31/10/2022
Dearest Listeners,
First and foremost, we apologize for the silence over the last few months. And we apologize for the lack of quality content you usually expect to come your way. When we say we dropped the ball, we dropped it hard, and it broke into millions of tiny pieces. Y’all have stuck around throughout the summer and Season 5 hasn't arrived yet. There are no excuses, but perhaps some explanations as to what has been going on…
During the summer of 2021, the team gathered for its annual meeting to plan out Season 4. We fleshed out the narrative story and chose author stories that would build the most ambitious season yet. We brought on a new community manager to help facilitate some of the fun plans we had for Discord. We released Descent Into Hell, our first miniseries production taking place outside of the regular Grey Rooms storyline. As Season 4 finally came and got underway, everything seemed promising…
About halfway through the season, our cast of demon characters were increasing and our main narrative was exploding in size. Every corner of the Hells was being explored and maximized for quality content. Then, while we were preparing to start releasing additional content through a separate miniseries, our head writer began experiencing extreme difficulty in their personal life and production almost grinded to a halt. We had to take a “mid-season break” and release Patreon content on the public podcast feed. Our head writer left the team. We were scrambling behind the scenes figuring out how to continue with The Grey Rooms narrative. Discussions of ending the podcast early came up…
After lots of panicking and many team meetings, we managed to secure Arthur Unk as a new head writer, and it seemed that we would be okay and move forward accordingly. It also became apparent that our growing cast of characters had become too unwieldy, the main narrative had become too confusing with so many subplots and side adventures, and we needed to scale back. We became a bit *too* ambitious for our own good, and our plans for additional content began to fall apart at the seams. Arthur Unk became the true M.V.P. of this team as he tightened up the storyline and eliminated many loose ends by the end of the season. When the last episode finally came out, we were all exhausted and burnt out and limping back to our respective corners of life, and we still hadn’t had a chance to create and release additional content. To be honest, had we tried to complete anything over the summer, it would have been dog sh*t…
This year of 2022 has been very difficult for individual team members who have struggled with losses of jobs, moving homes between states, Covid sickness, and family tragedies. It’s been a real life struggle for the team to stay cohesive throughout it all, but we managed to finish off the season without the public at large even knowing our pains. We should have communicated our very human struggles with all of you during our break in between seasons, but we hid it from everyone in a prideful manner and didn’t deliver on our promises. The Grey Rooms Team has experienced numerous personal hardships and setbacks and stress. Delivering a 5-star quality horror experience has always been our desire, but we know that undertaking a new season at this moment would be lacking in the talent that you have come to expect. We had huge plans that we just couldn’t achieve. This podcast deserves the utmost respect and attention to maintain its stature. We don’t want to disrupt the longevity of this podcast for future generations who have yet to hear it. You all deserve better than that. As it stands, we cannot deliver a complete season 5. An on-going hiatus will be in effect until a new production strategy can be found. Season 4 was arduous to produce and maintain behind the scenes, but to all our fans and followers who encouraged us and left positive comments and lovingly interacted with us on Discord and social media, well, you made it all worth it. All of you blew the much needed wind into our sails. We completed the season because every one of you demonstrated your faith in us to continue on this weekly mission. It is with the guilty weight of a thousand souls that we announce Season 5 is being postponed…
We have neglected our podcast community and it is inexcusable. We ask for your forgiveness and understanding. In all seriousness, at the end of the day, we are as human as you are and there are no actual demons here. We made a horror audio drama podcast for listeners to retreat into and get lost within, when their lives got tough and they needed a break from reality, but we made mistakes and we cry and we bleed just like everyone else, and we can’t retreat into ourselves and shut down, which is what we tried to do. Your support over the years was much appreciated and we love you for it.
