The Movies - E3'05 Impressions Preview

Amongst the visually impressive yet largely uninspired shooters on display at E3 this year, one title stood out as a shining beacon of the importance on developers to continue being creative. That title came from a likely source, as Peter Molyneux took his usual prominent position at E3 to outline the latest developments to Lionheadâ??s intriguing sim, The Movies.

The concept of becoming a movie mogul, establishing, maintaining and succeeding on a studio lot and creating your own flicks has captivated us ever since we first laid eyes upon it back in 2002. As youâ??d expect from a title with the name Molyneux attached to it, Lionhead has once again bided their time with The Movies, making many significant changes during its development cycle and constantly evolving the experience every time we see it. Those whoâ??ve been waiting for it can perhaps finally begin to get excited however, as the E3 2005 demonstration came across as being in a more complete structure than anything weâ??ve seen previously with a definite game structure surrounding what has in the past been an ambitious vision.

Unless youâ??ve been living on a Martian movie set for the last few years the chances of The Movies passing you by are slim to say the least, the typical hype and hysteria that follows a Lionhead project has to a slightly lesser degree followed the many years that the game has been in development. The Movies takes a familiar God/Sim structure to Molyneuxâ??s previous classics, however rather then build up a nation and wage war against other tribes or worry about the salt levels in your French fries, the player must manage every aspect that goes into making movies, be it prop placement, looking after the welfare of the stars or tipping off the gossip columns to raise a movieâ??s prominence.

The most startling development to the E3â??05 build was the overhaul of the interface system featured in the game, providing a colossal number of options and choice to the player via an intuitive and accessible system. Having toyed with the conventional menu system featured in previous titles from the genre, the team went back to the drawing board to develop a system that would completely eradicate menus in any shape and form. The result is a â??drag-and-dropâ? system, which allows players to pick up characters, objects, buildings and drop them into a designated area to carry out various actions; for example dropping a screen-writer into the relevant office will commence work on a new script. To enhance the sense of accessibility, remove the frustration and put the emphasis on player creativity, picking up a character/object results in â??streamsâ? stemming from them towards the most â??sensibleâ? thing to do with that given object - a director may be required on set, writers may need to head to the cafeteria for some extra caffeine, while your recovering alcoholic lead star could require a trip to the detox clinic!

When asked as to whether this would simplify the experience and remove some of the challenge to the player, Molyneux seemed adamant that it was more a case of presenting a variety of â??What If?â? scenarios to the player. The description of streams as the most â??sensibleâ? thing to do is crucial, as itâ??s up to the player to experiment with different situations rather then be restricted to certain outcomes; for example a desolate movie mogul could continue to harass his suicidal director, which in turn could lead to the gossip columns getting wind of the situation and increase hype from the scandalous headlines. Although weâ??ve yet to actually go hands-on with the game, our dubious suspicions were cast aside by this reassurance and weâ??re fully expecting a watertight game world, in which an unbelievable level of choice is presented to the player via a satisfying interface and system.

Characters in the game world be they directors, writers or actors (and many more) all have distinctive personalities and age as time progresses; it seems a significant amount of time could be spent on managing these individuals. The demonstration featured the aforementioned suicidal director and the star actor who enjoyed the booze a little too much, further examples included a lead actress who turned to food when the stress became too much and grew undesirably overweight as a result â?“ trip to liposuction for you my dear! Every character in your lot reacts to everything that is going on around them, with the result being a wonderfully stereotypical yet believable game word occurring for the player to experiment their every whim.

Actual progress through the game follows the timeline of the movies, starting in the early 20th century and following through to the present day and beyond. This structure affects a great number of aspects, such as the type of movies you can make to the technology available to you. Investment into R&D could see your movie studio breaking through into colour production before everybody else, while Lionhead are currently looking at what the future may bring for movie production â?“ Flow-Mo Matrix camera motion has to be a given!

The sheer scope of choice presented to the player appears to be an overwhelming amount to begin with, so itâ??s welcoming to note that players can hire staff to look after the more mundane tasks associated with running a movie studio - as with everything else to do with The Movies however exactly how much delegation is completely down to the player. The issue of choice is prevalent throughout the entire game, while thereâ??s a lot to guide players you still have the freedom to try and make your lowly sweeper the next big thing to hit Hollywood for example.

Although the demonstration didnâ??t highlight the process of creating a movie from start-to-finish via the Advanced Movie Maker (AMM), it was easier to grasp the techniques involved such as deciding what type of movie to make being decided by dropping writers into the screen-writers office with the floor space divided into different genres. The resulting script is dependant on the quality selected and the cost associated with this, although players are free to write their own script from start-to-finish if they so choose. Having completed this players must drop into the Casting Office in order to hire actors, director and crew for the production and must then design the set, placing individual props, selecting from over 4 million different costume combinations or even painting their own onto the different models!

Actually shooting the movie consists of taking control over a variety of sliders, each of which are based on what type of scene youâ??re trying to shoot and control such aspects as camera angle and duration to mention but a few. Lionhead promises complete control over the movies that you make; initially this sounded too good to be true, the typical Lionhead hyperbole and something that just couldnâ??t be comprehended, however our latest sighting of the title eases the doubts and affirms this fact completely. Whether youâ??re making 3-minute shorts or feature-length epics the choice is down to the player, one particular feature that makes a startling and profound affect on the experience is the ability to record your own dialogue and have the game accurately lip-synch to this.

The success of your movie is naturally the key to progressing further into the game, as you compete against numerous other studios for the bucks at the Box Office. The integration of rival studios appears to play a significant role within the game, possibly poaching your lead star or alerting the media to your bludgeoning lead actress. A chart within the game provides players with information on the competition and how the movies are performing, while the game includes nods to the film industry such as one particular genre becoming popular and multiple clones following shortly after similar to the Slasher flick boom in the 80â??s. In turn a successful movie could do well at the various award ceremonies that take place within the game, however with that comes many repercussions, an award-winning actor may receive a moral boost but his demands are likely to spiral as a result.

The demonstration ended with a movie that had been created by one of the Lionhead team members, a funny parody of Gloria Gaynorâ??s â??I Will Surviveâ? featuring zombies and entitled â??You Wonâ??t Surviveâ?. Although itâ??s unlikely to win any awards, the short feature exemplified the complete control presented to the player with every aspect of the dialogue, soundtrack and action ultimately decided by the player.