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Andrew Hussie

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Andrew Hussie
Hussie in 2010
Born (1979-08-25) August 25, 1979 (age 45)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materTemple University
Occupation(s)Author and artist
Notable workMS Paint Adventures
Websitehomestuck.com

Andrew Hussie (born August 25, 1979) is an American author and artist. He is best known as the creator of Homestuck, a multimedia webcomic presented in the style of a text-based graphical adventure game, as well as other works in a similar style that were hosted on his website MS Paint Adventures.

Career

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Early works

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Andrew Hussie began posting Jailbreak in 2006. This was posted on a discussion forum and took the appearance of a text-based graphical adventure game. Hussie would post simple drawings with text, and other forum users suggesting commands for the game that Hussie would quickly respond to with a rapidly drawn image.[1] In 2007, Hussie created the website MS Paint Adventures to host his comics;[2] its first three works were Jailbreak, Bard Quest, and Problem Sleuth.[3] Problem Sleuth would run for over 1,600 pages produced over one year, and during this time Hussie was creating up to 10 pages a day.[1]

Homestuck

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Main article: Homestuck

Hussie produced the multimedia webcomic Homestuck, which started in April 2009 and ended in April 2016.[4][5] It tells the story of a group of four kids who play a computer game called Sburb and inadvertently cause the end of the world. Homestuck included images, text, Flash animations, and interactive elements.[4][6] Homestuck, like Hussie's previous works, started with reader-submitted commands for the characters to follow, but Hussie moved away from this style because, he said, the fan input method had grown "too unwieldy and made it difficult... to tell a coherent story." While Hussie now controlled the main plot of the story and the characters' actions, he said that he still "visit[ed] fan blogs and forums" to figure out small things to add into Homestuck.[7][8]

Initially, Hussie updated Homestuck regularly, usually about three times a week. However, there were often long gaps between updates, including a pause of over a year starting in 2013, and another long pause starting in 2015.[3] At one point, Hussie described working on Homestuck as less like a full-time job and more like an "all-encompassing lifestyle," saying that the time he spends on the work occupied something just short of all of his waking hours.[9]

Vice noted that Homestuck was "wildly popular during its seven-year run";[6] as of 2011 it was receiving an average of 600,000 unique visitors each day[1] and as of 2015 it was receiving upwards of 1 million unique visitors a day.[3] Hussie said, "The bigger the fandom got, the more controversial everything was... Practically everything that happened was a serious point of contention—a reason to argue, discuss, to generate pages and pages of heated dissertation on what everything means, and why certain things are good or bad. All of this was supposed to be part of the experience. It was part of the cat-and-mouse game between the author and reader."[5]

By the end of its run, the entire work contained over 800,000 words across at least 8,000 pages.[5][10] Fans contributed to the final work in a number of ways, including producing all of the music. Over a hundred musicians and artists contributed to the final work,[6] with Hussie commissioning artists for important updates.[9] By 2011 there were eight albums of Homestuck music.[1]

Vice magazine noted that Homestuck "became infamous for its sprawling, overly complicated, semi-improvised, deeply self-referential plot, driven partly by reader input and speculation, as well as the incredible and sometimes terrifying vigor of its fandom."[6] PBS's Ideas Channel compared Homestuck to Ulysses because of the complex and densely worded storytelling the series often utilizes.[11][12]

Sequels and spinoffs of Homestuck

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The Homestuck Epilogues was a text-only work released in April 2019. It consisted of 190,000 words in a nonlinear novel that was co-written by Hussie and four other creators; Cephied_Variable, ctset, Lalo Hunt, and Aysha U. Farah.[6][13]

A sequel to Homestuck, titled Homestuck^2: Beyond Canon, began in late 2019. While the story was outlined by Hussie, it was to be written by a team of writers.[14][15] According to its website, it was updated regularly for about a year "until it was paused indefinitely", with the rest of the comic to be released when it was completed.[16] In 2024 the comic was renamed to Homestuck: Beyond Canon, and resumed regular updates, being created by a new team.

