[Newsblade] 2025 Highlights

Some of the things that happened:

January
- Locked my Twitter
- Watched Bleach S3, Jujutsu Kaisen S1, Dr Stone S4; Played Moonlighter

February
- Hit 1000 patrons for the first time ever!
- Quest Sprout with Shield and Momma Sprout launched on Makeship!
- Printed the first physical comic - The Adventures Of Quest Sprout
- Attended my brothers wedding in Auckland
- Watched Ishura

March
- Swords celebrated its 7th anniversary!
- Swords: Cut The Deck arrived in Wellington and I sent all the NZ/AU orders
- Did guest art for Cat Vs. Human
- Became an uncle!
- Watched Conclave, The Subtance, Pokemon movies 1-11, Strange New Worlds S1, Severance - S1 and S2, Pokemon Concierge, KonoSuba S1 and OVA, Katanagatari; Played Suika Game

April
- Choplet arrived in the Swords Universe!
- Demoed Swords: Cut The Deck at Wellington Armageddon
- Swords: Cut The Deck was nominated for the Pav Award for The Tactile Taste: Excellence in - Physical Games
- Drew Fake Pokemon on an episode of the Pen Pals podcast and also appeared on a Moonhawk Studios podcast
- Watched Pokemon movies 12-14, Pokemon S1, Modern Life Is Goodish

May
- Quest Sprout celebrated his 5th birthday!
- Launched the Quest Sprout hoodie on Makeship
- Choplet died for a minute
- Season One of Swords was rearranged into Chronological Order on the main website
- Watched Ad Astra, Pokemon Johto, Taskmaster UK S19; Played Astro Bot

June
- Choplet got better
- Demoed Swords: Cut The Deck at Wellycon
- Briefly hit 18th most popular (safe-for-work) comic artist on Patreon!
- Briefly went sugar-free and did 5 press-ups for every new patron
- Watched Sinners, Furiosa, Crimes Of The Future, Fallout S1; Played Expedition 33

July
- Imgur fired all of their staff
- My roof sprung a leak
- Surface Pro keyboard broke, which also charges the pen
- Watched The Machinist, Adaptation, Rick and Morty S8, Panty and Stocking S2

August
- Took 100+ mini-commissions for Choplet NPCs for the Choplets Dungeon RPG Maker project
- Released the Swords Annual Survey 2025
- Participated in the 48Hour Film Festival
- Shipping from New Zealand to America was officially suspended by NZ Post
- Watched Indiana Jones 1-4, King Arthur (2004), Jujutsu Kaisen S2

September
- Our 48Hour Film won an award!
- Did the first 19 episodes of Swordtember
- Repackaged all of the finished seasons of Swords into pdf bundles
- Attended Wellingtaru and NZ Game Developers Conference
- I was given early access to Quips on Patreon
- Watched Shrek 1 and 2, About Time, Dungeons & Dragons, Futurama S13, Ranma 1/2 S1, Taskmaster UK S20, Taskmaster NZ S6; Played Hollow Knight

October
- Attended Great Games With Pals
- Attended the 48Hour Film Festival finals
- Caffeinated Dragon shut its doors forever
- Watched The Suicide Squad, Scoob, Taskmaster AU S4, Solar Opposites S6, Smiling Friends S3; Played Silksong

November
- Started earning ad revenue on Facebook
- Finally settled on a format of Daily Journalling that I've been able to stick to for more than a month
- Science Officer Bean beamed down to Makeship, but didn't gain enough momentum to get funded
- Engaged in some guerilla improvements to my neighbourhood

December
- Attended a Live Reading Comic Event, where I shared the adventures of Choplet to a crowd
- Patreon featured me in a Patreon For Creators article
- Watched Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Fallout S2

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Growth
110 new episodes of Swords
86 new episodes of Stars

Patrons 894 > 1306!!!
Free followers 4800 > 7100
BlueSky 23.4k > 42.4k
Facebook > 37k > 64k

Instagram > 216k > 218k
Twitter 50k > 44k (thanks elon)
Swords on Webtoon 138k > 141k
Stars on Webtoon 18k > 20k

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Summary
You guys really saved me this year after Webtoon sort of just... stopped working. I'm not sure if it's the platform that changed, or the 2nd part of the Swor'nament and the release of Cut The Deck causing long delays killing all the momentum of the series; or if everyone will just come flooding back the second I get back to making Quest Sprout episodes... probably all of it... but it's been pretty dead over there. Monetizing on Facebook has just begun to almost fill that gap, and takes some of the pressure off of Patreon to be my only reliable revenue source. The money that you guys spend on Swords should be getting reinvested into Swords. Always. As long as Facebook stays the course, I want to get back into doing just that. I appreciate you taking care of me during the slump.

I've tried my best to learn and grow this year, but 2026 needs to be about always putting my best foot forward. ...And lots more qwests! Let's aim to have fun together.

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Some of the things happening in 2026

Finish the Swor'nament, then print a limited run of physical comics for participants and high-tier patrons
Then finish Cut The Deck content
Then I have a contract to make art for a different card game
Then I have a contract to make some comics
Aiming for Swords 1000 on March 5th for the 8th Anniversary

I've got plenty more things I want to do - but let's stick to the basics for the moment!

And so, for the final time this year:

Newsblade Out