Welcome to the second episode of Glitch Asks, the series where I hand-pick interesting Newgrounds creators to throw a bunch of questions at! Today, we're speaking to @CaptainElemental, who's developing their own character design project about the adventures of an interdimensional researcher named Eniar. Without further ado, let's begin!

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Q: Explain the origin of your username.

A: My username was the early concept name I used for the character now named Eniar, who I first designed around 15 years ago.

Q: Tell us a little bit about this universe you've been working on.

A: I was actually working on settings that take place in different dimensions. One of them is split between two parallel planes: a 6-dimensional plane, where space and time are both 3D, and one with just 3-dimensional space. The 6D plane is inhabited by 5-dimensional lifeforms consisting of 3 spacial and 2 temporal dimensions. I'm still working on many details, so I can't explain very much now. The other setting I was working on is a macabre-themed dimension inhabited by spectral energy based lifeforms. This one is also still under development.

Q: When did you first start to learn the skills you use in your art now (e.g. drawing, 3D modelling)?

A: When I came up with the character Eniar is when I started focusing on drawing. I started learning 3D modeling about three-to-four years ago.

Q: In your Newgrounds bio, you specifically mention losing motivation on previous projects. How long had you been working on these previous projects for, and at what point did you decide to start fresh?

A: About 14 years ago I started a personal art project that centered around designing characters, then moved into drawing comics and worldbuilding. I posted what I managed to do on a few different media platforms. I got a few followers and a little feedback, but eventually they lost interest in whatever I was doing. The decreasing attention from my followers combined with a lack of feedback resulted in a few periods of inactivity from lack of motivation and ideas on what anyone wanted to see. I eventually went on a three-year hiatus that started four-to-five years ago. It was during this that I started learning about using Blender. After the hiatus I decided to cancel my old art project and move on to something new.

Q: I first found out about you through your video, "Glimring Model Test". How long did it take to make, and how were you able to combine the animated model with the real-life background?

A: I don't quite remember, but I think the animating, rendering, and editing processes took a week or so in total. The background image is an HDRI. People appear to like using them for photorealistic renders. I found some tutorials for a few ways to use these in Blender.

Q: What are your main inspiration(s) when designing characters and creatures?

A: I can't remember anything specific. The characters I made were usually designed around a certain theme. Things like a certain genre, a certain element, a certain environment. I would browse around stuff on the theme I wanted to design something on and try to brainstorm some ideas.

Q: Now that you've been building a universe, what would you like to do with it in the future?

A: I had decided I'd like to eventually try some game development. Nothing big, probably just a small 3D game since I'm solo. I plan to use a dimension I'm working on as the setting for a game someday. Right now I'm trying to get used to working on concepts and making assets, so I won't be developing a game anytime soon.

Q: If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

A: I don't know. Whatever that could improve my slow production speed so I can get stuff done sooner.

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I would like to give a big thank-you to @CaptainElemental for participating in the interview and giving some interesting answers!

Who will I interview next? Nobody knows but me! If you've made it this far down, thank you very much for reading, and I'll be seeing you in the next episode of Glitch Asks!

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Disclaimer: All answers are copied and pasted directly from the creator's response, without any adjustments. The views expressed in this interview are purely those of the creator and do not reflect those of GlitchBuddy. All information is correct at time of interviewee's response (14 May 2025).

Recently, and oftentimes before, I have had a new idea for a project. An idea that I like so much, I want to start conceptualising it and designing on it right away. But then I remember... I already have like, three past ideas I'm already supposed to be working on.

Now of course, I could start working on the new idea anyway, bringing my total of simultaneous projects up to four. But even I know that, if I let that happen, the amount of projects I'm working on will keep growing to an unsustainable point. Another option I have is to get rid of one or more of my existing projects and replace them with the mew idea. But this is unsustainable too, as if I keep getting rid of projects to make way for new ones, I'll never get anywhere with any of them.

I have been told that my constant fixation on new ideas is a symptom of my ADHD. I will oftentimes be interested by a particular type of character one moment, and then a new one another moment, and so on and so forth. I always try to tell myself to stick with the ideas I already have, which for most of my throwaway ideas actually works. But occasionally, I will get an idea that I like so much, I just can't shake the thought of it.

