Hi folks, Bluebird here! I just wanted to give you all a heads up: We had planned to upd8 tonight, but despite our best efforts, we’re just not going to be able to make it happen.
A few team members have been feeling under the weather lately, and because of this, development has been moving much slower than usual. You’ve probably noticed that post frequency here has slowed as well.
There’s no dire emergency, this sort of thing is just a fact of life for a team with members who are, in one way or another, chronically ill. We’ll get back on our feet and back to bringing you the 100% Genuine Faux Homestuck, hopefully soon.
How do we feel about Act 8? We love them!! A lot! In fact, we encourage everyone and anyone who is waiting for Act Omega to get off the ground to head on over and read all of Act 8′s stuff and send lots of love to their creators.
In fact, our own project heads are good friends with Momo and quite a bit of the rest of the Act 8 crew. We chat regularly and exchange ideas and even a few assets.
So as far as how Act Omega will be different? The ultimate goals are essentially the same–more Homestuck, in as Homestuck a fashion as possible! But the stories we will be telling and the directions we’ll be going in are very, very different. We’ve even compared scripts, so we can be pretty confident when we say that, too.
Between the two of us, there is bound to be something you’ll like, no doubt about that!
We know things are looking pretty quiet on our end, and we realize that must be a bit disheartening. But rest assured, work is still happening, and it’s happening every day, as well as it can, with the amount of people that we have. We thank you all for your support, and would like to direct you over to our official forums, where you can make an account easily get in on the action yourself. Every single person counts!
Guys I'm sorry but you will lose against Caliborn like seriously you're not trying to kill him or poof him away you're challenging him, it sounds more impossible than impossible itself (still though good luck yadayada all hail lord of time bye)
impossibles have a track record of not meaning much of anything, you ever hear about the principle that as soon as you make those kinds of standards somebody is going to bust it wide it open
last thing im worried about are little green skull gremlins
Will we have moments with the truly most important character in homestuck, the one, the only, fedorafreak?
Dagnabbit, we’ve made a terrible mistake. Focusing on all of these extraneous children, when we could have been bringing the triumphs and travails of this distinguished gentleman to the screen all along…
it's been a few weeks since a fanart friday has there just not been any fanarts or :c?
Yup! Fanart Friday is still very much a thing, we just haven’t had any submissions lately, probably because the pace of upd8s has slowed. I’ll resume making reminder posts on the weeks that we haven’t received submissions, though :o)
We’ve got a few different tasks that could use more team members.
1. Writing Strider-centric dialogue. This task is happening right now, and we could really use help on it before Saturday!
2. Art for an upcoming BIG flash. This task will be ongoing over the next 5 weeks or so, and we would like to bring multiple folks on board for it. This is a larger time commitment than many of our other tasks. It will also involve being in regular contact with the rest of the folks assigned to it.
We need folks to create line art from thumbnails, as well as colorists :o)
The process looks something like this:
3. Environmental pixel art for Bonus Content. Task time frame is ~2 weeks. As an example, here’s the type of work we need done:
If you’d like to help out with any of these things, you can contact Bluebird (BluebirdOfGrumpiness on Skype), email act8official(at)gmail(dot)com, or send us a message here or on the main blog.
Here’s your weekly reminder that Fanart Friday is a thing, and that if you have age-appropriate fanart that you would like us to reblog here, just tag it #act8 and/or @ this account in the body of the post :o)
Also, I (Bluebird) will be away at a con all weekend. There will still be posts, but if you’re trying to get in touch with me specifically, it may take longer than usual for me to get back to you, and Ask response times may be slower as well.
Thank you so much to those who contributed, and to everyone who has supported Act 8 so far. This album includes songs based on the fanwork up until this point, along with some sneak peeks and original songs based on homestuck generally. It also features track art courtesy of several incredible artists!
Once again, thank you for your support, and we hope you enjoy Act 8 Volume 1!
There is also a bonus track included in the album download. I have been excited to share this for a very long time, and I am so thankful to the great and talented people that have made this album possible. Act 8’s scope is much bigger than when it started, and that reflects the effort of the team I’m so lucky to work with.
As for the update, It’s still hours of work away, but we’re definitely looking at it coming up later tonight. I hope you guys like it. Thank you everybody for your patience.
Act 8 is a project by fans, for fans, to produce a (largely) canon-compliant
fanwork that expands on the Homestuck ending. It’s a celebration of our
fandom’s ingenuity, an ACT of love towards Homestuck as a story and a
larger phenomenon.
