Matthew Wills

[Goals] Swords Product Roadmap (Patreon)

Published:

2026-06-06 04:07:52

Edited:

2026-06-12 02:16:14

Imported:

2026-11

Tags:

goals

Content

My weekly newsletter leans a bit heavily on talking about products and I don't think that's really what a lot of you are here for, so I'm just consolidating some thoughts here about who I am, what I'm doing and what I want to accomplish. If you already read my Sunday newsletters none of this should be new information.

There's a bit of a tug-of-war here where I have to take the time to explore new opportunities, focus on the ones that make sense and run the risk of frustrating the people who want certain things. I am one guy and I have the resources I have. I'd love to do it all, but the logic is to do what is high-value and let it raise the likelihood of the other stuff getting done too.

Swords, the Webcomic
Priority : Eternally High
Continuing the adventures of the world of Swords. I'm trying to gravitate back towards doing 3 updates a week following a common repeating theme:
- A classic Swords week
- A Quest Sprout week
- A Choplet week
Stars, the Webcomic
Priority : Vibes based
I just make episodes when I'm having fun with it. It's not very clear how it should be balanced against Swords. Bean is the only Makeship plushie that didn't get funded but there were some other factors going on.
Dream Team Supreme, the Webcomic
Priority : Finished
I drew all 50 episodes in Q1 2026. The last of them will be uploaded across social media by the end of next week.
Dazzling Dungeon Decks
Priority : Finished?
The deadline I was given was the same week as Dream Team Supreme's artwork was wrapping up, but as far as I know it's still getting tinkered with, so I might get tapped on the shoulder to help some more before it goes to print.
Some unconfirmed contracts
Priority: ???
I've been approached for a couple of small/medium projects. I haven't locked them in yet.
Swords, Cut The Deck
Priority : High
I've finished all of the cards for the Choplet's Dungeon stand-alone-expansion. I'd also like to make a Quest Sprout stand-alone-expansion and release the two together. We have some money in the war chest from the original Cut The Deck, so we can either print a small run and see how it goes, or go back to Kickstarter with the goal of getting the game in as many stores as possible. Choplet's Dungeon uses a few less mechanics and comes in a smaller box, so it's more accessible for new players and less painful in the age of tariffs.
swords.game has recently gotten a big update with even more content coming soon. We're looking forward to feedback on the single player module now available in the Downloads section.
It would be fun to do new dice and new playmats with each release, but that's not a priority.
Swords, the RPG (Radiance of the Paladin's Gladius)
Priority : Low
The goal here is to make an extremely polished 30 minute "vertical slice" so that I can pursue funding and prove that a version of the game can get made even if things go a bit sideways and it ends up being a team of one. I'm currently waiting for news about the release date of the next version of RPG Maker so other things are taking priority. It doesn't actually matter what engine the alpha ends up being built in - I can make it in RPG Maker by myself, so that's what the first version should get made in. All the assets are made in 4k and are therefore future proofed for other engines if the option to scale up a team becomes available.
I was working on a Choplet-specific RPG, it's all being absorbed into SWORDS RPG.
Swords, Pens & Papercuts
Priority : N/A
I'm not working on the pen and paper RPG at the moment. I made various prototypes but none of it is solving the right problem. It also became kind of overshadowed by Swords: Cut The Deck having an RPG component.
Swords, the Anime
Priority : N/A
I had some talks a while ago. The conversations tended to lean towards extracting the Quest Sprout IP and surrounding him with a new cast of child characters; which could have left the rest of the series in some kind of permanent limbo, so things didn't come together. All or nothing, baby.
Swords voiced reels
Priority : Low
There are a lot of people making YouTube Shorts/Reels using my IP and making money. That should obviously be me. I think it would make sense to pay voice actors instead of doing it all myself, when I have that option.
Swords, the webcomic, Bread Knight Remastered
Priority : Medium
There's no deadline to do this, but I think it carries a lot of value so it will happen when I have a clear runway.
Swords, the Quest Sprout children's book
Priority : N/A
Again, it's something that I think a lot of people might want.
Swords, the Enswordclypedia DnD Supplement
Priority : N/A
A book of Swords most iconic swords with DnD rules. Simple. Just gotta find the right person to make it with. I'm happy to self-publish it as a soft-cover book like I did with my other comics.
Stars, the Visual Novel
Priority : N/A
I could bust this out in a few weeks if I could focus on it.
@swordscomic Patreon Big Clean-up
Priority : Medium
I need to make it easier for supporters to find the things they care about and delete/consolidate the content that they don't.
swordscomic.com Big Archive And Transcript Polish
Priority : Low
There are a lot of entries in the webcomic archive that would benefit from some love, but it's a big time commitment. It's hard to outsource too - the last few times I've tried, people have tried to sneak new lore in and I can't keep the canon consistent if I don't know what those things are.
My First Public Gallery Display Of Every Episode Of Swords
Priority : ???
I've applied! It's in someone else's hands now.
I Should Have My Own T-Shirt Store
Priority : Low
Currently I use Threadless and TeePublic, but I should do a limited run of T-shirts myself and not rely on the print-on-demand model. I can't really control the buyer's experience with the current setup and it needs to be easier to buy comics/pins/the card game/shirts all in one place.
The Cut The Deck website is working towards having a dedicated store-front, so maybe we'll do it that way.
Merciless Dungeon
Priority : Very Low
I gave this to someone else to work on and then it sort of fizzled out. I've got some ideas about how to put a bit more meat on its bones to make it worth taking to Kickstarter - but on the other hand, at that point would the Swords IP carry it further?
Radical Super Iguana People
Priority : Very Low
I want to make a standalone card game where 4 teenage brothers spliced with Iguana DNA join forces to fight crime. You know. For fun. I think having some physical products unconnected to my main IP could open up new opportunities for me.

