Part of the Glitch & Gummi category
Glitch is one of the main characters of the Glitch & Gummi series, along with Gummi. Originally a cheaply-produced toy robot known as a Digicube, Glitch inexplicably gained sentience while still at the factory, and ran away upon overhearing his manufacturer's plans to dissasemble and destroy him. Glitch stowed away on a boat and ended up on the island of Teknotown, where he would eventually meet Gummi.
Glitch is the more energetic and carefree character of the duo, as opposed to the more levelheaded and relaxed Gummi. He often embarks on new and occasionally dangerous adventures with Gummi in tow, and has a habit of being impulsive. While he may appear happy on the surface, Glitch has an internal struggle, stemming from his unique and accidental sentience as a toy robot, and the limitations that come with it.
Glitch was originally manufactured as a regular Digicube, a cheaply-produced children's toy created by the company Digitoys. He was produced in a batch of hundreds of other Digicubes just like him, ready to be shipped off to toy stores all across the galaxy.
However, in circumstances that are still unknown to this day, Glitch's screen suddenly turned on all by itself while he was still on the conveyor belt. And if that wasn't odd enough, he started talking and making facial expressions. Again, let me remind you, all on his own, without any intervention. Glitch's first memory is of him and the factory workers both staring awkwardly at each other while he was sat on the conveyor belt.
Glitch attempted to interact with the workers, but they were all too stunned at the events that had just manifested to respond. Instead, the workers all rushed off to tell their supervisor about what they had just seen. Glitch secretly followed them from behind in order to find out where they were going, using his limbs for the first time in the process.
Glitch stood outside the supervisor's office and overheard the conversation he was having with the workers. He was confused as to why his existence was causing these factory workers to freak out, but that confusion soon turned to terror when the supervisor ordered for him to be disassembled and destroyed. Glitch did not know why the supervisor would want this, but he knew he had to escape the factory as quickly as he could, lest his life be a short one.
Luckily for Glitch, his small size enabled him to navigate through the factory's network of corridors and air vents with almost nobody noticing him, and before he knew it he was taking his first steps into the outside world. Glitch still felt like he had to get further away from the factory, though, and so he started sneaking his way onto any sort of public transport he can find, hoping to clear as much distance as he possibly could between him and the factory, and maybe, just maybe, find himself a home in the process.
Glitch took several buses and trains before ending up in a port city, from which he took a random shipping boat to an unknown destination. A big risk, for sure, but Glitch felt like it would give him enough distance to finally put himself at ease from the events of the factory. As it turned out, the boat was headed for Teknotown, a small city-island located near the north pole of the planet Nu. This is the island that Glitch would end up calling home, and where he would eventually meet his best friend.
Arriving in Teknotown without any money or accomodation, Glitch found shelter inside an abandoned storage room in a hidden alleyway, and spent his first few days simply wandering around the city and taking in the sights. When it came time to decide how he would be known in this strange new place, he chose the name Glitch, as he felt he had become the "glitch in the system" of the company who had created him.
Glitch eventually attempted to find work in order to make an income, and was rejected from several different roles before being hired as a bartender for a local bar and grill. While the hiring manager initially thought his small size would be perfectly suited to a barkeeping role, Glitch ended up being very bad at the job and was fired a few weeks later.
Being confined to his storage room for the forseeable future, Glitch found solace in The Nexus, a local arcade, where he would spend a lot of his time playing arcade games with the money he had earned from his previous job. While it was more difficult for Glitch than others due to his robot claws, it helped him develop a strong passion for gaming. His favourite game to play was Cosmo Knights, a shoot-em-up set in a space fantasy world.
Throughout his visits to the arcade, Glitch would often hear gossip about a small blue creature who frequented the arcade, and was very good at the games despite having no limbs to control them with. However, the creature was a very sore loser, and when it inevitably lost at one of the games it would unleash a tirade of fury at whatever machine it was standing at. Glitch had never seen this creature himself, and when he asked others at the arcade about it, they simply told him that they didn't know much besides that.
Glitch loved nothing more than a good challenge from a seasoned player, but at the same time he was a bit concerned. He knew it wasn't healthy to get angry at video games, and he wondered if there was anything he would be able to do to help the creature should he ever come into contact with it.
Glitch started looking for the creature, visiting the arcade at different times of the day in the hope of catching a glimpse of it. However, his attempts were unsuccessful, and the creature continued to elude him. The gossip started to fade, as all gossip does, and soon even Glitch forgot about the creature. It wasn't that important, after all.
