Early life and work

Andrew F. Hussie^[1] was born on August 25, 1979.^{[2][non-primary source needed]} Hussie graduated in computer science at Temple University^[3][4] while living with their parents in Abington, Pennsylvania.^[5] In 2005, they would develop Photoshop plugins under the company Master Colors, implementing a digital color space based on the Munsell color system.^[6][1] Hussie has moved "well over 50 times", including to Guam.^{[7][non-primary source needed]} As of 2010, Hussie lives in Massachussets.^{[8][non-primary source needed]}

Hussie began posting webcomics in 2003 on their website Team Special Olympics up until its discontinuation in 2007.^{[9][non-primary source needed]} The site would host various comic strips by Hussie, their brother, and Cindy Marie. Notable works that were showcased on the site include And It Don't Stop, Whistles: The Starlight Calliope, and Neon Ice Cream Headache.^{[10][non-primary source needed]} The Starlight Calliope would later be published by Slave Labor Graphics.^[11]

Hussie's first interactive work, Jailbreak, began on an internet forum in 2006, taking user input on character actions in the form of commands, mimicking a text-based graphical adventure game. Hussie would then quickly respond with a drawn image depicting the results of the command, often with an added caption.^[12] In 2007, Hussie would create the website MS Paint Adventures to host Jailbreak and future works in this interactive format.^[13] These later works include Bard Quest and Problem Sleuth.^[14] Problem Sleuth launched in 2008 and ran for over a year, ending in 2009 with more than 1,600 pages. During its run, Hussie would sometimes be creating up to 10 pages a day.^[12]

Homestuck

Hussie began creating Homestuck in the form of a so-called "beta" on April 10th, 2009, only 3 days after the conclusion of Problem Sleuth. The comic would officially begin shortly thereafter on April 13th, 2009.^[15] As with Hussie's previous works, Homestuck took input from its readers in the form of commands that could guide character actions. As the audience grew to almost a million daily readers through word of mouth,^[16] taking reader input became "too unwieldy and made it difficult [...] to tell a coherent story".^[4] Hussie would later make use of an author surrogate to insert themself into the story and interact with the audience, taking the responsibility for killing off fan-favorite characters before eventually dying in the comic themself.^[17] While Hussie now controlled the plot through their discontinuation of the suggestion box, they claimed to still visit fan blogs and forums when interested in audience feedback.^[4]

Fans would continue to directly contribute to Homestuck in a number of ways, including its original soundtrack with over 500 tracks.^[18] Over a hundred musicians and artists contributed to the final work,^[19] with Hussie sometimes recruiting community artists for new pages.^[20]

During Homestuck's run, Hussie would update the comic regularly, sometimes posting upwards of 10 to 20 pages in a day.^[15] Updates to the comic would eventually slow down to steady increments, about three times each week. The comic would experience two extended hiatuses in 2013 and 2015 respectively, the former lasting a year.^[14] Hussie described working on Homestuck as an "all-encompassing lifestyle", saying that the time they spend on the work occupied something just short of all their waking hours.^[20]

Homestuck would conclude its main story on April 13th, 2016.^[21]

Homestuck sequels and spin-offs

The Homestuck Epilogues was a text-only work released in April 2019. It consisted of 190,000 words in a nonlinear novel that was co-written by Hussie and four other creators; Cephied_Variable, ctset, Lalo Hunt, and Aysha U. Farah.^[19][22]

A sequel to Homestuck, titled Homestuck^2: Beyond Canon, began in late 2019. While the story was outlined by Hussie, it was to be written by a team of writers.^[22][23] According to its website, it was updated regularly for about a year "until it was paused indefinitely", with the rest of the comic to be released when it was completed.^{[24][non-primary source needed]} In 2024, the comic was renamed simply to Homestuck: Beyond Canon, and resumed regular updates, being created by a new team.^{[25][non-primary source needed]}

