MS Paint Adventures: Difference between revisions

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[[File:ps401.gif|thumb|300px|link=Problem Sleuth]]

{{quote|''"Who are you, and why are you throwing all this weird shit all up in our business?"''

''[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/ MS Paint Adventures]'' is a catch-all term for several webcomics by [[Andrew Hussie]] which are all, [[Artifact Title|as the name suggests]], [[Never Trust a Title|made entirely in Adobe Photoshop and later, Flash]]. The [[Trope Codifier]] of the [[Interactive Comic]] genre, each is written in the style of an [[Interactive Fiction]] game, where each panel is accompanied by a text description, and the link to the next panel represents a player's command entered into a [[Text Parser]]. It originated in 2006 as a series of games run on the Gangbunch forums, a small gathering of artists and miscellaneous people from the ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' forums which later became the current MSPA Forums, and were played by a group of Hussie's online friends; it graduated to its own site and effectively became a webcomic in in 2007.

 

 

It is comprised of five series:

* '''''[[Jail Break]]''''' is the original adventure, where the player is a prisoner trying to escape from an incredibly illogical jail [[Running Gag|that is completely devoid of pumpkins]]. Andrew Hussie began it as a forum game many years ago, and one of the rules was that he had to pick the very first suggested command for each move, no matter how unfunny or preposterous. One of its central gags (namely, that [[You Can't Get Ye Flask]] because the game denies that the flask even ''exists'') reappears as a [[Mythology Gag]] in ''Problem Sleuth'', where the game repeatedly insists that Problem Sleuth's gun is actually a harmless key, and vice versa. It was abandoned until September 2011, where it was capped off with an ending.

* '''''Bard Quest''''' is an experimental comic where each panel has multiple branching paths, much like a [[Choose Your Own Adventure]] book. It has been abandoned completely.

* '''''[[Dr. Brinner Ghost Psychiatrist]]''''' is the longest story that Andrew has written, featuring the eponymous, heavily-begoggled Dr. Brinner. Started shortly after the best ending for ''Bard Quest'' was finished, it has been updated in parallel with other adventures, resulting in a somewhat erratic update schedule. Currently on hold, as Andrew is going back and updating older panels as a form of self-described "retroactive foreshadowing", and keeping the style more consistent. {{spoiler|(This story doesn't actually exist, having been "created" by fans on the MSPA forums, although it's a bit of a dead meme these days).}}

 

 

It has absolutely no relation to ''[[MS Paint Masterpieces]]''. See also [[Andrew Hussie|Hussie's creator page]] for works not related to ''MSPA''

{{tropelist}}

* [[Abandoned Info Page]]: The [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?viewpage=new New Reader] page claims that Problem Sleuth is 'by far the longest adventure'. All of the Adventures other than Homestuck compromise about 2,000 of MS Paint Adventures' pages. Homestuck has over 4,000, with text, animations, and games.

** [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/unlock.html The secret page] also counts, as it lists Andrew's Formspring account, which is now out of service.

* [[Acronym and Abbreviation Overload]]: From Problem Sleuth onward, to the point where the wiki has an [http://mspaintadventures.wikia.com/wiki/Acronym_Cheatsheet acronym cheatsheat].

* [[Art Evolution]]: From the first panel of ''Jailbreak'' to ''Homestuck'', the art has increased dramatically. However, all of the art in the comics has always been below Andrew's skill level, and in fact he's ''lost'' some of his skill simply because he never uses it anymore.

** Nonetheless, the writing and pacing have increased by magnitudes.

** Not to mention the entire Noble Circle of Horrorterrors.

* [[Follow the Leader]]: Around the time that ''Problem Sleuth'' ended, an impressive number of member-run MSPAs started showing up in the MSPA forum. For his part, Andrew is highly supportive of these: participating in some, linking to the more popular ones in a newspost, and creating a separate subforum in his forums to organize them.

** Funnily enough, the grandaddy of these fan MSPAs, Bird Wizard, had a suggestion from Andrew Hussie ("Squawk like an idiot and shit on your desk." that made it into Homestuck (though the character resisted it.)

* [[Indecisive Medium]]

* [[Interactive Fiction]]: Technically it's fake, but it has all the trappings.

* [[Interdimensional Travel Device]]

** ''[[Problem Sleuth]]'' has this as a major element in the form of each characters weapons, which are also mundane items like a ring of keys or a lipstick tube. Most of the time, referring to an item as its counterpart seems to get around this (e.g. using the keys on the door shoots it with a gun), except when working normally would be [[Rule of Funny|more frustrating and funny]]. It's explicitly described in universe [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|on GameFAQs]] as a bug.

** ''[[Homestuck]]'' does the same thing with the Midnight Crew's decks of cards / storage items.

** The author does say right in the FAQ that only the very first page of ''Jailbreak'' was made in MS Paint. Everything else has been made in Photoshop and/or, more recently, with Flash.

