The Bigger Picture

I just wanna talk about where I'm at and what I'm thinking about in terms of projects, now that Patreon has passed my long-term stated goal of reaching 1000 patrons.

Swords is about to turn 7
7 years is a hella long time to be working on the same thing! There are currently 890 episodes! I will keep doing Swords as long as people keep enjoying it, which may be 50 more years if I take care of myself.

Swords: Cut the Deck is almost here
The manufacturing for the game is complete and the game is in transit. As soon as the cards get off that freighter and into my hands, I'll be putting together a lot of video content for it. I could work on that now, but I only have an earlier version of the game with some outdated card rules, so it seems like I should wait and do it properly.

I'll be relying on the community to help cook up more Single and Multi-player PDFs, help refine the rules more over time and establish Tournament ban-lists if we need them (there are some silly cards, we'll need them). I'd love if we end up with House Rules equivalent to things like a Nuzlocke run too.

I can't really move ahead with any other Swords-related products until it starts shipping to backers and I won't receive a payout from sold units until they're all sent either, which means I really need to choose my next Swords project carefully to make up for the long delay. Thank you for all your support, it's really helped keep me afloat.

Swords: Next
Some options for the next thing to work on include:
A Cut the Deck Expansion Set;
A Cut the Deck video game;
A full-length animated pilot;
A webisode series (think Bigtop Burger length);
Swords: Pens & Papercuts (a tabletop roleplaying game separate to CtD);
I get asked for a Coffee Table book all the time, but I'm more interested in doing smaller zine-style books like the Quest Sprout one for now, until I've remastered more content;
Etc. etc. etc.

The Sworn'ament Conclusion
The Patreon Swor'nament will conclude when I have some free time. It's hard to justify holding up the rest of the series indefinitely to finish it in a hurry, but its 70% done already.

Swords Polish Pass
I am going to slowly go through episodes 501-890 and tidy them up; and also rearrange them into Chronological order (within Seasons) on the website. If I'm touching episodes 1-500 I'd prefer to redraw them fully since they were all done at a lower resolution.
Season 4 (501-600) isn't very heavy on chronology at all - it would simply be clumping the Dwarven Summit, Ghost Bros and Quest Sprout episodes together, for example.

Swords Plushies
I intend for there to be one more this year :-)

Stars is about to turn 3
Stars has gone on hiatus for some epic lengths of time, but it's on its 175th episode and turns 3 in just under a month. 52 new episodes this year alone! I will keep doing them daily if people keep supporting it on Ko-Fi or buying the Mega Bundle, since that works out better than the ad revenue it has been earning on its own.

Stars Visual Novel
I was tinkering with a Stars Visual Novel in RPG Maker a little while back. Not currently thinking about it.

Stars Plushies
I'd like to do a Narb plushie, because I would genuinely like to own one, but everyone asks for Bean or Glonk...!

Clearance Sale
I need to clear out a lot of postcards, stickers, enamel pins, Quest Sprout comics, Kargob plushies and more by the end of March before I pay my taxes. I'm actually sitting on quite a lot of merch at the moment... It might be prudent to offer them as add-ons when the card game arrives.

Expanding Retail Presence
Currently Swords merch is available at Caffeinated Dragon and BeaDnD in Wellington. When the card game drops, it will be available in 10 stores worldwide and I'll be working hard to get us into a lot more.

The Place I'll Return To Someday

If you're not aware, I have several shortly-lived webcomics that I started before Swords. They were the kind of big ambitious projects with years of planning and concept art behind them, that were too big to tackle while also living my life. Exactly the kind of over planned Magnum Opus stuff I'm always telling people to stop trying to tackle as a first project!

The ones I'd still like to make one day, now that I have more talent, are:

Kotamayu
The story of 18 humans on a path to godhood, after an alien sun god stole their souls from Earth and trained them to battle his enemy, an interplanetary Ghost Ship.

Jack Of All Shades
A painter living in the distant future, who studies the art forms of various alien civilizations to learn their ways.

Steel Tribe
A handful of robots with no memories wash up on the beach and slowly realize they have human brains and a will to survive until they get answers.
Steel Tribe is the series I get asked to finish a lot - It wouldn't be a long series, but it needs a few dedicated months of complete attention.

Merciless Dungeon
Merciless Dungeon is an RPG Maker game I started tinkering with during Covid. It's in a half finished state with most of the art assets in, and I have handed it over to someone else to complete, but they haven't had time to think about it much either.
I don't think it's worth doing a Kickstarter to resource a small team, simply because it's not Swords branded and people would think I'm taking something away from Swords to work on it. On the other hand, finishing it would mean a working game engine that could be quickly reskinned into a Quest Sprout RPG anyway. Does it simply make more sense to rebrand it first? Seems like a waste though.

The Itch To Work On Something Silly
I'd love to make something low consequence, like a Nuclear Hyper Mega Goblins 52 card game or something dumb like that. I've just got a hankering to work on something small, unrestrained and with no expectations attached, like the original Clusterduck prototype was.

Me
My other project to work on is me! It's still my long-term goal to put away the money to buy a home in Matamata to be closer to family, and then maybe open a little shop for the Hobbiton tourists. Physically, I have some dental work I've been putting off; and I should really see a physiotherapist about the numbness I often get in various places. I'm trying not to push myself too hard, but I also need to in order to get what I need, so it's a bit of a juggle.

Making a Mark
It's never been part of my brand strategy to advertise the series, but I'd like to experiment a bit more with sponsoring small YouTube creators when I have the resources.

Conventions
Please let me know about conventions! I'm not currently lined up to go to any. I would love to be invited to some Australian conventions, so you should tell the event organizers I'm worth the price of a flight.

Podcasts
Invite me onto your podcast too. :-)

So in summary, Swords, Swords: Cut the Deck and Stars are my current focus. I haven't fully committed to whatever the next thing will be but I'm always thinking about it! I hope that gives you some context into how your support helps me prioritize certain things. I think we're really at a turning point where I can get back out of Survival Mode and back to Thriving as an artist and a brand, but there's just a few things to get lined up first. Thank you for your patience while I work through these obstacles!