I have been considering making a new type of project called a "mini-project", where I'm able to work on these new ideas, but with less focus than the main ones I'm already working on. Think of it as a sort of side project. I'm not sure if these will ever come to fruition though, as I'm bad enough at focusing on my main projects as it is.

This is a problem I have had practically ever since I started drawing, and one that I've never truly been able to solve. I'll have to keep on considering methods on how I can manage this ever-evolving influx of ideas.

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P.S. You're probably wondering what this particular new idea I have right now is. Put simply, I wanna make a group of robots. Not just any ol' robots though; a group of stylised quirky robots who do quirky things, where all semblance of logic gets thrown out of the window. That's all I'll say for now.

Welcome to Glitch Asks, a new series where I hand-pick interesting Newgrounds creators to interview. For the debut episode, our subject will be @clqud, a small pixel artist who mainly draws their OCs in their unique, soft-shaded style. Take it away!

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Q: Explain the origin of your username.

A: In the past I liked so much Undertale, Napstablook is my favourite ghost and game character! So i take his name as my first nickname. After that I played Hyper Light Drifter, the main character of this game feels like very lonely, as I imagined myself, so i changed nickname on "Just a Drifter". But some time passed and I thought - "Hmmm... My nickname is very long and very hard for pronouncing" I tried to figure out what else can be lonely and drifting. And decision is... Yep, Cloud. I insert the letter "q" in nickname because of another game which I liked - Caves of Qud

I wondering about nicknaming myself like: Laffy, but I rejected that idea, sounds too embarrasing, and name is just does not suit for my conditions, so there it is - clqud, simple and sacral for me.

Q: How did you originally become interested in making pixel art?

A: To be honest, In one moment I really wanted to made my own original character, but i have no skill in digital art, I tried drawing in MS Paint, but soonly I realized - It`s just not for me, so I decided try pixel art, because I thought it would be very simple to realize own ideas on canvas in this way, I bought Aseprite on October 31 (Ironically) drawed my first art: is just little cloud in witch hat. But with time, I started become too envy on other pixel-artist, just because I thought they did very perfect arts than me, that fact put me into depression, I really worried that I`m just not good at pixel-art at all and sometimes I wanted drop this hobby, but now, this feeling is flew away, I`m glad that there is no envious thoughts on my mind.

Q: How long have you had your characters for?

A: My first and main OC - Cloud, "the cloud-headed creature", it was about three years i had this character. But I understand that fact: If I continue drawing only my main character, it would be a stagnation in my progress, so I decided draw my first haired character - Klyde (Yep, i know that i`m not good in giving names for own OC). And from that point, I started making other characters like BN-4Y, a tv-headed bunny robot; Kustiki - humanoid, which hair is literally is a bush, and etc. Sometimes I just draw characters, which holds on my mind and I never give them names, for example: a humanization of .txt file, that idea just comes from nowhere, but I drawed it. I wondered about making adult content with them, but it sounds too hard and wrong for me, and I just can`t imagine drawing something like this with my own OCs.

Q: How did you develop your art style?

A: That question is kinda complicated for me, because i can`t remember how i developed my skills. Only what i remember that my first works lacking of normal palette colors, i just used my own colors, and it looked very, very raw, and shading are poorly maded. 

But i realized: I only started making pixel art, so there is nothing bad to make a mistakes on first steps.

For now, I use palette presets from Aseprite for my arts, from Lospec site too.

Q: Explain the meaning of your banner. What is "Void Stranger Cloud"?

A: Oooh! That`s a good one!! You see... I searched indie games on steam and I found not very popular game "Void Stranger", it`s sokoban puzzle. To be honest, i don`t like puzzle-games, but after Void Stranger a started to appreciate them. It has a good lore and some things based on "Divine Comedy" which is also plus for me. When I started a new game I saw the ingame logo: "Void Stranger Gray" (Gray is a name of main protagonist) I really liked this logo, so i adapted it for myself like banner.

