Back in 2005, the remarkable movie business simulator The Movies was released, allowing players to create short masterpieces and manage a huge movie production machine: release hit after hit and prevent the studio balance from going into a steep nosedive, and the stars from falling into the depths of depression. This project clearly inspired the creators of Hollywood Animal, which was released in early access. And although the continuity is felt in many aspects, stylistically there is a chasm between them. The Movies was a bright and even somewhat naive project, where a bunch of production and personal problems, although they could make you nervous, did not pose dozens of unpleasant ethical dilemmas. But the creation of Weappy Studio immerses you in a much more mundane and gloomy world of studio affairs, where the height of a mountain of green bills is much more important than moral principles.
Meet the new Hollywood studio – Milka’s Fancy Films!
⇡#The Magic of Cinema
The end of the twenties of the twentieth century. The United States is shaken by the Great Depression, and the only ray of joy for ordinary Americans is cinema, magically transporting them from the impenetrable darkness of reality into the worlds of incredible adventures, fiery romances and twisted intrigues. In this context, our story begins. We buy a bankrupt studio along with some intellectual assets, some employees and production facilities, as well as preserved agreements with a marketing agency. And so, on the ruins of the old film company, we begin our journey to the hearts of viewers … and, of course, wallets.
The first step is to make the most of the existing material — a film that has been shot but not finished. There are three films to choose from: the adventure action film “Luke the Lame”, the romantic comedy “Blind Love” and the detective with elements of a thriller “Delivering Death”. Having chosen a film to our liking, we will have to finish it by organizing post-production — editing, sound recording, film development and writing a soundtrack. For each of the processes, it is necessary to assign people responsible — and it is better to choose people with higher qualifications (even if this increases the budget of the film), because even high-quality source material can easily be spoiled by inept editing and inappropriate music.
The game often refers to real cases from the history of cinema. For example, here is a funny incident from the filming of Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”, when Jack Nicholson dealt with a door too quickly
Having figured out the final look of the upcoming film, it’s time to prepare the distribution. We have our own network of cinemas with three thousand screens across the country, but for the sake of maximizing profits, it’s worth thinking about expanding coverage with the help of third-party networks. True, the potentially higher income is balanced by the risk – you will have to spend money on renting screens and printing additional copies, and if the film does not generate sufficient audience interest, then the loss will be significant.
To prevent this from happening, it is worth paying special attention to the promotion of the film. The focus of the marketing strategy will depend on the initially chosen film: a romantic comedy should be advertised as a spectacle for the whole family, while a dark detective story is better presented as a film exclusively for an adult audience. And, of course, it is important to choose the right time slot and channels for advertising so that news of the premiere reaches the target audience.
Choosing the right poster is one of the most important marketing steps. However, the game does not say whether this choice affects the real appeal of the film.
Having earned some money on the old studio’s assets, it was time to launch our own production. Every movie starts with an idea. You can either assign the script to full-time writers, or buy an interesting story, or even independently create a plot frame for the future film (define the setting, characters, and, say, the main theme), and then hand it over to the scriptwriters for revision. Naturally, manually developing each story takes longer, but the quality of such scripts will be many times higher than the autonomous writing of our creators on a salary.
However, even a bad script can be saved by good production, a competent film crew and a star cast. As well as, by the way, it is easy to ruin a good story by putting people without experience and proper qualifications in key positions. At each stage of production, be it pre-production, filming or editing and sound mixing, the quality of the future film changes depending on the competence of the performers – producers, directors, actors, editors, composers and other specialists. However, sometimes even an ideal team is not enough to save a film from a box office failure or a critical smash.
At the planning stage, you can choose real locations for filming or build the necessary stage in a pavilion, and also plan the number of assistants and extras – all this will affect the cost and quality of the film
⇡#Factory of Tears
Unforeseen problems most often arise, of course, during filming: either an actor turns out to be unprepared for the tasks on the set, or the pet of the star of the film drives the entire film crew crazy, or some “joker” slips the leading actress a candy made of feces. Each such emergency slows down or even completely stops the production process, and we have to deal with it personally. There are always several options for resolving the incident, and each will have its own consequences: for example, you can forbid the actor to bring his pet to the set – the work process will improve, but the performer’s level of happiness will drop. Or – allow the actor such liberties, and then the team will be sad. In both cases, there is a risk that the quality of the film will significantly decrease, and with it – the potential box office. But there is another option – to allocate some cash to a special person who will walk the dog during filming.
