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Homestuck

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Homestuck
Author(s)Andrew Hussie
Websitehttp://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6
Current status/scheduleActive. No fixed schedule.
Launch dateApril 13, 2009
Genre(s)Action-Adventure, puzzle, parody, comedy, drama, science fiction, disaster thriller

Homestuck is a webcomic written, drawn, and animated by Andrew Hussie and is the fourth overall webcomic published on MS Paint Adventures.

Plot

Homestuck begins when thirteen-year-old John Egbert receives a beta copy of an upcoming computer game, called "Sburb," in the mail. Installing and running the game on his computer triggers a meteor attack on his real-life house, which survives by being transported to another planet, thus immersing him completely within the world of Sburb. As John's friends Rose Lalonde, Dave Strider, and Jade Harley join the game with him, they learn that they have unwittingly triggered the end of the world, and that it is their duty to play the game and thereby see the story through to its completion.

Sburb's pre-Scratch logo

As they begin to explore the world of Sburb, John and his friends are harassed by a group of twelve internet trolls who have played the game before. Further contact with the trolls reveals that they are not human at all, but an alien species actually called "trolls." As the trolls gradually become more important to the story, the narrative shifts to a side story exploring the nature of troll society and the specific sequence of events that led to these particular trolls entering the game themselves. The trolls' arc concludes with the revelation that winning the game causes the creation of a new universe, and that it was the trolls who originally created the humans' universe.

The story returns to focus on the humans. Increased contact between the humans and the trolls leads to an uneasy friendship between the two groups, as well as the discovery that they must cooperate to salvage the kids' doomed game session. They learn that the game has a mechanism for restarting, called a "scratch," and they begin working toward the ability to activate it. Fighting against them is a rogue non-player character within Sburb, called Jack Noir, who is nearly invincible, and unique to their session, as the trolls had formed an alliance with their own Jack Noir. Despite this obstacle, the kids narrowly manage to trigger the scratch, which results in the destruction of the kids' universe - though the players themselves survive by traveling through pocket dimensions that will lead them to the new session.

The scratch causes the humans' universe to restart, with the condition that the kids' guardians are the ones to play through Sburb now, not the kids themselves. John's grandmother, Jane Crocker, who had died before the story began, is now a fifteen-year-old and the protagonist of this new arc, and leads her three friends, Roxy Lalonde, Dirk Strider and Jake English, through their own session. Meanwhile, the original humans and surviving trolls must journey to the new universe over the course of three years, in order to aid the new session and bring it to completion. Threatening their plan is a villainous creature called Lord English, a purportedly invincible time-controlling demon, as well as the still-dangerous Jack Noir. The stakes are at their highest, with multiple groups of both humans and trolls forced into a race against time to discover a method of destroying Lord English before he potentially destroys all of existence.

Style and development

The basic premise of the comic has been described as inspired by games like The Sims, Spore and EarthBound.[1] As in Hussie's prior webcomic Problem Sleuth, the adventure is characterized by time travel, mystery, a complex fictional universe and frequent references to pop culture and previous adventures. Changes from previous stories include an emphasis on contemporary society, such as online gaming and Internet culture, which contrasts with the historical settings of MS Paint Adventures comics Bard Quest and Problem Sleuth.[2] Additionally, this adventure introduced complex Flash animations and games, many making use of music and assets contributed by other artists.[3] This represented a step-up from previous adventures which exclusively used GIF images for animation.[4]

The initial style of the webcomic was developed to be advanced by fan contributions, with the fans deciding what actions the characters would take. However, once the fan base had grown significantly by 2010, Hussie moved away from this style because the fan input method had "grew too unwieldy and made it difficult...to tell a coherent story." Though, while Hussie now controls the main plot of the story and the character's actions, he still "visits fan blogs and forums" to figure out small things to add into Homestuck.[5]

Side projects

A significant amount of merchandise has been sold through Hussie's shop, company, and record label, What Pumpkin, including "T-shirts, hoodies, pins, books" and fan art prints. Fans have also been "recruited" to make music for the webcomic. The music has been bundled into albums, with nine major soundtrack albums having been released thus far, in addition to fourteen side albums.[5][6]

Video game Kickstarter

On September 4, 2012, Andrew Hussie announced a Kickstarter to raise funds for a Homestuck video game.[7] Development begins in 2013, with the finished product expected in 2014. Kotaku noted that the project had raised "more than $275,000 in hours".[8] More than 80% of the $700,000 goal was pledged in the first day.[9][10] The game reached the full $700,000 of funding in fewer than 32 hours.[11] The campaign also reached certain "stretch goal" amounts, whereupon Hussie added Mac and Linux support onto the proposed game.[12] Digital Trends writer Graeme McMillan commented that the campaign was approaching the record for most successful comics-related Kickstarter campaign, whose previous record was held by the Order of the Stick campaign with $1,254,120.[13] The Kickstarter eventually raised $2,485,506, making it the "fifth game on Kickstarter to pull in a full seven figures" and the third highest funded video game in Kickstarter history at the time, and an additional Paypal-based fundraiser was created to accommodate those who could not donate via Kickstarter's available methods.[7][14][15]

The special contribution items for the campaign included digital and hard copy versions of the game and the game soundtrack, along with "exclusive sticker sheets and T-shirts, plush dolls of the series’ characters like Senator Lemonsnout and Pyralspite Plushie and primo appearances in the final product."[16]

Fan community

The size of Homestuck's fan community was described by Lauren Rae Orsini as in the millions, with around a "million unique visitors" coming to the site daily.[17] Exemplary of the community's size, one of Homestuck's Flash Animations crashed flash game and animation site Newgrounds when uploaded due to the strain the views put on the servers.[9]