** Not only that, but the titles ''[[Problem Sleuth]]'' and ''[[Homestuck]]'' only reflect the initial circumstances of each adventure, and don't give a very good glimpse into what the actual story will be like. In ''[[Problem Sleuth]]'', no cases are solved, clues found, or culprits apprehended instead, the plot evolves into sort of a pastiche of [[Eastern RPG|Eastern RPGs]], culminating in a final battle where the entire universe is at stake. On the other Hand, Problem Sleuth was the protagonist, so the title at least made some sense.

* [[Ninja Prop]]

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: Andrew is a very intelligent author. He spends most of his time talking to the fanbase [[Teasing Creator|trolling them]].

* [[One-Man Army]]: In ''Problem Sleuth'', Andrew did all the work himself and posted around 5-6 pages per day for a year. In ''Homestuck'', he does the majority of a workload for an entire ''animation team'' and manages to keep the 5-6 pages average ''per day''. While there is now a dedicated art team which assists him in the [[Animation Bump|Flash animations]], there are still the hilarious moments in which he says he'll be slowing down for a while... and posts 80 pages in the span of a week.

* [[Orphaned Series]]: ''Jailbreak'' (until September 2011) and ''Bard Quest''. ''Bard Quest'' much more so than ''Jailbreak''; most fans have never even read ''BQ'', but ''Jailbreak'' gets a fair number of call backs.

** However, pages of MSPA might not be comparable to pages of most webcomics.

** By his own standards the later half of Act 5 Act 2 of ''Homestuck'' suffered heavily from very sporadic updates and pacing problems. Part of {{spoiler|switching the story to Doc Scratch}} was designed to relieve this, and ''that'' started to drag on as well! Seems to have recovered fully with Act 6 however. And it should be said that even during this "slip", he still updated more frequently than normal web comics.

* [[Stylistic Self Parody]]: the characters are usually drawn sans arms, leading to a running gag throughout the series, consisting of the command "Quickly retrieve arms from _____" with the character responding by gesturing with whose arms and the message "You already ''have'' arms, stupid!" (or some other insult). This is [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] early on in ''Homestuck''. And again thereafter.

** "Quickly retrieve arms from cinder blocks." "Nah."

* [[Theme Table]]: ''Problem Sleuth'' and ''Homestuck'' each use this. In ''Homestuck'', each of the main characters has a guardian, something weird that guardian collects, a world etc.. In ''Problem Sleuth'', each of the detectives and the Mobster Kingpin has something trapping them in a room, a kingdom in the fantasy world etc..

** Some more detail on things the kids in ''Homestuck'' each have one of [http://mspaintadventures.wikia.com/wiki/Homestuck_Kids here].

* [[They Plotted a Perfectly Good Waste]]: Done repeatedly with reader suggestions, with hilarious (and often plot-crucial) results. The rather silly idea of building a fort out of a desk in ''[[Problem Sleuth]]'' actually developed into a major game mechanic of the series.

* [[Up to Eleven]]: Routinely. And he never turns it back to 1 before he [[Serial Escalation|kicks it up again]].

** Although it is nearly always put in with [[Mood Whiplash|incredibly tame]], [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|even dull]] moments in between one [[Wham! Episode]] and the next. A prime example would be the most recent (at time of writing) scenes, {{spoiler|When it's revealed Dirk and Roxy live in the dark future under the control of the Baroness, then followed by Spades Slick being milkfed by [[Author Avatar|Hussie,]] while [[Ship Tease|Ms. Paint makes a special meal for Slick]], before revealing the [[Big Bad]] is in the very close quarters with that particular group of offside heroes. This is finally followed by [[Other Me Annoys Me|Karkat yelling at himself. Twice.]] }}

* [[Writing by the Seat of Your Pants]]: Interesting use. In ''Homestuck'', Andrew planned out the entire process of Sburb, and the end result before even making a single page, but the way the story shows that process is completely improvised. Concepts such as the trolls, the exiles, and the entire Apocalypse were made up more or less on the fly.

** Applies to the art, as well. Andrew has admitted to creating some character designs shortly before they were introduced, such as the guardians.

** It's sort of applied logic: in ''Problem Sleuth'', one of the commands would be to grab something (gun, knife,) and it would immediately turn into something else. '''Any''' time you bring it up, it will turn back.

*** It was so common that it even got an official name "Innocuous Double" and a [http://mspaintadventures.wikia.com/wiki/Weapon/Object_Duality page on the wiki] detailing all the doubles.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Popular Webcomic Sites]]

[[Category:Webcomics Long Runners]]

[[Category:Trope Overdosed]]

[[Category:Interactive Comic]]

[[Category:Andrew Hussie]]