A videogame based on Homestuck, called Hiveswap, was first announced in 2012 and raised over $US2.4 million through a Kickstarter.[17] Initially, its release date was given as 2014,[18] but had a troubled development, including switching from 3D to 2D years after development started.[19] It was later broken up into four episodes: the first episode of Hiveswap was released in 2017[20] and its second episode was released in 2020.[21] A second sister series, titled Hauntswitch, is also planned to have four parts. Two other videogames were based on Homestuck, Hiveswap Friendsim and Pesterquest.

Hussie has been a managing member of What Pumpkin, LLC.[22] According to What Pumpkin's website, Hussie officially left What Pumpkin in early 2020 to work on projects unrelated to Homestuck. According to the notice, Hussie still retains ownership of the Homestuck intellectual property, but has discontinued all creative involvement in any future Homestuck projects.[23]

Other works

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Hussie produced a visual novel called Psycholonials. It was first announced in December 2020,[24] and its final episode was released in April 2021. Hussie has described it as a commentary on American politics and on his perception of uncomfortable cult-like atmosphere surrounding the Homestuck fandom.[25]

Personal life

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Hussie as his alter ego "D-Clussie"

Andrew Hussie was born on August 25, 1979.[26][27] Hussie graduated from Temple University[28] with a degree in computer science.[29][30] He has said that he has "moved well over fifty times".[31] As of 2010 he was living in western Massachusetts.[32]

Works

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Videos
  • Andrew Hussie, with Jan Van dem Hemel, created parody edits of Star Trek: The Next Generation in the late 2000s.[33]
  • Andrew worked with his brother to make a video series about an eccentric Bigfoot researcher, called Barty's Brew-Ha-Ha (2006 to 2011)[34]
Webcomics by Andrew Hussie
  • Team Special Olympics
  • Jailbreak
  • Bard Quest (June 12, 2007, to July 6, 2007)[35]
  • Problem Sleuth (March 10, 2008, to April 7, 2009)[36]
  • Homestuck (April 13, 2009, to April 13, 2016)[37]
  • Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff
  • The Homestuck Epilogues (April 13, 2019, to April 20, 2019)
  • Homestuck: Beyond Canon (September 25, 2019, to present)
Published books
  • Whistles, Book One (The Starlight Calliope) (out of print, available online) ISBN 978-1-59362-073-8
  • Problem Sleuth (Five volumes, which cover all 22 chapters)
  • Homestuck
  • Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff ISBN 978-1936561-03-2
Video game projects
  • Hiveswap[38][39]
  • Namco High (2013)[40]
  • Hiveswap Friendsim (2018)
  • Pesterquest (2019)
  • Psycholonials (2021)

