Feature Spotlight: TV Shows - Part 1

Originally I planned to do a feature Spotlight for TV Shows when everything is complete, but I realized that a) I've been working behind closed doors on this for a while and there really isn't a good reason to not share my progress with you b) this is going to be quite complex, so splitting the Spotlight Post up in two parts might be a good idea.
So here we go. Part 1 will focus on developing and planning a show, while Part 2 will be about production, distribution and ratings.

As with movies you can turn Source material you own into a TV Show or you can develop your own idea. The pictures will show the development of an original idea.



In this first step you will lay the groundwork and set the basic parameters for your new show. Most of these things should be familiar or self-explanatory.
One thing we should talk about is the drop-down-menu labeled "Episodes". Here you choose the style of storytelling. You can choose between Episodic, Serialized, Hybrid - More Episodic and Hybrid - More Serialized. Your choice will influence how viewers and viewership rating will behave, but more about this in part 2.

Once your happy with the basics you can either save the idea to your library to revisit it later or you can start developing your first season right away.



You might notice, that this menu looks almost identical to the first one. That's on purpose. I want to give you maximum freedom. If the show in general is set in the present day USA but you decide that Season 3 should take place in 1950s Russia you can totally do it. Critics complained Season 1 had to little Action. Ramp it up for Season 2.You can change pretty much everything form season to season, so if you push it to the limits you can produce an anthology series like Fargo or American Horror Story.



Next step is creating an ensemble of characters for the season. You can remove old characters and add new characters with every seasons, but beware: All TV Show characters have a certain popularity with the viewers, so removing a fan favorite might hurt your ratings.

 

Here you will create the story lines that will play out throughout the season.You have to decide what the story line will be about thematically and what characters will be involved in it. You also have to set parameters for your writing staff. Do you want a funny love story or a complex, intellectual challenging story line? Make sure you find the right balance and have a little bit of each. What the right balance looks like will heavily depend on your genre and your target audience. A Hospital Soap Opera obviously needs a different mix of story lines than a Political Thriller. 



Once you've set up all your story lines, you have to assign them to your episodes. The plots (and the characters featured in those plots) will heavily influence the rating of the episode, so choose carefully. You'll have to choose one main plot and up to 5 subplots.

Once you have everything planned out an set up it's time to start the production process. You can take two routes. 



1. Invest your own money to produce the show. This will give you the option to show you new show on you own streaming platform (Netflix Style). 

2. You offer the show to networks and sell to the highest bidder. You will get a big chunk of money immediately, but you will also give up some control. The Network might ask you to make some changes, push for certain actors or decide to cancel the show all together if early seasons don't perform well. 

More about this in Part 2... that will be it for now. Keep in mind that this feature is still not finished, menu design isn't ideal yet, some things might and probably will change as I continue working on the game.
I hope you like what you see so far. As always feedback, ideas and criticism are welcome. Post in the comments or come over to the forum to talk about the game: 
http://filmstudiotycoon.proboards.com/

Happy Holidays!