I. Version History
II. Introduction
III. Controls
IV. Game Basics
V. Staff Categories
VI. Buildings and Ornaments
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I. VERSION HISTORY
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-Version 0.1:
Guided started on 12/20/2005
-Version 0.15:
Staff Categories section completed on 12/22/2005
Buildings and Ornaments section started on 12/29/2005
-Version 0.17:
After a long absence I finished the Buildings part on 10/19/2006
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II. INTRODUCTION
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This game was supposed to come out for consoles. That's what I first wanted to
get it for: Xbox. But then I got the PC version for my birthday and a while
later it was reported that the console versions were cancelled. Just as well
because I really don't see how this would have worked on them anyway.
Anyway, this game, as you can probably guess, is about making movies. There are
two ways of doing this, since there are two game modes. The first game mode has
you taking a movie studio from the 1920's all the way up to the 2000's,
micromanaging all of your staff, equipment, and facilities along the way. For
some people (people who just want to make movies) this mode will be a drag
because it gives you a lot more responsibilities than you might be willing to
handle. That's why there's Sandbox Mode.
Sandbox Mode gives you the option of basically having everything done for you.
You can have buildings and films created instantly (instead of heaving to wait
through the creation process like in the normal game) and can pick what amount
of money you start off with, as well as the year. So Sandbox Mode is there for
people who just want to dive in without having to worry about how their stars
are feeling, although that will come into play eventually.
All in all, if you like movies you'll probably like this game. It's not a very
taxing game in terms of system specifications. I mean, even my toaster of a
computer can run it on the highest video settings, which is almost like a
miracle in itself.
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III. CONTROLS
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Here's the list of everything your mouse and keyboard can do in this game.
-Movement
Mouse: Move camera in all directions
Up Arrow or W: Move camera forward
Down Arrow or S: Move camera back
Left Arrow or A: Move camera left
Right Arrow or D: Move camera right
Tab: Jump to the end of the highest priority guidance stream
Space Bar: Center the camera on your studio gates
-Other
Esc: Closes the current screen or takes you to the Pause Menu
P: Pauses the game
L: Shows your studio's attractiveness by ways of green or red dots covering the
ground
M: Brings up your studio map
You can rotate the camera in a number of ways. The first way is by holding the
middle mouse button and moving the mouse left or right. You can also do this by
holding down Ctrl and pressing the left and right arrows.
To zoom the camera, roll the mouse wheel back and forth. You can also hold Ctrl
while pressing the up and down arrows to do this. Holding the Shift key will
speed up the movement of either of these functions.
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IV. GAME BASICS
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The game might be a little tough at first glance, but you'll get the hang of it
soon. I'll break it all down for you here. If you've read my Fable guide,
you'll know how I split up sections.
Main Menu
---------
Here's what you'll find as soon as you boot the game up.
-Game
Enter this submenu to get a whole bunch of other options, which I will go over
now.
Learn the Basics: This will teach you everything you need to know to
effectively run your studio. So it basically eliminates the need for
this section, but I'm going to write it anyway. I'm cool like that.
New Game: This is where you'll start your moviemaking career. From
here you can choose your studio logo, name, and player name.
Sandbox: For those who want to jump right in. from this menu you'll
get a bunch of other options, including:
Game Start: Select what year you want your studio to start off in.
When you first start this mode, you can only start off in decades
thirty years beyond what you've reached in your New Game.
Starting Money: Choose how much money you want to start off with.
I of course selected the highest amount.
Instant Moviemaking: Selecting this option makes it a whole lot
easier to run an efficient studio. Having your movies filmed
instantly means you'll never have to go through long shooting
processes with no income.
Instantly Constructed Buildings: This is a useful option if you
don't want to hire many builders. Instead of having to wait for
them to construct your facilities, they will instantly appear after
you place them on your lot.
Stars Don't Misbehave: Keeping your stars happy is a whole job
in of itself. Having this option activated means you'll never have
to worry about keeping them happy - they'll always do as they're
told.
Buildings Don't Decay: All buildings erode over time, but if you
have this option on you'll never have to worry about repairing them.
this coupled with the Instantly Constructed Buildings options pretty
much eliminates the need for builders entirely.
