It’s time for a new update, as there’s a lot to share!
As you know, this crowdfunding campaign was originally intended to fund the pre-production of SUKKERS. Then we raised so much that we said: Let’s do Drop 01!!
SUKKERS was conceived as an approx. 80-minute film, to be released in 8 drops of about 10 minutes each.
Now, a few weeks of pre-production have passed and this is what we’ve achieved so far:
Research into queer history: 65%
Detailed synopsis: 100%
Dramaturgy for SUKKERS: 100%
Detailed dramaturgy for Drop 01: 100%
Script for Drop 01: 100%
Rough storyboards: 55%
During pre-production, it quickly became clear to us that we need far more than 10 minutes to realise Drop 01 in a way that works as the perfect pilot epsiode: it needs to introduce all the key characters and their dynamics, the main problem that forces Viktor to act, and establish all the antagonists and the world. This led to the following decision, which changes everything for SUKKERS:
SUKKERS is going to be a musical animated film! 🎶🦇
The medium allows us to dive deeper into our characters’ psyches and convey a lot of information in an entertaining way. What’s more, the music gives you something to enjoy between the drops. There will be 3 songs in Drop 01:
🎧 01.‘This Time I Jump’ 🎧 02.‘Stay (where you are)’ 🎧 03.‘Battle On!’
All three songs have already been composed, have (as yet unfinished) German lyrics and exist as demos. With the addition of these songs, SUKKERS – Drop 01 will have a total running time of just under 35 minutes. We currently estimate the entire film will run for 140 minutes.
This changes the required budget enormously and forces us into a new phase of reorientation:
How do we approach the overall production?
How do we finance the music, and to what extent does all this affect the German – but above all the international casting, as we now need not only English-speaking voice actors and actresses, but also singers, whose buy-outs must be included in the calculation? Implementing individual royalty splits for so many different roles would create an administrative nightmare.
How do we finance Drop 01, which is now three times as long?
What happens next, and how does this affect our independence?
To some, this might sound like bad news right now – but in fact, the opposite is true: We are so convinced of our pilot that we definitely want to share it with you, but we also realise that this project is much bigger, has more to say and sets an enormous artistic standard, so we need to approach funding bodies and producers with the pilot (aka Drop 01 🩸) in order to realise the project in its best possible form.
However, this also means that, in order to keep going in the long run, we now need to look into how we can financially manage the production of Drop 01, look for other jobs for our studio, and split the work on SUKKERS so that, whilst we carry on, the launch will be postponed by a few months – that much is already certain.
All of this will pay off when SUKKERS finally spreads its wings and takes flight.
If you’d like to continue supporting us on this long journey, please consider making a monthly contribution to our studio via Patreon.
Love, Mik
PS: For anyone who’s curious, here are the first sounds from Viktor’s first song: “This Time I Jump!”
✨First Goodies arrived!✨ What about the rest?
about 1 month ago
– Mon, Mar 02, 2026 at 10:44:40 AM
As promised in Update #15, the first goodies were sent out today! 🎉 We sent out Thank Yous, Phone Wallpapers, Wallpaper Sets, and Animated Sticker Sets for your messenger: Viktor/Buck/Sam/SUKKERS. This first wave also includes the “Draw me like one of your Vampires!” and “Turn into a Vampire!” tiers, but since these are personalized and a bit more complicated to send, you will receive them tomorrow by email. After that, our plan is as follows:
WAVE 2 (mid-March): Paper Dress-Up Dolls: Viktor/Buck/Sam Papercraft Dolls: Viktor/Buck/Sam
WAVE 3 (early April): Secret Character Files Boyfriend Packs: Viktor/Buck
WAVE 4 (about 2 weeks before the premiere of SUKKERS Drop 01): Personal Greetings Early Access Ticket Golden Ticket to the Online Premiere
WAVE 5 (shortly after the release of Drop 01 on YouTube): Artbook Scripts & Storyboards Storytelling School Uncompressed Video Server
Since no fixed release date has been set yet, we'll keep you updated here on kickstarter. Of course, you can also just follow me on YouTube and get notified there as soon as SUKKERS is released. And to bridge the waiting time, check out all the super cute character dynamic shorts with Viktor, Sam, and Buck!