Dilemmas arise not only on the set, but also outside the production studios. For example, a composer may come up with an idea for an avant-garde soundtrack, which will lower the film’s box office potential, but increase the chances of critical acclaim. Good press is great, but money is even better, although this argument is unlikely to please a disappointed specialist. And I was not pleased with the behavior of the head of the security service, who went and shot his neighbor’s dog. Of course, you can wave your hand at the situation, but there is a risk that the dog’s owner will go to court or to journalists, which will lead to a decline in the reputation of our studio and, consequently, a decline in audience loyalty and box office receipts. So again, you will have to prepare a wad of bills to hush up the incident, or ask people with a dubious reputation to convince the victim to “forget” about what happened.
In addition to classic film promotion, one can also resort to “dirty” manipulative techniques, such as a visit by the film’s main stars to a hospice or orphanage.
By the way, shady characters themselves will often ask us for favors, ignoring which is more expensive for themselves. For example, the mayor of Los Angeles really wants his daughter to appear in a frame with a prominent Hollywood star, and even in the leading roles. It seems like an easy task, but once you take it on, a lump of problems will cover you from head to toe. The main difficulty is the girl’s acting talents. They are, ahem, not the most outstanding, which is why even a prominent star will still need to be convinced (with a large fee or additional privileges) to appear in a frame with an unknown and unconvincing actress. And, as a result, the quality of the film risks catastrophically suffering, and this is a rout from journalists and a failure at the box office. If you cope with such a challenge, then the mayor’s gratitude will be expressed in quite tangible reciprocal services, such as the best lawyers in the city who will get you out of any, even the most problematic, litigation.
If we don’t fulfill the terms of a contract with, say, a construction company, it will go to court – if we lose the case, we will have to part with a tidy sum
The police chief also promises useful “bonuses” when, for a film that glorifies “brave men in uniform,” he will organize protection for us from the mafia and police raids. Or he will organize these very raids on our competitors. However, we don’t even need a police chief to do dubious things – our own security officers can kidnap unwanted people, or even “get rid” of those who interfere with the prosperity of the film company. Such are the “roaring twenties” (and beyond).
However, the game does not limit us to the role of an unprincipled bigwig. You can always try to follow the path of highly moral leadership, ignore dubious proposals from people in power, give valuable employees long vacations when they ask for them, and fire those who behave inappropriately. But you will also fail with a much higher probability in this case. But instead of contract kidnappings and murders, you can focus on art, technical innovations and the quality of films, and enjoy high scores from critics. Exactly until the game content runs out…
When concluding a contract, the fee can be reduced by good medical insurance. Or by compromising information about the specialist’s dubious connections…
⇡#Nuances of pre-production
Unfortunately, any of the studio’s development paths is currently limited by early access conditions – many of the skills of different departments are simply blocked until upcoming patches. And for now, the game has only one act – too little for a game like Hollywood Animal, because the essence of such simulators is precisely in that very feeling of flow, when endless tasks and goals smoothly replace each other, not allowing you to tear yourself away from the screen for dozens of hours. But when all the development is abruptly interrupted barely having accelerated – the experience, frankly speaking, is so-so.
In addition to the lack of content, Hollywood Animal has a number of technical and gameplay flaws that prevent you from staying at the studio longer than you would like. And although there are not many bugs, and I personally did not encounter any critical problems, many mechanics clearly need painstaking revision. For example, the same emergency situations on the set at some point (when you have more than two films in production at the same time) begin to happen so often that the game turns into a non-stop simulator of pop-up windows, preventing you from doing other studio work.
Even though critics showered the film with unflattering epithets and low scores, viewers voted with their dollars
And the prospect of a new game with other inputs is actively hindered by the training stage – too slow, and not particularly informative. And you can’t skip it – just like you can’t skip the screensavers before each production stage for each film. They, although atmospheric, are annoying already on the third appearance, and on the twentieth time you just want to close the game and not launch it until the full release. Frankly speaking, I got the impression that the early access format is completely unsuitable for this particular project. Or at least the content should have been made a little richer.
However, the sequel is just around the corner: the authors have promised to add more content soon and fix the problems that players point out, and the release of the second act, new opportunities such as international distribution, the creation of franchises and much more are planned for the second half of the year. And I sincerely hope that by the premiere of the full release, Hollywood Animal will have fully realized its promising potential.
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