Wormworld Saga App Preview

I have recorded a video in which I present you the main features of the upcoming Wormworld Saga App! We are very close to the finish line and I expect the app to hit the app stores in August.

The app will be available for iPad and Android tablets. I will try to provide a comprehensive list of Android devices that will be able to run the app as soon as possible.

And just to make sure that everyone gets a clear picture of what my plans are with the app:

The app will not substitute the free online version of the Wormworld Saga on wormworldsaga.com. The graphic novel will remain to be free. The app will be a free download and there will be a free version of the graphic novel (without special features) inside the app, too. The free version inside the app will have a better image quality than the web version and the scrolling performance will be better than reading the graphic novel in the browser.
I've made a huge effort to make the Collector's Edition of each chapter attractive to you. If you purchase the Collector's Edition of a chapter inside the app, you will unlock the special features of this chapter, which includes the artwork and sketch mode, the production notes and the artbook items that are associated to this chapter. And of course, by purchasing the Collector's Edition you support the Wormworld Saga and help me to keep on working on it fulltime.

I'm looking forward to make this app available to you as soon as possible!

Tablet poll results

The poll in which I basically wanted to find out how many of you own a tablet device is over and these are the results:

Question: Do you own a tablet device?


Yes, iPad - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -205 (28%)
Yes, Android - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 94 (12%)
No, but I'll soon get one - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -70 (9%)
Nope, and it's not gonna happen soon - - - - -357 (49%)


Total votes: 726


First, let me thank everyone who participated in this poll. This is very usefull data, not only for me but for anyone who thinks about focusing his publishing efforts on tablet devices. Of course you have to take these results with a grain of salt because followers of this blog definitely don't represent the general public. On the other hand, I don't think that the figures are extremely warped because in order to be interested in the Wormworld Saga and following this blog you don't have to own a tablet device in the first place so there's essentially no reason why the readers of this blog should have an above the average inclination to own a tablet device. So, I guess you could transfer these results to the general internet readership that also has an interest in webcomics. Well, I'm not a statistics specialist so please draw your own assumptions here.

At least we can savely say that these figures are valid for the Wormworld Saga readership and I must say that I'm really surprised. My guess would have been that a lot less people already own a tablet device. That 40% already have one and 9% are heavily inclined to get one is really encouraging.

I also want to address that I understand that a lot of you are disappointed to learn that the app is released for tablet devices only. That was the plan right from the beginning but I see that this information was somewhat buried inside the kickstarter campaign up to this point. The reason why the Wormworld Saga App isn't released for smartphones is simply that smartphone screens are too small to experience the Wormworld Saga as it is meant to be experienced. I actually could imagine a dedicated phone app in which the layout would be altered so that you would see individual panels in fullscreen but that would mean to create a whole other app and it would have been too high a risk and too much work to create two apps at once. However, I will keep the option of a dedicated smartphone app in mind and if I happen to be able to gather the ressources for that, I will definitely do it. But maybe this issue will be obsolute in a year or so. Word is that the next generation of iPhones get a bigger screen with higher resolution and a lot of smartphones are already very close to the 1024 pixels that the Wormworld Saga needs on the wide side to be fully displayed. So, let's see how this develops.

The Wormworld Saga App is nearing completion. This week should see the first complete version with all features and I roughly plan to record a preview video for next week.

The app is coming closer!

My first week in the home office is over now and man - I've really got lots of stuff done! The app is very close to a first version (which will then be tested and polished) and I'm really looking forward to make it available to you as soon as we have finished our work on it and it's got the approval from Apple.

I also want to ask you to take part in a small poll that you'll find on the right side of the blog. Basically I want to find out what percentage of my followers own a tablet device and if they do, which OS is running on it. Later we'll also have a poll about price points but let's make one step at a time here.

Alright, still lots of work ahead. Let's get this second week rolling!

My first Monday in the home office

And here it is - my first day at the home office! I know what you're thinking - 1st July is already a week ago, what the heck was he doing all the time? Well, before diving into the Wormworld Saga with full speed I traveled to Graz, Austria where the nice people of video2brain recorded some brand new video workshops with me. We'd already produced a German workshop DVD in 2006 (and you can access the videos as online streams here) but a lot has changed in the last 5 years and I'm really happy that we were able to record some fresh material. Also, this time we recorded the videos in German and English so that a lot more people are going to be able to enjoy them. I will announce it here as soon as they become available.

