Written By: Anthony Whyte

Ever since it was announced that legendary gaming guru Peter Molyneux was creating a game where you get to make movies, I’ve been interested. I’ve wondered, how were they going to do it? How much freedom would we have over our movies, and how much control would the AI take? Well, I was lucky enough to get my hands on it last week and a lot of my questions were answered.

The Studio

The first thing I got to play around with was the tutorial. The tutorial is definitely a good start to a game like The Movies. With so much to do and see you can quickly feel lost. The tutorial started me off in the early, simpler time of the movies; the 1920s. The first thing you need to do is hire some builders, to build up your studio, some actors, and of course a director. You start by plunking down a couple buildings, like a place where script writers work, a building where you can hire janitors, and a sound stage where you can start shooting. This is the “Sim City” part of the game. You need to think about the layout of your studio; sticking a bathroom right next to the sound stage is not a good idea, unless you want your movie to stink. However putting little gardens and trees around can make your actors happy to work in such a place, and if you’ve ever worked in Hollywood you know its all about the actors.

It’s all about the actors.

So your Studio looks nice and you have plenty of actors, crewmen, and a director; its time to make a movie. The first movie I made was an instant hit. I called it “Guy picks up a dumb-bell and drops it.” Hey it’s the 20’s here, but don’t worry, you’re not stuck in this era forever. You’ll progress through the golden ages of the movies right up to the not so golden age of the present. After I active the script and put it into production my whole crew starts heading over to the soundstage to start shooting. This is when the whole “Sims” game play comes about. You see how the relationship between the actors and the director in the movie plays apart in how well the movie is going to do. You see a cloud bounce back and forth between the director and the actors. A sun comes out then they like working with each other, but if there is a thunder cloud, then maybe you need to recast this movie. Everything seemed ok on the set of “Guys picks up a dumb-bell…” and my movie was shot. Time to start making money!

Making the Big Bucks!

Once your movie is done you can release it and wait for the money to start pouring in. You can watch your movie and then check out the reviews from such places like “The Hollywood Reporter”. During this time you can either make another big hit or work on your actors’ skills and their relationship with the other cast. If an actor has been in a lot of comedies, their comedy skill will be higher then an actor that has been in lot of romances. You can work out their skills by having them rehearse in one of the sets in your studio. But you can’t forget the golden rule for Hollywood, all work and no play makes for boring tabloid news. With all that movie making and rehearsing, your actors are going to become way too stressed and going to need some free time.

All and all this game grabs you at the start and won’t let go. With so many different things to focus on and to play around with it’s not the kind of game that’s going to get boring. The whole game has a bright and colorful style to it, and with the movie themed music playing in the background, you feel that you’re really in charge of a living studio in the middle of Tinsel town. I’m really looking forward to this game, and with it coming out on PC on November 8 and later on the Gamecube, Playstation2, and the Xbox, I’m already coming up with my big movie blockbuster.