some can do it, I've decided I can't. I still want to give a shoutout to the game engine Godot for having such a wonderful developer experience: even though the games don't really run in a browser, it was so much easier getting things up and running compared to Babylon.js. (I was able to recreate both House Shake and Camera Snap in the same week I picked the engine up!) However, despite the allure of making amazing worlds through games or getting loads of money with a programming job, I don't think coding is something I want to dive any deeper into. It's just kind of a lame life to live. Will explain more in a future newsletter
Gonna be honest, I'm not doing too hot in life right now. Hopefully I can get out of the situation I'm in and show you what I've been up to soon, but for now, I'm still gonna be quiet for a while...
π 2023-MAR-15
I've been thinking about what I want to make next, but I can't think of ways to share it on my Newgrounds page other than the bare minimum of tossing video thumbnails into the art portal. It was an incredible run during my Stickmen 2020 days, but I think I'm gonna stop posting to Newgrounds now, especially since I had to scrap my 3D browser game projects. I might come back to the site if I ever have actual art to post, but I'll keep my paid Supporter status active even if I don't return.
Otherwise, you can follow one of my other pages below to be notified once I'm no longer dead and have something new to share. Thank you Newgrounds! You've been swell
π 2023-MAR-03
Hello! It turns out other some life stuff came up, and I'm gonna have to stop posting for a good while to address it. It all mainly has to do with my day job (and also wanting to switch to Godot for my games) but I'll give you the full rundown once I come back. See you later!
P.S. Blockstorm is free now LMAOOOOO
π¨ 2023-FEB-18
I really want to take a big leap forward with the next mini-project/game I'm working on, so I might be quiet for another while as I disappear into my lab. And by "another while" I mean at least another month or two...
π 2023-FEB-11
It's been a while... but I finally bring you a new major step forward: the House Shake demo!
Are you a code nerd that likes tinkering with everything? Starting today, my game dev projects are now open-sourced under AGPLv3! Check out the main repo if you want to see how my brain works. (Other things that are actually exciting are still on the way)
π£ 2023-JAN-08
Happy new year!! I just uploaded, moved out of my parents' house, said goodbye to my Discord server, and committed myself to return to game development. 2023 is going to be BIG.
Alright! Here's a post-burnout detour from the usual 3D fare: I give you a short but packed video about the beloved video game Blockstorm. Okay see you in January...
I've got something new coming this weekend! It's not code-related but I think you'll enjoy it. There's even multiple parts to it too
π» 2022-JUL-11
Nope, not dead- still here! It's nice getting lost in learning this new stuff without having any idea where I'm going or should be doing. But it's still too early for me to show anything new yet...
π’ 2022-JUN-30
Not much going on with myself these days. Still learning more basics about 3D browser stuff
IT'S ALL FINALLY DONE!! Check out the brand-new Downloads and Gallery pages when you get a chance, I worked my ass off on them. Now I'll never have to mess with this website's design again...
I'm currently sick, but the Downloads page is almost done! You can check it out early if you want, it looks pretty cool...
π 2022-MAY-31
FINISHED THE GALLERY!! Now to finish the Downloads page and then we can get back to business this June...
βοΈ 2022-MAY-17
I'm actually going to need more time to finish my Downloads/Gallery pages- there's a lot more extras I want to add, and I'll be done with everything by June. hope you don't mind the wait! it'll be worth it :)
β¬οΈ 2022-MAY-07
actually I want to finish my site's Downloads page before I show you the new stuff I'm doing. give me a week or two to get that squared away first, thanks
βοΈ 2022-MAY-02
think I figured out what I want to do now. will show you something new real soon!
π 2022-MAR-31
THANK YOU ALL FOR AN INCREDIBLE RUN!!! I'm going to take the next month off before I find something new to try. see you soon!!
β 2022-MAR-24
yep.
π§οΈ 2022-FEB-20
managed to get a tiny amount of audio work done on the next video, but still currently burned out from my day job.