When a temporary hiatus was announced in early July 2012, fans of the webcomic began creating a multitude of fake screenshots of a fictional anime version of Homestuck, with some including subtitles and logos of various Japanese TV channels.[18]

Reception and impact

Lauren Rae Orsini, staff writer for The Daily Dot, questioned in an interview with Andrew Hussie whether, because of the immense size of Homestuck and its fandom, with more than 5,000 pages and 128 characters, Hussie considered himself in control of the comic. Hussie responded that he felt Homestuck was "still under my control", but that the background of Homestuck as a movement "is not under my control, and never really was."[19]

Homestuck has been compared to James Joyce's Ulysses by PBS's Idea Channel, in relation to the webcomic's complexity and how the task of finishing it is an example of effort justification.[20][21] Lori Henderson of the School Library Journal described Homestuck as being "mostly black and white with splashes of color and a minimal amount of animation", but that it worked for the webcomic and that because the "characters are a little goofy-looking and are often shown without arms", it only "adds to the charm".[22] Mordicai Knode of Tor Books explained that Homestuck has to be discussed separately between what it is as a webcomic and what its plot actually is. Comparing it to hypertext fiction and the genre's attempted use in physical novels like Pale Fire and House of Leaves, Knode concluded that "Homestuck is the first great work of genuinely hypertext fiction. If that puts it in the same breath as Ulysses, then so be it."[23]

Bryan Lee O'Malley, creator of the graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim, described Homestuck as a "massive undertaking of deftly-handled long-term serialized storytelling. It's well-written and thoughtful. It has things to say."[24]

References

  1. ^ McGown, Justin (October 17, 2011). "Homestuck fans prepare for webcomic release". The Tartan. Carnegie Mellon. Retrieved October 23, 2011.
  2. ^ Meeks, Elijah (December 3, 2010). "Interview with Andrew Hussie, Creator of Homestuck". Digital Humanities Specialist. Stanford University Libraries & Academic Information Resources. Retrieved April 4, 2012.
  3. ^ Jessica Roy (10 September 2012). "A Noob's Guide to Homestuck, the Favorite Webcomic of Internetty Teens Everywhere". Betabeat. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  4. ^ Baio, Andy (November 9, 2011). "Arcade Improv: Humans Pretending to Be Videogames". Kotaku. Retrieved November 10, 2011.
  5. ^ a b Faircloth, Kelly (3 October 2012). "Stuck on Homestuck: How Andrew Hussie Turned a Tumblr Craze Into a Teenage Empire". Betabeat. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
  6. ^ Lauren Rae Orsini (3 September 2012). "Behind the wonderful and weird soundtrack to Homestuck". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
  7. ^ a b "Homestuck Adventure Game". MS Paint Adventures. Kickstarter. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  8. ^ Kate Cox (September 4, 2012). "Homestuck Kickstarter Raises Over $275,000 in Hours to Make Game of Comic That Makes Fun of Games". Kotaku. Retrieved September 4, 2012.
  9. ^ a b David Daw (September 6, 2012). "Webcomic Kickstarter Raises $500,000 For a Game in a Day". PC World. Retrieved September 6, 2012.
  10. ^ Graeme McMillan (September 5, 2012). "Homestuck Kickstarter Nears Game Goal In Less Than Three Days". Comics Alliance. Retrieved September 5, 2012. At the time the article went to print, the Kickstarter had been running for just over one day.
  11. ^ Ryan Rigney (September 6, 2012). "What The Heck Is Homestuck, And How'd It Get $750K On Kickstarter?". Wired. Retrieved September 6, 2012.
  12. ^ Lauren Davis (9 September 2012). "Crowdfund a Homestuck video game, gruesome dog costumes, and Golden Age baked goods". io9. Retrieved 9 September 2012.
  13. ^ Graeme McMillan (6 September 2012). "'Homestuck' heads towards new Kickstarter record". Digital Trends. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  14. ^ Curtis, Tom (4 October 2012). "Homestuck becomes the third highest funded game on Kickstarter". Gamasutra. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
  15. ^ Tipps, Seth (5 October 2012). "Homestuck Kickstarter closes at $2.4m". Develop. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
  16. ^ Gallagher, Danny (6 October 2012). "Kickstarted: Homestuck". GameTrailers. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
  17. ^ Lauren Rae Orsini (October 1, 2012). "The most popular, epic webcomic you've never heard of". CNN. Retrieved October 6, 2012.
  18. ^ John Funk (July 6, 2012). "Diehard Webcomic Fans Invent Fake Anime". The Escapist. Retrieved July 6, 2012.
  19. ^ Lauren Rae Orsini (7 September 2012). "Behind Andrew Hussie' Homestuck Adventure Game". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
  20. ^ Mike Rugnetta (September 5, 2012). "Is Homestuck the Ulysses of the Internet?". PBS Idea Channel. Retrieved September 5, 2012.
  21. ^ Lauren Rae Orsini (6 September 2012). "Is Homestuck the "Ulysses" of the Internet?". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
  22. ^ Lori Henderson (11 September 2012). "A Mom's Adventures in Homestuck Part 1". School Library Journal. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  23. ^ Mordicai Knode (18 September 2012). "Homestuck is the First Great Work of Internet Fiction". Tor Books. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
  24. ^ Bryan Lee O'Malley (2 October 2012). "'Scott Pilgrim' Guy Interviews 'Homestuck' Guy: Bryan Lee O'Malley On Andrew Hussie". Comics Alliance. Retrieved 6 October 2012.

Further reading

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