A videogame based on Homestuck, called Hiveswap, was first announced in 2012 and raised over $US2.4 million through a Kickstarter.^[26][27] Initially, its release date was given as 2014,^[28] but had a troubled development, including switching from 3D to 2D years after development started.^[29] It was later broken up into four episodes: the first episode of Hiveswap was released in 2017^{[30][non-primary source needed]} and its second episode was released in 2020.^{[31][non-primary source needed]} A second sister series, titled Hauntswitch, is also planned to have four parts. Two other videogames were based on Homestuck, Hiveswap Friendsim and Pesterquest.^{[citation needed]}

Hussie has been a managing member of What Pumpkin, LLC.^[32] According to What Pumpkin's website, Hussie officially left What Pumpkin in early 2020 to work on projects unrelated to Homestuck. According to the notice, Hussie still retains ownership of the Homestuck intellectual property, but has discontinued all creative involvement in any future Homestuck projects.^{[33][non-primary source needed]}

Other works

Hussie produced a visual novel called Psycholonials. It was first announced in December 2020,^[34] and its final episode was released in April 2021. Hussie has described it as a commentary on American politics and on their perception of uncomfortable cult-like atmosphere surrounding the Homestuck fandom.^[35]

Videos

• Hussie, in collaboration with Jan van den Hemel, created parody edits of Star Trek: The Next Generation in the late 2000s.^[36]
• Hussie worked with their brother to make Barty's Brew-Ha-Ha, a video series about an eccentric Bigfoot researcher, from 2006 to 2011.^[37]

Webcomics

• Team Special Olympics^{[10][non-primary source needed]}
• Jailbreak^{[10][non-primary source needed]}
• Bard Quest (June 12, 2007, to July 6, 2007)^{[38][non-primary source needed]}
• Problem Sleuth (March 10, 2008, to April 7, 2009)^[15]
• Homestuck (April 13, 2009, to April 13, 2016)^[21]
• Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff^[39]
• The Homestuck Epilogues (April 13, 2019, to April 20, 2019)
• Homestuck: Beyond Canon (October 25, 2019, to present^[update])
• Jester Quest (September 7, 2025, to December 12, 2025)

Published books

• Whistles, Book One (The Starlight Calliope)^{[10][non-primary source needed]} (out of print, available online) ISBN 978-1-59362-073-8
• Problem Sleuth (Five volumes, which cover all 22 chapters)
  • Volume One: Compensation, Adequate ISBN 978-0-9824862-3-8
  • Volume Two: This is Complete BS ISBN 978-1-936561-00-1
  • Volume Three: Suitor to the Sodajerk's Confidante ISBN 978-1-936561-80-3
  • Volume Four: Black Liquid Sorrow ISBN 978-1-936561-85-8
  • Volume Five: Sepulchritude ISBN 978-1-936561-11-7
• Homestuck
  • By TopatoCo (three volumes, which cover Acts 1, 2, and 3, respectively)
    • Volume One ISBN 978-1-936561-82-7
    • Volume Two ISBN 978-1-936561-83-4
    • Volume Three ISBN 978-1-936561-10-0
  • By Viz Media
    • Book 1: Act 1 & Act 2 ISBN 978-1-4215-9940-3
    • Book 2: Act 3 & Intermission ISBN 978-1-4215-9939-7
    • Book 3: Act 4 ISBN 978-1-4215-9941-0
    • Book 4: Act 5 Act 1 ISBN 978-1-4215-9942-7
    • Book 5: Act 5 Act 2 Part 1 ISBN 978-1-4215-9943-4
    • Book 6: Act 5 Act 2 Part 2 ISBN 978-1-9747-0650-1
    • The Homestuck Epilogues: Volume Meat / Volume Candy (2020) ISBN 978-1-9747-0108-7
• Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff ISBN 978-1936561-03-2

Video games

• Hiveswap^[26][28]
• Namco High (2013)^[40]
• Hiveswap Friendsim (2018)
• Pesterquest (2019)^{[41][non-primary source needed]}
• Psycholonials (2021)^[35]
• Troubled Cosmos (2026)