Also i put couple of thoughts into this banner like: "I`m posting my arts into the void, with hope if anybody likes it... So i am a Void Stranger." It maybe sounds childish, but i liked it. Void Stranger is still my favourite game, i wanted to share with someone about this hidden gem, but there are not many people, which enjoys such indie-games like this. I don`t have a powerful PC, so there is no other choice, but enjoy indie games, like Void Stranger. (And draw pixel-arts)

Q: Why do you draw?

A: Hmm... I never asked myself "Why I`m drawing these arts?". I can`t monetize my arts and can`t buy comms from foreign creators. If i had an ideal answer, then it gonna be: For myself, and my friends on discord server. But originally i had only one naive idea: "I want to be popular tweeter artist, get very big numbers of likes and retweets and etc." I don`t cared about one issue "It`s just not possible to get all attention in one time, there and now". For now i understand - i must make many attempts, many ups and downs in my attempts. So i decided to post my arts somwhere else, and there we are - Newgrounds, from that point, my previous idea faded into the background, and now Newgrouds very important for me, because there are much talented people - artists, musicians, game developers, animators and other creative users, I want to become one of them, maybe not popular, but well known in local circles!

Q: Is there any advice you would like to give to aspiring pixel artists?

A: Hard to say, but as I said earlier: "I only started making pixel art, so there is nothing bad to make a mistakes on first steps.", just give a try for some ideas, and never fall into despair from mistakes. Also i remembered: I have "sinned" - I drawed my first arts in mixels, and I just wanted to say for everyone: Don't blame aspiring pixel artist for that, just give them a explanation: why mixels are not preferable for first artworks.

Q: What is your favourite food?

A: My favourite food is food that i make for myself. I`m not good in cook, but it has to be learned from independent life experience. I like make salads, soups, pasta (with cheese) and rice (fried, with stake, or another meat). If i get lazy - I buy some sandwiches and rarely - pizza. Also i like choosing sauces for food.

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Thank you to @clqud for participating in the first ever episode of Glitch Asks; their answers were absolutely incredible!

Who will I interview next? Nobody knows but me! If you've made it this far down, thank you very much for reading, and I'll be seeing you in the next episode of Glitch Asks!

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Disclaimer: All answers are copied and pasted directly from the creator's response, without any adjustments. The views expressed in this interview are purely those of the creator and do not reflect those of GlitchBuddy. All information is correct at time of interviewee's response (9 May 2025).

A quick update on my new project I touched on briefly in my last news post: "The Guild" has been given the new name of "Finick".

The reason I decided to rename the project is that earlier today I discovered there was already an existing series of web animations called The Guild, which features similar elements, although does not follow my project's exact storyline. Nevertheless, in the pursuit of originality, I have decided on giving my own project a new name.

But why "Finick"? I randomly came up with it around an hour before writing this post, from the first two syllables of the word "finicky". There is a bit of meaning behind it: Dictionary.com's definitions are "to affect extreme daintiness or refinement" and "to trifle or dawdle". The first definition essentially means "to be very picky or particular", which describes Tom's personality near the beginning of the story very well, as he was very picky about who he wanted to go on adventures with, but was eventually forced to accept the few people who actually wanted to join him. The second definition means "to waste time", which I thought gave the title an ironic side, as is adventuring a fulfilling activity, or a mere waste of time? Tom's father definitely thinks it's the latter.

But in reality, I just thought the word "Finick" sounded cool. And, here we are.

To clarify, only the name of the project is changing. The in-universe adventuring group will still be known as the Guild of Adventurers, or just The Guild for short. But the story as a whole will be known as Finick.

Hi everyone, it's Glitch here! It's been another long while since my last news post 3 months ago, and I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for my tendency to occasionally disappear for long periods of time. But rest assured, I have not and will never abandon Newgrounds; I love this place too damn much.

So first of all, an update on me. You might recall that my last news post was about my newfound struggles with anxiety. I'm happy to announce that, since I started to take antidepressants, I have been in a much better state of mind. Although I'm not 100% back to normal, I'm at a point where I can confidently say I'm back to living comfortably. The bad news is that, in what I suspect to be a side effect of the antidepressants, my fatigue levels have risen, and I now struggle with daily bouts of uncontrollable drowsiness. Oh well, you win some and you lose some.

