MS Paint Adventures

MS Paint Adventures
Author(s) Andrew Hussie
Website mspaintadventures.com
Current status / schedule Finished with Homestuck (as of October 25, 2016)
Launch date 2007
End date 2018 (Replaced by homestuck.com)
Genre(s) Action-adventure, puzzle, comedy-drama, science fiction

MS Paint Adventures, abbreviated MSPAdventures or MSPA, was a collection of webcomics written and illustrated by Andrew Hussie.[1] According to some estimates, MS Paint Adventures was the longest collection of comics on the Internet, containing over 10,000 pages as of April 2016 among its four series thanks to its frequent updates.[2][3][4]

The comics were written in serials, or "adventures", in a manner that parodied interactive fiction games.[3] The characters' actions were originally driven by commands suggested by fans in the comics' official forum, but fan suggestions were eventually abandoned due to the size of the fanbase and the author's desire to tell a more coherent story.[5] The comics tended to draw inspiration from video games, imitating and parodying genres such as RPGs and simulation games.[6] They frequently referenced other aspects of current internet culture. Despite its name, the site's comics had been created primarily in Adobe Photoshop, not Paint, since the second page of Jailbreak; Hussie decided after the first page that telling a story using Paint was not feasible.[5] Over time, the comics had evolved from simple static images and captions to frequent animations set to original music, (denoted by a [S]) and occasionally to interactive games created in Flash[2] and HTML5.

The most recent adventure, Homestuck, has given rise to a large fan community as made evident by the increasing amount of fan art[7] and cosplay at comic book conventions.[8] The rapid rise in the popularity of Homestuck has led to its recognition at the Toronto Comics Art Festival for two years running,[9] and it brought, on average, over 600,000 unique views to the site daily.[3] An adventure game spinoff of Homestuck titled Hiveswap was released September 14, 2017 and was produced with funds contributed by fans of the comic via Kickstarter.[10] This project raised nearly $2.5 million, exceeding its goal of $700,000 in a little under two days, at that time being the 6th largest Kickstarter drive.

MS Paint Adventures was one of many webcomics which supports its author financially, formerly through the sale of merchandise on the online store TopatoCo[11] as well through advertising, and the site's own store and record label, What Pumpkin.[12] In 2014 a majority of merchandise began a slow migration to We Love Fine.[13] In October of 2017, VIZ Media announced acquisition of the publishing rights to Homestuck, and their plans to republish the graphic novel adaptations of Homestuck starting in April of 2018.[14] On April 2nd, 2018, the site was updated to automatically redirect to Homestuck.com, although the majority of content on the MS Paint Adventures site is still available on Homestuck.com.[15]

Adventures

Early adventures

Jailbreak, the first adventure written by Andrew Hussie, was conceived as a forum game following an unnamed man as he attempts to escape from a prison cell.[3] The first page of Jailbreak is the only panel of MS Paint Adventures that was actually created using MS Paint; Hussie created the rest of Jailbreak and later webcomics using Photoshop.[16] Jailbreak was only drawn to a vague conclusion, and Hussie considers it unfinished, but wishes to leave it as is. Jailbreak was written entirely as a forum adventure, and the first suggestion anyone posted was taken, however ridiculous, leading to a rambling and haphazard story line. This led to the creation of the MSPA site and the closed format of later adventures.[17] In 2011, a short official ending was added to Jailbreak as a callback during a notably lengthy Homestuck hiatus.

The second adventure, Bard Quest, was an experiment in the creation of multiple, branching paths rather than a single linear storyline. In Bard Quest, Hussie provided choice hyperlinks in a choose-your-own-adventure format.[16] It was the first adventure to be hosted on its own website, but was ultimately left unfinished due to the difficulty Hussie faced in maintaining the complex web of branching storylines.[17] Bard Quest was updated from June 12, 2007 to July 6, 2007, after which the site was left on hiatus.[18]

Problem Sleuth

A parody of interactive fiction games and the film noir genre, Problem Sleuth began by presenting three detectives who are attempting to escape from their respective offices, though the story quickly turned into a pastiche of video games and science fiction.[5] Problem Sleuth ran from March 10, 2008 to April 7, 2009.[19] Unlike its predecessors, it received a proper ending, becoming the first complete adventure. It is the second longest comic on the website so far, after Homestuck itself, with a total of 1,673 pages.