Load Game: Load one of your previously saved games.
-Online
Here you can upload your movies (providing they follow the rules) and download
new items from the Props Shop. You'll have to register for this, but it tells
you how to do so.
-Movie Player
This lets you watch any of the movies you've created or ones you downloaded
from the Online option.
-Credits
Watch the credits, obviously.
-Quit
What do you think this does?
Game Mechanics
--------------
Once you've made your way through the menus, you're ready to play the game. In
this section I'll tell you all about what happens on screen and how to use the
interface to successfully run your studio.
-Timeline
Located running across the top of the screen, this timeline shows you
everything that goes on in the world around you. Several icons will show up on
it, giving you information about research packs, award ceremonies, world
events, public taste, and when your next movie (if you have one currently
shooting) is set to be released.
-Pause, Play, and Fast Forward
Using these is pretty straight forward. Pausing the game stops the passage of
time while still allowing you complete some tasks. You can't pick items or
people up, but you can check the status of pretty much everything in your lot.
Fast forward makes time do just that, go in double speed.
-Studio Ranking
In the top right corner of the screen is the Studio Ranking Icon. Click on this
to be taken to the ranking charts. This is important because it tells you how
you're doing compared to all of the other studios. Your rank is determined by a
number of different aspects of your studio. Cash balance, the quality of stars
employed by you, the quality of the movies you produce, and how clean and
travel-friendly your studio is all contribute to your overall ranking.
-Cash Balance
The main thing you'll need in order to be successful is money. This is true in
any profession. Clicking on your money will take you to your personal finance
charts, where you can view balance, expenditure, and income.
-Build Button
Located in the bottom left corner of the screen is the Build Button. This
allows you to add facilities, sets, ornaments, and flora to your park to
increase attractiveness and productivity. I'll have a lot more on those later
on in the guide.
-Star Cards
In one of the only gripes I have with the game, these cards are lined up on the
left side of the screen. Left-clicking on any one of your cards will jump the
camera to that person's current position. You can also hold the left mouse
button on any card and drag it to place the person somewhere without having to
find them first. Hovering over your cards will give you all of the important
information about that person you need. Clicking on the icon right above the
cards cycles through the different number of employees your studio has.
Here's a rundown of the different Activity Icons you will see on your Star
Cards.
Lighting Bolt: This means that the Star is currently engaged in a
non-shooting activity. These include rehearsing on a set, getting a
makeover, and other things.
Z: This means that your Star is doing something, but it's something
relatively unimportant and you can drag them away for something else.
Camera: This means that the Star is currently involved in a movie,
but they are not on set.
Lightning Bolt & Camera: This one means that the Star is currently
filming a scene in a movie. When they are doing this you cannot move
them to any other location.
-Movie Cards
Just like how your Star Cards tell you about your stars, your Movie Cards tell
you about your movies. These cards tell you the stage of production you movies
are in. you can also see if there's any problem that is holding up production,
the star rating, and, if the movie in question has already been released, what
the chart position is. There are three phases that these cards go through. In
the writing process the card is shown as a script icon. Once you have begun
filming that movie the script icon is replaced with a movie camera. The final
phases is a film can icon, which means that you movie is released.
There are five genres of movies for you to choose from: horror, sci-fi,
romance, action, and comedy. To find out what kind of movies the public want to
see currently, hover over any one of your Script Offices.
-Information Bubbles
These bubbles are what tell you how everything is doing in your studio. Without
them you'll have no idea what's going on. They put all information in order of
priority and display it accordingly. If you want important information on a
star or other employee, movie, or building, all you need to do is hover over
that object to see its information bubble. To view all of the information at
once, right-click on the object in question; to close the bubbles simply click
on any one of them. This individually closes them. You can also click on the
central one to close it and any other bubbles attached to it. Another way of
closing them is moving the cursor away from them. Sometimes you will see a red
exclamation point near a bubble, indicating that something is really wrong and
that you should probably do something about it. Other times you will see a blue
I that is just bringing something semi-important to your attention.
