Before Peter Molyneux came along and showed us The Movies, if you wanted to try your hand at virtual film making you had to be a Hollywood Mogul. Now I will grant you that you don't actually MAKE movies in Hollywood Mogul. Not ones you can really watch. It's not that kind of game. But if you thought the simulation side of The Movies was lacking, then you should give Hollywood Mogul a whirl.
In Hollywood Mogul you get given your own studio, you have a bunch of money to start and then you set out to make yourself the flicks you want to make. Ideally these would be profitable. By default the game uses randomly generated names for the talent you'll hire, the scripts you'll purchase and the stories you'll adapt from various sources. But nowadays the Hollywood Mogul website links you right to where you can mod in REAL actresses, actors and directors - as well as TV Shows, Movies both foreign and domestic, Games, Songs and Short Stories to adapt into movies of your own. And if you don't see anything you like it's a reasonably simple matter to mod things in.
Even outside of the games source modding tools, in game you are capable of making your own "script" wherein you decide what will go into making the movie of your dreams. You'll decide everything from the level of violence, nudity and swear words to the intelligence of your films plot, whether there are twists, how good the pacing is and once all that's done you can even go as far as choosing the quality of the film you're shooting on, as well as the sound you'll be using and the quality of the special effects. And that is just the tip of the iceberg There are dozens upon dozens of things you can tweak and all can have an effect on the quality of your movie.
Just like real life quality isn't all that matters - a movie can be utter crap and still rake in the big bucks if you have a good amount of star power. Hence why the thirty million dollar Reese Witherspoon is in my otherwise small budget, courtroom drama pictured above. Getting Robert Downey Jr and Gary Oldman was pennies compared to what she cost, but those guys don't command anywhere near the attention in my game world as they do in real life - which I suppose I could tweak if I desired, but such things can also be manipulated just playing the game. If RDJ and Mr.Oldman were in more hits, they'd be costing a fortune too.
In addition to star power when you release a film can also impact how well it does.
Going with the most obvious example, Horror themed films do a bunch better at Halloween - but that doesn't necessarily mean you're automatically going to rake it in, because the rival studios will have similar plans and maybe they made a better movie, or at least a better marketed one.
Yes aside from just trying to keep your studio afloat, you are also in competition with rival A.I studios.
Not only do you want to make more money than them, but you're also competing for the time of the talent - if Christian Bale is off doing Batman 8 for some other schmuck you can't expect him to have time for your high-concept, sci-fi thriller. Which means if you're dead set on having Christian Bale in the lead, you'll just have to wait until he has time for you - and even when he isn't being used by other studios it's entirely possible that he just mightn't be interested in your project.
By default you're competing against I believe six studios, but I believe you can turn off some if the competition gets a bit much - but better still, there's hotseat multiplayer. Turns can be pretty long sometimes, so maybe the game doesn't lend itself to it - but damn it, I love that it's there. If you can find someone willing to sit down with you for hours on end, I'm sure you will too.
There's a lot going on with this game, so many systems to learn and though I've played me a fair bit I don't pretend to have my mind fully wrapped around them all. That being said I haven't made a movie yet that hasn't profited, even if there have been some stinkers that have only done so barely, so I must be doing something right.
You can pick the game up at its website for a good $30, which might seem a bit steep seeing as how long it's been out. But seeing as how nothing like this has really been done since, or at least done as well it's a price I think is well worth it. Also if you care to browse the forums you'll see a new one is in the works and I believe they said they'll do a kickstarter at some point? So might be worth a look.
That's a ways off though and this is out now and a tonne of fun regardless of it's age.
I mean I was going to play Assassins Creed 3 yesterday, but instead this got its hooks in me.
Until 4am. It definitely gives you a Civ-esque "one more turn" tendency.
If you can get behind a fully menu driven, text based experience than I think this is well worth your time.