Andrew Hussie Stepping Down as Director of Homestuck^2

[TT]

What the subject says. He's listed in Directors Emeritus alongside Kate Mitchell on the credits page. More than anything else, I'd say I'm curious. Does this mean Homestuck^2 is officially non-canon? What does this mean for the future of HS^2? Is this the beginning of a new pause? This is a strange situation.

I initially assumed the hiatus extension was due to Kate's departure, as she announced she would be leaving the team through Mastodon some days ago. (Any opinions on her are irrelevant to the conversation. Preemptively making this clear to avoid issues.) Finding out Hussie had retired from his position as well was truly unexpected. To be honest, my predictions and opinions on Homestuck^2 are leaning towards the pessimistic side, but this development has made me incredibly curious regarding the direction the comic may take from here on. Not necessarily in an optimistic way.

[thorondraco]

What the subject says. He's listed in Directors Emeritus alongside Kate Mitchell on the credits page. More than anything else, I'd say I'm curious. Does this mean Homestuck^2 is officially non-canon? What does this mean for the future of HS^2? Is this the beginning of a new pause? This is a strange situation.

I initially assumed the hiatus extension was due to Kate's departure, as she announced she would be leaving the team through Mastodon some days ago. (Any opinions on her are irrelevant to the conversation. Preemptively making this clear to avoid issues.) Finding out Hussie had retired from his position as well was truly unexpected. To be honest, my predictions and opinions on Homestuck^2 are leaning towards the pessimistic side, but this development has made me incredibly curious regarding the direction the comic may take from here on. Not necessarily in an optimistic way.

Here is what i don't understand.

Everyone working on it made it clear that Hussie was being really handsoff and on the sideline with this entire project. He is listed as a director but wasn't diong anything directly. Not writing, not making the creative decisions, he wrote the outline and had his guys do the whole create the damn thing part.

So, why is everyone literally reacting surprised and alarmed when he is put on the Emeritus, where he technically SHOULD have been all along in terms of his direct input which is basically being a spielburg?

Its like no one actually paid attention to this. He wasn't doing much to begin with as to be expected by the theme, and now he isn't doing any of the writing but, apparently, is doing artwork for the project now. They need to replenish their writer numbers now.

[Generalrabogolfo]

it just keeps tumbling down tumbling down tumbling down~~

[luigi]

Homestuck just keeps

Letting me down~
Letting me down~
Letting me down~

[Shitpost Lizard]

I had nothing but problems with HS2 so far,
so I guess the only direction to go is up.

I wait to see what happens as a result.

[mspainadventures]

Rock bottom isn't real. There's always more room to go down.

[Generalrabogolfo]

Rock bottom isn't real. There's always more room to go down.

as someone once said, "Homestuck's situation right now is that we've arealdy reached the bottom of the barrel ages ago, we just found another barrel under it and now we realize we're in a barrel factory and it only goes down down down"

[calamityCons]

It's not so much that people are surprised that Hussie is "stepping down" so much as it's got a public shitshow going on that is more engaging and fun to talk about than HS2 itself.

[thorondraco]

It's not so much that people are surprised that Hussie is "stepping down" so much as it's got a public shitshow going on that is more engaging and fun to talk about than HS2 itself.

I can't help but feel that it is this, 100%.

Not even mcuh of astepping down he is was hanging out on the stoop with the door wide open before deciding to actually close the damn door. And even then he is either still on the stoop or he actually lives next door and spies through his window every night through binoculars.

[Ian Gitax]

Hussie's no longer listed under Directors Emeritus in the credits at all, so whatever nebulous ties to the team he had seem to have been cut entirely.

[Mandy]

The weirdest thing is that he did it now. Like you all said, he's been more-or-less uninvolved the entire time. Why remove him when they know everyone's already going to be looking at the credits page?

[thorondraco]

Hussie's no longer listed under Directors Emeritus in the credits at all, so whatever nebulous ties to the team he had seem to have been cut entirely.

He is still listed as an art contributor but it is odd he isn't listed as Emeritus either now. If he truly wanted remove from it, and it seems unlikely at this point, he would want his art contribution part removed too.
If he doesn't want credit for doing writing bits he may or may not been doing, why would he want credit for the art alone?

Maybe this was a ongoing mistake and Hsusie wasn't supposed to be credited as a writer or director cause he isn't doing either? Wasn't it that Hussie wasn't gonna do anything directly with it?

He ultimately owns homestuck^2 so he can't really remove his name from it. Short of announcing it canceled or something.

[SbIUsedToKnow]

My working hypothesis: development of hiveswap 2 has ended/is nearing it's end, thus hiveswap related contracts are ending/have ended and WP no longer needs patreon money to pay people with.

So Hussie is pulling his "official contribution" out of hs2, which will probably cost them most patreon subscribers, leaving it to continue as your normal everyday fanadventure. If it continues.

WP will soon publish a statement, about how Hussie pulling his credit is "just a technicality", and that they will still follow this "outline" of his. Then they will contradict themselves with "we told you it's non-canon canon from the beginning" "then why is the second canon there" "there is this outline" "so it's not official in any practical way" "no it's non canon canon that isnt connected to original comic if you hate it but it is official and literally the only thing the Homestuck twitter account tweets about" "..." "Jade does have a dog dick tho this is very important and canon"

*Checks calendar* ash yes, another of my predictions came true, with almost 4 months to spare! I'm feeling optimistic about this new hypothesis.

