Quick Update: Filmography

I finally reached a point where I could implement the in-game-filmography for the artists (actors, directors and writers). 

Take a look: 



It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be.
This list should probably be sorted the other way around, with the newest films on top, but that shouldn't be too hard to fix (I already solved the problem of list sorting while working on the box office menu).

I hope you like what you see so far.

Progress Report

In the past days I have been working on the database and added more actors and movie titles (Over 1300 right now! All "handmade", no strange "random words smashed together" generator titles).

I also made a few visual changes, mostly on the casting menu and started working on the box office mechanic.

I'm quite happy with the progress so far. 

Making a movie pretty much works from beginning to end, from script writing to release. 
I'm currently trying to figure out the math behind the box office numbers, but that's probably going to be a lengthy process, with a lot of fine tuning involved.

Big updates like Feature Spotlights will be less regular from now on. That's because pretty much all the features I've shown you so far were already finished when I started this blog. If you don't hear from me for a while, don't get frustrated. 
I have not stopped working on the game and I will try to give you at least a short progress report every 7-10 days.

Feature Spotlight: Franchises

A little behind schedule, but as promised, I want to talk some more about franchises. Modern cinema is ruled by franchises, so a lot of work went into this aspect of the game.

Let's start with taking a closer look at the Library Menu.



Single Works - This menu displays all the rights you own to stand-alones single works. You can use these as source material for either a movie or a TV show. Or both. Once you own them, you can use them as often as you like.

Productions - Here you find all the movies and shows you already produced. You have the option to turn a production into a franchise.

 

Franchises - This menu shows you all the franchises you own. This includes franchises your bought (Like Star Wars or Harry Potter), but also franchises you created yourself.
You get an overview of the source material that's included in a franchise and the movies and shows you produced, that belong to this franchise.
There are several options to expand you franchise.

If your franchise includes source material, you can use it a starting point for a new movie or a show. Depending on the type of the source material, you have several options: Adaption, Sequel, Prequel, Spin-Off and Remake.



Adaption - Adaption will attract the biggest amount of fans of the source material, but will limit you script options the most. This option is only available if the source you're using is not a movie.

Sequels and Prequels - Will give you more freedom with the script, but will only attract a certain percentage of the fans of the original work.

Spin-Offs - Spin-Offs give you almost complete freedom with the script (with the exception of some basic parameters like the main genre), but will attract an even smaller percentage of the fan base.



Remakes - This option is only available if the source in question is a movie or TV show. This includes both, movies/shows you bought the rights to and your own productions. Remakes will attract slightly less franchise fans than Spin-Offs (as hardcore fans usually don't like reboots of their beloved original), but will have a mass appeal bonus, giving you the chance to add more fans to the franchise.

And of course you can use any type of movie as a starting point, for example making a Sequel to a Spin-Off.

That's it for now. I hope you like what you see. Criticism? Ideas? Feedback? Use the comments below!

Quick Update on Franchises

I think I finally figured out how franchises, rights, single works and series are going to work. 

As of right now you will be able to turn your own movies and TV shows into a franchise, buy rights to a franchise, turn source material from this franchise into a movie or TV show and add movies or TV shows to the franchise you bought. 

I still need to polish the menus a bit, but you can expect an Spotlight for that feature early next week.

Feature Spotlight: Actors

Today I want to take a closer look at one of the most important factors in the success of a movie: The actors.



Above you can see the Casting Menu in it's current state. Clicking on a role will give you a list of possible actors you can cast. You can set your own search parameters to filter the results by age and race.

Clicking on the actors name will give you access to more detailed information. Name, Age and Race (multiple races are possible) should need no further explanation, but let's take a look at the other values and what they will mean in the game.

Fame - Shows how well known (not necessarily how acclaimed) and actors is. This will determine the salary. Big names can cost millions, but they will draw people to the cinemas. The value is dynamic. Playing a big role in a successful movie will increase the value, but it will deteriorate over the years. If the actor doesn't manage to get cast in big productions on a consistent basis.

Performance - Shows how skilled the actor is. This also includes basics like being reliable or listening to directions. Younger actors usually will have lower values, but the value will increase as they gain work experience (how fast depends both on their talent and the quality of the productions they are involved with).
The actors performance plays a big part in calculating the overall quality of the movie/tv-show.

Depth - There are a lot of competent, well-trained actors, but only a few have the ability to add complexity, a multilayered personality, emotional depth to a role. Depth is also dynamic and will increase with experience, but much slower than performance. It's used to calculate the artistic value of the movie (which is used to calculate the chances for award winning).

Attractiveness - How handsome/beautiful the actor is. A high value will improve the mass appeal of the movie.

Talent - This value is hidden (unless you cast an actor via open audition). The talent value itself is static, but a high value will mean faster improvement and bigger potential for improvement, while an actor with little talent will learn much slower and cap out at a lower skill level.

Experience - Also a hidden value. Determines the salary (although not nearly as much as fame) and is one of the factors used to calculate the quality of the movie. An actor will gather experience by participating in production. How much depends on the size of the production and the importance the actor has in the production (playing a lead character in the newest Star Wars movie will add more experience than playing a minor part in a low-budget Horror flick).



Clicking on the blue icons on the bottom of the actor display will lead your to even more information. The second icon opens the genre display.

The Genre Factor - The Genre Factor is a melting pot of several different things. How well the actor fits into a genre, how much experience he has with that genre, how willing he is to participate in a production of that genre. Some actors have a wide range and will do well in pretty much every kind of movie, others are great within a specific genre but don't really work in others. However, this value is also dynamic. Landing a big hit with a movie of a certain genre will drastically improve the genre factor for this genre.

The third icon will show the actors in-game filmography, the fourth icon shows a list of the awards the actor has won. These two features are not yet implemented, but I will tell you more about them in the future.

The game will come with a database of hundreds of actors and actresses of all ages and races and of course you have the ability to add more via the editor, but if you are still unable to find the right actor for a certain role (or simply want to keep the costs low) you have the option to hold an open audition and cast a newcomer.



You will get a list of actors who made it to the finale round of auditions (how many varies). You can look at their stats and choose one of them for the part. The one you choose will be added to the normal actor pool and will be available for future production for both you and the AI Studios. All the others will get discarded, so choose wisely.

You might have noticed, that the picture displayed for the newcomer is a simple placeholder. If this bothers you, you can easily add a picture by dropping a bitmap image of the right size in the game folder, as long as the file name matches the full name of the actor.

Ok, that's it for now. If you have any questions, feedback or criticism feel free to comment below.