ENA Day
ENA Day (also referred to as ENAversary or Ena-versary) is an annual event that occurs on the website Newgrounds. It is celebrated on February 23rd, the day Ena was first revealed on Joel Guerra's Twitter.[1]
1st anniversary
For ENA Day 2021, Joel G. shared references and inspirations in a Twitter thread, sharing early designs of Ena as well as inspirations for some aspects of the series.[2] The following was revealed:
- Early concept art of Ena's face and hair design, showing her blue side originally being white and some various different eye designs.
- The aesthetic for the first episode, Auction Day, was inspired by the game The Town With No Name.
- The Hourglass Dog was based on Joel's dog Dona when she was a puppy.
- Ena's movements while drunk in Extinction Party were inspired the movements of Jackie Chan in the film Drunken Master.
- The aesthetic for the second episode, Extinction Party, was inspired by the game Middens.
- Gabo's line "DRINK THE BLOOD AND SMOKE THE BANANA, YES" is a reference to a quote from the game Space Funeral. The original quote is "I like to drink blood...and smoke the weed!"
- Most of the entities are inspired by paintings by Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński. One comparison is made comparing one of Beksiński's works to The Great Runas's transportation device.
- The first-person adventure aspect of Extinction Party and Temptation Stairway is inspired by the game LSD.
- Some of Ena's movements are inspired by Osamu Sato's movements in his film THE ESOTERIC RETINA.
Alongside this, pre-orders for the Hourglass Dog plush became available.
2nd anniversary
For ENA Day 2022, a short animation loop was released on Joel Guerra's Twitter and Instagram featuring Ena glitching into her four original yellow-and-white designs shown off on the first ENAversary.[3][4] A larger version of the animation adding Moony, a Headtomb, Robert's UFO, and Merci was also released on YouTube with the song "We're Only Human" by Graham Kartna playing. Several other events also occurred:
- Four new avatars were released on Joelgc.com featuring Ena's four yellow-and-white prototype designs from released concept art, one of which a user can choose from. Every user's name was also changed to "ƎNA" for the day.[5]
- It was also confirmed that another one of the four avatars can be collected during the next ENA Day event.[6]
- A Twitch stream was held featuring the ENA team with the Dream BBQ game being the primary topic of discussion. Upcoming mechanics and concept art pertaining to Dream BBQ were shown during the stream.[7]
3rd anniversary
For ENA Day 2023, a livestream on Joel Guerra's YouTube channel featured the Dream BBQ development team revealing various pieces of Dream BBQ concept art while answering questions about the game/episode from fans.[8][9]
- The four avatars on Joelgc.com featuring Season 1 Ena's prototype designs, which were previously available on ENA Day 2022, were made available again for the day. Users could choose one from the four, with the others being available again on subsequent ENAversaries. Every user's name was also changed to "ƎNA" for the day.[10]
- A voice reveal video for the Ena appearing in Dream BBQ was shown during the livestream, which would be posted as a separate video on Joel Guerra's social media the following day.[11]
- At 1:52:52 during the livestream, Joel answers a question made by a Spanish-speaking fan and responds in Spanish. When translated, he says, "[Joel reads fan's question] Have you noticed what ENA has done around the world? What do you think about this? [Joel responds] It has been very crazy. It has been a very enjoyable experience. I feel very fortunate to live this. To create something that has impacted so many people; so many people and so many talented artists. I feel that I am an era of my life that I thought I would never be able to do. It feels incredible. I don't have many opportunities to speak in Spanish, but don't think it's because I don't want to speak in Spanish or something like that. In reality it's because I am shy in social settings, because I'm not one to talk a lot in social settings. I don't like them very much, although they are good, necessary. With love, I appreciate all my Spanish-speaking fans, and have for a long time. I have always gotten great wishes [from the fans] for me and what I've done. I try to always subtitle everything that I make with Spanish, well not everything, but at least the ENA series. I don't know if there will be any Spanish subtitles when the game comes out. To be honest, it's very difficult to add subtitles in any language. It's a very large task. Like they say in scope grill, scope grill? How is it said? Scope krill? [He speaks English in-between, and continues in Spanish at 1:54:55, saying] "Thank you, thank you to everyone. I hope you continue to enjoy not just what I have done, but everything we have done together. I couldn't have done this myself. Yes thank you, gracias."[12]
- New ENA merchandise was revealed to be coming to Fangamer in the future. Some of the upcoming merchandise was revealed, showing enamel pins, sticker sheets, a T-shirt, and lenticular items.
4th anniversary
On ENA Day 2024, an update on Dream BBQ's development was given by Joel Guerra, stating that the game would be released in separate chapters with separate stories,[13] with the first chapter, "Lonely Door", being the first set to release.[14] Additionally, a short animation was released featuring the three different Season 2 Ena forms, Froggy, Coral Glasses, and Dratula.[15] A YouTube upload of the animation also featured additional music.
- The selection between the four Season 1 Ena prototype design avatars was made available on Joelgc.com again for the day. Every user's name was again changed to "ƎNA".
5th anniversary
On ENA Day 2025, Joel Guerra released the release date trailer for Dream BBQ. The game was set to be released on March 27th. The trailer consisted of cutscenes from the game, as well as animated segments about events in the chapter. The same video was put up on Joel's Twitter, where it was noted that a supporter's edition would be available for the game.[16]
- Various stills from the trailer
Ena with the Lonely Door.
Riding inside the taxi.
Shaman doing an "I'm watching you" motion.
The cannibalistic fishes from the Purge Event.
"Anxiety" Ena on the dancefloor.
A portion of the platforming route.
"Hungover" Ena trying to cross the river.
Ena holding Humanboard.
References
- ↑ https://twitter.com/JoelGuerraC/status/1231746194780688384
- ↑ https://twitter.com/JoelGuerraC/status/1364371153540812801
- ↑ https://twitter.com/JoelGuerraC/status/1496508514281340932
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CaU4T9rla0h/
- ↑ https://twitter.com/TanyaHastur/status/1496365171920547840
- ↑ https://twitter.com/TanyaHastur/status/1496609567060500494
- ↑ https://twitter.com/JoelGuerraC/status/1496508516340797442
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmkix2A0Rlc
- ↑ https://twitter.com/JoelGuerraC/status/1628856917375188993
- ↑ https://twitter.com/TanyaHastur/status/1628619477981052929
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kze04Xo0ue0
- ↑ Original translation by @katsukibruhski4095; some amendments have been made.
- ↑ https://twitter.com/JoelGuerraC/status/1761099867806372080
- ↑ https://twitter.com/JoelGuerraC/status/1761099870012657820
- ↑ https://twitter.com/JoelGuerraC/status/1761099865503715369
- ↑ https://x.com/JoelGuerraC/status/1893681175392031076