But enough about me, let's talk about... me, and all the stuff I've been getting up to in the last three months. Perhaps the biggest thing that's happened is that I got given a new room in the house which I have dedicated to video games. I have all my modern consoles hooked up to a 45-inch, 1080p television at the back of the room, as can be seen in this photo:

On the other side of the room, not visible in the photo, is both my computer setup and a CRT television setup for retro consoles (the only one I have right now being a PS1). It's a neat little place where I can go to relax and unwind with some good old fashioned gaming. Or I can play something hardcore and rage-inducing instead. You never know.

Another big thing that's happened is I have invested in my very own Kindle. In an effort to expand both my knowledge and creative horizons, I decided that getting a Kindle would be a great way to encourage me to read more books.

This is my Kindle 11th gen (2024), currently in the middle of the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. I also have two other books loaded up onto there: In Order To Live by Yeonmi Park, which is an autobiography of a woman who fled North Korea at a young age, and Ultra Processed People by Chris Van Tulleken, which is a book by a doctor about the prevalence and potential dangers of ultra-processed food.

But enough about boring nerd shit like books and reading, I know exactly what question is on everybody's mind: "In the three months since his last news post, has GlitchBuddy purchased an ASUS ROG Ally?"

You know it!

I've always liked the idea of having a handheld gaming PC, but honestly this purchase has led me to wonder if I should have just bought a Steam Deck instead. I went for the ROG Ally over the Deck as it was a native Windows 11 device, and so would be able to run games from the Epic Games and Xbox stores that SteamOS just couldn't. But the problem is that Windows just isn't designed for handheld PCs, really. I do like how the device lets you move the mouse using the right analogue stick and shoulder buttons, but it's not really a simple and seamless experience like I thought it was going to be. I also wasn't able to get the UWP version of Skyrim to correctly recognise the Ally's controller layout. Nevertheless, the few Steam indie games I've played on it so far have controlled well, and I plan to keep it around and see more of what it can do in the future.

There's one last thing I wanted to touch upon in this news post, and that's my actual art projects. For a while now I have been working on a new project behind the scenes, known as The Guild. It's a project about a small group of adventurers who may not be the strongest in the world, but all have a burning passion for exploration, as well as the support of one another. I'm still working on things, but I want to make comics about these characters in the future.

This means that, like I tried to do back in 2023, I'm once again working on three projects at once. While that previous attempt failed, I'm looking to take things more slowly this time around, and work on each project individually in time chunks, rather than trying to do all three at once.

Well, that will indeed be all from me this time around. Once again, I'm sorry that I keep disappearing for so long, but due to my issues with concentration, motivation and fatigue, I unfortunately can't promise that it won't happen again. But rest assured, I don't have any plans to leave this site, and I still love Newgrounds as much today as I did back in 2022.

Hope you all have a great day, and I'll see you soon!

-Glitch [ I - ]

Hi all, Glitch here. We're one month into 2025, and oh boy, what a month it has been for me. I genuinely don't remember the last time I was uploading art so frequently! I've relaunched Cyril the Cylinder into a brand-new project, which I've received positive feedback on from my friends. I've joined two new Discord communities, one for a game development studio and one that's about pixel art, and I've met a whole bunch of lovely people! And I've been posting to the BBS more than ever, with my goal to reach 1K posts by the end of the year.

However, unfortunately it hasn't all been happy for me. I've been going through a really bad time with my mental health lately, which is what the rest of this article will be about. I want to be open with the issues I am going through, so that anyone who's going through something similar knows they're not alone, and because I've been told writing down my thoughts and feelings can be a good thing.

If you don't wish to keep reading this article, that's absolutely fine; you should worry about your own mental health much more than mine! But if you really want to know what I'm going through, then read on.

Please note, this article contains several references to vomit and throwing up. If these are triggering topics for you, I suggest you stop reading the article here.

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It all started back around the end of November last year. I had gone to sleep one night as usual, however I suddenly woke up around 3am. I didn't think much of it at first, since I tend to wake up at random times in the middle of the night anyway, but then I started to feel a sudden sensation of nausea. Now I initially thought that it was just a feeling of anxiety, since I've always been a bit anxious about vomiting, and so I tried to calm myself down. However, the nausea kept getting stronger, and eventually it got to the point where I accepted what was about to happen, and made my way to the toilet.