One day, Glitch was minding his own business, playing at a machine that just so happened to be next to his favourite, Cosmo Knights. He was fully immersed in his game, and was paying no attention to whoever was next to him. This would abruptly change, as without any warning he suddenly heard a voice, shouting and swearing at the top of its lungs, coming from right beside him. Glitch looked over to see just where this sudden fit of rage was coming from, and lo and behold, it was none other than a tiny, light-blue creature, similar to who had been described to him all those months ago.
In this sort of situation, people would try their best to ignore the shouting and mind their own business, and that is exactly what most people inside the arcade did. Glitch was considering this as well, but then he remembered how much he felt like wanting to help the creature when he first heard about it.
Glitch slowly walked up to the creature, who by this point had completely broken down into tears. He looked up at the Cosmo Knights machine, where he saw that the creature had lost right at the final boss, which at least somewhat explained its anger. Glitch again hesitated; should he leave this creature alone? He had interacted with some seedy characters before, and would rather avoid such situations wherever he could. But no. Glitch felt like he had to do something.
Glitch tapped the creature on its head with his claw, and it sharply turned around to face him. Glitch saw that it had no facial features except for one big, round eye, which was currently filled with water. In an effort to be helpful, Glitch sheepishly started explaining a strategy he liked to use on the same final boss level that it had lost at.
The creature quickly made it clear that it didn't appreciate this, as it felt like Glitch was trying to show it up. It tried its best to remain calm, and told Glitch to back off in slightly broken English. Not one to back down, Glitch asked the question he felt was most important: was the creature okay?
It suddenly became silent, and stared at Glitch, its eye still full of water. Glitch once again asked if it was okay. The creature then broke into tears again, but this time offering an explanation. In the same slightly-broken English it had used before, it told Glitch that it had recently moved to Teknotown, and nothing was going its way. It was having a lot of trouble learning the native language, and it hadn't made a single friend in its entire 10 momths on the island.
Glitch listened carefully to the creature, and calmly reassured it that everything was going to be okay. The creature seemed doubtful, and told Glitch about how it was considering moving back to its native planet of Squnk, a planet that Glitch had not previously heard of. Glitch told it that sometimes, not everything in life will go your way, but that isn't a reason to give up on yourself, and there's absolutely no shame in asking for help when you need it.
The creature once again looked up at Glitch, but this time with an expression of happiness. It was the first act of kindness that it had truly experienced during its time at Teknotown, and it felt incredibly thankful. It asked Glitch for his name, which he gave. Glitch asked for the creature's name, to which it replied with its native Squnkian name, "Vyrfstichgxtrsnly".
Glitch was confused by the pronunciation, and asked if he could instead refer to the creature as "Gummi", as its shape reminded him of a gumdrop. The creature agreed, and from that moment on it was known as Gummi.
After giving each other their names, Glitch asked Gummi if he wanted to re-play Cosmo Knights, but this time in two-player mode. Gummi agreed, and they ended up having a blast together! Unfortunately, the arcade started closing before they could finish, but Glitch and Gummi agreed to meet again at the arcade the following morning.
Glitch and Gummi started to regularly meet up at the arcade to play video games together. It became somewhat of a symbiotic relationship: Glitch was the strategist, always coming up with ways to make it through difficult challenges, while Gummi had the quick reaction times to be able to carry those strategies out effectively. But most importantly, Glitch firmly supported and believed in Gummi, whether he was doing great or losing horribly. Glitch noticed that Gummi was starting to trust him a lot more, and was becoming more talkative towards him than he had been when they first met.
About a month had passed, and the pair had become firm friends. Everything was going smoothly until one day, seemingly out of nowhere, Gummi asked Glitch where he lived. Glitch, who was still living in the abandoned storage room at this point, was reluctant to answer as he didn't want Gummi to think any less of him. Gummi kept probing, though, and eventually Glitch agreed to show him.
Glitch took Gummi out of the arcade and all the way to the dark alley where he lived. Gummi was horrified to see the living situation that Glitch was in, and Glitch became visibly upset. Gummi noticed this and asked Glitch why he looked sad, to which he explained that he didn't think anyone would want to come over, and he generally felt like a lesser being around everyone else who had proper homes.
Out of the kindness of his heart, Gummi asked Glitch if he would like to move into his apartment with him. Glitch was flabbergasted, and politely declined, saying he appreciated the gesture but it was simply too much. Gummi insisted, though, and said that it was the least he could do for all that Glitch had done for him.
Glitch was speechless. He never thought of himself as anyone special, and so he couldn't believe that his new friend had given him such a big gift. In a moment of ecstasy, Glitch picked up and hugged Gummi, and thanked him. Gummi was bewildered, but ultimately happy.
