Newgrounds facts for kids
Logo since 2018
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| Type of business | Private |
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Type of site
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Entertainment |
| Available in | English |
| Founded | July 6, 1995 |
| Headquarters | 323 W Glenside Ave,
Glenside, Pennsylvania, U.S.
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| Founder(s) | Tom Fulp |
| Key people |
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| Services |
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| Parent | Newgrounds.com, Inc. |
| Registration | Optional |
Newgrounds is a fun American website started by Tom Fulp in 1995. It's a place where people can share their own creative work. You can find games, cartoons, music, and art made by users. Tom Fulp also creates content from the main office in Glenside, Pennsylvania.
In the 2000s, Newgrounds was very important for Internet culture. It was a key spot for Internet animation and independent video games. Many animators and game makers got their start here. It was a special place where creators could share their work and become well-known.
Contents
What You Can Find on Newgrounds
Users can upload their own creations to Newgrounds. These are sorted into four main areas: Games, Movies, Audio, and Art.
When someone uploads a game or movie, it goes through a process called "judgment." Other users can rate it from 0 to 5 stars and write reviews. If the content gets a good average score, it gets "saved" and added to the website. If it gets a low score, it gets "blammed," meaning it's deleted. Only the reviews are saved in a special section.
For a long time, Newgrounds used Adobe Flash Player for its games and videos. When Flash stopped working on most browsers in late 2020, Newgrounds started using something called Ruffle. Ruffle is a special program that helps old Flash content still play. Newgrounds helped pay for Ruffle to be made. If some very old Flash content doesn't work with Ruffle, users can still use the "Newgrounds Player" to watch it.
Art and audio submissions use a different system called "scouting." All users can put their art and audio on their own page. But to appear in the main public area, their work needs to be "scouted." Scouting helps make sure that only good quality, original content is shown to everyone. It stops spam, stolen work, or bad content from reaching the public.
Once a user is "scouted," they can also "scout" other users. However, if someone scouts users who often break the rules, they might lose their scouting ability.
Keeping Content Safe and Featured Works
Users can report content that breaks the site's rules. Experienced users' reports are given more weight. The Newgrounds homepage shows off the best submissions from each category. It also gives awards to users whose work meets certain standards.
Members of Newgrounds also work together on animations called "collabs." These are often planned in the site's discussion forums. Many collabs are started, but not all are finished. Animators on Newgrounds usually feel a strong sense of ownership over their creations.
Newgrounds History
Newgrounds has a long and interesting history, starting as a small project and growing into a major online hub.
Early Days and Growth (1990s-2000s)
Tom Fulp started a small magazine called New Ground in 1991 when he was 13. He sent it to about 100 people. In 1995, he launched a website called New Ground Remix. This site became very popular in 1996 after Tom made some simple online games.
In 1999, Tom released Pico's School. This was a Flash game that was very well-made for its time. It helped Newgrounds become a well-known website. Also in 1999, Tom combined his different websites into one: newgrounds.com. He also created "The Portal." This was a place where Tom could share his smaller Flash projects. Soon, other people started sending their own Flash creations to Tom. By 2000, so many people were sending in content that the process became automatic. This "automated Portal" truly defined what Newgrounds was all about.
Newgrounds became a very active place for people who made Flash games. It was a starting point for many video game developers. Flash was once called the "driving force" behind the site. Even so, users on the site expected good humor and storytelling, not just perfect animation. By November 2008, Newgrounds had over 1.5 million users. It hosted over 130,000 animations. By August 2010, these numbers grew to over 2.2 million users and more than 180,000 games and animated films.
Recent Times (2010s-Present)
In 2010, Time magazine listed Newgrounds as one of the "50 Best Websites."
Around 2018, Newgrounds started asking creators to submit games in HTML5 format instead of Flash. In late 2018, many new members joined Newgrounds. They came from another site called Tumblr after it changed its rules about adult content. In the summer of 2019, as Flash was being phased out, Newgrounds released the Newgrounds Player. This was a special program for Windows that let users play Flash games and movies from the site. Later, the Ruffle Flash emulator was also offered.
In April 2021, a new update for the game Friday Night Funkin' was released only on Newgrounds at first. This caused so many people to visit the site that its servers became very busy! In July 2021, Tom Fulp received an award for his important work in starting Newgrounds. In September 2023, the Art Portal got an update. It made it easier for artists to work together and show off multiple pieces of art.
In March 2024, Newgrounds updated its reporting system. This allowed users to report content that was mostly made by artificial intelligence (AI). On October 8, 2024, Newgrounds started "Takeover Tuesday." On these days, supporters of Newgrounds could choose a submission to be featured on the front page. On February 1, 2025, a simple drawing of a bird became the most popular submission for Takeover Tuesdays. On May 12, 2025, Newgrounds added a feature that lets users play old Flash games with a game controller, even if the games didn't originally support it.
See also
In Spanish: Newgrounds para niños
- Internet art
- History of the Internet
- List of video game websites
- Independent animation
