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Needle
I created Strategy Guide in 2003, retired from Flash animation in 2005. Always pondering a comeback and never actually doing so.

Age 45, Male

Stabby Guy

N/A

Texas

Joined on 5/17/02

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Needle's News

Posted by Needle - February 6th, 2011


One of the most common questions I get is "Why the hell did you stop making Strategy Guide episodes? That shit was hella dope, yo!" So I figured, why not set the record straight?

I started making Strategy Guide as a creative outlet when I was in graduate school. Fact is, I absolutely hated the grad program I was in, and although I admit it now, I wasn't willing to admit it then. Working on SG helped me get away from all of that crap.

As I made more episodes, they started getting very... complex. Overly so. Eventually I ran out of money, quit grad school and moved back east, away from my roommate at the time. He was the voice of Guido, and without his ability to ad lib on the spot, the spirit of the character was somewhat lost.

In the summer of 2004 I began working on an episode that basically combined the first eight Final Fantasies, assigning all of the Strategy Guide cast members to my favorite characters across the early series. It was twelve minutes long, and I actually FINISHED about nine minutes of it (the unused files remain archived on a DVD to this day). It was epic, it was monumental, it would have been my moment of supreme glory. It also burned me out. As certain Newgrounds personalities of the day can probably attest to, I was a masterful procrastinator and no amount of pushing could get me back on the horse.

A year later in 2005 I discarded the whole episode and started fresh. That was the Blaster Master episode. Shortly after that, my real life job started becoming more involved and my free time was officially null and void.

Now I'm in my early thirties and the whole "Video Games as Retro Art" movement has become tired and redundant to me. Strategy Guide wouldn't have much of an audience in this day and age.

I would love to make something completely new, but I have since changed jobs a few times and make shitloads of cash money. Maybe some day I'll crawl back out of the woodwork, but if history is any indicator, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Thanks for your fandom.


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