The more filled the bars are in the bubbles the better. A filled bar means your
star is happy. An empty one means they are seriously pissed. You will also
notice that there are vertical lines on the bars in the bubbles. These are the
thresholds. These exist to show you when things get really bad. Like if one of
their bars falls below the lowest threshold. That's bad, and you should do your
best to avoid that, otherwise your stars will become unruly. On the other side
of the spectrum, get their bars above the highest threshold and they'll be
happy to work for you.
-PA System
Information bubbles aren't the only way of getting information about your
studio. There will also be frequent announcements over the PA system, telling
you about rival stars wanting to join your studio, research packs available,
when the next awards ceremony is, and if one of your facilities is in critical
condition, among over things.
-Pips
Every once in a while you'll see a bar pop up with a number of diamond
formations inside. Each diamond is divided into four sections. This is another
way of learning how your lot is doing. Positive progress is shown by gaining
green pips while negative progress is shown by losing red pips. You may see
this bar when gaining or losing studio capital, attractiveness, or prestige.
-Guiding Streams
Sometimes when you pick up a person you'll see a sparkling stream guiding you
towards the most appropriate action for that person. Of course these are only
suggestions and you can go right ahead and ignore them. But they are useful
when you have someone on your lot who isn't doing anything but has a job they
should be working on, since the game will point out where they need to be.
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V. STAFF CATEGORIES
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Your studio depends on having a good staff to carry out all of your commands,
since you can't do any of them yourself. In this section I'll tell you all
about the kind of people you'll be able to hire. There are a few things you
should know about all job applicants first.
Any job applicant who isn't outside of your stage school starts off with zero
experience. That means any person looking for a job as a janitor or builder
could just as easily be hired as a scientist or film crew and be just as
effective an employee. These people have no starting experience so they'll be
naturally suited for any job you like.
They can also be easily reassigned. Staff members can gain experience in any
field you put them in, so jumping your employees from job to job over time can
gain you a studio of well-versed staff.
All staff members make a salary of $1000 per year. The only exceptions to this
are Extras (who make $3000) and Stars (who start at $6000 and make a variable
amount). The same applies to aging and retirement. Only Extras and Stars will
age and retire. All other staff members live forever and simply gain more
experience at their craft.
Builders
--------
Builders, quite simply, build. They will construct all of your facilities and
sets for you once you place them. They will either find their way to them by
themselves or you can drag them over to the location yourself to get the job
done quicker. The more builders you have the faster the construction will go.
The other important job these staff members have is keeping all of your sets
and buildings in good condition. All facilities wear and decay over time and
repeated use, and if their condition gets too bad they may have to be closed.
This is why it is good to have a large number of builders on hand to regularly
repair your facilities.
To view you studio's overall Studio Maintenance, either click on the
information icon in your Production Office or right-click on your Staff Office.
Staff Maintenance is an element of Studio Prestige, which contributes to your
Studio Rating. Studio Maintenance is based on the number of builders you have
employed versus the size of your studio. This is why you'll need more builders
if your lot is very large.
As I mentioned before, builders are capable of getting to facilities on their
own, which saves you the trouble of having to carry them all around when you
probably have more important things to do. So, in order to make sure your
builders can get around your lot easily (and all other staff members, for that
matter) it's always wise to connect all of your facilities with paths and
pavement. This makes it easier for everyone to get around and do their jobs.
If you can afford it, it might be wise to hire more builders than you actually
need. That way there will be more of them out there working on keeping all of
your facilities in good working order. On the other hand you can take the time
to personally move each builder to a particular building if you have that sort
of time and want to get personally involved in your studio's maintenance.
Outside of each facility on your lot are a number of icons available only to
builders. Picking any builder up will show you these icons. There will always
be a number of maintenance icons that will make your builder begin repairs one
they are placed on them. But there are also two more that allow you to move or
destroy your buildings. The move icon has four arrows on it. Place the builder
onto that icon to be able to move the building, right-click to return it to its
original position if you change your mind. To sell a building, move a builder
onto the bomb icon to have the building be demolished and to gain a depreciated
portion of the original price of the facility.
Of course moving or selling a building causes your Studio Attractiveness to
take a big hit, since after the building is no longer there it leaves a lot of
debris. So be ready to have some janitors to come clean up the sight quickly.
