Gwimbly is a one-shot character in Smiling Friends, appearing in the episode Gwimbly: Definitive Remastered Enhanced Extended Edition DX 4K (Anniversary Director’s Cut).
Background
Gwimbly was once the star of the popular Gwimbly video game series in the late 1990s during the 3D platformer craze. After leaving his company Insane Groundbreaking Games, he began to fall on hard times as the video game landscape evolved to favor microtransactions and DLC. He became destitute and relied on fan-requested content on Cameo for sustenance.
Personality
Tired and rudderless from his experiences in the video game industry, Gwimbly despises his own company and has little prospect for his own future. He appears to be sickly and frail, while being prone to violent outbursts if offended. That being said, Gwimbly is grateful and kind to anyone who is a fan of his work.
Appearance
As a video game character from the fifth generation of video games, Gwimbly has an appearance composed of low-resolution polygons. It is marsupial in appearance, has a long snout, a wide mouth with two front teeth, sunken blue eyes and sickly yellow fur. He wears a shirt with a retro arcade design as well as a baseball cap. She also has a fluffy pink tail (which fans speculate is actually a prolapse). His skin has numerous scabs and his left shoe has a worn hole that exposes his toes.
Interestingly, his visage is much more refined and polished whenever he’s recording on his phone.
In his Smash Clone appearance towards the end of the episode, Gwimbly regains the brighter and cleaner form he had during his prime, albeit now with a much more faithful 3D model.
Details
Gwimbly is inspired by several failed video game mascots that have either fallen into obscurity, such as Croc, Bubsy, and Gex, or other video game mascots that have declined in popularity, such as Crash Bandicoot, Rayman, Spyro, or Banjo and Kazooie.
Pim’s promise to get Gwimbly’s game crowdfunded is a direct reference to the development of Yooka-Laylee, which was created by ex-Rareware members to act as a spiritual successor to Banjo Kazooie.
Gwimbly’s 3D design and Motion Capture was done by YouTuber Hoolopee.
His appearance appears to be loosely based on musical artist Daniel Larson