Homestuck

Homestuck is the most recent adventure on MS Paint Adventures. It has over 8,000 pages and over 800,000 words.[20] It ran from April 13, 2009 to October 25, 2016, and followed four teenagers as they play a reality-altering video game that brings about the end of the world. They must work with an alien species from another universe to create their own universe and essentially become the "owners" of the one created. Its basic premise is inspired by games like The Sims, Spore and EarthBound.[2] As in Problem Sleuth, the adventure is characterised 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 Bard Quest and Problem Sleuth.[5] Additionally, this adventure introduced complex Flash animations and games, many making use of music and assets contributed by other artists.[21] This represented a step-up from previous adventures which exclusively used GIF images for animation. Ten major soundtrack albums have been released under the comic's own record label, What Pumpkin, in addition to fourteen side albums.[3][22] 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.[23][24] Homestuck has a large following and fandom. Homestuck's Adventure Game Kickstarter reached approximately $2,485,506 of a pledged $700,000 by the ending of the fund, and had 24,346 backers. The video game was expected to be released some time in early to mid 2015, but was delayed to January 2016 and then again to January 2017 until September 14 2017 when Hiveswap was released. Hussie also stated that he will make an epilogue for Homestuck with Viz Media's help.

References

  1. ↑ Krell, Jason (September 22, 2010). "MS Paint Adventures provides online fun". Arizona Daily Wildcat. University of Arizona. Retrieved April 29, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 McGown, Justin (October 17, 2011). "Homestuck fans prepare for webcomic release". The Tartan. Carnegie Mellon. Retrieved October 23, 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Baio, Andy (November 9, 2011). "Arcade Improv: Humans Pretending to Be Videogames". Kotaku. Retrieved November 10, 2011.
  4. ↑ "MS Paint Adventures: Statistics". readmspa.org. Retrieved 2013-10-30.
  5. 1 2 3 4 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.
  6. ↑ Weiler, Lance (January 25, 2009). "How Problem Sleuth Turns a Comic Into a Game". Culture Hacker. WorkBook Project. Retrieved September 24, 2010.
  7. ↑ Price, Ada (October 19, 2011). "Manga at NYCC 2011: Viz, Yen Press, Kodansha, Vertical and 'Homestuck'". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved October 23, 2011.
  8. ↑ Christodoulides, Alex (October 16, 2011). "Geeks in disguise: New York Comic Con enthusiasts take costumes to extreme ahead of Halloween". New York Daily News. Mortimer Zuckerman. Retrieved October 23, 2011.
  9. ↑ "Update: New Exhibitors at TCAF, New Books, and some Cancellations!", Toronto Comics Art Festival website. Retrieved April 4, 2012.
  10. ↑ Ryan Rigney (September 6, 2012). "What The Heck Is Homestuck, And How'd It Get $750K On Kickstarter?". Wired. Retrieved September 6, 2012.
  11. ↑ Chen, Jialu (August 2, 2011). "See you in the funny pages". Boston.com. The New York Times Company. Retrieved October 24, 2011.
  12. ↑ "What Pumpkin Projects and Stores". What Pumpkin Studios. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  13. ↑ Hussie, Andrew (January 24, 2014). "introdoucing, 20104............ the NEWD YEAR". MSPaintAdventures.com.
  14. ↑ "VIZ MEDIA ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION AND PUBLISHING PLANS FOR HOMESTUCK COLLECTOR'S EDITION SERIES". VIZ Media. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  15. ↑ "Homestuck News". www.homestuck.com. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  16. 1 2 Funk, John (2012-10-15). "Land of Memes and Trolls: The Epic and Ridiculous Self-Aware World of Homestuck". Polygon.
  17. 1 2 "New Reader?". MS Paint Adventures. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Bard Quest Adventure Log". MS Paint Adventures. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  19. ↑ "Problem Sleuth Adventure Log". MS Paint Adventures. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  20. ↑ http://readmspa.org/stats/
  21. ↑ Jessica Roy (10 September 2012). "A Noob's Guide to Homestuck, the Favorite Webcomic of Internetty Teens Everywhere". Betabeat. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  22. ↑ Lauren Rae Orsini (3 September 2012). "Behind the wonderful and weird soundtrack to Homestuck". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
  23. ↑ Mike Rugnetta (September 5, 2012). "Is Homestuck the Ulysses of the Internet?". PBS Idea Channel. Retrieved September 5, 2012.
  24. ↑ Lauren Rae Orsini (6 September 2012). "Is Homestuck the "Ulysses" of the Internet?". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
  • "MS Paint Adventures". Archived from the original on June 25, 2007. (c. Bard Quest)
  • Official website
  • "What Pumpkin". Directory. Fan sites and mechandising.
  • "MS Paint Adventures". TopatoCo. Merchandising.
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