Builders can be hired by dragging an applicant into the Create Builder room of
your Staff Office. They also gain experience with each job they perform.
Janitors
--------
If you have lots of grass, you'll need these guys. If you have lots of people,
you'll need these guys. You'll pretty much need them no matter what you have.
These staff members will go around picking up litter and watering your grass.
This is important since Cleanliness is a factor of Studio Lot Prestige, which
adds into your Studio Rating.
The number of janitors you should hire is a lot like the situation with
builders. It really depends on the size of your lot and if you want to
personally place them where there's trash. You can hire a lot of them, and with
the right amount they'll be able to keep the dead grass and litter from
detracting from the attractiveness of your lot.
Janitors can be hired by dragging an applicant into the Create Builder room of
your Staff Office. They also gain experience with each job they perform.
Crew
----
These are the men and women who will man your cameras and make sure your movie
happens. The number of them you should employ will directly depend on the
quality of scripts your studio will be able to produce. The better your writers
are the higher number of crew members you will need for each project.
The unique thing about your film crew is that the experience they gain will
have an effect on the quality of your movie. For all of your other staff
members, their experience only allows them to do their jobs swiftly. But crew
members' experience will increase the quality of your movie.
Crew can be hired by dragging an applicant into the Create Crew room of your
Crew Office. They also gain experience with each job they perform.
Scriptwriters
-------------
If you don't feel like writing each one of your movies by yourself, you'll need
these staff members. If you're just starting off, you can get away with around
two to three scriptwriters. But once your studio gets off the ground the number
you can have is almost limitless, since you can build several script offices
and have all of them toil away at once.
You can only assign a maximum five scriptwriters to a script per office, which
means they can only write one at a time unless you have multiple offices for
them to work in. To have them begin writing, simply pick one up and drop them
into any one of the five genre rooms inside your Script Office.
The amount of scriptwriting experience they have will not affect the quality of
the script, only the speed. The same is true for the number of scriptwriters
you assign to project. The more working on it the faster it will be written.
Scriptwriters can be hired by dragging an applicant into any of the genre rooms
in you Script Office. They also gain experience with each job they perform.
Scientists
----------
To make sure you stay on the cutting edge of movie technology, you'll need
scientists. You can hire a maximum of six, but can only have four of them
working on one single research packs.
Research packs are what give you all of the scenery, costumes, and effects
you'll be able to use in your movies. By having a good number of scientists on
hand you'll be able to have access to this technology before anyone else. I'll
have more on the packs later on in the guide.
You'll be able to build your first laboratory in 1928. Once you have it
constructed make sure your scientists always remain busy. If there is a new
research pack available they won't automatically get to work on it unless they
are already in the room that it involves. So you'll usually have to track them
down and drop them back into the lab to get all the work done.
Scientists can be hired by dragging an applicant into any of the research rooms
of you Laboratory. They also gain experience with each job they perform.
Extras
------
These people will fill up all of the minor roles in your movie. Like stars,
they will age and eventually retire. They also gain experience in genre with
each movie they perform in. ultimately this skill level won't mean much since
it doesn't factor in to the movie quality. The only use leveling up your extras
has is if you want to some day turn one of your extras into your next Star.
In scripts you writers generate, the number of extras can factor in to add half
a star. The number of extras each script calls for depends on your offices
script quality. The better the script is the more extras it will need (since
there will be more roles).
Extras can be hired by dragging an applicant into the Create Extra room of your
Stage School. They also gain experience in genre with each movie that they
perform in.
Photographers
-------------
These guys aren't really members of your staff since they don't work for you.
But they will show up at your main gates from time to time so it's wise not to
ignore them. The number of photographers that appear depends on your Studio
Rating. If you have a high Studio Rating you'll find more of them waiting to
catch a glimpse of your stars.
You can pick them up and have the take pictures of whatever you want. All
pictures taken of a star will boost their star rating, but not always their
mood. In some cases it'll cause their mood to drop. You can tell when stars are
having a good photo opportunity by looking at the icon that appears when you
hold a photographer near them. A camera with a green check means that the star
is engaged in something that would make for good publicity. A camera with a red
mark means that they're not really doing anything interesting.