Which goodies are you most excited about? Tell me in the comments, don't get bitten, and see you soon! 🖤
Love, Mik
50k Stretch Goal Release: ‘Vote on Plot Points’, Goodies almost on their Way 🖋🦇
about 1 month ago
– Fri, Feb 27, 2026 at 09:41:01 AM
We have some news about Drop 01 ! 🩸 Last year, we achieved our stretch goal of “Vote on Plot Points” during the ongoing campaign. This means we're creating a queer, animated vampire musical together with you! And now the time has finally come:
The script is in the final stages of development! It's time to ask for your opinion to put the ✨finishing touches✨ on the story!
What does the world look like, where do our vampires end up, and—most importantly—what happens to them? The last open questions are waiting for your answers. Follow the link, vote within the next 2 days, and go down in this piece of queer vampire history:
The decision to turn SUKKERS into a animated moviemusical with original songs, coupled with some other setbacks, unfortunately pushes the release back a little further than planned. You can find out more about this in Update #14. We are doing our best to release Drop 01 in early summer 2026.
Until then, we will be sending out the goodies for our backers in several waves with the first one going out next week! We have been working hard on those as well 💪
Love, Mik
This Year, SUKKERS is coming: Drop 01 🩸
3 months ago
– Mon, Jan 12, 2026 at 09:22:42 AM
Deutsch
Cheers Sukkers 🦇
It's been pretty quiet here lately – but loud on social media! 😁 Because every week you get a cool new SUKKERS short video on our TikTok, Instagram and YouTube channels! Most recently, a crisp music bit with vampire vibes to Mad Tsai's ‘Bite’! (Yes, that was you guys' idea – we actually read all your comments haha)
The last few months have been intense: my first approach was to flesh out the characters – Viktor, Buck and Sam – before I started plotting. But since the third act of the story was still too loosely defined, I hit a wall. I couldn't answer why the characters act the way they do and what they are fighting for if I didn't first clarify what the finale would look like. After all, the finale of a story reveals the rawest truth – and in the case of SUKKERS, that's not an easy one: What's behind the queer revolt? Why does it become so important to Viktor that he changes – from a guy who no longer wants to live to one who risks everything for people he barely knows? Well, Mik, SUKKERS is no exception to the rule: There are no shortcuts when it comes to plotting a story. At least not if it's a story that digs as deep as this one, seeking to analyse and bring to life the complexity of community, queer persecution and social power relations. And that brings us to the biggest question of the finale: If I want Viktor to win, the story needs an answer to the question of all questions: How do we solve this problem? Can a gay vampire film even answer such big questions? What started with, ‘I'll write character questionnaires first,’ turned into, ‘I'm now plotting SUKKERS in as much detail as possible from Drop 01 🩸 to Drop 08 🩸 so that I can find an answer to every open question.’
And I did. I can now announce: The exposé of the entire plot of SUKKERS is complete and will now be thoroughly examined. Much of our book research has already been incorporated into the story: locations, characters from the history of queer London. Now it's time to check and discuss the relevance, credibility and factual accuracy with the help of experts. To do this, I spent the first week of this year in London scouting locations, visiting them and taking photos as a basis for my team to bring the world of SUKKERS to life.
If you ask me what percentage of pre-production has already been completed, I would say: 🔥 It's about 75% 🔥
We are trying to get all the rewards ready by the end of January/mid-February and send them out to you! ✨💖 Obviously, this does not include the art book, making-ofs, etc., as these continue to grow the longer production continues.
