Okay. So this is the third time I’m rewriting this post. I’ve been sitting on it since May. So, what’s taking so long? Well…
The past two years have been a bit of a disaster for me. Since releasing Part One of the pilot, my life has gotten progressively worse. It’s got largely to do with outside factors. On top of that, I’m now stuck in a hot, tiny apartment halfway across the country with absolutely hellish neighbours. Spent six months trying to reason with them (including cops and landlord) to no avail. I’ve given up at this point and apend my days and nights wearing noise cancelling headphones because no one was willing to help.
So… hence why I was kind of losing my mind a little. Except now…
…My income’s being taken away from me, too, and… the situation’s entirely different now.
At first this blog post was focused on the emotional aspect, but financials crept up more and more as the weeks passed. And it’s now truly come to a head.
Long story short – after 2 years applying for animation jobs to no avail, I flipped to something else in 2021. I now make my living 100% doing NSFW content, and I’ve been hit by the NSFW bans sweeping across the internet hard. I’ve lost 30% of my income, which was… minimum wage to begin with.
So I’m gonna be a little… tight for a while. Too tight to be able to justify spending money on Swift Spark for a bit – until I’m back in safer waters.
The 2nd thing, which was what I wanted to talk about in the previous version of this post, is this.
Since my income requires me to register as a sole proprietor, my income isn’t based on what I make – my revenue or turnover – but what I keep. Anything I don’t spend on my business. Profit.
You guessed it – Swift Spark is part of that business.
And that presents me with a huge problem – if I keep spending money on Swift Spark, I’ll be stuck in social housing forever. Stuck in the lowest income bracket forever. Stuck in place, living in a village I hate, surrounded by people I can’t stand, because my income is low-low.
How is this relevant to Swift Spark? Well, as I just mentioned – Swift Spark is my primary business expense, but… that’s it. It’s an expense.
I accidentally let my YouTube channel become demonetized after 7 years because I didn’t upload for six months, so even my YouTube videos don’t make any money. The Patreon makes €18 a month. The shop hasn’t had a single sale since 2025 began.
I don’t work with volunteers. I’m the only person working on this series – writing, boarding, directing, everything.
I’ve already come to accept that it’s not a job and I shouldn’t treat it like one – which is part of the reason why updates have slowed to a halt. I need to make sure my job is done before I can spend time on the hobby.
But now there’s the issue of money. I had no idea I was actually painting myself in a financial corner doing this – previously, I could set a good amount of money aside – some months as much as $1k! – for emergencies and Swift Spark funding. I guess there’s some benefit to that social housing thing.
How much I’m able to put aside, however, doesn’t matter – if I spend it, it’s a detriment. If I make €25k, and then spend €10k on Swift Spark, my income is recorded as €15k because that’s that year’s profit.
See the issue? In addition my country divides social housing into three income-based tiers. As long as you fall under those tiers… forget renting privately.
So the lower your income, the smaller the “pond” of available housing… and while the pond may be much smaller, the amount of fish in there is much bigger.
I’ve decided I don’t want this to be my future. Not after the miserable two years I’ve already had. But that means having to make some changes and cutting some cords.
• My main focus will be building my income back up. Autism has led me to a … rather shit track record on my resume, so I’ll be sticking to my freelancing stuff. It’ll just take a while. (That being said, if you know of any paid indie shows that don’t require fancy names on your resume or 5+ years of industry experience, feel free to pass me a link).
• I need to limit how much I spend on my business if I want to be able to get out of this apartment. The first income cap only allowing you to rent tiny run-down apartments like mine is €29k annually– and my entire turnover is still below that, let alone profit. I was hoping to finally pass it this year, but with my income being slashed again… I’ve got some work to do… and the more I spend on my business, the harder it gets. I’m going to limit myself to 10% of my turnover going forward. That’s less than €3k.
So… unfortunately… I think you can tell where this is going. I never needed Swift Spark to turn a profit – I was never expecting it to. The way I was envisioning this initially was that no matter how much Swift Spark made, I’d always put it back into the show.
Unfortunately, Swift Spark makes no money. 18 bucks a month on Patreon. In total, Swift Spark has generated just below 2k in revenue – and that’s in nine years. The pilot alone was more than double that to produce.
Other indies have opted to make fun of me over this, but it was never about turning a profit for me. It still isn’t. I was happy to keep self-funding the project, even though since moving out it’s caused me more stress than before. That’s mostly due to some money-related anxiety that was embedded into me as a kid. I’m always afraid I’ll end up going broke somehow, no matter how much money I save or how much I have in the bank.
But now it’s different. One of those things not a single adult thinks is relevant to tell you beforehand. Or maybe it’s because the last time my dad lived in social housing was the 90s when there wasn’t a housing shortage and income requirements were much more flexible.
To get out from under my current income cap, which is the ‘bottom tier’ cap, I’d need to increase my turnover by almost 50% – and that would be with 0 spending. Why 50? That has to do with income tax bullshit and further intricacies on how income is calculated for sole proprietors. I don’t intend to turn this into a lecture about the Dutch tax and sole proprietor system, if you’re nosy you’ve got Google to clue you in.
So it’s not that I want to… but I have to.
I have to stop working on Swift Spark for the time being if I want to have a decent future. If not, I’ll be stuck living between a bunch of far-right hillbillies that keep me up at night and make me scared to leave my house forever.
One thing I feel is important to address is the following:
What will happen to the five episodes you currently have in pre-production?
The voice actors will be paid. Not all roles have been definitively cast yet because of this exact reason. For what remains of 2025 I intend to record with every role that has and loop back to the rest in 2026. After that, it’s over for the time being.
The episodes will likely not have any music, as that would be an additional $10-15k (total, not per episode). I can guarantee the episodes will not be fully animated, due to time constraints. But I’m not sure how far I’m able to take them yet.
I’m going to put the comic on hiatus after I finish Episode 2 and work to finish the storyboards for all five episodes in 2026.
So… what about a release date?
There is none. The episodes will come when they’re done. The comic also isn’t tied to a set release schedule anymore. I simply don’t have enough time in the day to guarantee that.
I get that this isn’t what any of us were hoping for, including me. But it is how it is – I need to stop fucking around and get my shit together if I want my life to get better. And that means having to cull things that are hold me back, whether I really want to or not.
I hope and fully intend to get back to Swift Spark someday, in full force – with fully animated content. But for now, I can’t afford to.
I’m… sorry.