The photographers can take pictures oft two stars together, but only the star
with the positive camera icon will receive the rating boost. Once a
photographer has a picture they will leave and not return for one year.
Personal Assistants
-------------------
You won't see any staff cards for these guys, but you can assign this job to
pretty much any staff member. And they're important because without them you're
liable to have some pissed off stars on your hands.
Having a large entourage will boost your star's mood and rating. Any non-acting
staff member you have can be dropped into the Make Personal Assistant icon next
to a star to build up their entourage. Now it's not always a great idea to take
existing staff and assign them to a star's entourage, because that means you're
taking staff away from other important tasks. So it's a good idea to get your
Studio Rating high. The higher your rating the more people will line up outside
your offices, looking for jobs. Then you can simply take one of them and turn
them into a star's personal assistant.
These staff members don't need or gain any experience, but they will retain any
experience they gained by doing jobs before they were assigned to a star.
Directors
---------
I think the game considers these guys Stars, but I'll make them their own
little special section. You can turn any of your existing stars (or hopeful
ones) into directors. You can make them rehearse on any of your vacant sets to
gain experience in shooting that particular genre. Plus if you're low on actors
you can put them in one of the roles and see how they fair.
Directors can be hired by dragging an applicant into the Create Director room
of your Stage School. They also gain experience in genre with each movie that
they direct.
Stars
-----
Stars are probably the most difficult staff to manage. You have to keep them
happy in order for you to make money. The moods of your other staff don't
matter at all. Every one of your movies will require two stars: a director and
lead actor. If your scriptwriters can churn out higher quality scripts, they
may call for one lead actor and two supporting actors, bringing the needed star
count up to four.
Stars make up a large part of your Studio Rating. The higher your star is rated
the greater their contribution to your Studio Rating. They also impact the
success of your movies depending on their performance. Their performance
depends on their mood, experience, and whether or not they are suitable to the
genre of the current project. The relationships between your stars also add to
the quality of your film. High-rated stars make your movies successful, which
in turn boosts your Studio Rating and makes you money. But keep in mind that
the more high-rated stars you put into one of your movies, the more expensive
it will be to make.
In order to keep your stars happy you have to make sure they have an acceptable
salary, trailer, and workload. But keep in mind that paying one star too much
or giving them too big a trailer can make your other stars jealous. In order to
keep your stars content you'll have to juggle a lot of different tasks.
If you don't give your star anything to do and they spend their time wandering
around your lot, they'll get bored. To counteract this put them into your
movies or, if all roles are filled or the movie has already begun filming and
it's too late, drop them onto any unused set so they can practice and hone
their skills.
Work them too hard, though, and they'll become stressed. To alleviate this put
them into restaurants or bars. But watch out, if they spend too much time in
here they may become dependant on food or drink, forming an addiction. If they
get addicted you'll have to build yourself a rehab clinic and have them do a
stint there until they can get clean.
As your stars become more experienced and move up the stars charts, they'll
begin to demand more money and bigger trailers. When doing your finances try to
give them small raises so that you don't upset your other stars.
When hiring stars, make sure you pay attention to their personality features.
You're not going to want someone who gets stressed out easily. You also may be
wary of hiring people who are easily addicted to food or drink. If you don't
like the personality of one of the applicants in your Stage School line, you
can drop them into the Reject room to have their spot replaced.
Sometimes stars from rival studios will appear on your lot and take a place in
your Stage School line. You can hire these stars to gain a quick boost to your
Studio Rating. They will have all of the experience, age, mood, and rating that
they've received from their original studio, and will expect to have a large
salary and trailer ready for them if you hire them. Keep in mind the same
tactics you use to weed out the unsatisfactory would-be stars in your line.
Rival studio stars can have all of the negative personality traits that would-
be stars have. Plus they come to your studio with usually a good portion of
their career behind them, meaning that they might be halfway to retirement when
you hire them.
Retirement is something all of your stars will have to face sometime. When that
day comes they will simply walk off your lot and disappear from your Star
Cards.
On the other hand, if you have a Star & Script Selling Facility you can perhaps
make a profit off one of your stars. Simply drop a star or finished script into
this building and they will be auctioned off to an amount based on their
rating.