Alright, after an intense week of recording in the studio I've now arrived at home. This travel to Graz served as a wonderful transition into my new work life I must say. At the weekend I did some rearrangement of the stuff in my studio and now I'm ready. There's a lot of stuff to do and finally I've got time to get things rolling. 

My first priority at the moment is the Wormworld Saga App. We are planning to have it finished by the end of the month so I guess we can look forward to a launch in August. Then there's still some work to do on the kickstarter rewards on which I worked over the past 12 weekends. Here's some photos of the fun:

I'm going to finish my work on the rewards during the week now so I hope that I will be through with it pretty soon.

Well, and then of course there's the second chapter waiting. The preliminary version of it rested for 8 weeks and this is perfect for revising it now. I've learned that it is crucial to the process to give everything the time it needs. It will become a challenge to arrange for that when I'm starting to speed through my milestones from now on. I currently plan to create the preliminary version of chapter 3 before starting the final artwork for chapter 2 so that it can rest for some time, too. It might generally be a good idea to always be one chapter ahead with the prelims. Speed doesn't only have its benefits but also its pitfalls. But we'll maneuver our way around them!

By the way, in the last few month I have used the Wormworld Saga Facebook Fanpage to post smaller updates (like links to interviews and stuff like that) so you might be interested to subscribe to that to get the full fix on Wormworld Saga news. Essential updates will always be posted to the blog though. I'm still not quite sure what exactly to put on my Twitter but there might turn up more stuff in the future, too. Please share any ideas you might have!

Alright, now let's get some stuff done!

I'm going fulltime with the Wormworld Saga!

I'm sorry that it was so quiet here on the blog over the last four weeks. The reason for that is that the last month was such a crazy hotchpotch of stuff that happened, which made me leap from here to there and which I just wasn't able to comprehend into a form that I could share with you. Now that I just had the chance to relax on a short trip to the Munich Comicfestival (which was a great event by the way) things have settled down a bit and I'm able to break the news to you about some decisions that I made. And boy are there news!

I was approached by a big investor a few weeks ago. To put it into a nutshell, they wanted to give me the money that I needed to work fulltime on the Wormworld Saga. That of course got me totally thrilled. My goal got within reach! So I created a business plan for a production company, we talked about the details and in the end it was up to me to sign the deal. It would have meant to create a company, earning a good salary as CEO and ... to hand over the major share of the Wormworld Saga property to the investor.

Relax! I didn't do it.

I realised that I hadn't worked my ass off over the last 18 months only to hand my rights over to someone else. But I'm deeply thankful for their approach because it made me crunch my numbers and it got me thinking about the financial potential of the Wormworld Saga project. And I realised that it could work. There still is a gap in the cash flow for the rest of this year and I will have to dive into my savings in order to bridge it. But next year, when the app has been in stores for several months, I'm optimistic enough to hope for a complete yearly income generated by the Wormworld Saga.

Especially because the app won't be the only way to generate income from!

The next big news is, that I found a publisher for a print adaption of the Wormworld Saga Digital Graphic Novel. That really wasn't an easy thing to do because there needs to be some serious editing done on the material and I had to find a publisher who would let me retain the rights for the digital version AND who would let me keep on publishing the free online version on the website. Fortunately I found a forward thinking publisher who would agree on these terms. The German Tokyopop publishing house will bring the Wormworld Saga books into stores from next year on. I'm thrilled and I think a book will be a nice artifact for fans and with it I will be able to reach people with my story who don't like to read comics on a screen. It will be published in Germany first and international contracts will be negotiated over the next months. I hope that it won't take too long until readers outside of Germany will be able to enjoy the Wormworld Saga in the printed edition.

Well, all this ultimately lead me to the decision to do the leap of  faith. I quit my job and will be working fulltime on the Wormworld Saga from 1st July on. I'm scared of course since I'm venturing into unknown territory here. I don't know how things will turn out. But how much sense this all makes! "The Journey Begins" is the title of the upcoming chapter two. The journey begins indeed and I begin to understand how Jonas must feel on the brink of his great adventure. I'm joining him and I hope you join us, too!

Oh, and I think I don't need to mention that the second chapter will be relased WAY before the end of the year now, do I? Feast your eyes on my rearranged schedule!

Compared to my old schedule I now I have FIVE times more hours per day to work on the Wormworld Saga AND I'm actually going to see my family in the evenings. That's pure craziness! Prepare to see the milestones fly by!

