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?

--

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 - ]

The title does not lie, today is infact my birthday!

I'm now 20 years old, which means I have well and truly entered adulthood. It honestly doesn't feel all that different, except now I can say I'm in my twenties, which does feel a bit strange.

I got sent some money from relatives, which I used to buy these two things for myself:

I've been wanting to play Astro Bot since it came out; I loved Astro's Playroom and all of the little references it had! As for the surge protector, this is actually my second one, as the first one ran out of spare plug sockets. Having this means I'll no longer have to swap out plugs when I want to play another console. Additionally, my friend @aapiarts gifted me Egglien on Steam, which was nice of him.

Unfortunately I don't plan on making any birthday art this year, as there are already things I need to do for collabs and such. I'll try for next year, though!

So yeah, all in all today's been a good day. I'm not really sure how to end this post, so... let's see how much I grow as an artist and a Newgrounder by the time I hit 21!

Over the past few days I've been working on an idea for a new project. Unlike my older, now-cancelled projects, whose stories I feel were a bit too open-ended for my skill level, I feel as if this one could be a lot more focused. Let me know what you think!

--

Basically, somewhere in a forest, secluded far away from civilisation, there exists a home for creatures with a "physical vulnerability". What this means is that the creatures that live in this home all have some kind of physical attribute that would cause a serious risk of harm to them in the real world. For example, one could be filled up with helium, having to constantly avoid bursting themselves. Another could be dangerously prone to accidents, always tripping over themselves, bumping into things and the like. Another could be severely allergic to air, permanently confined to a vaccuum chamber on wheels.

But what if some of these creatures were tired of being confined to this house? What if they wanted to go out by themselves, go on risky adventures and experience what the world has to offer, despite their circumstances? Well, that's exactly what a group of them did.

--

I already have two of the characters finalised, and am currently designing a third. I'll make a more official announcement post when everything's ready to be revealed in full, but for now, let me know what you think about the idea!

Hi all,

After much thought and deliberation I have made the decision to retire my X/Twitter and Instagram accounts, leaving Newgrounds as my only active social media. I have decided to do this for several reasons, including but not limited to:

• the little amount of interaction I have on these platforms compared to Newgrounds,
• the increasing use of posts to train AI models, especially X's decision to no longer allow users to opt out,
• the benefits it will give to my mental health.

Unfortunately this means I will lose out on making alt text on my art for visually impaired users. I will try to compensate for this by adding more detailed descriptions to my art in the future.

I am sorry to anyone who followed me on these platforms, but I feel as if this is the best decision to take for myself. Plus, it'll allow me to place my focus entirely on my Newgrounds, and making it the best it can be.

I do not plan on joining any additional platforms (Bluesky, Cara, etc.) at this time.

Thank you for your understanding.

Hi all,

You may or may not have noticed that I've been posting very little on Newgrounds for a couple months now. Even before then, I had already cancelled a project and skipped a monthly newspost. What's been going on?

I'd say there are three main reasons for this:

• I was struggling with my OCD a lot during this period; however I'm feeling better lately and I've been learning to power through parts of it more.
• I got distracted playing video games. No excuse, I'm just a lazy ass.
• The third and final reason, and the one the rest of this blog post will be focused on: I have been feeling overwhelmed by the stuff I've been doing on Newgrounds, and that it's been feeling more like a chore than a passion.

Now look, I would consider myself to be a creative individual. And as such, I come up with a lot of ideas and concepts for random things. However, where I think the problem with me lies is that when I come up with an idea I like the sound of, I have a sudden burst of energy to get started developing it right away. This may sound good on paper, but you have to remember, I'm just one guy. One guy who is only a beginner artist. There's only so much I'm able to do at one time... and three simultaneous projects certainly ain't it.

