I'd like to have it as either a game or a an animated series on whichever platforms we use in the future.
I see a lot of potential as a game where you can make your own multiplayer character which you choose the species you want (Human, Brillanti, Crystal, Salamander, Porcupine, Robot, etc), if you use powers, magic or equipment to fight/defend yourself, and can get upgrades as you move on, have what-if missions along with a campaign based of the main story, and a PvAI mode like Halo's firefight but with all of the above.
As an animated series, I'd really like to have some of the bands that have inspired me write certain scenes to let me use their songs for those moments. Gotta save a lot of money from now!
I wrote my novel as a personal project I never intended to share; I wanted to read something that captured a certain feeling and couldn't find anything, so I wrote it myself instead. When it was finished I looked back and said, "Hey, that's actually pretty good!" I edited it, sold a few copies at a local art fair, and tossed it up on Amazon (where no one outside of friends/family ever bought it). Then I found myself here reading comics a couple years later and discovered you could also share novels. I decided to give it a shot, and when starting out I distinctly remember thinking, "If I get 10 people who read it consistently, I'll be happy." I'm now at nine subscribers less than a month later, so I'll take it! (Not to say they all read updates consistently, but still )
The goal in putting it on Tapas was always to just try to get it in front of someone else who wants something that captures the sense of freedom in unpredictability that I set out to encapsulate. I intend to put it back up on Amazon after it's finished on here, and maybe make an illustrated print version, even if it's just for myself.
It would certainly be cool to see it traditionally published or turned into a movie or comic, but that's not a goal I'm actively working towards. I intend to write another novel someday and actually pursue traditional publication, but this wasn't the project for that. This one was for me. Getting to share it with others is just icing on the cake.
20 years from now (assuming humanity doesn't implode on itself by then), it'll be a distant memory of a webcomic and not much more.
As much as I love what I'm working on, I'm level-headed enough to know it's not gonna skyrocket into popularity. I can imagine looking back on it as something I can be proud of for what I was trying to accomplish at the time.. And honestly, that's enough for me since writing isn't my main passion in life atm. For all I know, this short comic could be one-and-done.
But if I had to pick an endgame for it.. An animated film adaptation would be great to watch, but a game adaptation would be fun as hell to play as well~
I've had a minor writing career that I'm satisfied with. My goal now is to produce the best I can to leave to my intellectual writing heir named in my will and is now being named on my copyrights. It will be up to him to decide what he wants to do with it. He is an actor/singer/writer and both his parents are actors/singers so there may be a future for it all.
20 years into the future, that's really hard to say. I just hope someone out there will even find my old work to enjoy it if I'm not still creating at that point.
But I don't have terribly high hopes for any singular series I make. I just keep making stories. With each one published, I just add to my backlog and hopefully funnel new readers to the works that came before.
I had a similar reason for posting my work online. I never took the self-publishing avenue like some people I know have. I didn't have a writing community and no one who read my stuff was willing to comment. I took the leap to even see if I was "good" at writing and if people actually liked me stuff.
None of my current or already completed projects have big end games tbh... For the project I started last year, I just wanna finish it sometime before the end of 2022 if possible. If & when conventions become safe to do again, tabling in an artist alley is something that I'm very interested in trying, and formatting my previously finished one-shot into printable form for that would be really cool No sales goals or anything, but just being able to sell some comic issues out of principle would be rad.
Looking at the question from a "creator goals" standpoint, though, I would love to gain the skills and speed to confidently start a long-form project sometime in the next 5-10 years and be able to see it through hopefully well before 20 An animated series would be a literal dream come true, although I can't envision now what story that would be adapting.
Realistically: I plan on having my comic finished and printed, along with having the mini-crack comic for it done. I'm hoping to also have more merch for it, and sell at cons, as well as getting it sold in some bookstores.
Unrealistically: I want to turn it into an animated movie since the story came to me as an animation, I've just been translating it into comic format. Also if I managed to get the Kickstarter for my final volume done I wanted to make a mini animation to go with them mini comic, and would feature Vienna Teng's 'City Hall', which I would manage to get the rights to use. Having the MC's sing it at a Pride festival, with certain events happening at the last bit of the song.
Of course, I've never done actual animation before, and doubt I would ever be able to get these things accomplished, but it's a nice dream regardless. I'll just be happy to get the whole series printed.
My comics are my endgame...maybe I'd like them to be mainstream published/distributed, but other than that the plan is to move on to the next story. If the money was right and I still retained creative control of my properties, then maybe I could see them being animated- other than that, I really dont care for the idea of my creation being televised, coz the risk of giving up some degree of rights/licensing/control...
20 years from now, I see our comics branching out into a franchise, and that's not to boast or anything, I truly see it. It may not be huge, nor does it necessarily have to be, but I can see our works spawning some animated series/animated movies (maybe live action too)/video games and possibly action figures. The initial goal is to advance our comics to other media platforms. The first step would be to have a few of our characters have their own animated show. The comics will still exist, but probably at a smaller capacity. That means that we need to sit down and start fleshing out all the multitude of characters we have in the comics until 20 years into the future.
20 years from now, I think I'd be far along in a few of my comics and finished some others! I think a pipe dream for me would be an accurate adaptation, whether it be an animated series (I'd LOVE for it to be a cartoon) or live action. But I'm also content with my works being say, found in the back of the bookstore that someone picks up and likes even if it's been several years since I worked on it I think ultimately I'd want them to end up being timeless in some way, shape, or form!
My endgame is as many people have said already. To eventually have it be animated hopefully my a big name like studio MAPPA or Studio Wit, their works have been incredible and I would honestly really love it if they worked on something like mine. But as things are 20 years into the future is incredibly far and no one will ever know what lengths they reach in that time.
20 years in the future?
Hmmm, I'm hoping to be done with most of my comics by then. I've got a big list of stories I'd like to finish, so that would probably be my goal. It'd be nice if one of those stories became animated, got a movie, or hell -- even an audiobook/fandub would be cool. But it's no biggie if that doesn't happen.
I do hope once 20 years past, I'll still enjoy writing comics and sit back to re-read the stories I've finished.