McLeodGaming

McLeodGaming Inc., often-abbreviated MG, is an independent entertainment company dedicated to video games and music, located in Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded by and is named after Gregory McLeod, who is mainly known by his alias Cleod9. The company is known for the creation and showcasing of the ' series, fighting games based on the ' series, as well as the co-development of the  series of puzzle-platforming games. It is currently in the production of Super Smash Flash 2, as well as the crossover fighting game Fraymakers.

History
McLeodGaming was first created in early 2003 as a website for showcasing games and applications made by Gregory McLeod for the TI-83 Plus graphing calculator. The very first game created by Gregory McLeod was a text-based role-playing game, appropriately titled RPG. From 2003 to 2007, several games and applications for the TI-83 Plus were made available for download and were released under the McLeodGaming brand.

Some time after creating the website, Gregory McLeod developed an admiration to Macromedia Flash and he eventually learned how to make animations in Flash. Starting in 2005, he created and uploaded the animations to both the McLeodGaming website and Newgrounds in place of the games; among the Flash cartoons include the sprite-based parody series A Super Mario World and the series Animus. He also uploaded musical compositions he personally made with instruments and computer sounds. The McLeodGaming website itself was redesigned that year to include Flash animations, artwork, music, fan works, and website affiliates, and McLeod also created the McLeodGaming Forums as a way to build a community for the website, including support for future projects.

Soon, as he improved his capabilities with Flash, Gregory McLeod started creating small interactive Flash projects mainly during (and sometimes for) his high school years, such as the infographic game The Cell, the Spanish-based guess game Adivina La Película and even competitive games based on 's Pong. In April 2006, Gregory McLeod started development of what he considered to be his first "major project": a combat-oriented platform game which eventually became the original Super Smash Flash, a Flash fighting game loosely based on Super Smash Bros. Melee with several differences in content. Development took roughly four months (with Gregory McLeod handling all development by himself) and was released to Newgrounds on August 21, 2006, with a downloadable version getting released seven days later on August 28, 2006.

Super Smash Flash received a mixed to positive reception from media and fans alike, it was considered a success and a breakthrough for Flash gaming and Super Smash Bros. fan games in general at the time of its original release and became a cult classic game, starting the modern McLeodGaming era. This prompted Gregory McLeod to immediately start development on a sequel to improve upon the original game. The game, appropriately titled Super Smash Flash 2, now has support from a multitude of developers, formerly fellow users from the McLeodGaming Forums. Progress of the game is shown through a playable demo released to the public, which is still currently in active development. The first iteration (v0.1a) was released on December 25, 2007, just in time for Christmas Day as a "present" from Gregory McLeod.

The main McLeodGaming website received a new and elegant gray and blue design created by Jamal Ransaw on September 2, 2008. This redesign was to have under control the development of Super Smash Flash 2, the McLeodGaming Forums, and other updates. However, it would no longer include as much content available on the website's previous iteration, discarding all TI-83 Plus games and artwork created by Gregory McLeod.

After six years of no complete games being released (as SSF2 is still released as a demo version), McLeodGaming released Yeah Jam Fury on June 30, 2012, a puzzle-platforming game made as a senior college project by Gregory McLeod in collaboration with three other classmates, notably William "Willy" Abeel, who designed the game to explore game mechanics. The game was published by both McLeodGaming and Willy's own independent company WillyWorld Entertainment (now World Entertainment Studios). The game features three playable characters – Yeah, Jam, and Fury – each with different abilities that all must be used in order to overcome the game's levels and obstacles.

With the release of v0.9b of the SSF2 demo, McLeodGaming also launched McLeodGaming Network on July 24, 2014, an infrastructure allowing for online multiplayer play in games such as Super Smash Flash 2. Days after the release of v0.9b, more than 30,000 accounts had been created. The service was initially launched in a beta state and would improve over time.

In anticipation of the next major release of the SSF2 demo, referred to as Beta, the McLeodGaming website was once again revamped on March 3, 2016, this time by Jake Siegers. The site now employs a simpler, more stylized look, with a dark gray theme accented by a tinge of more vibrant colors. At the same time, the site was also updated to mesh better with search engines, giving it greater accessibility and visibility than before. Super Smash Flash 2 officially reached its Beta status on May 29, 2017, the first major release after 34 months (2 years and 10 months) since the release of v0.9b

A follow-up to Yeah Jam Fury under the name Yeah Jam Fury: U, Me, Everybody! was announced on October 25, 2017. Released exclusively for Steam on December 15, 2017 and once again developed in conjunction with World Entertainment Studios, it is the first full-paid game to be released in McLeodGaming's history. The game is very similar its predecessor, featuring the same trio of protagonists and refined gameplay with many more levels and features.

Gregory McLeod announced on March 16, 2020, that the McLeodGaming Forums would be permanently closed after over fourteen years of operation, due to lack of activity and the software not being properly maintained. The website would eventually close on April 30, 2020, with the section leading to it on the website instead leading to the official McLeodGaming Discord server.

McLeodGaming announced on September 10, 2020 that a new fighting game, later named Fraymakers, was in development by the company. The game was fully revealed on November 18, 2020, and its Kickstarter campaign was launched on the same day. The crowdfunding campaign had an initial goal of $46,000 and was expected to last a month, ending on December 17, 2020, but the game was successfully funded in just over two hours and later reached $364,922. The game is expected to be released in early access in August 2022.

