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Computer and Video Games recently interviewed Peter Molyneux and Mark Webley about Lionhead's The Movies, a movie industry sim game. Popular as much for its computer generated movie making tools as for its gameplay, The Movies drops players into the role of a would-be movie mogul struggling to bring his or her studio to the top of the heap. The interview discusses the game's beginnings and some of the issues involved with its creation.

Molyneux: We didn't want The Movies to be an exact simulation of what the movie industry is - we wanted it to be what you and I think the movie industry is about. We did do some research and I spent some time with people in Hollywood, and I came away realising that it's an incredibly complicated, amazingly mixed-up industry, and how any film gets launched is amazing. It's about who you know, who knows you, where you have a cappuccino and whether you're successful that sees which films get made.

Webley: It's not a true simulation of what Hollywood is like - there's no stuff like gaffers or Best Boys. People don't know what these things are and don't really care, so we had to pull back on a lot of things just to get the game done." Molyneux: "Yes, we decided that this would be more of a simulation of what the movies were like in the '30s and '40s, which was much more about, "Hey, let's make a movie about this book. You go write the script, I'll think about who should star in it, we'll meet next week and shoot it the week after."

Computer and Video Games: The Movies Review

Feral Interactive

The Movies

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