I have rated this post 'T' since it links to T-rated submissions.

Hello everyone!

We figured we would make a 2024 year in review post since that seems to be the hip & trendy thing people are doing this time of the year. This year has been quite the busy year for us since it's the first year Team Trivial has published projects here on NG! I'll try to keep things simple and include some information about our entries, updates, and milestones over the last year below.

The Quick Recap

I'll be going into some deep detail below, so if you'd like to just see a brief review you're covered here!

• 6 NEW Trivial Trivia entries were released
• 3 NEW Trivial Guesser entries were released
• 1 Update to a 2015 Trivial Trivia submission was released
• 1 Trivial Guesser entry was scrapped and unreleased
• 2 Trivial Trivia entries were scrapped and unreleased (1 will be entering production in January)

Special thanks to the following people who contributed, assisted, or somehow helped out with the series as I get to the appropriate entries, so thanks and sorry if you don't like the ping!

May - December Entries

@applessmillion @Atastic @CrispyToastYT @ElRandomGMD (writing & images) @Jyfhz @KujoNG @Newergrounder5 @qwerty741 @RayHamilton @EricMatyas (music in Trivial Guesser) @DoctorStrongbad @TomFulp (for frontpages & being a good guy)

December 2024 Update to Trivial Trivia: Newgrounds Collection

@SirPelo @Razur-Draws @JamesTDG @KingCrowned @ElRandomGMD @RavioliBox

@PotatoMan (OK'd art to be added in Jan)

Now onward to the lengthy history and the disorganized thoughts!

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February 2024

This month marks the true start of the Trivial Trivia series reboot. I began building an HTML/JS/CSS codebase from scratch, aiming to take the series to a place where both applessmillion and I would be satisfied. Without diving too deep into the details (as appless has, and I'm sure will, elaborate more on this later), the 2020/2021 entries were missing that certain something that would have made for great trivia. The goal of rebooting the series was to introduce replayability, something unique, and animation & graphics to make the game feel responsive and 'alive.'

With these ideas in mind, and after discussing the vision for the game, work officially began.

May 2024

After ~3 months of development, the first iteration of the new Trivial Trivia series was ready! This new version brought new features absent from previous entries including:

• A 20-question trivia session where questions would be rotated and mixed from a larger pool of questions.
• Fully animated title screen, trivia screen, and more information present on the trivia review screen.

This new version also introduced a 100-point scoring scale, replacing the previous system of awarding just 1 point per correct answer.

We weren't quite ready to release this iteration yet, as some of the features we wanted to include were still missing. So, instead of launching something entirely new, we decided to update something old! The original Trivial Trivia: Newgrounds submission by applessmillion was revamped, transitioning from its old Flash version to the new codebase we built. This updated version includes new music, new questions, and revisions to outdated information.

You can view this submission here:

June 2024

A few weeks after releasing our update to the original Trivial Trivia: Newgrounds entry, it was time to introduce something brand new! applessmillion worked with 6 Newgrounds creators (thanks to Atastic, CrispyToastYT, ElRandomGMD, Jyfhz, KujoNG, Newergrounder5) to allow for us to use their existing art for the new entry we were making. This entry, of course, is Trivial Trivia: The Newgrounds Collection

This entry built upon our May 2024 update to further include:

• Separate trivia packs to allow for more specific questions/trivia to play.
• More in-depth stats screen to view how you've done on previous sessions and trivia packs.
• An in-game credits screen where you can easily view who helped with the game along with a link to a website.
• Link to a question source where you can find the answer (and other fun info).
• Full keyboard support - navigate the menus and take on trivia without using your mouse!
• Mobile friendly - this game is fully playable on your mobile phone! (it may not be as pretty as Desktop mode, but it works!)

When published, this entry featured over 400 questions across 8 trivia packs.

Throughout the month, we updated the game with new questions, bug fixes, added features, and mobile mode tweaks. qwerty741 was instrumental, providing great feedback and bug reports!

We were also fortunate to have the game featured on the Newgrounds front page for over three weeks (I think?), with over 15k players! The entry won Daily 3rd Place (like the 2015 original) and a Monthly award, which both of us were not expecting. We're thrilled that the community enjoyed it enough to place it in the top 5 for the month!

