Asandir's interviews with Newgrounds forum users

This week's interview features the user Havegum.

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When did you find Newgrounds and why did you join? Why did you choose the username Havegum?

Havegum:

"I found Newgrounds ages ago as a kid looking for flash games. The site sparked an interest in game creation, and I started learning some basic actionscript programming and some simple animation. Really I was absolutely terrible, but from there someone suggested I should learn how to draw before attempting to animate and that's how I got into art.

My username has a short and sweet story. When computers were first introduced to us at school, and we got our own usernames and passwords to remember, the format for the usernames was [Initials][Last name]. My first two initials are H and A, and my last name is Vegum, I decided to stick with it. It wasn't until years later someone pointed out the name could also be read as Have Gum."

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Do you think that you changed over the time you were here, as user, or also in real life?

Havegum:

"Definitely. I'm sure everyone who signed up to Newgrounds as a kid has grown a lot since they signed up, it's only natural. In my case I remember me being the typical 13-14 year old attention-seeking kid. I like to think I've grown out of that for the most part.

I've also gotten far in terms of artistic development compared to when I started out. The art forum community has played a big part in both keeping up enthusiasm to draw stuff, and also helped me a lot in growing out of that petty prepubescent teenager mentality."

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Are there any other users that you like, and how do they affect you?

Havegum:

"There are a handful of users I like more than others. From sexual deviants, to moral supremacists, artistic inspirations, and interesting conversationalists. They affect me in the way that I can often catch myself copying small fragments of what I think is cool about them.

That goes for some more than others, for instance when I started out drawing, I strived to adopt the style of some of my peers, and that has played a big part in how I draw now."

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Are there any users that you would consider enemies or that you just don't like?

Havegum:

"I don't consider anyone my enemies. There are BBS posters that bring a lot of negative attitude with their sarcastic remarks and ironic shitposting for mocking purposes. I don't think there shouldn't be any good-hearted taunting here and there, but I believe we could do without alienating new users, or users who genuinely try to contribute to the site.

It's easy to mock someone else for trying and failing, but to make decent contributions takes effort, and I think effort should be praised, not mocked."

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What is your opinion about the forums? Is there one forum that you prefer? And is there another forum user that you want to see getting interviewed by me?

Havegum:

"These days I spend most of my time on NG at the general forum. A few years ago I used the art forum almost exclusively, but after a two-year hiatus from NG I came back to find a lot of the old regulars had moved elsewhere and since then I never really got to know the new ones the same way as the earlier ones. I don't have anyone in particular I want to see an interview with the most, but the art forum regulars are a good bunch from what I know, so perhaps one of them?"

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I guess that you have an opinion about the moderators of Newgrounds. Do you think that they do a great job or not?

Havegum:

"The moderators are doing an alright job in my opinion. I think so-called “destroying” spam threads – where the thread gets deleted, OP of said thread gets a ban, and everyone who replied to the thread gets a slightly shorter ban – is a bit silly, but that's all."

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Would you like to become a moderator on Newgrounds? If so, what kind of moderator?

Havegum:

"It would be cool to be an incognito forum moderator without the golden aura on my icon. I imagine once you have the golden aura, posting in threads as a regular user gets difficult as any user will immediately be able to tell you apart from the rest."

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The redesign happened last year. Tell me what you think about it. What do you like and what is not so good?

Havegum:

"The redesign split the flash portal into two, and obscured the “under judgement” in the process. At the same time, new flashes from known artist are being frontpaged within minutes of uploading, as well as level icons losing significance in the forum. This means there's much less incentive to actually go vote on stuff. The design and art direction may be cool, but I think the functionality has dropped and that splitting the flash portal has only hurt the judgement process.

Another thing is the redesign was extremely delayed. I think it getting a site up and running shouldn't take three years. It leads me to think maybe the NG staff isn't as organized and streamlined as it needs to be?"

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Newgrounds is going through some changes lately, like the change of the UJ system and the future removal of the NG store. If you would have to predict the future, how do you think will Newgrounds look in 5 years from now?

Havegum:

"I think it depends on how the staff handles things in the future. I strongly believe that a creative hub like Newgrounds has its place on the internet, and it would be upsetting to see larger sites like Youtube and DeviantArt monopolize their respective specialities.

The decaying userbase is perhaps the most evident part, and I believe some of the reason it's happening is because there's no new user influx. Newgrounds used to be able to float on its reputation of being a bit edgy and provocative, but that won't do anymore. I think advertisement would be a good idea. And not just advertisement targeted at artists, but a broader consumer-oriented audience. That way there's a good chance Newgrounds can spark some creativity amongst the new users, and help bring up new artists with new directions."

