May 2016

Where is this going to be posted?

What a conveniently timed question!

The act itself will begin on mspafanventures. My magical sources suggest that someday, at an indeterminate point in the future, we may have our own web space. But those plans are yet to solidify.

today will publish all the prologue?

Good question. We’ll be posting the prologue in chunks;

• Five panels today (8pm, PST)
• Five panels Wednesday the 11th
• One interactive flash Saturday the 14th
• Five panels Monday the 16th

It’s worth considering that the prologue was designed to give our art contributors time to complete their materials for ACT 8 ACT 1′s flash and panels, so it won’t feature any canon characters, and technically takes place outside of the story space. But hopefully it’s still fun.

kinda misleading calling yourself "official" when literally none of what you guys are doing is canon you do realize there's probably going to be an actual epilogue right

I think that most of us on the Act 8 team are looking forward to the canon epilogue as much as the next fan, but Hussie’s a busy guy, so we may not see it for quite some time yet. While we wait, we’re passing the time with this fun, collaborative project.

We don’t consider it a challenge to or replacement for canon content at all, and the “official” moniker may be a bit tongue-in-cheek. We do try to make it clear that we’re not in any way affiliated with Andrew Hussie or What Pumpkin Studios, and are just a bunch of Homestuck-loving nerds having a good time, for no benefit other than the satisfaction of making something cool :o)

are you going to make a youtube version of the flashes for the people who cannot use flash?

That seems like a good idea, so we’ll set up a YouTube channel and make this happen. Expect to see that this coming weekend, or thereabouts.

this is amazing dudes!

Thank you friend! I think we’re off to a good start.

Hey, what's actually going on with people who wanted to be a part of the team? Like... I submitted the google form back when this was first suggested, this blog is following me, and I have been pretty active on the ideas google doc, but is there an actual closed group team? Or is it just more of a "we're gonna keep posting stuff in the forum and whoever wants to help can help" thing?

Hi Atalana! Bluebird here. Momo’s Welcome to Act 8 thread on the forums may contain some useful information (http://act8official.boards.net/thread/20/welcome-act-8), and in fact the forums in general are a good place to be. The @act8officialteam Tumblr is another thing to keep an eye on. It’s been pretty quiet there so far, but I will be posting more regularly from now on. You’re not the first person to mention that they’re feeling a bit out of the loop, and that’s something I’m determined to fix.

Team 8 is an open development group, and the workflow goes something like this: The concepts and designs of fans on the forum and in the google doc are refined into a rough draft of Act 8, primarily by Momo ==> A list of the tasks required to evolve the draft into its final form is created ==> Tasks are delegated to people via the IRC channel, Skype, or the forums, mostly based on the contents of the google submission form.

The very earliest parts of Act 8 were assigned at a frantic pace, to a relatively small group of people. Future assignments will likely be delegated in a more sedate and organized fashion. Posts calling for volunteers will go up on the forums, and I’ll be sure to advertise them on @act8officialteam. We’ll probably also continue to contact some people directly, based on google submission form contents, which I continue to review a few times a week.

Lastly, keeping the IRC channel open in one browser tab if you’re able to do so is a pretty good way to stay up-to-date on the daily minutia of the project, and also to socialize. It’s mostly pretty quiet, but there are short bursts of activity throughout the day, which are easy to miss if you don’t keep the channel open.

omg the prologue is so cute i'm really looking forward this!

Thanks @catchaloststar! We’ve been really pleased with the positive response the Prologue has received, and think folks will be even more excited once Act 8 Act 1 kicks off on the 21st.

Is there an upd8 schedule?

Not formally, though I’m playing with the idea of having Wednesday/Saturday updates once we start posting on the 21st.

The prologue is done, so the next update– if it’s ready on time– will be on that date, and then based on how much of a buffer we have worked out I’ll get as close to my intended content release pacing as I can, which would be one sub-act per month for eight months, with a few extra months for sub-act seven.

Love this so much. Sylph of Rage is perfect. Meta narrative is perfect. I'm so excited to see what you have in store! <3

Thanks a bunch! I hope you continue to enjoy :o)

There will be animated fights?

“Yes,” says Momo, with a frantic and harried expression.

next upd8? :c

Just posted! Sorry it came late in the day, but it’s finally ready.

that flash was beautiful!! a wonderful start for the first act c:

Thank you! I’m so excited to see it out there, and it’s even better to have folks out here reading it with us. Tune in Wednesday; there will be more.

will you guys be releasing the music at some point? because I really liked the music in [S] Start!