What followed was a whole slew of vomiting fits, one after the other, that only produced a tiny bit of vomit with each heave. Occasionally, I would choke on the vomit as it came out. My parents (yes, I still live with them) attributed the symptoms to Norovirus. In the end, the only way I could get it to stop and go back to sleep was by taking anti-nausea medication.

I eventually recovered from this illness, and went on with my life as usual. However, we now get to the middle of December. I'm enjoying a day in the city with my IRL friend, eating out and looking at video game shops, you know the drill. Afterwards, we walked back to his house, but just as I was standing outside his front door waiting for him to unlock it, I suddenly felt another intense wave of nausea, to the point I thought I was going to throw up again. I proceeded to sit on his bed, trying not to throw up and making very little movement, while he was trying to show me MeatCanyon videos. I eventually had to cut my visit short and drive myself back home because I was feeling so unwell.

The next day, I woke up and felt fine again. Hm, must have just been really bad anxiety, I thought to myself. I felt like going on a drive that day, so I hopped in my car and started making my way to another city in order to pick up a couple video games. However, as I was waiting in a queue, I started to think about the events of the day before... and the feeling of nausea started again. It was less intense than before, but it started again. I was thinking of turning around and driving myself back home, but I decided to soldier on and pick up my video games after all.

The difference is, after I got back home that day, I did not start to feel better. This was the start of a mental health crisis for me, that I'm still feeling the effects of to this day. Essentially, I grew a terrible fear of vomiting. I would feel constantly nauseous throughout the day, was reluctant to eat food (and when I did, it was in very small amounts), and had anxiety attacks of increased nausea whenever I felt like I was in a situation where I couldn't easily escape (such as showering, or being with family). This persisted throughout the Christmas period, so safe to say I did not have a happy Christmas (although I got a new duvet cover and an Xbox and PlayStation lamp, which was pretty cool).

After over a week of this, I eventually decided I couldn't get through this on my own and I needed medical intervention. I went to the doctor, and I was prescribed with antidepressants for the very first time. I had been considering taking antidepressants before for unrelated issues, but I was always reluctant as I didn't want to end up relying on them. However, this time I felt like I had no choice.

The first couple of weeks of antidepressants were rough; my anxiety increased, the nausea attacks started to get worse and I was essentially living in fear of vomit. I even ended up having to go back to the doctor to get additional anti-anxiety meds because things were that bad. Luckily after that, things started to slowly get better for me.

And this is where I am today. I'm slowly but surely learning to cope with my anxiety, and the antidepressants are slowly but surely starting to take effect. I'm nowhere near as anxious as I once was, although I still occasionally have rough periods (I had a very bad anxiety attack just a few nights ago, for example). However, I'm still not 100% there - I'm still not fully confident eating out in public or going to social gatherings, for example.

It's safe to say this has been a very life-changing experience. I'm only a fraction of what I once was in terms of mental strength, and I haven't really done much besides drawing and gaming since it started. However, that's not to say I haven't been getting better. I'm confident that with the help of both the antidepressants and my willpower, I'll be able to live a reasonably normal life once again.

If you've read this far, thank you. This is a blog post I've been considering writing for a while now, but today I decided to go ahead and just do it. I'd like to thank everyone who's helped me through this journey so far, both in real life and online - you know who you are. This has been a very difficult period for me, but I'm hopeful for the future.

So for the past couple of nights I've been waking up at around 1-2am, without the tiredness required to immediately go back to sleep. Naturally, being the Generation Z that I am, I go on my phone to distract myself while my tiredness slowly comes back, otherwise I'd just be lying in bed.

I must say, it feels like a completely different perspective. I've already managed to catch a good BBS thread while it's still in its infancy. I managed to catch this poptaffy video the minute it was uploaded. Essentially, I'm seeing the North/South American users active during the evening, which I'd assume is when they have the most free time. That's not something a British person like me gets to see every day.

Still, given the choice I'd rather not wake up at this hour. It's very inconvenient and it fucks up my sleep schedule. Let's hope this resolves itself naturally.