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Halloween is coming up. Are you looking forward to it, also as Newgrounds special days? And what do you think about the Halloween Level icons?

Havegum:

"Halloween on Newgrounds might be interesting. Sadly, I don't pay as much attention to the special days of NG as I used to. From what I remember it's always interesting to see what different minds come up with, and their different interpretations of the same theme.

The Halloween level icons are neat, though with my recent affection for pixel art I keep noticing more and more sloppy pixel work which makes me wanna go right in there and edit them out!"

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You are an artist. Tell our readers when you started making art and also talk about which artists inspired/helped you.

Havegum:

"First time I started drawing was late 2009. Before that was nothing but elementary school assignments and kindergarten doodles. Needless to say my art was as horrible as my attitude was immature back then, but somehow I was tolerated and gradually got better.

On the subject of who inspired and helped me, I must say pretty much everyone in the art forum community has at some point helped or inspired me. Starting out, I sought out a style similar to that of M-Vero, later I wanted to shift more towards the direction of J-qb. My inspiration at the time was mostly exclusively peer artists at Newgrounds. Art was more about the social thing and being part of a community than anything else.

Towards the end of 2010 my posting slowed down and I took a two year long hiatus from NG. At the time I was in school with a subject called “media design” among other things. From there I got a more thorough introduction to composition principles, colour theory and the likes. When I got back to art and Newgrounds I had a fresh perspective which I think helped me tons in terms of artistic improvement.

Along the way I have experimented with different techniques and styles. I've tried to do comic-esque drawings, pixel art, digital painting, flash animation, graphic design. Most recently I've been focusing on pixel art. One of the most significant reasons I got back into pixel art specifically is fellow Newgrounds user and pixel artist Carrion, whose work is just a massive inspiration."

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You recently drew a fantastic drawing of the Pokémon Poliwag. Could you imagine turning this into a series where you redraw more Pokémon in your style?.

Havegum:

"The Poliwag was made for the Creature Design Studio #4 thread. The idea was to draw pokemon in ones own style and to try to preserve the identity of the character at the same time. I remember working on it in one go and once I was finished I was just struck by how absolutely boring it looked. The whole point was to stylize the pokemon while all I had done was re-render it with no actual stylization.

As for it turning to a series? I wouldn't know about that. Nearly every project of considerate size I've started on have failed. I usually just draw whatever I feel motivated to draw at that moment. Sometimes it's a painting of Miles Davis, sometimes it's a funky turtle doing a Jam, or a Minecraft Creeper stalking about, or a small sprite sheet with a castle, or a pixel walk cycle. I used to spontaneously draw for various threads in the general forum which sparked my attention or put an image in my head I felt I needed to visualize. I haven't done it in a while, so maybe it's time to get back on that?"

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You said in one of your posts that you like Adventure time. Tell our readers what you like about this show and what it is about.

Havegum:

"Sadly I don't follow Adventure Time so much. I think it's an interesting show, but it doesn't air on any of the channels I have available, so watching it gets a bit tricky.

I remember it being a bit silly of a show. It brings up some dull clichés, but the characters on their own are interesting enough to make it entertaining."

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Limbo is an indie game that you played. Tell me your thoughts about this game and also talk about other indie titles and scary games that you like.

Havegum:

"The one thing about Limbo that impressed me the most was the atmosphere. I haven't played many games that managed to suck me in like that, and it was absolutely enjoyable from start to finish! Another indie game that did a good job at drawing me in is Papers, Please. It's not so scary per se, but it's really conveying the whole idea of a totalitarian communism perfectly!

While I'm throwing out names, there's a game coming up called “Hyper Light Drifter” - it looks like an exciting concept, and they've got some amazing artists on board. I can't wait to see the finished product!"

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Every person has secrets. Can you tell one of yours or something else that we didn't know about you yet?

Havegum:

"I try to be open about most things, and if there's something I feel uncomfortable talking about, I'll just avoid the discussion. When I post in the forums I tend to use general statements and make sure I don't post anything inaccurate, I guess that leads to bit formal appearance maybe? I'd say the thing people don't know about me is how I am as a person outside the BBS, and even then it's not uncommon for me to hear I'm “hard to read”."

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What can we expect from you in the future, Havegum?

Havegum:

"Not much, if all goes according to plan I'm heading to the Norwegian Air Force in January, and I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post from there. After that I don't know myself if I get the position as a graphic designer intern, I might start uploading design stuff to the art portal, and maybe even some motion graphics?"

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Now you are filled with more knowledge about Havegum, dear reader.Feel free to leave a comment here, saying what you think about the interview, requesting users to get interviews is also appreciated. Tune in next week :3

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