It’s also just for the fun of it.
Act 8 is a project by fans, for fans, to produce a (largely) canon-compliant
fanwork that expands on the Homestuck ending. It’s a celebration of our
fandom’s ingenuity, an ACT of love towards Homestuck as a story and a
larger phenomenon.
It’s also just for the fun of it.
AGH THE AGONY OF DOUBLE GREEN TEXT NOOO....but seriously was a totally unexpected conversational group really. Was interesting to see!
We are continuing Hussie’s long and noble legacy of causing our readers severe eyestrain…
The Jake and Kanaya log was the dark horse of the bunch. It ended up being probably the most fun to write, which no one on the team predicted going into it.
As immensely flattering as it is that you think we could pull this off.. With a 4/13/2017 deadline and a $0 budget, I think that is, uh…. let’s go with “unlikely”.
Every time y'all update I just want to climb on top of a really big rock and proclaim my enthusiasm to the heavens like thank you so much you're doing god's work here
This is the sweetest thing, and believe me, we see all of the nice posts and it helps keep us going. I don’t think we could get this project done without our dear readers cheering us on
♥
Momo here, with that hype post I was talking about.
I guess the most candid thing to say is that Act 8, in the way I’m approaching it now, is pretty miserable work. Saying that sounds like i’m not grateful to everyone that has come around and donated their time and energy, even in making negative reviews, but I absolutely am. I’m trying to find a way to say I’m under a huge amount of pressure without coming across as cloying; ultimately, I don’t really care if it makes me miserable or if it’s hard to do. It just sometimes demands more than I can give, and the consequence is either something comes out on time and it’s not quite good, or something doesn’t come out on time and maybe it’s a little bit closer to good.
The positive thing to take away from all this is that if something matters to you, just keep going. Everyone has something to offer. At the very least you’ll learn something, even if it’s how to be a more resolute human being.
Alright I’ve got no idea what this post was even trying to communicate. Basically, thank you everybody for your patience, teamwork and feedback.
take your time to release something y'all are satisfied with. people can wait a few extra days or weeks for something that makes all involved feel good about it.
There’s actually a second, two-part reason for aspiring to deadlines and a certain update frequency; momentum, and I really, really only want this to only last for a year. I started reading homestuck when it came out in 2009, and at some point that’s just enough of my life to give to something. When I delay an update, I’m not just delaying that update. I’m taking time away from the next thing I want to do.
Act 8 is, fundamentally, a fan story I really want to tell. I make a lot of choices as a director that commit to completion over perfection; I actually would rather have a C+ story done in a year than an A+ story done in five years, particularly since I’m not getting paid.
I’m rambling again, but it’s definitely a hard line to walk. I’m learning how to walk it. Maybe things will get better over time. Thank you for the input, though.
Alright, enough doom and gloom. At the end of the day there’s way more that I’m proud of and excited about in act 8 than there is stuff to be unhappy with. Point is, sometimes it’s good that things are hard. It’s energizing. Sticking through the challenging parts of a work and being realistic about its flaws and your limitations can help make you a better creative person. So not just to my self, but everybody out there; let’s do our best.
I’m gonna let Blue field questions, and get back to work on something I hope you guys are really, really gonna like.
I started it expecting to be dissapointed but you guys really capture the feeling of homestuck. I only feel a little sad I don't have enough writing experience to help out.
I’m glad we’ve exceeded your expectations, Anon :o)
The nice thing about honing your writing chops on an unpaid fan project is that no one can fire you for it…
Have you guys thought about accepting donations? Maybe like putting up links to your individual patreons and/or paypal donation links? Or maybe you guys could split the money from one patreon? If donating would help lessen the workload, I mean. It seems a little unfair that you guys are making high quality content for a fanfic and are getting almost nothing in return, especially since some of you are adults with obligations and responsibilities. :/
Hi Anon! Accepting donations, even just as a way to help cover any costs, would put us on precarious legal ground. It’s the sort of thing that people do all of the time, but it really counts on What Pumpkin Studios not knowing, or not caring enough to take legal action. Which is a risk we just don’t want to take, even if it’s a small risk. Especially for the adult team members (which is most of us), we have to carefully consider not only what we could gain, but what we could potentially lose.