[mightyhydrator]

My working hypothesis: development of hiveswap 2 has ended/is nearing it's end, thus hiveswap related contracts are ending/have ended and WP no longer needs patreon money to pay people with.

So Hussie is pulling his "official contribution" out of hs2, which will probably cost them most patreon subscribers, leaving it to continue as your normal everyday fanadventure. If it continues.

Yeah, but like, the patreon count has only decreased by 100 since the summer break started. Only way to like, properly lose patreon subs for them is to fully claim it's unofficial, cut all ties with WP (physically impossible) and to request people actually cancel their pledges, shooting down as much brand recognition as possible, which we know isn't gonna happen unless something truly wild occurs. Not just that, if HV2 comes out, the only effect on the patreon that will have is actually increase its traffic, since "oh god, moar stuff" or whatever.

*Checks calendar* ash yes, another of my predictions came true, with almost 4 months to spare! I'm feeling optimistic about this new hypothesis.

Pardon?

[thorondraco]

My working hypothesis: development of hiveswap 2 has ended/is nearing it's end, thus hiveswap related contracts are ending/have ended and WP no longer needs patreon money to pay people with.

So Hussie is pulling his "official contribution" out of hs2, which will probably cost them most patreon subscribers, leaving it to continue as your normal everyday fanadventure. If it continues.

WP will soon publish a statement, about how Hussie pulling his credit is "just a technicality", and that they will still follow this "outline" of his. Then they will contradict themselves with "we told you it's non-canon canon from the beginning" "then why is the second canon there" "there is this outline" "so it's not official in any practical way" "no it's non canon canon that isnt connected to original comic if you hate it but it is official and literally the only thing the Homestuck twitter account tweets about" "..." "Jade does have a dog dick tho this is very important and canon"

*Checks calendar* ash yes, another of my predictions came true, with almost 4 months to spare! I'm feeling optimistic about this new hypothesis.

You .... You do realize there is at least 2 other acts for hiveswap right? Not to mention a possible Hauntswitch series? An d more than likely, if they are done with hvieswap act 2 (which is in fact possible considering Aysha has recently claimed on her discord that it would have been out alreayd if not for the pandemic), that they would be working on act 3?

[thorondraco]

My working hypothesis: development of hiveswap 2 has ended/is nearing it's end, thus hiveswap related contracts are ending/have ended and WP no longer needs patreon money to pay people with.

So Hussie is pulling his "official contribution" out of hs2, which will probably cost them most patreon subscribers, leaving it to continue as your normal everyday fanadventure. If it continues.

Yeah, but like, the patreon count has only decreased by 100 since the summer break started. Only way to like, properly lose patreon subs for them is to fully claim it's unofficial, cut all ties with WP (physically impossible) and to request people actually cancel their pledges, shooting down as much brand recognition as possible, which we know isn't gonna happen unless something truly wild occurs. Not just that, if HV2 comes out, the only effect on the patreon that will have is actually increase its traffic, since "oh god, moar stuff" or whatever.

*Checks calendar* ash yes, another of my predictions came true, with almost 4 months to spare! I'm feeling optimistic about this new hypothesis.

Pardon?

Lets add to it that they aren't charging any patrons this month or the next which would add to the good faith of it cause they ain't charging people for no content.

[SbIUsedToKnow]

*Checks calendar* ash yes, another of my predictions came true, with almost 4 months to spare! I'm feeling optimistic about this new hypothesis.

Pardon?

I had a wager with this guy last year october-ish, that the hs2 team would fall apart in less than a year. Considering over a half of the original team is gone/replaced, including Hussie, I'd say I won.

To be fair, he said 6 months.

[SbIUsedToKnow]

You .... You do realize there is at least 2 other acts for hiveswap right? Not to mention a possible Hauntswitch series? An d more than likely, if they are done with hvieswap act 2 (which is in fact possible considering Aysha has recently claimed on her discord that it would have been out alreayd if not for the pandemic), that they would be working on act 3?

I don't want to be Downer Debby the Local Pessimist and Destroyer of Hopes and Dreams,

But the original plan of 4 episodic hiveswap + 4 episodic hauntswitch, where one episode comes out every 3* years for 4ish hours of point and click content for 12$ is ehm. Not realistic. Honestly they should stick to renpy read-and-click-next content. They are fast and cheap as sin to produce, and have ok enough reception to keep themself afloat.

*We still don't even have a teaser nor release date. Add at least 3 months after trailer for closest release date. Could be eveb 4 years.

[mspainadventures]

.. considering Aysha has recently claimed on her discord ...

I think it might be a good idea to collectively stop quoting aysha's discord. I get the feeling it frustrates them.

[mightyhydrator]

I think it might be a good idea to collectively stop quoting aysha's discord. I get the feeling it frustrates them.

Would help if any information was available literally anywhere else. Otherwise I don't see the point in not quoting/complaining about quoting.