Next, we will focus on the complete script and explore the idea of a musical. To this end, we are already in talks with my long-time composer 24|7 sound, with whom I have been working on all my musical projects since 2012 – from music parodies to openings and endings for my animated series such as #TubeClash and Broadcast My Ass (‘Monster‘, ‘Hellseher’, ‘Ghost’, etc.). Most recently, he composed the original music for SCHREIB MICH AB, my queer thriller audio drama series, which was released by German public broadcaster in 2022-2024, and we are currently releasing the #TubeClashX Lofi Album together.
The implementation of SUKKERS with original songs would have narrative advantages, as we could redistribute much of the complex plot and vampire background stories into catchy songs. The medium is perfect for an extensive story like SUKKERS. However, this decision comes with considerable additional effort: Not only do the songs have to be composed and written, but they also have to be translated and sung, which makes casting more difficult and significantly increases the complexity of the entire production.
Therefore, we are taking our time to make a careful decision – but we are very excited to hear your feedback on the subject. So feel free to leave a comment below the text! We are considering 1-2 songs per Drop, coupled with a complete Original Soundtrack that cleverly sets the musical themes of the characters in scenes.
Drop 01 🩸 will be released in animatic style, meaning it will be an animated storyboard with rough sketches, but with as much movement and energy as possible. Since we didn't hit the 100k stretch goal, there won't be any full-colour flashed-out animation yet. But that's okay! After all, this crowdfunding was primarily intended for pre-production. The fact that we will be able to present Drop 01 to you makes the whole thing incredibly exciting for all of us!
Many of you probably didn't catch this, but basically because we ticked the wrong box, we are missing around 20% of the revenue from the crowdfunding campaign. Instead of the tax being collected from the backers, we now have to pay it ourselves – which means we are 20% below the budget we had actually counted on.
Hey, it's also our first Kickstarter campaign, too 😭
As a result, we currently have to look for jobs, pitch for public tenders and see how we can cross-finance this project, all while still working on SUKKERS.
If you're wondering why, it's because the money raised from crowdfunding is just enough to keep our studio alive for three months. You can find more information in this video:CLICK!
Of course, that doesn't discourage us!
We're continuing to work hard, but you may be starting to realise why there haven't been any more updates in recent months: because we literally have to fight our way from work block to work block with lots of other stuff inbetween. But we'll get there! If all goes well, we will finish Drop 01 in German by the end of April and then try to get the English dubbing done as quickly as possible. Once we've done that, Drop 01 will be released 🥳🔥💖
You will also receive a message here in good time about the open castings for the voice acting!
Many of our long-standing partners let us down due to the rise of right-wing politics around the world. But this year we'll try nevertheless to stabilise our studio so that we can release one Drop every 3-4 months.
If you want to help us achieve this, you can give us planning security by supporting us on PATREON 💖🦇
Now that the entire story about SUKKERS is set, I am even more confident than ever that you will love SUKKERS! Thank you all for believing in us and making this project possible!!
We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
Love, Mik
PS: And in case you missed the last SUKKERS Q&A:
First Stretch Goal Release!!! Also, we need your address because...
7 months ago
– Thu, Sep 11, 2025 at 10:12:18 AM
Once we reached the 65k mark, you sent us your questions about SUKKERS, which we are now answering in animated form! For all of you who follow us here on Kickstarter, we are making the video link available on YouTube a whole day before its release:
Of course, this is just a small taste of what we're still working on for you! In addition to the promised goodies, of course. Which brings us to another question we've received since our last update:
Why is your address requested in the Backekit survey?
Unfortunately, we need the completed survey from you in order to send out your goodies. However, these goodies are all digital, which makes shipping easier, safer, and more environmentally friendly. Theoretically, this can all be done without your home address. In practice, however, we always have to send an invoice addressed to someone. This is purely a formality. So don't worry that a bunch of ancient vampires might suddenly show up at your doorstep wanting to stop Viktor and all his allies.🦇 But IF they do, they can't come in without an invitation anyway!
The whole team is super excited about your interest in SUKKERS. We always appreciate your questions and suggestions, which remind us that we are not alone. THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing our dream!!! 💖
