HomeStuck is the latest installment in MS Paint Adventures, a series which, ironically enough, is not done in MS Paint -- the author switched to Photoshop after a few pages, finding MS Paint too difficult to work with. Each installment of the site uses the same format: the pages are still images or .gifs with text beneath it. The narrative itself is formatted like an old-school text adventure, with the reader giving commands.
While MS Paint Adventures has several minor installments such as Jail Break, Bard Quest, and Dr. Brinner: Ghost Psychiatrist, the two longest and best known installments are Problem Sleuth and Homestuck.
Problem Sleuth is the story of three detectives who must stop a Mob Kingpin... while trapped in their offices. They can leave their offices by building couch forts to enter the strangely disturbing world of imagination, or by using the magic windows in their offices. The series is now complete with about 1600 pages, and was completely reader-driven -- the readers were the ones giving "commands" to be taken by the characters, and sometimes even gave commands to "non-playable" characters or the environment itself. As a result, the plot is meandering and amusingly surreal, and thus not the best read for those who get frustrated when the plot gets sidetracked by humorous antics.
The current installment is HomeStuck. This series started in April of 2009, and now has over 4000 pages, largely thanks to the author's insanely fast rate of updating, which has averaged at five pages per day. This series has significantly higher production values than Problem Sleuth. Whereas Problem Sleuth's pages consisted mostly of still images with .gifs for special occasions, HomeStuck has .gifs as the default. On special occasions such as major plot points or something epic occurring, the command linking to the next page will begin with [S], indicating that the next page is done in flash and thus contains sound. The [S] updates have thus far come in three flavors: The first type, which was abandoned fairly early on, was interactive flash minigames. Another, later type was the Alterniabound updates, which allowed the reader to take control of a few select characters and explore certain areas, having conversations with other characters and examining set-pieces. The first of these contained over an hour-and-a-half of gameplay, but the subsequent ones were far shorter.
The last, most common type of [S] page is the Flash Animations. The action in these animations is always synchronized to music. Rather than use music from outside sources, however, the series uses music created by fans of the series. Several of the more notable composers eventually formed their own group, known as "What Pumpkin" in reference to a running joke in the franchise. The music is absolutely amazing, spanning nearly every genre of music. While the quality of the music varies, there is a vast amount of it. There are eighteen albums, with the smallest containing seven songs and the largest containing sixty-five -- and cheap as well, the largest costing only fourteen dollars.
The series itself is the story of four children who all receive the beta version of a video game called "Sburb." As they begin to play, they discover that the game doesn't just stay in their computers, editing reality itself -- and that there is a lot more at stake than just points. But to be honest, this summary doesn't do the story justice. It has far more depth than what that implies, and reaches a level of epic that would leave most films envious.
Which isn't to say that it doesn't have its problems. When HomeStuck began, the author was still best known for Problem Sleuth, and his fans were expecting this new series to consist of the same kind of meandering absurdity. In order to transition over, it began in the same style, with the end result being that the comic isn't really interesting until the plot starts to kick into high gear at the end of the first act (Hell, the author himself actually summarized the entirety of Act 1 as "doo dee doo dee doo oh shit meteors"). From there, the plot and writing starts getting better and better -- and since then has continued to reach higher and higher heights of quality, even when it seems that it can't get more awesome.
I'll admit that I might be overly effusive with my praise, but Homestuck is my favorite web series, and the only one that I can't find much fault with. There are problems that many people have with the comic, but I don't really mind them myself. The main issue people have is that the author spends a lot of time trolling the fanbase, and whether or not it gets to you can really effect your enjoyment of the series.
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