I have thought that, especially towards the end of the project or shortly after its completion, it might be fun to make some team member spotlight posts! In case folks are curious about what other creative projects our team has brewing :)
Overall, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I don’t feel like I’m getting nothing out of Act 8. It gave me a project when I needed one, I get to talk to lots of nice people, and it’s a low-stakes learning experience as far as how to collaborate effectively with other creative folks.
Great job on Volume 1! I loved it! Some of my fave songs include Penumbra Phantasm, Earthbound, Limelight, Seraphic Storyteller, and the bonus track Medic! Awesome work everyone!
I hope everyone on the music team gets a chance to read this lovely message :o) They really did do a great job, didn’t they?
i'm afraid to ask if any of you headcanon callie as autistic, but i'm autistic, and the conversation she had with roxy about being so fond of how humans and trolls interact socially even though its not something native to her kind made me happy cry a way i havent for a really long time. not an ask i guess. just wanted to say thank you.
I’m so glad that there was something there that resonated with you, Anon. That’s a really awesome thing to hear, and I’m grateful that you took the time to drop us a note.
It’s funny, because Callie isn’t always the best judge of her most “human” traits. Like, turning into a giant space snake? Sure, that’s pretty inhuman. Whereas having to actively learn the parts of social interaction that don’t come instinctively or easily? Very human, actually.
Mspfa is likely to be down until next week; however, this means more time for me to work on various aspects of act 8, and a very large update in store for when we’re able to post again. So this is actually a GOOD thing, see?? (well, good for me, anyway.)
There’s a lot of content building up behind the scenes, but I want it to be a surprise. So thank you all for your patience, and a big thanks to MrRazzle and Nixshadow (for both working to restore mspfanventures now and the site in general.)
DID YOU ALL FORGET THAT ARRANGING ’ SOUNDS ’ TO PRODUCE ’ EMOTION ’ IS A THING THAT I INVENTED?
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION, WE ALL KNOW THAT YOU DID. THIS
IS IN FACT THE THEME HERE. THAT YOU ARE RIDING MY MAGIC COAT TAILS LIKE
STARVED URCHINS. HOPING TO MOCK MY UNRIVALED CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE. TO
THE FORMS OF ART. (ALL OF THEM.) EVEN AFTER I HAVE ALREADY ACHIEVED THE PINNACLE OF THE CRAFT. (IT KEEPS HAPPENING.)
BUT THE ONLY THING THAT WILL BE MOCKED HERE TODAY IS YOU.
SURELY
THIS IS SIMPLY ONE OF THE TYPICAL ERRORS OF YOUR FEEBLE WITHERING
INTELLECTS. IF YOU COULD EVEN COMPLIMENT THEM SO MUCH. SO FOR THAT
REASON. AND ALSO THE REASON THAT I CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO FIND YOU
HORRIBLE PEOPLE. I WILL NOT DESTROY YOU IN TERRIBLE WAYS.
YOU
SEE, I AM A REASONABLE GUY. EVERYBODY MAKES MISTAKES. ESPECIALLY IF THEY
ARE YOU. SO IN THIS SPECIFIC CASE I WILL “LET A THING GO.”
YOU MAY BE WONDERING THEN. AS A BABY WOULD IN ITS DUMB HOLLOW BRAIN.
“CALIBORN. WHY. WHY ARE YOU HERE.”
I HAVE COME TO ANNOUNCE THAT I, TOO, WILL BE PRODUCING MY OWN ORIGINAL AUDIO CONTENT. COMING SOON. VERY SOON.
BUT NOT SOON ENOUGH.
BECAUSE ONCE I RELEASE MY CREATION INTO BEING.
ONCE I EMIT THE LUSCIOUS NOISES FROM MY SOUL. TO CLOG YOUR VORACIOUS SOUND GUTTERS.
ONCE I DROP. THE SICKEST. HOTTEST FIRES THAT WILL EVER BE DROPPED. BY MAN OR CHERUB.
HERE IS A SMALL SAMPLE OF THE DREAM LULLABY THAT WILL PUT YOUR LIFE TO REST. IT IS ONLY THE FIRST OF MANY ARTISTIC SOUND SOLILOQUIES TO COME WITHIN DUE TIME. FOR NOW I HOPE YOU CAN SLUMBER PEACFULLY KNOWING THAT THERE IS A NEW GOD GENRE OF MUSIC.
CALICORE.
(warning: its loud. both ear bleedingly and also metaphorically)
