So Jacksepticeye is playing Hiveswap and apparently really enjoying it, even though he knows fuckall about Homestuck. The reviews for the game have so far been really good. And I'm so glad. Not just because I used to love this world and its characters so much, but because a friend of mine worked on it and is psyched about it, and I genuinely think Hussie can be a good storyteller and makes good stuff and I'd like him to have a good, solid chance to really blossom with some success. I am also pettily, meanly delighted that this is going to put a whole dumptruck's worth of sand in the shorts of every bitter ex-fan who's been sneering at Hussie and has sneered at the game and only seem to get any joy out of Homestuck by looking down their noses at it and talking about how it was so much better before XYZ but Hussie has sold out, man, and every bitter asshole who is just super mad that it was fans-turned-employees who did so much of the work on this game.
Like a different friend of mine kind of sneeringly referred to Hiveswap as 'crowdfunded fan art' and, besides being completely inaccurate (it's not 'fan art' if the actual creator has hired someone to make it, buddy), it's nastily dismissing the hard work the artists and programmers did as not worth paying for. Yeah it sucks we had to wait five years for the ball to get rolling, and while I know some of the circumstances that made this go in fits and starts it is pretty offputting there was so much radio silence about it for so long and not much transparency about the money, but, fucking seriously?? I think besides bitter and possibly a bit jealous, they're like... mad we got a point and click adventure game and not whatever they'd built up in their head. Of course we got a point and click adventure game, that's THE ENTIRE FRAMING OF HOMESTUCK.
Jacksepticeye is playing it? Aw hell yes! I thought he was one of the bigger LPers who seemed most likely to pick it up - he can be a bit screamy for some people, but his LP of Undertale was super fun and you could tell he really enjoyed playing it
And that guy was going 'it's barely a game' even though... isn't this the standard way point and click adventure games go...
She might have, yeah. If you click on the TV in the main downstairs area where you scavenge the batteries from the walkman, you get a little snippet about how Joey watches a lot of tv and gets "heavenly sights" from it - specifically referencing only female characters from shows that would've been on during 1994. (I finally played, and - yeah, the calendar on Joey's door does state it's November, '94.) She also mentions how the "green lady from Reboot" makes her feel a little strange. So, Joey seriously confirmed for not straight. The crush on Taylor might be one she picked up out of obligation, or to give herself something to point at to seem normal (and I think she'd be pretty desperate for some normalcy, since her dad's never around, she has an alcoholic for a babysitter, and she doesn't seem to have any friends at school; the entries in her diary suggest that she's a social outcast, or at least bullied enough to be genuinely miserable at school and look forward to summer vacation as soon as October hits); we don't really have enough info to know yet. Meanwhile, I'm...so upset with Jake? He's better than Bro Strider, at least, but that's damning with faint praise; every other guardian we saw in the main canon at least cleared the bar of "ensure the kid(s) have food, adequate supervision, and a house that's not an active deathtrap". There's garbage and clutter piled up everywhere; the plaster has fallen away from the walls in the hallway up to the attic; there's no food in the house (although Joey's reaction seems to indicate that this is a new thing and that she doesn't expect to go hungry); and there's loaded guns everywhere, including in a precarious spot in the attic right above her room. I'm also wondering if he isn't the reason that Mom Lalonde was a semi-functional alcoholic by the time Rose was 13. From everything I recall, both Rose and Roxy only turned to alcohol as a response to stress without any other safe outlets for venting that stress. And the line we keep getting told is that Roxy's the babysitter for Joey and Jude - that's probably the line Roxy got fed, too, that she'd just be babysitting them until Jake came back from his trip. Except that he kept going back out, and making it increasingly clear that he's not interested in staying. Joey said he doesn't even look at her, and I bet he doesn't look at Jude much more either. And from the photo on the wall, Roxy's been their babysitter (or at least around) since Jude was young enough to be interested in baby toys. And Joey doesn't know what her mom would say, which implies that mom died when Joey was very young, young enough that Joey might only remember what her mom looks like from photographs. So Roxy's had two kids dumped on her, and is probably in a pretty tenuous legal position as far as taking care of them goes. Who's signing the start of school paperwork? If either of the kids needs to go to the doctor, does Roxy have the authority to go "yup, give them their vaccinations, do what you gotta to make sure they're not sick"? Is Roxy allowed to show up to the parent-teacher conferences in Jake's stead? (And that's not even taking into account stuff like the household bills - are those just auto-billing to an account Jake set up? Is Roxy listed as someone who's allowed to do anything with the utilities?) Money's clearly not really an issue, since they're living off of takeout, but I do wonder that Roxy hasn't hired a housekeeper to help out - maybe she's not allowed. (I mean, CPS is probably not going to do more than a cursory investigation if they're called in, since apart from the bit where their dad has abandoned them, the kids are doing okay. But that doesn't mean Roxy would know that.) And it's pretty clear, too, that Joey and Jude don't know about the rest of their family - the photo of Jake and Jane gets a "huh, you guess Pa had a sister? He's never mentioned her, but maybe she died young" and I'm pretty sure that the reverse holds true as well. If Jane knew that Jake had kids and that they were getting left with only a babysitter while he globetrots in prep for Jade's arrival, I...kinda feel like the main canon would've gone a bit different. Which is sort of giving me a bad feeling about how Hiveswap's going to end - especially since Harley Manor seems to be somewhere in the South (based off of it being November and there being no snow on the ground yet and Joey calling the weather "autumnal") and Rose and Roxy lived somewhere in Washington State if I remember right (certainly somewhere that's far enough north to get snow).
Spoiler: help? i have batteries that i took from the walkman downstairs but they dont fit in the flashlight where can i get batteries that go into the flashlight, so joey can go into the basement and get the power running again?
Spoiler The D-cells probably go to something, but if so, it's a something that's probably not going to show up until Act 2 or 3. There isn't anything in the house that I found that uses D-cells, besides the remote. Also, did anyone else spot that the "churched up" lady in the portrait in the upstairs hallway has some serious echoes of Jade? Joey drew red and green bracelets and rings on her, which sort of look like the finger-reminders Jade was using early in Homestuck.
Spoiler Finished hiveswap!!! Also dammek no :thumbs down: Jude is so great I love him!!! Also Joey and Xefros!