Beginning work on Trivial Guesser

I had posted to the BBS in mid-June looking to get some feedback on a new type of game I was programming - Trivial Guesser. At the time, I was really into Worlde and had viewed in passing a few episode of Wheel of Fortune. I thought it would be cool to have a game featuring daily content to come back to (like wordle) and categories of answers (like WoF) so I started work on something Newgrounds related. This game did not get released but I had posted to the BBS for feedback. This entry is still visible here:

https://www.newgrounds.com/projects/games/5758496/preview

Feedback was overall just OK and the main complaint at the time was the questions and subject matter were a little too obscure. I took this feedback and instead made a new entry to premiere in July...

July 2024

July was a somewhat difficult month for Team Trivial in that we wanted to try something new but did not have a lot of time to get something out when I wanted it released. An idea I had midway through June was to split up Trivial Trivia releases to be an ever-other month ordeal while releasing a different game on the off months. This game would be Trivial Guesser, and the entry for this month became Trivial Guesser: Video Game Releases

(special thanks to RayHamilton for his art in-game, and ericmatyas for the royalty-free music)

This entry stemmed from our scrapped Newgrounds Guesser game and added significant backend code to ensure it worked well on both desktop and mobile (though mobile view wasn't prioritized for Trivia). The codebase was mostly new, with some reused CSS and Newgrounds.io functions.

Trying to create a game like Trivial Guesser in just two weeks led to a buggy experience for both me and the players. Throughout the month, qwerty741 provided feedback and bug reports. While most bugs were fixed, the codebase became difficult to maintain.

We also advertised a now-defunct Patreon this month. Managing and promoting something like this while juggling everything else was a challenge.

This entry remains a sore spot for me. While Day 1 went smoothly, issues arose as players returned for daily content, including a devastating bug that corrupted save data around Day 8 (data corruption is my worst fear when releasing something new!).

Trivial Trivia

Halfway through the month, work began on the next Trivial Trivia game, and I decided to put the Guesser series on hold until I could rewrite the codebase for a better experience in the next entry... which eventually arrived!

We wanted this next entry to be something different from the Trivial Guesser subject matter & something kind of familiar to a general gaming audience. Additionally, the Newgrounds Collection had received some great reviews and feedback (big thanks to @FutureCopLGF!) that I wanted to add into the next entry. That entry released in August

August 2024

August saw the release of our next Trivial Trivia entry - Gaming Console Collection.

This entry had, in my opinion, one of the biggest technical leaps we've had in the modern Trivial Trivia series. Previously, all questions were manually typed into a JSON file we were editing with JSONBuddy (100% recommend, we still use this for JSON validation & quick modifications) which made checking for issues (spellcheck, repeats, bad answers, etc.) difficult. In mid-July, I created a tool to add question data into CSV files, allowing us to use Excel for better manipulation and spellchecking. This change made monthly content releases possible!

The collection’s subject was loosely related to Trivial Guesser, but with new questions and ideas. RayHamilton generously allowed us to reuse their art, and qwerty741 provided valuable feedback.

This entry introduced Trivial Tokens, trivia theme support, in-game info, and code updates. We also added a new category, Odd One Out, where you would need to spot the different answer based on the question.

Overall, I was happy with this entry. It had one of the best aesthetics in the series, with appless’ music and RayHamilton’s pixel art making it stand out with a great look and feel!

As for the subject matter, if we were to release this pack today I would've made some major changes to the subject matter & combined the Nintendo and Sony categories (or Handheld and Home consoles) so we could have fewer questions that were higher quality.

Mid-month update

Midway through August I had updated the game to test out a new feature I wanted to introduce - picture questions. The codebase and our data structure for question did not really support it, so I hacked something together and added about 3 questions to the Sony Home pack that would show an image below the question text. It worked pretty well and would encourage the subject matter for September's release...

September 2024

September saw the release of our next Trivial Trivia entry - Flags of the World

After releasing two previous Trivial Trivia entries we thought it would be great to introduce a pack heavily focused on picture-based questions! Flag trivia seemed like a perfect place to start.

In addition to the new trivia packs and subject matter, I had updated the codebase to add in the following:

• In-game leaderboards
• Best-score badges (medal w/ number shown next to trivia pack grid)

Other QoL updates include changes to the game's font, question time, and keyboard support were also implemented.

Special thanks to TomFulp/Newgrounds for frontpaging this entry as well!

Mid-Month Update & Roadmap

Midway through September we decided to release a roadmap covering the rest of 2024!

