You've spent your entire life crawling slowly up the corporate ladder and now your time has arrived - the boss of a major movie studio has just retired and they want you to take his place! It's now up to you to sign the best actors and directors that you can afford, to develop the greatest scripts, to choose your release dates carefully and then plug the movies. Will it be a Titanic success or merely a Plan 9 From Outter Space?
CINEMANIA: THE MOVIE MAKER GAME is a completely internet driven, human modified simulator with one turn (representing six months of business) per week and twelve turns in total. Each player assumes the role of a major movie studio and is allowed to create one movie each turn. Successful movies earn $$$ in the form of points as long as they remain in the Top 10. Each player/studio begins with 500 points and whoever has the most points at the end of twelve turns is the winner. After the first turn, players must earn more points from their movies!
The game runs through deadlines. Results are posted by The Director (also known as the GM or Games Master) by midnight (GMT) of Friday of each week and players are expected to have sent in their film creations by midnight (GMT) of the Tuesday beforehand.
To begin playing the game, you need to Build A Studio. Once this is done, you will have to wait until you hear from The Director as to whether you have been successful or not (this will take no longer than 7 days). If you are accepted into the game, you will recieve your first 500 points and can begin to shoot movies. Remember that you can only shoot one movie per week. No more. No less. It is also important to remember that you keep any points you do not spend!
Clicking on the Shoot A Movie option takes you to a list of the current studios. Select your studio name to take you to the appropriate screen. You will need your password here so make sure you remember it! On this screen, you have the following options:
(1) OFFER CONTRACT TO MAIN ACTOR - Here you will be presented with a list of available actors/actresses (ie those not contracted to a film in production) and the minimum amount of points that they will work for. The more points needed to make them sign a contract, the more popular they are with the audience and the more people they will bring into the cinema for you. Select one and then type in how many points you are prepared to offer them. Remember that if you offer them too little or another studio beats you, your film will fail to take off the ground this week. Sorry but nobody said Hollywood would be easy!
(2) OFFER CONTRACT TO SUPPORT ACTOR - As above.
(3) OFFER CONTRACT TO DIRECTOR 1# - Similar to above except that the director you choose will affect your film in a major way. After each name in the list is a short description of their work. Ensure that you pick the right director for the film. For example, if you are making a children's comedy then don't pick Tim Burton, director of Edward Scissorhands and Batman otherwise the film may be certified a lot higher than you wanted and it will miss its target audience!
(4) OFFER CONTRACT TO DIRECTOR 2# - In case you can't get your first choice. Note that you will only pay for one director. If your first choice is unavailable, you will pay him/her nothing and will move to your second choice. If he or she is also unavailable, your film will fail to take off the ground.
(5) FILM GENRE - What type of film is it?
(6) FILM BUDGET - This affects the quality of any special effects, camera crew quality and, well, everything about the film. How many points can you afford to spend? Choose from Blockbuster (for Pearl Harbour greatness), Big Bucks, Mainstream, Below Average and the infamous Blair Witch Budget. Note that this is the cost per turn in development.
(7) FILM TITLE - Name your film.
(8) FILM DESCRIPTION - A short summary of your film and what happens within it. Remember, when writing the description you should state who the two main actors play or voice (for a cartoon).
(9) HOW MUCH SPENT ON PUBLICITY? - You can pump between 10 (a rather poor website and no trailers) to 500 (tie-ins with McDonalds and newspapers, prime time advertisments on tv and trailers before every film etc) points into publicity.
(10) HOW LONG UNTIL FILM RELEASE? - The longer spent on a film, the better its hopefully going to be (and the more its going to cost). You can choose either Next Turn (6 months spent on the film), 2 Turns (12 months spent on the film) or 3 Turns (18 months spent on the film). A good tip is to pump a lot of publicity into a film and then delay the release date to get the audience frothing at the mouth. It may also be a good idea to check when other films are coming out to see what you are up against. Whilst a film is in development, the actors and directors working on it will become unavailable to the other studios.
(11) SPECIAL EVENT - On certain occassions, Special Events may occur which each movie studio can bid for. These will include "Bond Franchise up for sale" and "Top Hong Kong fight choreographer looking for work". The highest bidder can then use these on their next film and will be guaranteed a greater audience! Those who bid but lose will end up paying nothing.
(12) HOW MANY POINTS SPENT IN TOTAL - Add up your points spent here! Don't worry too much if the amount is more than you have as you will only have to pay for one director.
Once you've done all this and checked it over, click on the Shoot Film button and you're done!
From the main screen, you can also access the following features...
READ LATEST FILM REVIEWS - Short reviews are posted here about recently released films. How has the finished film turned out? Go here to find out.
BOX OFFICE CHART - Shows the top ten films in Hollywood today and how many points they have earnt their studio. Films only earn points whilst they remain in the chart!
STUDIO RANKINGS - Which of the studios is performing the best? Find out here.
RELEASE SCHEDULE - When are your films (and others) due for release? Cancelled film shoots (due to unavailable actors, directors etc) are also listed here. Note that if your film is cancelled, you will still have to pay $$$/points to any actors or directors you made successful offers to! This is due to contract agreements. Money for other factors (such as promotion) will not be spent however.
LATEST GAME NEWS - Written by The Director, this section is filled with meaningless chat, as well as information such as if there are going to be any delays in updating the game, whether new players are required and votes for the game oscars (i know these come about every year in real life but, in this game, they will only come about twice during the twelve turns).
FORUM - Link to the yahoo chat site for players and lurkers. The Director is also around here sometimes if you want to ask him questions.
ADD TO THE GAME - Available to players only. This function can be used once per turn to add your favourite actor/actress or director to the lists if he or she is not already there.