Some thoughts about money (which you are very welcome to skip):

My Patreon makes more than the New Zealand minimum wage, which is great! It's a huge milestone and I'm very grateful we hit it.
My Patreon makes less than the average salary of a New Zealand game developer, so it's not exactly a full solution
For context, New Zealand is having a cost-of-living crisis, Wellington is the most expensive region to live in, so the fact that I'm making this work is crazy to most people I talk to
I don't like using Patreon as my main source of income, it doesn't feel fair to you to support my meat-body instead of my brand
Taking outside opportunities covers that deficit but takes away time and energy from Swords and I know you've all felt that
The Patreon Swor'nament ($14 month x 12 months x 16 competitors = $2688 / 70 pages = $38.40 per page) was quite a good bargain in the end (in my opinion, anyway), but I don't think doing another project like that is going to help. 70 more episodes about Quest Sprout would have a more substantial impact

What I think I can accomplish by growing Patreon some more:

Swords is currently ranked #27th in comics
All of the creators I'm using as examples here are totally legendary, and competing with any of them would be nothing short of an honour. Just in case you misread it as me throwing shade.

Reaching #20 (ie. Getting on the same level as War & Peas)
I'd have my bases covered and wouldn't have to worry about outside contracts as much.

Reaching #15 (ie. Getting on the same level as Lackadaisycats)
Earnings start to reach an exponential curve this high up the Comics ranking list, so I think this is around the point where I can comfortably hire an assistant to make lots of things easier - including mail, handling customer support, stocking things in stores, growing the brand, scheduling all my content, agent work finding opportunities and just generally letting me get back to the parts I'm good at, like making the comics. A lot of small sticky things tend to grind everything I'm doing to a halt every so often.
It's worth noting Lackadaisy got a huge spike in Patreon support when they announced the animated movie. How encouraging... hehehe...

Reaching #10 (ie. Getting on the same level as Order Of The Stick)
This feels like the point where I can really focus on self-care more. Moving to a quieter neighbourhood. Not making excuses to put off doctor and dentist visits. Monitoring my cholesterol (it was dangerously high at one point, haven't checked lately). Maybe getting my own therapy after 8 years of being your therapist. Maybe join the Wellington Fencing Club! It's becoming well-established that comic artists don't live the longest and healthiest lives and I don't want to be part of that statistic. I guess part of this Mephistophelian agreement would be making my home office more Instagrammable too by buying lots of cool crap from the Weta store too. How dreadful.

Reaching #5 (ie. Getting on the same level as Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal)
Two words : World tour.

Reaching #1 (ie. Surpassing them all)
Jeph Jaques updates twice as often as I do, so I think the only way to get here is to really apply myself to becoming as super-human as he is. But at that point anything is possible.

But look, no matter what, Swords is doing great. We've worked hard for this and there's so much more we are going to accomplish together. It's just down to timing now. Failing to plan is planning to fail! Thank you for indulging me while I gaslight myself into being a world class artist. I'm great. You're great for being here. Let's make lots of cool stuff.

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