Stars can be hired by dragging an applicant into the Create Star room of your
Stage School. They also gain experience in genre with each movie that they
perform in.
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VI. BUILDINGS AND ORNAMENTS
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All of the buildings and decorations you add to your studio are all important.
Each one of them affects your Studio Attractiveness. But just how much they
affect the rating depends on the type of building/ornament they are. This means
that a set and a facility with the same rating may not have the same affect on
your attractiveness.
When you first start your game you'll have a limited amount of these objects to
place around your studio. As time goes by you'll gain more, through a number of
ways. One way is by the Research Packs. You can wait for the items within these
packs to become widely available, or you can have your scientists work away
until they unlock them earlier than every other studio.
You can also gain facilities or sets by receiving one of the nine Achievement
Awards during the ceremonies every five years. I'll have more on this later.
Another form of award that gives you special items is the Lifetime Achievement
Award. There are three of these, and you can win one depending on your studio's
performance over its lifetime (1920-2005). You can get a Lifetime Achievement
Award for running a studio into 2005, winning all nine of the Achievement
Awards by 2005, or winning all nine of the Achievement Awards and winning each
reward ceremony more than once.
Most sets and buildings cannot be built once you are in debt, but there are a
few important facilities that can. They are the Basic Script Office, Casting
Office, Crew Facility, Production Office, Stage School, Stage Set, and the Star
and Script Selling Facility. Another thing to consider is how many of each
facility to build. Some will not allow you to have more than one, but many of
them will allow it, which can benefit your studio's productiveness. Facilities
that can only be built one are the Basic Script Office, Crew Facility, First
Class Script Office, Intermediate Script Office, Laboratory, Production Office,
Proficient Script Office, and Stage School.
Facilities
----------
First off, we have the facilities. These buildings take care of your studio's
business. Some will benefit your studio just by being there while others have
separate rooms that you can interact with (by dropping things into them).
Right-clicking on facilities will give you important information on them.
The following list contains the price, attractiveness (how much each facility
will decrease your Studio Attractiveness) and the years the facility becomes
available (if there are two years, the first one is when your scientist can
begin researching it and the second one is when it automatically becomes
unlocked).
Bars are very useful for calming a star's nerves. If he or she is stressed out,
put them in a bar to ease their nerves. Be careful, though, because spending
too much time in a bar can make your star addicted to drink. You can also put
two stars together in a bar to talk and build a relationship. The two sections
of the bar are specifically for relationship-building. The normal seating area
is good for stars who have just recently become friends. The VIP section is
better suited for those who are very close friends. But don't put two
acquaintances into the VIP section, an environment too advanced for their
relationship won't help them become any better friends.
-Casting Office
Cost: $5000
Attractiveness: -20
Available In: 1920
This building is used to fill the roles of your movies. As soon as you put a
script into the Begin Casting room all of the extras and crew needed are
automatically filled in (assuming you have the number called for). Then it is
up to you to assign the director, lead, and supporting roles (by dropping them
into the appropriate rooms). Once you have assembled your entire cast, you can
drag the script into the Shoot It room to start filming.
This building can increase your stars' physical appearance. Dropping a star
into the Nip & Tuck room increases their Look value. Once you have the Implant
room available, dropping a star into there increases their Chest Size. And once
the Liposuction room is available to you, dropping a star in there increases
their Trimness. Both the Chest Size and Trimness combine to make up a star's
Physique Rating.
-Crew Facility
Cost: $4000
Attractiveness: -20
Available In: 1920
This is where you'll be able to hire and fire crew members. Applicants lined up
outside your crew facility will start off with a little bit of crew experience,
as opposed to the zero crew experience people from other lines on your studio
will have.
-Custom Script Writing Office
Cost: $11111
Attractiveness: -20
Available In: 1960/Wannabe Big Cheese Achievement Award
You don't need this to run a studio, but it sure can make it a lot more fun.
Using the Advanced Movie Maker in this building you can write your own scripts,
although you'll only be able to write one equal to the quality of those churned
out by your writers in their own script offices. I'll have a section on how to
create your own scripts later on.
