Freelance rates for Hiveswap, Pesterquest, and future What Pumpkin projects increased for all workers after success of Homestuck Patreon

The level of support for the Homestuck Patreon has been overwhelming, and What Pumpkin couldn't be more thankful this Thanksgiving. Fans want to support the independent artists behind their favorite works, and What Pumpkin has gotten to business making it happen.

In early November, What Pumpkin founder Andrew Hussie and the freelance creative and technical team behind WP's projects agreed on a significant increase in rates for the art, writing, music and code that makes the expanding Homestuck and Hiveswap universe possible.

Too often, the comics and games we enjoy – even big-budget corporate media – are made in unhealthy and unsustainable "crunch" environments. The direct support and generosity of Homestuck fans helps to ensure better conditions for everyone.

"The point of the Patreon wasn't only to fund HS^2. There are dozens of people working on Homestuck games and projects, and almost all of them came from the fandom originally. So they're spread across everything we're doing, like Hiveswap, Friendsim, Pesterquest, and now HS^2, contributing art, writing, music and programming. The Patreon is a good way for fans who love what they're doing to contribute to their overall compensation outside of game sales alone. Before the Patreon existed, there really wasn't a coherent means of showing more support for the people working on all this. Unless you wanted to buy multiple copies of the games? Which I certainly don't discourage. But I thought maybe we could come up with something better, which is also attached to a cool new project. The better the Patreon does, not only does everyone at the studio benefit, but the more you'll see HS^2 start to pick up the pace," said What Pumpkin founder Andrew Hussie.

"It was important to the Homestuck^2 team that fans' enthusiasm and support was shared with everyone working with What Pumpkin, and Homestuck's community has again proved itself the greatest fandom around," said Homestuck^2 co-director Aysha U. Farah.

The workers that benefit from these contributions are active on the following projects:

• HIVESWAP: ACT 2 is the anticipated second entry in the four-part series of narrative adventure games from the universe of Homestuck. Hiveswap has something for you, whether you're a dedicated fan or just now discovering the fandom phenomenon.
• Embark on a quest of epic importance in PESTERQUEST, a grimsical episodic visual novel set in the darkly funny Homestuck/Hiveswap universe. Dive deeper into Homestuck lore in this rich visual novel with an unapologetically irreverent story.
• HOMESTUCK^2: BEYOND CANON is an official continuation of the cult-classic webcomic Homestuck and a follow-up to The Homestuck Epilogues, dropped as a major event in April of this year. Homestuck 2: Beyond Canon takes a combination of Andrew Hussie's original writing and plot outlines and concepts and joins him with a team of new, diverse voices to expand the compelling narratives of Homestuck's most (and least) beloved characters.

2019 has been an incredible journey, with numerous releases for our fans. With this support, expect even more announcements from What Pumpkin in 2020 and beyond!

What Pumpkin is an independent studio founded by Andrew Hussie, author and artist behind cult classic webcomic Homestuck. It brings together a diverse team with a passion for telling new stories in Homestuck and Hiveswap's vast universes and a love for the worldwide community and culture that surrounds their work.