As you may know from my previous blog post, my friend @aapiarts released his game, Painter Blazer, a few days ago. It's an arcade-like platformer about a rabbit with a paintbrush, where you must paint all of the targets in each level to progress.

Yesterday, I had the idea to interview Aapi, as well as some of the other people who worked on and playtested the game, about its development and the inspirations and challenges they had along the way. I wanted to try my hand at interviewing after seeing others on Newgrounds do the same, and I think it turned out quite alright! If you've played the game and are curious for some insight into its development, look no further!

If you haven't played the game... well, if arcade platformers sound like your thing, why not give it a whirl?

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Featuring:

Aapi (@aapiarts): Lead developer

Neb (@Nebulate): Additional character designer + voice actor for Blaster

Layla (@GGishere): Voice actor for Blazer

Rob (@wobwobrob): Composer

Cryptid (@LowresCryptid): Playtester

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Q: So, how did you get the idea to make a game in the first place?

Aapi: I mainly just wanted to try out if I could make a game. I've always liked to play around with level editors in games and had a lot of fun with Nintendo's Game Builder Garage. Newgrounds being a place where I can submit a game was also a huge part of why I wanted to make a game.

Q: Why the arcade-like platformer genre specifically?

Aapi: I like that genre but also because those games are generally simplistic and levels can be small but difficult. The genre comes up with a gameplay loop and then mainly adds level gimmicks to change things up here and there.

Q: One of the main selling points of the game is its cartoony aesthetic. What made you want to go with this aesthetic in particular?

Aapi: I like cartoons obviously. I also like it when cartoons have text pop up during actions and wanted to add that to the game's effects.

Q: Specifically, how did you come up with the story of a rabbit with a paintbrush?

Aapi: I thought about characters I liked which a handful happened to be bunnies/rabbits and I had played De Blob 2 on the Nintendo DS recently and I liked the paint theme in it so instead of a sword or a gun or any other basic weapon I thought a big paintbrush was a fun idea for a weapon.

Q: Was this your first time designing video game levels? And if so, did you find it challenging?

Aapi: Like I said before I love level editors in games so no. I've made a bunch of levels in games like Super Mario Maker 2, Secret Neighbor, Super Smash Bros Ultimate and so on. If a game has a level editor I will mess with it. I feel like that gave me a hand in already having some kind of idea how to make fair yet challenging levels.

Q: How about animating all of the sprites? How did you find the process, and what sort of look did you want to get out of each animation?

Aapi: I have had some experience with sprites/pixel art before and my main goal was to just make sprites that are clear and look good. Though Piskel being kind of not good and crashing randomly did make the process slower and more tedious than if I would have made them in Aseprite. Too bad I got Aseprite only some months ago.

Q: How did you decide on the JKL control scheme of the game?

Aapi: The control scheme has been the biggest "controversy" in the game. It is completely my own preference how I mapped it. Think about the NES controller, D-pad on left hand and action buttons on the right hand, I'm very used to that. So arrow keys and and ZXC just don't feel good to me, I have to cross my arms so I can use it better. If I'm not miss remembering games like Antonball Deluxe and Alien Xenoblaster (two huge inspirations) use a similar WASD orianted control scheme. Also also @LowresCryptid said to use that scheme instead of the weird WASD, space and KL buttons I used at the very start.

Q: Tell us about how you created the sound effects for the game.

Aapi: JFXR. That's it. It's useable on a web browser and was also built in to GDevelop 5. It is a rather simple pixel sound effect creator and I just did everything (except @GGishere's voicelines) in that.

Q: What made you pick GDevelop as your game engine of choice?

Aapi: The ease of learning it, feel of it and it is free. I did try out Game Maker Studio 2 but it did not click with me at all and the exports were paid in it back then. In the future I want to give GMS2 a new try though. Or maybe I'll try Godot. GDevelop is a great beginner engine in my eyes.

Q: Overall, what was the biggest challenge you faced during the game's development?

Aapi: Managing the workload and having a rather constant flow of progress. I wanted to work on it almost daily and honestly the size for a first game was maybe a little too much but it was very fun. Nothing was too challenging yet nothing was too easy.

