Though normally described as a webcomic, and partly constituted by a series of single panel pages, Homestuck also relied heavily on Flash animations and instant message logs to convey its story, along with the occasional use of browser games.

Its plot centers on a group of teens who trigger the inevitable destruction of Earth by installing the beta version of an upcoming PC game, Sburb.

The narrative shifts to a side story arc about the trolls and the specific sequence of events that led this group to play their own session of the game.

However, Vriska sabotages key events which results in the kids' accidentally empowering Jack Noir from a simple adversary to a seemingly-invincible monster.

Rising tensions among the trolls eventually boil over, and some begin to attack and kill others; almost half the group (including Vriska) dies before Karkat manages to restore order.

With Terezi's guidance, John retcons key events in the narrative, most notably Vriska's death, setting up a timeline with a clear path to victory.

[8] According to academic Kevin Veale of Massey University, Homestuck used these various methods of engagement to manipulate its readers' experiences in order to tell a multilayered non-linear story.

Changes from previous stories include an emphasis on contemporary society, such as online gaming and Internet culture, which contrasts with the historical settings of MS Paint Adventures comics Bard Quest and Problem Sleuth.

Later, Hussie moved away from this format due to the fan input method having grown "too unwieldy and made it difficult... to tell a coherent story."

While Hussie now controlled the main plot of the story and the characters' actions, he still "visit[ed] fan blogs and forums" to figure out small things to add into Homestuck.

[23][24] A significant amount of merchandise has been sold through Hussie's shop, company, and record label What Pumpkin, including "T-shirts, hoodies, pins, books" and fan art prints.

[27] The Epilogues are presented in purely text format with no images, completely abandoning the webcomic genre and instead being styled similarly to Archive of Our Own fanfiction.

[30][31] Homestuck: Beyond Canon has been written by a team of writers based on a story outline by Hussie, and the project receives funding from Patreon.

[35] Early in Homestuck, Hussie introduced a webcomic contained within the main story titled Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff.

[38] In 2017, TopatoCo announced a second Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff book, co-written by dril,[39] co-drawn by KC Green, and funded through Kickstarter.

[31] MS Paint Fan Adventures, or MSPFA for short, is a website in which users can create and view stories in the Homestuck format.

During the period when the series was still ongoing, Andrew Hussie allowed fans to contribute suggestions to the story via the MS Paint Adventures forums, but this was later deprecated when the work got more popular.

[52][16] At one point, one of the webcomic's Flash animations caused Newgrounds, Megaupload, and Twitter (now X) to crash when it was uploaded, due to the strain that the number of views had put on the servers.

[43] Actor Dante Basco is a known fan of the webcomic, having been urged to read it by friends telling him that the character Rufio, which he played as in the 1991 film Hook, is featured in it.

This interest in the webcomic led to a friendship with Andrew Hussie and resulted in the creation of a new character, Rufioh, with Basco's "typing quirks and personality".

[citation needed] Toby "Radiation" Fox, best known for his later creation of the video game Undertale,[54][55] was a noted member of Homestuck's official Music Contribution Team.

[57][58] "So begins Homestuck, Andrew Hussie's webcomic/cartoon/video game/mixed media art project that went on to take over every convention with a sea of grey body paint, surpass War and Peace's word count, raise $2.5 million on Kickstarter and then suddenly disappear, leaving its fans either desperate for more or wanting to forget it ever happened."

[6][61][62] Lori Henderson of the School Library Journal described Homestuck as being "mostly black and white with splashes of color and a minimal amount of animation", but said that it worked for the webcomic and that, because the "characters are a little goofy-looking and are often shown without arms", it only "adds to the charm".

"[64] Bryan Lee O'Malley, creator of the graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim, described Homestuck as a "massive undertaking of deftly-handled long-term serialized storytelling.