Thanks for all your support and encouragement over the last six months! If this all was just the prologue, I'm wondering what's going to happen now that things are really getting started. I'm going to work hard in order to meet your expectations.

Wormworld Saga App First Sneak Peek

I have to share a very first glimpse at the Wormworld Saga App with you! Robot Media, the developer of the app has recorded a small clip of the first version of the intro camera track and the homescreen with the cover flow. Please keep in mind that this is a very early version and that we will polish the hell out of it.

In addition to this, I have received the first version of the app for testing on my iPad. I can't tell you how happy I felt the moment I saw the Wormseal app icon, clicked on it and got propelled directly onto the attic. It was one of these moments. Like when I saw the massive amount of cardboard boxes for the kickstarter rewards in my hallway. Those moments when visions become reality.

I'll keep you updated on the app's progress!

Wormworld Saga App Homescreen Illustration

That's the finished illustration for the Wormworld Saga App homescreen. I'm looking forward to seeing it the first time in the actual app with the logos and the title fading in and everything! 

It took close to 16 hours to create this illustration. Quite some time if you can invest only 2 hours each day. Man, I would have finished this one in two days if I could just work fulltime on the project. But hey, we are working towards that goal and patience is a virtue. :)

However, I think this is a nice and atmospheric starting point for the app and it was well worth the effort. As soon as I have finished the screen layout I will be able to show you how everything will work together.

Wormworld Saga App Homescreen WIP

Finally I'm able to give you an update on my Wormworld Saga progress! On the weekends I'm quite busy with cropping, stamping and signing all the prints for the kickstarter rewards:

here you see merely 50 of the over 700 prints I've already prepared

During the week I'm working on the Wormworld Saga App now. My current task is to create the illustration for the homescreen where you browse the chapters. I want to start the app with a spectacular effect and therefore I have designed a three screens high illustration which the camera will pan down while titles are faded in and out. At the end of the pan you land directly inside Jonas' secret headquarters where you'll find a coverflow-like list of all available chapters. I will show you the screen design as soon as it is ready. For now I'm quite busy with creating the illustration. I've just finished the drawing which alone took me close to six hours:

You really have to love attics and perspective drawing in order to not become crazy drawing something like this, I guess. The scenery is very close to the last panel of chapter one but it's a completely new illustration with a much lower point of view. And instead of making it a night scene, I will create a gloomy day scene with bright sunlight pouring through the little windows and the crevices between the roof tiles. Think of a dark and dusty attic with bright islands of light. I'm really looking forward to finishing this illustration. It's the place where Jonas starts his adventures and it will become the place where the reader of the app will start his adventure, too.

I'll keep you updated on my progress!

Chapter 2 - Preliminary version

Ok, same procedure as last year! I have just finished the first draft of the grayscale preliminary version of chapter 2. I have not yet set the milestone marks because I want to let the first draft of this preliminary version rest for some time now. In the next weeks I will concentrate on the Wormworld Saga App (including work associated with the kickstarter campaign) and when that's wrapped up I will have gained enough mental distance to this preliminary version in order to be able to tell if changes have to be made. The storytelling gets much more complicated in the second chapter and I really want to make sure that everything works perfectly before I start painting the final artwork.

However, what I can already say is, that chapter 2 will be approximately 25% longer than the first chapter so you can look forward to a juicy update as soon as it is released! And there's another thing I can tell you. The title of chapter two will be:

Chapter 2 - The Journey Begins

So, in the next update I hope to be able to show some sneak peeks from the Wormworld Saga App production.

I wish everyone a happy easter!

Kickstarter closes with $23.729 - lots of work ahead!

The big news of course is the successful funding of the Wormworld Saga App on kickstarter.com. The backers there have pledged nearly double the amount of the original funding goal and that leaves me in pure awe. Yesterday I posted a video update on kickstarter.com and I figure that I can put it here, too. There is some information about the usage of the funds and some specific information for backers in it but I also talk generally about the next steps in the creation of the app and the online graphic novel.

To put it in a nutshell: there's a lot of work ahead and I will keep you updated on everything concerning the Wormworld Saga. The next update most likely will be the kickoff of the production of chapter two. I have worked over 15 hours on the preliminary version already and I soon will be able to set up my milestones for the final art. Finally I'll be able to concentrate on my artwork again. It's about time!

Oh, and I'm also proud to announce that, as of yesterday, the first chapter of the Wormworld Saga Online Graphic Novel was read 500.000 times. On to the million now!