MUGEN Video Storylines Made Easy! (Vol. 1)

[Jango]

If you frequently watch MUGEN videos on Youtube, you'll no doubt run into what the Youtube MUGENites call "MUGEN Series." In these "series," to make up for their lack of a descriptive vocabulary, an individual will replace character development with fighting random people in watch mode. This is a terrible approach to story-writing, so I'm going to go over how to write a "compelling" story using MUGEN.

Step One: Know Your Limits

Face it, you're trying to do a storyline through a fighting game engine. The best you can accomplish is a Guilty Gear X2 estilio storyline, which was basically the character accidentally running into his opponents while trying to do something more important. This is where it's definitely more probable to come up with a humorous storyline rather than a serious one. While XCB's Girl Fight series managed to combine some elements of humor with a serious storyline, you're probably better off just going for humor, or going for a storyline that's semi-serious but without too much depth.

Step Two: DO NOT MAKE A STORY THAT EMULATES SUBSPACE EMISSARY

Good god, GigaBowserX! Who the hell would try to make a story like that (I'm going to ignore the fact that the story is somehow based on Youtube MUGEN Community drama, which is a whole other story)?! Face it, Subspace Emissary was fucking horrible, and the storyline? All it did was take Kingdom Hearts' storyline (which is terrible to begin with) and remove all the dialogue so that it's just the characters randomly grunting. Basing your story on this setup doesn't make you look "deep," "multi-faceted," or even a "KAKKOI GAIJIN," it just makes you look more mentally unstable than you already are.

Step Three: Starting Points

Now that I've gotten that rant out of the way, there are two things that you need to write a story that's both believable and still entertaining. While it's possible to entirely avoid these and still make something worthwhile, it's much easier to come up with something. The first is the ability to tell a good lie. When I say that, I mean you have to be able to elaborate on it in any situation, to the point that it's almost like it happened. Not only will the multiple tangents help you develop your story, but if the reader can agree that it would happen, more power to you. The second is more of an add-on to the first. Oftentimes, the best lies have an element of truth in them. Usually these are based on real life experiences or are logical extensions of things most people take for granted. This is why CAD's most recent storyline failed, as Tim Buckley (who claims to make his comic his full-time job) has little knowledge of economic profits and legalities. Now these aren't necessary to make an entertaining vid, but if you are stuck, these are good starting points.
---------------------

This is enough for now, I may add on more, feel free to post this on whatever Youtube MUGEN Community boards you see fit.

[Insanius]

Step Four: Don't use Windows Movie Maker for your fucking intros.

Step Five: PROOFREAD MOTHERFUCKER

[UHMEEEEBA]

Step Zero: Don't make one, it'll just end up sucking and wasting peoples time.

[MC2]

There are maybe two people that can pull off storylines: Wild Tengu and Demonic Kirishima.

[Jesuszilla]

Step Zero: Don't make one, it'll just end up sucking and wasting peoples time.

[Jango]

Reminds me I never finished the Saga of Jackie Chan. He killed Haruhi and the series ended.

[KoopaKoot]

I thought that was the ending. If it's not I recommend you finish it.

I don't watch GBX's videos because he's terrible at fighting.  :)

[MC2]

Reminds me I never finished the Saga of Jackie Chan. He killed Haruhi and the series ended.

FINISH IT YOU SON OF A BITCH >:O


_{Or at least let me do it for you :P}

[Jango]

I had two different endings but couldn't decide so I stopped right there.

1) Knuckle Joe finds Jackie and wants to spar again for old-times' sake. After a quick spar, Kirby shows up and eats Knuckle Joe and steals his fighter ability. Jackie would then fight Kirby to get him to spit out Knuckle Joe, and then Jackie was going to take Knuckle Joe as his student.

2) Slight variation. Sagat leaves Jackie's side to look for Ryu. Knuckle Joe shows up to brag to Jackie about getting much stronger since their last match, and Ryu just so happens to walk up looking for Sagat. Knuckle Joe decides to demonstrate his strength by beating up Ryu. This unlocks Ryu's EVIL HADOU and Jackie stops Ryu. Eventually he takes both Knuckle Joe and Ryu as his students.

Yeah they kinda sucked. Both were going to end with a credits screen showing everyone Jackie Chan fought while it played the Chinese version of the Mulan song "I'll Make a Man Out of You" (sung by Jackie Chan, no less)