Steven Universe is an American animated television series created by Rebecca Sugar for Cartoon Network. It is a coming-of-age story of a young boy, Steven Universe, who lives in the fictional town of Beach City with the Crystal Gems—Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst —three magical, humanoid aliens. Steven, who is half-Gem, has adventures with his friends and helps the Gems protect the world from their own kind. It premiered on November 4, 2013 as Cartoon Network's first animated solely created by a woman. The themes of the series include love and family. Books, comics and a video game based on the series have also been released. Sugar developed the series while she was a writer and storyboard artist on Adventure Time, and left the show when Cartoon Network greenlit her series for full production. The series is storyboard-driven, meaning that when episodes are being produced the show's storyboard artists are responsible for writing the dialogue and blocking out the action. The series—which has developed a broad fan base—has been critical acclaimed for its design, music, voice acting, characterization, promotion of LGBTQ themes and science fantasy worldbuilding.