Good news! You can already get the full version of the track, Timeout by psithurist, from the beforus fan album ( @beforusalbum )

Special thanks to Jo/psithurist for making us a special edit of the track and @not-terezi-pyrope for managing the original beforus album fan project. If you haven’t given the whole thing a listen, please do, it’s excellent stuff made by tons of talented people.

I can also promise releases for all future music of act 8, and I’m so excited to make good on that promise. There’s no telling exactly how soon it could be.

hey guys, I'm trying to read act 8 but done of the flashes are loading D: is this happening to other people or idk maybe my flash is out of date? i saw the panels posted on tumblr they look so good

Hi anon! I’m sorry to hear this, but thank you for letting us know about the problem. We’re looking into it.

If anyone else is having the same issue, don’t hesitate to contact us. It would especially be helpful to know if it’s specifically Act 8′s flash content that isn’t loading, and if folks having this problem are able to view other SWF pages/content (like ones from other fanventures, non-hotlinked ones on fastswf, etc).

Thanks for your continued interest and patience while we get this figured out.

there will be varied art in the act 8?

Sections are being assigned to a number of different artists, so I expect we’ll see a variety of styles as Act 8 progresses.

Just read everything you've got up so far and holy heck I love it.

Thank you! It’s been so incredibly fun for us to make. I’m very excited to share more of it in the coming weeks.

*sees chubby karkat* *SCREAM* YES

Hell yeah, buddy! :o)

Will there be any davekat in act 8? :D

I am so glad someone is finally asking the important questions.

As we all know, matters of ships are prostrate to the fickle mercy of The Or(b)acle, who rules us with terror from her tiny plastic prison. But you’re a sharp observer getting right to the heart of the matter, and you deserve a straight answer. To you I defy the rules and say; there is definitely going to be an amount of something that is probably davekat and would absolutely meet the qualifier of ‘any’.

See, none of that cagey author shtick for us. We’re all about the cold, hard truth here, whether or not folks are ready for it, and prophecy be damned.

johnroxy has been pretty implied so far so will there be any of that? :00

*Shakes the magic 8 ball*

“Results hazy”

To be serious though, I think @gamzee bent our “no ship spoilers” rule enough for one day. I will say that Act 8 character interactions are meant to be believably built off of canon. For the specifics, you’ll have to read and find out ;o)

I don't mean to sound rude or something, but why is Karkat so chubby? I'm fat myself but I'm not used to seeing a chubby Karkat and would be interested to know as to why this was decided for the character for this project. Still wish good luck on the project, I'm definitely interested to see how it goes.

Thanks, and don’t worry about rude, I read some rude today and you’re not it. You’ve given me a good opportunity to talk about some things I was going to have to, eventually.

Long post, so I went ahead and put it under a cut.

I guess the quick reason is, quite simply, that’s how I enjoyed drawing those characters. My biggest goal in act 8 is for the team and myself to have a good time.

Another is that doing some things canon hasn’t done helps differentiate us as a fandom project– this is the same reason the prologue starts with a weird purple lady. You know you’re not in kansas anymore.

A third and arguably more subtle reason is to make it more inclusive; the kids may be canonically aracial and up to anyone’s interpretation, but drawings of thin people with white features aren’t actually neutral. To avoid making any representation at all would call for total abstraction, so instead, there’s simply no rules in act 8 about what bodytype or race characters may be drawn as having.

(As you may have guessed, this doesn’t really apply to panel updates done in the traditional mspa style. here’s an example, warning for spoilers.)

I’m not particularly invested in keeping the headcanons consistent across the act, but I suspect this will mean more variety in the drawings, not less. As long as they’re recognizable as themselves, it doesn’t actually change that much about the story or how it’s read. So, I think anyone who is really upset by this is looking too much into it and having a personal problem. If most people’s reactions are just, “huh?” that’s okay. It’s worth the smiles I know it brings to some faces out there.

As for the other comments we received today…. I expected a little backlash, but certainly not the amount I’ve read. It surprised me that this could be that much of an obstacle for some people. If they truly can’t bring themselves to look past it, I will have no choice but to cry myself to sleep at night to the sound of a thousand weeping violins.

(…PSYCH, I already do that!)

I hope that was an alright answer, sorry that your ask bore the burden of the discourse. Since there was virtually no way to respond to this without tempting further discussion, I will say right out that this is the final word on this subject that will be posted by this account, and I don’t want this blog to become the place these conversations are held at frequently. I would be perfectly (un)happy to discuss it further on @gamzee, but there, I am not obligated to be as delightfully charming.