We had received some great feedback on this entry and the previous entries relating to a longer gamemode or an 'endless' mode. Midway through the month we were able to deliver on this with the first iteration of Endless Trivia! You'll keep getting presented with questions in this gamemode until you get one wrong.

October 2024

October saw the next entry of Trivial Trivia - Holidays and Celebrations Vol. 1

We had decided to split this entry into two for time and length. Specifically, we didn't have the time to make a trivia collection of 10-15 packs, and even if we did, I feel we'd not get full participation across all trivia packs (which packs would be invisible until you scroll? Which packs would get less NG medals/leaderboards?) This also allowed me to focus on adding some new features for this entry, including...

• Optimization of loading packs & info - the game now loaded across screens with a 2-3 second improvement.
• Endless mode was optimized & you now have more options!

ElRandomGMD also contributed some questions specific to the Mexico trivia pack.

Trivial Guesser Rebooted

With Trivia looking good, I shifted focus to rebuild Trivial Guesser from scratch. I scrapped the old codebase and used existing JS and CSS from Trivial Trivia. All HTML pages and Guesser-specific features were rebuilt. With three weeks instead of two, I also made the gameplay easier by removing the maximum guesses and guess history.

November 2024

November marked the release of the rebooted Trivial Guesser with Flags of the World.

This entry introduced a new look, simplified gameplay, and an overall more stable experience. This game re-used a lot of data from the Trivial Trivia entry so in turn featured more content that was not completely limited to the daily categories!

Mid-Month Trivial Trivia

Since Trivial Guesser did not need much work post-release, appless began work updating scrapped trivia packs to for a 'grab-bag' release Mid-November.

We had also created a few new packs for this release to get it up to a pack quantity we'd be happy with. This entry also featured a lot of small QoL updates including updates to trivia themes, loading, questions, and an improved main title layout.

Appless had also gotten into Jeopardy (the TV show) around this time and wanted to borrow the phrasing style seen in this show as it came across more "professional" and easier to read. Some packs featured this new style of phrasing to test the waters.

Overall, this entry did exceptionally well as it was frontpaged and was the first of our entries to win a Daily Feature! Big thanks to everyone who played, voted, and reviewed the game!

Off-Newgrounds activity

As of November, we're now on Bluesky! It seemed everyone was over there so we decided to join up and share some of our trivia knowledge with the masses from our Team Trivial account.

Applessmillion also dusted off his trivialtrivia.net domain he's been sitting on for years and made it a portal of links to find us easily!

December 2024

And finally, here we are in December!

December saw the release of two new games - Trivial Guesser and Trivial Trivia - both featuring Holiday themes.

We also made an account on Mastrodon since that seemed to be a kind-of cool place like Bluesky.

During November I worked to overhaul the visual look & feel of the Trivial Trivia series. I felt there was some wasted space and wanted to make use of the full screen. Besides this, Trivia pack names were simplified and would now include a 'tag' for the type of trivia you can expect ('All About X', 'Odd One Out', etc.)

This entry is also featured the last iteration of the 'Endless Trivia' feature before it was renamed to Trivial Gauntlet. In the backend enough modifiers were now available and a multi-selection of endless trivia options were implemented so it was time to give this feature a new name!

Trivial Gauntlet featured many of the same questions/answers from Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 of the Holidays and Celebrations Trivia games. On the technical side, new sounds, animations, and some styling was changed from the previous entries.

Christmas Day

Previously teased in early December, an update to Trivial Trivia: The Newgrounds Collection was released! You can read much more about this update here:

https://teamtrivial.newgrounds.com/news/post/1498185

End of 2024, Hello 2025

2024 has been a great year for trivia on Newgrounds (if I can say so myself...)! 2025 will start off a little slow for Team Trivial for a few IRL reasons, so we will have a January hiatus. We have plans to release a February Trivia game that will require significant changes to the codebase again, so more details on this entry and when you can expect a release will be shared next month!

I'd like to end this by thanking everyone on Newgrounds for the amazing support, feedback, and awesome community being fostered on this site. While I joined near the start of the year, I feel like I know the place and have been part of it much longer (I'm blaming the late nights mulling over the NG Wiki pages for this)! I'm hoping Newgrounds will continue to be the awesome community it is going into 2025 and for years to come!

Thanks for reading!

- Team Trivial (formerly Kabobble)