Q: Was there anything from your other game, Twigi's Twisted Costumes, that influenced the development of Blazer?

Aapi: Maybe I learned something new about GDevelop 5 while I was doing it but honestly can't say. I did use it as an excuse to take a break from Painter Blazer which was worth it.

Q: What inspired you to release the April Fools' demo version of the game?

Aapi: The people who kept asking for a demo. Especially that one blue cube head, you know who you are. But also I wanted to do something stupid with it and wanted to have something for April Fools so I made a bad unfair version of the game with a gun.

Q: Were you nervous revealing/releasing the game to the public for the first time?

Aapi: Revealing I wasn't but releasing yes I was. All the "what if it breaks? What if it's not good? What if it doesn't get to the portal?" type of questions were floating in my head even though I knew worse games are out there.

Q: What were your biggest inspirations when designing the characters of the game?

Aapi: Old arcade game character and the enemies in them and Super Mario. There were many other inspirations too but those were stylistically the main inspirations. Simple yet memorable and clear to read what the character is and what it possibly does. Simple also so animating and turning them in to sprites wouldn't be a pain.

Neb: When it comes to my inspirations for enemy designs i thought of more arcade type enemies.

Blaster was created as a joke. I just wanted to claim having the first Blazer OC by creating a bad joke drawing. Later i redesigned them and game a dumb backstory that summerized Blaster as Blazer's classmate that hated him cuz Blazer got better grades in art class then them. I reely wanted to go for like a counterpart type character many game protagonists has, examples are Gray Kid from Underhero, Black Knight from Shovel Knight and Baddeline from Celeste.

Bucket Boi was inspired design vise by the Mini Mitt from Antonball. I also just liked the idea of an enemy that remooved your progress by washing it away. Name was just a placeholder name that just stuck. Personalaty vise with his hatred of paint, i was inspired by Fanny from BFDI with the hateful personalaty shtick Bucket has.

Nuke was inspired by the Albatoss from SMB2. I had like an idea for an enemy that woud drop another enemy and then dive down in an arc to the ground and explode. This is of cource extreamaly complex for programing so aapi resonably just made him just dive when Blazer was under him. The original consept was was just a bird with a dynamite belt strapped on it (thank god aapi redesigned it). Nuke is directly named after what i thought the name of the kirby enemy Bomber was called. Personality vise i just imagine him as a bird that always zones out and screams at rantom times.

Q: Neb, you helped Aapi design some of the enemies featured in the game. How did you end up working on the game, and are you happy with the work you did for it?

Neb: I made drawing of Blaster. The drawing is a joke, i just wanted to be they guy that coud claim to have the first Blazer OC. then aapi DMed me that he wanted to add them to the game. I refined their design and whatnot. I pitched Bucket Boi and Nuke and they got into the game and thats good. Aapi asked me to redesign Haunty to look less like a Pac-Man ghost. Even Canman, the dumbfuck joke character i made for April Fools last year made it into the game lol. I made a few voice recordings for fun and one line got into the game so thats cool. Overall i am happy that i am involved with the project and it was fun to help Aapi with his funny project.

Q: Layla, you were the individual responsible for the various grunts and noises emanated by Blazer over the course of the game. How did you find out about the game, and what made you want to apply for the role?

Layla: It was the funniest thing, it was actually how i met aapi! I was browsing newgrounds as usual and saw that he had put a call for voice actors in the “[User] sez:” section at the bottom of the front page. I’d always wanted to be a voice actor, so i contacted him about it and things went from there

Q: Did you have fun recording your lines?

Layla: I’d say so. i really couldn’t do more then make noises into my headset mic, but it was fun figuring out how to keep consistency between the goofy noises of blazer and put fun twists on them depending on the context

Q: Rob, you were responsible for the game's music. How did you end up working with Aapi?

Rob: Sometime ago I put a post our saying I was ready to compose for games and Aapi got in touch directly. We clicked and the rest is history!

Q: What were your biggest inspirations when composing the music of the game?

Rob: I was inspired by SNES and Megadrive era zany games. Things like Toejam & Earl

Q: What was the biggest issue you found during playtesting of the early betas?