You're gonna make your own act 8?Well I couldn't hit the follow fast enough when I learned this blog existed.

Thanks for the follow! We hope you enjoy the ride :o)

Oh this is so amazing! Ah, it's looking FANtastic so far, and seeing your motivation is super inspiring and I just. I love this project so much <3 Thank you SO much for making it!!

Thank YOU so much for reading! Everyone on the team is very enthusiastic about the project, and it’s wonderful to see other folks excited about it too.

how about the next upd8? :D

Next upd8 lands on Wednesday :o)

Hey, I just tried to access the act 8 fourms on my tablet, but it says my IP address has been blocked. I'm a little confused about what I did wrong. I've only posted on the fourms a few times, and I don't think I broke any rules. I also don't think I was using my tablet when I posted those times. I'm really not sure how or why this is happening.

Hi Omoly, thanks for bringing this to our attention. You haven’t done anything wrong, and I’m not sure why this is happening. You definitely haven’t been banned (in fact, we haven’t had to ban anyone at all yet), so I’m going to get in contact with Zyy and see if they have any idea what’s going on here.

If any other forum members are having the same problem, let us know. It might help us get to the bottom of this more quickly.

I just wanted to pop in and say I am SO IMPRESSED by the quality of that first flash and it has made me so excited for the rest of this project! I think the reason I'm more excited for this than other fan projects (other than the astounding quality insofar) is that it comes from a place of love, rather than trying to "write a better ending" or something you guys mean this as a love letter to Homestuck and the fandom and that's amazing; keep up the good work! <3

This was so nice to read, and I hope we continue to entertain!

It was decided early on that, regardless of individual team members’ feelings about how canon wrapped up (and it’s a big team, so there’s a wide variety of opinions on that topic), we didn’t want Act 8 to come from a place of negativity. A project built on a foundation of negative feelings wouldn’t be fun to work on, or to read, and the primary goal here is for both the team and the audience to have a good time.

The really wonderful thing about having such a large team working on Act 8 is that everyone loves different aspects of Homestuck, and all of that love is being channeled into this project. Like a big patchwork quilt of fond feelings.

Would it be possible for all of the characters to end up on the new planet?

This is firmly in the territory of spoilers, but I will say that one of the major goals of this projects is to complete character arcs, with a focus on more hopeful endings for more characters.

What did the 3 circles symbolize? Why did the house explode? Did Roxy & Dave start using different hair products? Where did Andrew Hussie go? Will we ever find out answers?

I think I’ll just say… Keep reading to find out ;o)

could you uhm,,,make a YouTube version of the [S]? I couldn't play it on my phone and I can't use my laptop rn :/ :)

Hi Anon! If you mean the Act 8 Act 1 flash, you’re in luck, because we have a YouTube channel, and it’s already there.

We still haven’t added the Prologue flashes yet, but that’s on the To Do list.

next upd8? :0

The next upd8 is scheduled for Saturday (May 28th), after which we will be taking a small break, and updating again on the 8th of June.

After that the goal is to have regular upd8s every Wednesday and Saturday, or nearly.

hey i noticed that your calling your act 8 "canon" i dont want to come off as anon hate i just wanted to point out that i personally dont think that's right. that unless andrew hussie is involved in it somehow then i dont think it can be canon and i dont think you should claim it canon. if you didnt know andrew hussie is going to make an epilog! again im not trying to come off as some sort of hater please dont take it that way.

Hi, Momo here.

Please let me know where specifically this was said so that I can rectify it. Act 8 is not canon and does not presume to be. You are correct in saying that would be inappropriate.

(anon about the canon thing) i think i miss read it but in your latest up date it said "canon-complement" or something like that. i think i might have misunderstood the meaning of it.

Hi again, anon. Canon-compliant is a phrase that means the fanwork does not take place in an alternate universe. Somewhat ironic in Homestuck’s context, but still accurate enough for our purposes. As a term, it does not imply canon status of the fanwork. I will provide a link to this definition in the future, as it is our responsibility to avoid confusion wherever possible.

howdy! just wanted to point out a typo, when terezi says "SHOULD'V3 3XP3CT3D TH1S FORM H3R BY NOW", i assume that's supposed to be "from" instead. Everything's looking great so far, by the way!! <3

Thanks skeledot! I caught a few as well, pesky things always sneak in somewhere. We’ll get them fixed up.

so out of curiosity, how big is act 8 planned to be? will there be more acts?

Act 8 will span 8 acts, with a few intermissions.