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Baio, Andy (September 11, 2011). "Arcade Improv: Humans Pretending to Be Videogames". Kotaku. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  2. ^ "A Homestuck Sequel Webcomic Officially Launches". CBR. October 27, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c Min, Lilian (February 24, 2015). "A Story That Could Only Be Told Online". The Atlantic. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Rigney, Ryan (September 6, 2012). "What the Heck Is Homestuck, And How'd It Get $750K on Kickstarter?". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  5. ^ a b c Cavna, Michael (October 29, 2018). "'Homestuck' creator explains how his webcomic became a phenomenon". The Washington Post. ProQuest 2126760776.
  6. ^ a b c d e Lutz, Michael (May 16, 2019). "How 'Homestuck' Defined What It Means to Be a Fan Online". www.vice.com. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  7. ^ Faircloth, Kelly (October 3, 2012). "Stuck on Homestuck: How Andrew Hussie Turned a Tumblr Craze Into a Teenage Empire". The New York Observer. Betabeat. Archived from the original on October 5, 2012.
  8. ^ Katz, Mara (October 19, 2019). "When MS Paint ruled the fandom world: An innovative webcomic, 10 years later". Ars Technica. Condé Nast. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  9. ^ a b Funk, John (October 15, 2012). "Land of memes and trolls: The epic and ridiculous self-aware world of Homestuck". Polygon. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  10. ^ Trolinger, Madeleine (September 27, 2019). "What is 'Homestuck?'". University Wire. Peoria, IL. The Bradley Scout. ProQuest 2297723591. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  11. ^ Orsini, Lauren (October 1, 2012). "The most popular, epic webcomic you've never heard of". Geek Out blog. CNN. Archived from the original on January 18, 2018. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  12. ^ Orsini, Lauren (September 6, 2012). "Is Homestuck the Ulysses of the Internet?". The Daily Dot.
  13. ^ Lee, Julia (April 22, 2019). "Homestuck updated with two epilogues three years after series ends". Polygon. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  14. ^ Lee, Julia (October 25, 2019). "Homestuck returns with Homestuck^2, a canon continuation of the infamous webcomic". Polygon. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  15. ^ Lee, Julia (April 22, 2019). "Homestuck updated with two epilogues three years after series ends". Polygon. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  16. ^ "> What is Homestuck^2?". Homestuck^2: Beyond Canon. Archived from the original on June 26, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  17. ^ Curtis, Tom (October 4, 2012). "Homestuck becomes the third highest funded game on Kickstarter". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  18. ^ Matulef, Jeffrey (August 29, 2017). "After five years the Homestuck game finally has a release date". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on June 25, 2021. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  19. ^ Bergin, J (July 24, 2017). "The Rocky Journey of Hiveswap's Development". Cultured Vultures. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  20. ^ "HIVESWAP: ACT 1". Steam. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  21. ^ "HIVESWAP: ACT 2 debuts on Steam with a discount". Linux Game News. Tumblr. November 27, 2020. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  22. ^ Florida Department of State Division of Corporations, document #L09000051040, dated May 27, 2009
  23. ^ "HIVESWAP by What Pumpkin Games". HIVESWAP by What Pumpkin Games. Archived from the original on April 24, 2021. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
  24. ^ Lee, Julia (December 21, 2020). "Andrew Hussie is working on a game that isn't Homestuck-related". Polygon. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  25. ^ Diaz, Ana (November 11, 2021). "Andrew Hussie, the reluctant cult leader, on life after Homestuck". Polygon. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
  26. ^ Hussie, Andrew (August 26, 2007). "Y-Day was my B-Day". Andrew's Blog. Archived from the original on September 2, 2007.
  27. ^ Hussie, Andrew (February 21, 2009). "Andrew's Blog: If you drew a comic called Super Frog at age 11".
  28. ^ "MSPA Formspring Archives". Archived from the original on August 5, 2016. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  29. ^ "MSPA Formspring Archives". Archived from the original on August 5, 2016. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  30. ^ Faircloth, Kelly (October 3, 2012). "Stuck on Homestuck: How Andrew Hussie Turned a Tumblr Craze Into a Teenage Empire". The New York Observer. Archived from the original on October 5, 2012.
  31. ^ Hussie, Andrew (2019). Homestuck. Book 5. Part 2. Act 5. Act 2. Part 1. San Francisco, CA. p. 404. ISBN 978-1-4215-9943-4. OCLC 1121658980.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  32. ^ Andrew Hussie [@andrewhussie] (September 30, 2010). "Moving announcement" (Tweet). Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 25, 2014 – via Twitter.
  33. ^ D'Orazio, Dante (May 23, 2015). "Star Trek fan gives William Riker the hilarious, strange TV show he deserves". The Verge. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  34. ^ "Barty's Brew-ha-ha", YouTube
  35. ^ Andrew Hussie, Bard Quest Adventure Log, retrieved July 31, 2013
  36. ^ Andrew Hussie, Problem Sleuth Adventure Log, retrieved July 31, 2013
  37. ^ Andrew Hussie, MS Paint Adventures, retrieved April 13, 2016
  38. ^ Kickstarter. "Homestuck Adventure Game". Retrieved August 30, 2013.
  39. ^ Andrew Hussie, Homestuck Adventure Game Update, retrieved November 1, 2014
  40. ^ "Introducing Namco High". ShiftyLook. Archived from the original on August 28, 2013. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
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