Object Overload (franchise)

***Object Overload*** is a British-Canadian animated cartoon created by Niall Burns. It started with the 2013 series on April 21st, 2013 with the release of the episode "The End of the Beginning," but was eventually cancelled during the making of the episode "Buckets of Fun." Eventually, Niall rebooted the show and the 2015 series came out on July 31st, 2015 with the release of "Rostrum Rampage." The franchise is currently receiving another reboot that will release in the near future.

The series is currently viewable on YouTube on Niall's channel, XanyLeaves.

## Creation and Development

*Object Overload* is animated using the Adobe Animate software. The episodes were self-written by Niall Burns in the 2013 and 2015 series.

The franchise was inspired and heavily influenced by *Battle for Dream Island* and *Inanimate Insanity* among other 'object shows' at the time. According to Niall, the first ever character created for the show was Kite. The show's development seems to go as far back as 2012, presumably early in the year. Upon starting up his channel XanyLeaves, Niall released an early intro for the show on August 26th, 2012. The characters seen in this intro were Kite, Picture, Popcorn, Ping Pong Ball, Disc, Crayon, Cherry, Casey, Tissue, Dusty, Toaster, Candy, Globe, Boombox, Lighter, and Clock. He eventually made Paper Airplane, Coney, Top Hat, Masky, Soccer Ball, Toothy, Melony, Marble, Boxing Glove, Pearly, Snow Globe, and Gamey and made an updated intro on October 6th with the updated contestant roster. During the development of that intro, he also made Locky, Fly Swat, Tiki, and Television (with a running gag of the latter disliking the nickname "TV" being a call-back to his childhood).

On November 20th, a video-based poll entitled "A new character?!" was made, where viewers had a choice between Fly Swat and Locky to join the game. However, while the votes remain unknown, both would eventually join the game.

The first 43 seconds of "The End of the Beginning" was shown off on December 9th. The video was supposed to have been the full episode, which confused Niall. He put the show on hiatus until further notice, but eventually Adam Katz and Samuel Thornbury helped with uploading the episode. The episode was finally uploaded on April 21st, 2013, four months after the first attempt.

During the hiatus, Niall redesigned the backgrounds and character bodies and uploaded a short as well as a new intro for the show. These new elements were incorporated into the second episode, "A Shocking Addition," which got uploaded on July 27th.

Despite the show being a contestants' vote, Niall allowed the viewers to 'kinda' vote by asking them what they thought of the characters so he would make a ranking list. Lighter was the least favored contestant towards the fanbase, leading to him being the first ever character to leave the show on September 1st in the episode "Set in Stone," the episode where Fly Swat, Locky, Television, and Tiki made their debut.

The 2013 series would go on to have three more episodes from late 2013 to early 2014, starting with "Branching Out" on September 26th, 2013 (the first episode to have the teams be referred to as "Team Tune" and "Team Time"), "In Deeper Waters" on November 4th, and "Lost and Found" after a pretty rough production cycle on March 5th, 2014. Halfway though the production of the seventh episode, "Buckets of Fun," the show was silently cancelled due to Niall not liking how the show was turning out anymore.

On November 4th, Niall eventually posted a journal entry on his DeviantArt account that he will reboot the series, though Ping Pong Ball, Disc, Pearly, Masky, Soccer Ball, and Picture would be cut. However, the latter three characters stayed while Locky was cut alongside the former three. He published a couple previews on YouTube as well as a few screenshots on DeviantArt (as well as a new design for Gamey, Clock wearing his suit, and a brand new character named Pumpkin) until "Rostrum Rampage" became the first (and only) episode of the 2015 series on July 31st, 2015.

While episode 2 of the 2015 series was being worked on, XanyLeaves has reached 10,000 subscribers, prompting Niall to create a tribute video for *Object Overlaod* including every contestant from the 2013 and 2015 series and Gamey at the end. However, while updates on episode 2 were posted, no news has came out about it for three years.

Niall eventually revamped every character body in 2018, and the first character to have been shown with their new asset was Snow Globe, who was applied for an object camp known as *Survival of the Fittest*. He then uploaded every contestant with the new assets on November 25th, alongside two characters he created for camps, Light Switch and PB&J. In a livestream with Samuel, he officially declaired that he wanted to work on *Object Overload* again, and said that the 2015 series was cancelled. Production of the new *Object Overload* incarnation began in July of 2021, with Niall hoping the incarnation would be releasing that year. He later posted on July 4th, 2022 that he is currently focusing all of his video-making efforts into the new incarnation. A teaser video for the new incarnation, which announces itself as another reboot, was released on September 7th.

## Plot

*Object Overload* follows a group of anthropomorphic animated objects on an island called Animania competing for a million dollars.

## Characters

### Characters from every series

* Gamey (host)
* Boombox
* Boxing Glove
* Coney
* Fly Swat
* Kite
* Marble
* Masky
* Paper Airplane
* Soccer Ball
* Tiki
* Toaster
* Toothy
* Clock
* Candy
* Casey
* Cherry
* Crayon
* Dusty
* Globe
* Lighter
* Melony
* Picture
* Popcorn
* Snow Globe
* Television
* Tissue
* Top Hat

### 2013 series only

* Disc
* Locky
* Pearly
* Ping Pong Ball

### Upcoming series (presumed)

* Lightswitch
* PB&J

## References

1. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMn1yzaetu0&lc=Ugwdu0Pou4Iv1xOtdwN4AaABAg
2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugx8dDsiSkDEh-WV0Xh4AaABCQ

## Notes

1. ↑ The journal entry in question has since been deleted.