2021 in Review (Patreon)

This year was crazy for me. It might seem like I was doing too much, but I said "No" more than I ever have in previous years. I still recall my years of struggling as a creator, so it feels strange to have opportunities thrown at me right and left.

THOUGHTS ON 2021

TLS: Unfortunately, this is the first year that I have to say I didn't meet my TLS goals. I wanted to finish the Incubus War, but only completed two out of the three updates. That was my target, and I'd secretly hoped to have both the war and the aftermath open world update done. Rather than discuss my thoughts on potential reasons, I'd rather defer that until after I have the next update out. Results over talk.

But hey, it's not like nothing was completed last year! We wrapped up the Gathering with a lot of aftermath events. Elleani also got her official membership with the conclusion of the New Givini plot thread, and we completed the first several harem quests. Then the Incubus War is the last really complicated event (whereas the final event will be less intertwined culminations). We're getting close to the end, I'm just struggling against increasing inertia as everything concludes.

OEA: It's been almost four years since I started working on OEA, but last year it finally got off the backburner. There were two large updates on this one, getting it nearly into shape for the release. This felt nice, after accomplishing so little on it in 2020.

DStP: For what was intended to be a brief little side project, this has really lingered. At least the build released last year was generally liked from a design perspective, with a far higher rating from a general audience than expected, despite a bugged launch.

The Brightest Shadow: TBS2 did pretty decently, while BFS underperformed but opened some doors in the publishing industry. In an ideal world, I would have been able to pursue this and submitted my first ever solicited manuscript, but this had to be placed lower priority.

The Weirkey Chronicles: The plan to kickstart the series may have gone weirdly, but it certainly took off in terms of the numbers. Fingers crossed that it doesn't crash with the release of the fourth book. I also took a non-trivial monetary risk with the audiobooks... and unfortunately it's too early for me to do a financial evaluation of that choice.

Tie-in Requests: I received multiple offers to write tie-in novels, which in theory could be good for my career, but I turned them down for reasons of priorities. Properties within my niche, not something like Star Wars... though honestly, from what I know about Disney contracts, I'd never dream of signing one.

Webtoon: By far the most unexpected thing I had to turn down, at least for now. I always thought a webcomic had to be either a labor of love or very expensive, but it turns out if you reach enough success, people will pay you for the rights. A webtoon version of TWC would be fascinating because I haven't worked on that kind of thing before, but I could see it eating up way too much time. It's a shame that I couldn't get a similar deal for TLS... maybe on one of those trashy manhwa sites, haha.

I think that covers the major issues, unless I forgot something. It doesn't touch on anything I dismissed more quickly, or all the random little inspirations I had to leave behind. T-T

PLANS FOR 2022

TLS: Hopefully, many updates. The end of the war is coming soon, then there's one last hurdle with the open world update. After that, there will be character-focused updates that I hope will be easier for me and come out more reliably. It would not be unreasonable to expect TLS to conclude in 2022, but I'm certain I won't get there. But I promise it will be clear how close we are.

OEA: My core work is done, but at least one more testing build, since the Thanksgiving release led to really scattered feedback. The plan is a late Q1 launch. More on this later, but these results will be critical to the direction I take my career.

TWC: I've written through the fifth book, but I need to write the sixth at some point this year. Shouldn't be too challenging or time-consuming.

Audiobooks: Two more TWC books from Travis Baldree when he has time for them. TBS3 via Podium. No other audiobook plans. Hopefully this year will not involve any audiobook negotiations or other time wasting stuff, but I'm curious how the numbers will come out.

TBS: The third book is completely written, it just needs a little more editing. Probably a release in the second half of the year. After this first trilogy is complete, this one will likely take a rest for a little while to keep my plate clearer.

DStP: It sure would be nice to make progress on this in 2022, but as you can tell from the aspirational tone of that statement, this side project is probably getting the short stick again. Not that it could complete anyway, given how slowly the artist is working.

Maybe A Book: I'm hoping this will be a year for wrapping up projects, but my creativity is guaranteed to go in various directions. It would be nice if I could write something different in regards to my overall publishing ambitions, but we'll see.

Okay, I believe that's everything. I hope that 2022 treats everyone well! I will be doing my best to improve it by providing my usual content, hopefully sooner than you think. ^-^