Advice for making a MSPFA

Hello I am Mario.

Do NOT skimp out on the writing. Please. I've seen far too many mspfas who fall into this problem. Remember to draft, edit, and have a friend proofread to find any mistakes you may have missed during the editing phase. Proper grammar and writing can make your mspfa very professional, so I highly recommend it. And have fun! Don't be afraid to experiment.

@Mario

Wdym by skimping out? Like relying more on the art than the writing to tell a good story? The reason why Im uploading it to MSPFA is because I don't have the tools to make animation so I have to do something that's more writing based since that's not something I have to pay someone for (I do it myself with help from a writer moot)

I think my main struggle so far is pacing, I have a whole ass plot for 200 panels but Im struggling how to pace it out since I can only go to 40 withoutmy brain not knowing what to add to fill it

Yes I agree with Mario. Really polish that writing. Establish characters well so that when they start to change, readers are intrigued rather than confused.

On the other side of that same coin: when it comes to drawings, GOOD ENOUGH IS GOOD ENOUGH! Obviously put some effort into it, but don't get bogged down in pixel surgery and the like. Andrew Hussie made a lot of pages that looked like dogshit, and not even on purpose, so not every page has to be a masterpiece.

A good shortcut I like to check if your page has good, ez-2-read composition is to throw a greyscale filter over it and see if you can still understand what you're looking at. If it passes that test it's probably good enough. Which basically means it's good enough.

And also yes the first most important rule is to have fun and be yourself. If you aren't doing that what's even the fucking point? I could say some shit about how it will affect the quality which is probably true but man. Have Fun. It's So Important. Inherently

my most relevant advice to new mspfa artists is to make your work both easy and fun for yourself. when you're making your comic, you shouldn't feel constrained by the form. if you're doing something just because it's "the style" and you're hating every second of it, you don't have to do it. there's always a way that's better for you, and what's "good" for others may not be good for you.

i see this most commonly with people who really hate working in sprite mode, but want to do it just because it's in the style. they struggle through sprite mode for 25 pages before stopping, because the tools just didn't click with them, it's not fun and it's difficult. the reason i'm able to make as much as i do is because i've worked to make it as frictionless as possible to do what i wish to. i've made custom brushes, custom templates, i wrote a program that compiles frame sequences into a gif because clip studio paint's exports for gifs suck.

another thing i'd like to say is that if you put up a clunker of an update, it doesn't matter so long as you keep going. there's always a next thing, missing your mark for a couple of pages isn't the end of the world. at the end of the day, what you're making is a body of work, not individual panels.

Everyone has shared incredible advice so far and I wanna add on with some of mine own. My MSPFA isn’t really the standard format (like what you would normally expect) but I hope some of this helps! And SORRY FOR how long it will be… Oops

It’s always good to plan out first. This helps make it way easier. For example, what tone will it have? What a your characters like? What are their thoughts on each other? For the story you should plan out, at the very least, basic plot beats to help guide you along. If you do suggestions this can help especially because you can choose ones that can lead to plot points or specific things you wanna bring up.

For me how I try to deal with pacing (my biggest issue) I sometimes ask my friend to proofread my script to get second opinions!!! I have a huge script written out for my adventure but like you can just write down your ideas quickly and ask for people to read that instead for second opinions.

If you have the whole plot already (like you mentioned here) I recommend writing down every big part of it down so you can figure out how you can get to each part. This can also help with pacing ?? Probably ?? That’s how I go about writing mine anyway. It helps me keep in mind all the important junk so I’m on track.

agree with sbahj. PLEASE plan, please ask friends to read the plan for you. i don't want to be too much of a negative nancy but sometimes i write with my friends and they write can't as cant in a narrator section or introduce someone 200 pages in and it's like. this is why we read. and the more you do this the better your writing will get because youll pick up on it

as an avid mspfa reader this might be biased but as victoria said don't feel constrained by the form. i however mean this in a sense that. a lot of the things that sburb does have already been done dozens of times over and if sburb isn't a game you'd want to mess around with in its HS form anymore you can ALWAYS make a sburb-like and you can ALWAYS change the rules of the game. sure, one of your players playing an entry object could terraform their family's owned territory into what would be their land. the planet doesn't get destroyed. who cares do what you want it's your comic