Chapter 4 - The Shelter of Hope

I proudly present Chapter 4 of the Wormworld Saga Digital Graphic Novel!

Go read it at wormworldsaga.com!

Chapter 4 marks a very important point for me. From the very beginning of the project I was hoping that I would make it to this point. We find out about the old legends of the Wormworld. The Wormseal is finally explained and we get the first hints on why this world is called the 'Wormworld' anyway. And we find out about Jonas' mission and the obstacles that he's facing. 

In that regard Chapter 4 is really a starting point for the story. From this point Jonas will venture into the Wormworld, trying to cope with his impossible task. He will visit the most wondrous places and meet many new characters and creatures. I can't wait to continue the story and I hope so can't you.

As I previously announced, we've got a double launch this time. With the new chapter we've also started a new kickstarter campaign! Now, did you see THAT coming? 

I say "we" because I would never have been able to tackle this alone. It's my wife who did the lion share of the work associated with this campaign and it's my wife who will maintain the ongoing development of the fan items and of what ultimately will become the "Wormworld Shop" on the website.

I'm really proud of the items that we've developed for this campaign and I hope you'll like them, too. Of course we've got some of the usual stuff like the shirts and the cap but I even love those because I'm wearing T-shirts and a cap all the time and can't wait to dress up correctly for this year's Frankfurt bookfair. I LOVE the Loki plush into which we really invested much time and care until we had the final result. It's a truely high quality product that we intentionally produce in Germany and not in China like so many others do. My personal highlight is the sword. It's a very cool feeling to hold it and feel its weight and texture. It's the Wormworld Saga coming to life!

And speaking of that! When you have watched the kickstarter video all the way through you've had the first glimpse on something that I'm really looking forward to share with you. It'll be revealed as soon as we reach the funding goal of the kickstarter campaign. 

Chapter 4, Final Artwork Completed!

And it's done once more! Today I painted the last panel of Chapter 4. So, I'm ready for the home stretch! Tomorrow I will paint the cover of Chapter 4 and next week I'll do the layout work, the special content for the app, and the website update. We are SO close!

And the cool thing is that you can not only look forward to the release of Chapter 4 next week. We will ALSO launch something my wife and I have been working on over the last half year. I won't spoil anything for you just yet but so much I can say: you will go crazy over it!

The countdown for Chapter 4 will start on Monday!

Oh, I just LOVE this part. :)

Chapter 4, Milestone 4 reached!

I'm happy to announce that today I reached the fourth milestone of the Chapter 4 final artwork production. The cool thing about this is that reaching this milestone was originally scheduled for coming friday so I'm four days ahead of my schedule. Milestone 5 also looks like I'm going to spend less than 2 weeks on it so as of today I can confidently commit to 31. August as the definite release date for chapter 4. 

It's not long until then now and I hope you can live without new preview images until then. The thing is that every single panel of this and the upcoming milestone include things that I don't want you to see just yet. I hope you understand!

Alright, I'm going back to work then. Im slowly but steadily digging through this!

Chapter 4, Milestone 3 reached!

It's August which means that THIS MONTH will see the release of Chapter 4! Good thing that I happen to have finished the third milestone and actually have spilled over to milestone 4 a good portion. The reason for this is that a long scrolling panel started right at the end of this milestone and I didn't like to split it so I incorporated it completely into this milestone instead. That also takes a bit of pressure from the last two milestones which I should now be able to finish right on time.

As you can see in the illustration above, I've left the jungle and entered the ruins of Ankal Aasha. That's a very nice change of location for me although it also means to paint a lot of stuff in perspective. Anyway, here are some images from this milestone:

In other news:

Two weeks ago the Wormworld Saga App was prominently featured by Google on Google Play (former Android Market) resulting in a huge boost of downloads. During the feature, which lasted for a week, the app was downloaded over 100,000 times. Just to give you an impression of the proportions: the app had around 8,000 downloads since it's release in October 2011. With a little bit of luck it might have been possible to reach 10,000 downloads in its first year on our own steam. The feature on Google Play now propelled the app WAY beyond that point. Even a week after the feature ended the Wormworld Saga is still in the top 10 of some local stores (actually place 4 in Germany right now) and was downloaded over 125,000 times as of today. This is quite amazing.

To be honest, I had already lost my hope that the app would do what I originally pitched in my kickstarter video last year: to provide me the income that I need to continue my work on the Wormworld Saga. It was much harder to find users for the app than I thought it would be. What kept my spirit up was the fact that a high percentage of those who downloaded it actually purchased the Collector's Editions of the chapters in the app and I figured that it would just need some more time until enough people found out about the app. Now a LOT of people have found out about it but the downside is that a lot of these people are not really closely attached to the project and the percentage of users who make an in-app purchase has dropped substancially. Still I'm curious about the bottom line after the first year which I'm going to write more about in October.

Still trying hard to make this all work!