Development teams
McLeodGaming consists of multiple separate development teams in charge of creating and promoting particular games. Each team consists of multiple developers and is led by Gregory McLeod, and they are often credited separately from McLeodGaming as developers and publishers. Note that games not made by a particular development team, such as the Yeah Jam Fury series, are generally credited to McLeodGaming itself.

Super Smash Flash 2 Team
Super Smash Flash 2 Team, known more simply as SSF2 Team, is responsible for developing Super Smash Flash 2 and promoting the Super Smash Flash series as a whole. It originally formed in 2008 as a special usergroup on the McLeodGaming Forums and has frequently changed over the course of the game's development, with there generally being about 10 to 15 active developers at any given time.

Team Fray
Team Fray is responsible for developing and promoting Fraymakers and its companion software FrayTools. It formed in 2018 and consists of five core members, being current or former members of SSF2 Team, as well as various contracted collaborators.

Website
The McLeodGaming website serves as the main site to access information regarding the company. The current layout of the website was programmed by Jake Siegers and designed by James Hadden, with graphical assets made by Jamal Ransaw and Joshua Wattus. The content of this website is separated between pages, which are linked to on the website's header.

The "news" page includes posts pertaining to the game news, development updates, site maintenance, and other topics, with the two most recent news posts shown on the main page. News posts are sorted by their categories and writers and can also be accessed through a search function based on keywords and the month of being posted. News posts made prior to the website's revamp in March 2016 are sorted as "Legacy Blog Posts".

The "music" page includes musical compositions made by McLeod, and it currently includes 42 compositions to play or download. The "games" page showcases games developed and published by McLeodGaming, many of which link to external websites. These include Fraymakers, which links to its Kickstarter page; Yeah Jam Fury: U, Me, Everybody! which links to its Steam store page; Yeah Jam Fury, which links to its Newgrounds page; and the Super Smash Flash games, each of which link to their SuperSmashFlash.com pages. Older games and animations are stored in an archive subsection, which can be accessed from this page and viewed directly on the website using either Adobe Flash or the emulator.

The three remaining header pages link to separate websites, including the McLeodGaming Discord server, the McLeodGaming Zazzle store, and the McLeodGaming Network website. Additionally, the "Related Links" section shows links to other official McLeodGaming websites, such as its YouTube channel and social media pages, as well as a contact page.

Related sites
There exist many other official sites related to McLeodGaming.

SuperSmashFlash.com
SuperSmashFlash.com is the official website for the Super Smash Flash series. It launched on February 14, 2020 alongside the release of Beta 1.2 of the SSF2 demo to host both SSF and SSF2, which formerly were hosted on the main McLeodGaming website until being removed on January 1, 2021. In addition to both games being playable and downloadable, the website also contains news updates released by SSF2 Team, including those released to the main McLeodGaming website in the years prior. It also provides links to the game's official social media accounts and the McLeodGaming Network website.

Fraymakers.com
Fraymakers.com is a currently incomplete website for Fraymakers launched alongside its Kickstarter campaign. Although the main page simply redirects to the game's Steam store page, other pages on the domain are currently used for the Kickstarter campaign credits, a press kit, and archives of Q&A sessions with the Kickstarter campaign's backers.

GregMcLeod.com
GregMcLeod.com is Gregory McLeod's professional portfolio website. Started on September 24, 2012, it is used to showcase McLeod's programming and creative works, as well as to create blog posts regarding news on personal and McLeodGaming-related projects, music software reviews, programming tips, and other topics.

Discord
McLeodGaming, previously named SSF2 Official, is the official Discord server for McLeodGaming. Started on January 18, 2017, it initially served as the official server for the Super Smash Flash 2 community to discuss the game before eventually being renamed and changed to encompass McLeodGaming as a whole. It is run by five administrators – Cleod9, Zero Insanity, Sir, Doq, and Bedoop – and used to discuss McLeodGaming media, most notably Super Smash Flash 2 and Fraymakers, along with other general topics.

As of July 2022, the server has over 39,000 members, making it one of the largest official communities for McLeodGaming.

Zazzle
The McLeodGaming Zazzle store is the official website for McLeodGaming merchandise. Most merchandise bears the McLeodGaming logo or simply the "M Fist" symbol, which can come in full color or black and white. Merchandise includes t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, trucker hats, aprons, mugs, thermal tumblers, keychains, stickers, mousepads, and notebooks.

McLeodGaming Wiki
The McLeodGaming Wiki is a Wiki founded by former SSF2 developer James Hadden to provide info of the actual events of McLeodGaming and the Super Smash Flash series as well. As the site updates, the wiki does too. During its first times, the McLeodGaming Wiki was considered a poor site to obtain info about McLeodGaming due to the big amount of fake articles and unconfirmed features for Super Smash Flash 2 that, usually, confused new users of McLeodGaming. With the passage of time, these problems were eventually fixed and were taken under control to regulate the vandalism and spam so the Wiki could be more accurate.

Cleod-9
Cleod-9 is the official Newgrounds account of McLeodGaming. From this account, Cleod9 uploads some of the games, animations, and music developed by McLeodGaming, such as A Super Mario World, Super Smash Flash, and Yeah Jam Fury.

Trivia

 * On December 31, 2010, on the eve for the release of v0.7 of the SSF2 Demo, Jamal Ransaw announced another reskin for the main website, even showcasing the new buttons the site would have carried. This never came into fruition and no other word of this announcement was spoken ever again, not even after the site actually got reskinned on March 3, 2016.