Glitch moved in with Gummi that same day, and the pair started living together. Not only that, they would start working together when Gummi managed to get Glitch a job at the spaceship parts store where he worked. Fast forward to the present, and Glitch and Gummi have gone from a couple of gaming buddies to an inseparable pair. Sure, their opposite personalities do lead to quite a few arguments on the surface, but deep down, they wouldn't trade each other for the world.
Glitch is a Digicube, a machine originally developed as a series of cheaply-produced children's toys by the company Digitoys. His visible body is made almost entirely of plastic, the only exception being his glass screen and his metal wind-up key.
Glitch's internal circuits are attached in a cubic, orange case. On the front of the case is his screen, with two speaker holes situated at each side of the screen in order to allow him to communicate. On the back of the case is a battery compartment, although since gaining sentience he does not actually require battery power to live.
Attached to his main body are several limbs. He has a pair of flexible tubular arms, each with a pair of robotic claws on the end. Similarly, he has a pair of tube-shaped legs, each with a metal pad attached to the end that acts as a foot. Attached to the top of his case is a metal wind-up key, although since gaining sentience winding it up no longer affects him in any way.
Glitch possesses a miniature LCD dot-matrix screen on the front of his body, with which he primarily displays his face. His circuits are only capable of generating straight lines, which is why Glitch's eyes take the form of vertical lines (he thinks square eyes look too unsettling). His screen in particular has a crack in the top-right, an injury he sustained after jumping from the window of the factory where he was made. Glitch refuses to have his screen replaced, however, as he considers the crack to be a part of his identity.
Being a robot, Glitch has no need to eat, drink, sleep or breathe air. Glitch cannot touch water at all, as it could kill him if any got into his circuits. He must carefully monitor the weather and stay inside if he thinks it's about to rain, as even a couple of drops could be lethal.
Glitch is an energetic, enthusiastic and carefree character. He is often the first to jump into new adventures and situations, Gummi in tow. Glitch sees the world as his personal playground; he loves nothing more than to create fun and excitement out of the mundane, such as using a handrail as a slide, or sticking discarded chewing gum to himself in order to climb up walls. Gummi often has to stop him from doing things which have the potential to cause him serious harm, though.
Like Gummi, Glitch has a strong passion for video games. His favourite genres are Action, RPG and Racing, although he will play just about anything if it has a quirky enough art style.
Glitch has the most street smarts out of the two, and is usually able to keep a stable atmosphere when interacting with shady characters.
While Glitch may seem perpetually joyful on the surface, he suffers from anxiety. He has a varied array of fears, ranging from bridges to mascots to the dark. However, perhaps his biggest source of anxiety is the belief that his existence was a mistake made by the universe, and that it will eventually find a way to "discard" of him. This fear has led to a lot of existential crises, although with Gummi by his side he's usually able to get through them a lot quicker than before.
Glitch has become very emotionally dependent on Gummi, and so another one of his biggest fears is him no longer being by his side. Ever since Gummi let him live in his apartment, he has considered him his best friend in the whole world, and would do anything in order to make sure he is okay. Glitch is usually super anxious about injury or death, but Gummi is the one thing he would willingly give his life to protect. Glitch regularly worries about losing Gummi as a friend, or becoming physically separated from him in a busy place, or Gummi losing his life and leaving him all alone. He doesn't let Gummi know, though, as he doesn't want him to know how reliant he is on him.
Glitch is the second-ever character I designed as GlitchBuddy. He was originally created on 12 July 2022, out of a desire to replace Kuribo as the mascot of the GlitchBuddy brand. I was randomly doodling to myself in Krita when, seemingly out of nowhere, I came up with the concept of a miniature robot whose screen was integrated directly into its main body. In the middle of sketching the first prototype version of this concept, I decided to add a wind-up key on top of the robot's head to make its design a bit more unique.
This robot character initially had a rectangular shape, but this was quickly changed to a cube instead. The orange colour was inspired by an offhand doodle of a cube I had made three months prior. Glitch's display and facial expressions were designed with a retro-futuristic look in mind; his monochrome display was especially inspired by the green-on-black display of the Apple II.
Glitch was initially designed with metal, mitten-like hands, but these were changed to mechanical claws early on in development. Similarly, he was originally designed with small, black plastic feet, but these were later changed to bigger, metal pad-feet, which were designed by fellow artist TheShokBlok when I had commissioned him to draw the character.
Glitch's name was taken directly from the first half of my username, GlitchBuddy, as he was originally designed to be the mascot of the brand. Over time, it became a symbol of his existence as a sentient piece of machinery; a metaphorical "glitch" in the system.