Neb: While i woudnt call myself a "playtester" i did get an early SAGE build called the "Nebulate Build". I got it to record a letsplay that was reely botched. Like REELY botched. The main two things i found an issiue was the top right platform in 2-1 was a bit too high up and it felt compleataly random if i'd manage to get to it. And the top ladders in the Spyker boss was too short. I thought Blazer coudnt climb on them so its good that aapi made those ladders longer.

Layla: i was not a playtester, although i was annoyed that the funny ending dialogue i recorded for the april fools demo didn’t play at first

Cryptid: In terms of issues it was more of me just pointing things out that worked but where rough and could be smoother, overall what's in the first section of the game is pretty much identical to what was in the early builds I played, with the rough spots smoothed out, for example: the attack animation used to be slower, an almost delayed like feeling, which led to more deaths than I would like to admit. But now in the final game it feels like the right speed for attacks. Oh and enemies could hit you when they where still traveling in pipes in one version i played, good thing we saw that when we did.

Q: What is your favourite thing about the game?

Aapi: Everything to be honest. I can't point out just one thing. But I do seem to like the characters more than anything in it.

Neb: It has to see how my character was implemented in the game. I everyone was reely well implemented. But i especialy loved how Pip and Canman was implemented. I rember aapi DMing me some wierd cryptic stuff about Pip and that was a hint on how Pip was gonna be implemented in the game and it was cool. Canman was also somthing i was genuinely suprised to see cuz he was just a joke character. Yeah seeing both of them ingame was for shure the best part in Painter Blazer for me.

Layla: definitely the graphics. i can’t believe aapi did all of this himself, he really has a drive as an artist i wish i had half of

Rob: I love the main character and I love the challenge!

Cryptid: Honestly my favorite part is what the game got it's roots from, a combination of arcade mario bros (which I've sunk more time into than any sane person would admit) and wrecking crew, which at least in my experience I really don't see any games taking inspiration from which is a shame since wrecking crew is an enjoyable game especially from the time it released, being when most early nes/famicom games took a more arcady route.

Q: Are you satisfied with what you have made? Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?

Aapi: Yeah I am satisfied. I would maybe do the story differently to be more interesting but I didn't want that to be the main focus in the game nor during development so it's more so a reason for stuff to happen and Blazer to do in the game.

--

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading my very first interview! I'd like to give a massive thank you to the people above for replying to my questions; it was fun reading everyone's answers!

-Glitch [ I - ]

Hi all,

I have officially decided to open my very own Bluesky account! It'll serve as a second place for me to post my art, as well as smaller updates that aren't really long enough for a Newgrounds blog post.

If you remember long enough ago, I used to have an account on Twitter/X that served the same purpose, but... we all know what happened to that site. I'm opening up this Bluesky in the hopes that it'll be a lot more pleasant to use than Twitter, and I'll be able to expand my horizons and grow my presence more than I ever could on that site.

Let's see how this goes!

https://bsky.app/profile/glitchbuddy.com

My friend @aapiarts just released his very own game, Painter Blazer! It's an arcade-like action platformer where you play as Blazer, a rubber rabbit who just wants a job as a painter... but ends up getting a whole lot more than he bargained for!

The game is made up of three worlds, each containing 5 single-screen levels plus a boss fight at the end. Your goal is to paint all of the paintable areas in each level to progress, whether those are walls, paintings or leaking sewers. Sounds easy enough on its own... until you come face to face with the game's many different enemies who all want to see you BURST!

I beat the game for the first time earlier today, and I can honestly say it's really fun, even if it does get a bit hard towards the end. The controls feel nice and snappy, and there were very few times I didn't feel like each death was my fault. And as a character designer, I think the designs in this game are really creative and unique; one of the enemies is an angry bucket with feet. I love that.

Aapi has spent the past two years working on this game, and I honestly think he did an incredible job... and I promise I'm not just saying that because he's my friend! So if arcade puzzle-platformers sound like your thing, I kindly ask you to check his game out and show him some support!

Still need more convincing? It's on the front page of Newgrounds! If that doesn't say anything about its quality, nothing does!

I hope you enjoy playing through the game; I know I did!

-Glitch [ I - ]