I absolutely love creating new characters, designing them, giving them stories to look back on, worlds to explore and adventures to go on. I can hand-on-heart say it's one of my passions in life, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to create these characters and upload them here for all to see. It's something I've been doing ever since discovering this interest back in 2022, with Candlestick Road in particular being perhaps my first ever proper "project". However, for the reasons mentioned above, over time more and more of these projects and ideas have been piling up, and it's getting to the point where, despite my passion, I'm unable to keep up with maintaining and developing all of these projects. I no longer feel as if I know where exactly to go as an artist, and that in turn makes the GlitchBuddy account lose a defined identity.

Henceforth, I am making the difficult but necessary decision to cancel all but one of my projects effective immediately. I know this isn't the news that some of you would want to hear, but I feel as if it's the right thing to cut back to the bare minimum and re-evaluate my direction as an artist and worldbuilder over time.

The one project I will be keeping is Glitch & Gummi. I've been attached to these lil fuckers for too long now, and it will serve as a good beginner project for me to flesh out my writing and drawing skills with. Glitch & Gummi will now become the main focus of the account, although I'll still continue to draw and post random concept characters and fanart as I currently do. New projects won't be an absolute impossibility; I do still have the desire to eventually work on other characters and worlds. But for the foreseeable future, Glitch and Gummi will be taking the helm of the GlitchBuddy brand.

While we're here, though, I do want to show you all another thing I've secretly been working on in the background: a YouTube channel. Now it's nothing to do with art or animation (although I do want to make a GlitchBuddy YouTube channel at some point); rather, I will be making videos related to video games; reviewing them, playing them, talking about them, etc. Originally, these videos were going to be hosted by a new, original character I had made called Bork, but I eventually decided against this, and now the channel will be hosted by none other than Gummi himself. I've already started recording the first video, and I can't wait to show you all once it's done.

One more thing before I go; I plan to keep making the monthly GlitchBuddy Update news posts I started a few months ago; albeit in a much more slimmed-down, art-focused format. This should hopefully reduce the monthly writing burden, and enable me to present the month's happenings in a more concise format. The first one of these will happen in October.

Well, if you've made it this far, thanks for reading. This is a big decision for the future of GlitchBuddy, but it gives me an opportunity to slow down, focus more and take things slowly over time, rather than just rushing into them as I had been doing before. I know, I know; I've done a lot of these sorts of posts over time, and trust me, I ain't exactly proud of it. But I hope - I really, truly do hope - this will be a renaissance for me in my output, activity and, most importantly, quality. I really appreciate all the support I've gotten in such a short amount of time - for a small beginner artist like me, 60+ fans in a year is absolutely insane. I hope this new direction will help me provide you all with some awesome content.

- Glitch [ I - ]

Hi all,

If you've been around for a while then you may be aware of my project, Ditko, which is about a dimensional traveller who must fight a malevolent entity.

I had originally planned for this project to keep being developed by fleshing out the story and conceptualising several of the dimensions that Ditko would travel to. However, recently I have decided to come back to an old project concept, and it's one that I'm really keen about developing and expanding. Unfortunately, this means I have to shelve one of my existing projects, as four projects at a time is too much to work on, and I have chosen Ditko.

There are a couple of reasons as to why I chose Ditko to be shelved. The first is that I feel like it's a bit too ambitious for someone at my level to work on, with the whole "infinite dimensions" concept and all. This new project I'm working on is a lot simpler, which should hopefully make it more suited to a beginner like me. Another reason is that, in my opinion, Ditko is so far the least-developed out of my three current projects; both Glitch & Gummi and Candlestick Road have a defined setting, characters and story (even if all of those details may not yet be public), while Ditko hasn't really progressed in the same way.

Notice how I use the word "shelved" instead of "cancelled", though. I would like to bring this project back at some point, maybe when my skills have improved a bit. And if I do, I promise I'll bring it back in a way that not a lot of you may expect.

Sorry if you were excited about the project's growth, but I do believe this is the best path going forward. Thanks for your understanding.

-Glitch [ I - ]