-Laboratory
Cost: $24000
Attractiveness: -20
Available In: 1928
Laboratories are not mandatory, but useful if you want to get a head start on
the technology of the time. Hiring scientists and having them work on research
packs will get you those items before the unlock dates comes around. This means
that you will get all of those tools before any other studio. Inside the lab
are four rooms for different aspects of technology. The Cult Packs room, which
deals with research for horror and sci-fi films, the Mainstream Packs, which
deals with research for action, romance, and comedy films, Stars & Studio,
which deals with research for new costumes and facilities, and Movie-Making,
which deals with research for boosting your movie's success.
-Makeover Department
Cost: $7000
Attractiveness: -20
Available In: 1920
Clothing styles change with the times, and your stars' Image rating may go down
and they may become displeased because of this. When this happens it's time for
a makeover. Inside this building are two rooms. Automatic will give your star a
fashion rating increasing makeover but take up game time and cause stress.
Manual gives you the ability to do this yourself, but without the time
consumption and stress involved. You can also change a star's name in the
Manual room.
-Post Production
Cost: $39000
Attractiveness: -20
Available In: 1928-1932 (Starter Tech Pack)
Another building that you don't really need at all but can be fun to have. With
this building you can add lots of effects and elements to your films after they
have been shot, but none of the work you add will affect the rating. I'll have
more on techniques for this later on.
-Production Office
Cost: $6000
Attractiveness: -20
Available In: 1920
Here's a building that you absolutely cannot function without. It can give you
information on your lot when you right-click on it by telling you the number of
employees and the number of staff you have (employees include both staff
members and stars). This will help you in learning if you are reaching the
needs of your staff's dining, ornamentation, and sanitation levels.
There is also an Information Icon inside the production office that will give
you information. Right-clicking on it will inform you of you rating in all Lot
Prestige categories. Drag and drop the icon into the Finance room to be taken
to the same screen you would be if you clicked your funds at any time in the
game. Drop the icon into the Reviews room to view critics' reviews of your
studio. You can also drop it into the Movie Player room to view any of your
studio's archived movies.
If you have a Publicity Office you will also be given a release budget in the
Production Office. This will give you the choice of how much money to spend on
the advertising of each of your films. Once they have stopped earning your
studio money, you will be prompted to Archive them by dragging them into the
Archive room.
-Publicity Office
Cost: $44444
Attractiveness: -20
Available In: 1965/Respected Studio Head Achievement Award
If you're gunning to have the top studio, you may want to build around three or
four of these on your lot. The purpose of these buildings is to raise public
awareness of your stars or films. You can drop a star, script, or finished
movie into one of these to boost public awareness. If the star you drop in is
already in a film, half of the public awareness gained through doing PR will go
to the movie they are in. If they are not currently cast in the movie, they
will gain all of the awareness.
-Rehab
Cost: $22000
Attractiveness: -20
Available In: 1928
If any of your stars have become too dependent on food or drink, building one
of these buildings on your lot will cure him. This is a time-consuming process
(it will take up one year) and it will be very boring for your star, but it has
the ability to restore up to one half of both of your star's addiction bars.
You can also drop a photographer near the rehabbing star for a news story and
publicity boost.
The more people you employ at your studio, the more restaurants you'll need.
Having restaurants will raise your Catering Rating, as well as give your stars
a place to de-stress and build relationships. Similar to the functions of the
Bar, dropping a star here will lower their stress but also lower their
resistance to food addiction. The two areas in the Restaurant are for the
levels of relationships your stars might have. The regular area is good for
Best Friends or Good Friends (if same sex), while the VIP area is better for
Soul Mates or Best Friends (if same sex).
-Restroom: Large
Cost: $12000
Attractiveness: -100
Available In: 1928-1936 (Functional Facilities Pack)
Capacity: 5
Having lots of bathrooms will boost your lot's Sanitation Rating. The only
downside is that all bathrooms will take a big chunk out of your Studio
Attractiveness. So it's a good idea to plant lots of plants around bathrooms to
spruce the area up. You will also need to consider where to place your
bathrooms. A Large Restroom far out of the way won't do your studio any good
since everybody will have to walk far to get to it.
-Restroom: Small
Cost: $3000
Attractiveness: -200
Available In: 1920
Capacity: 1
It might be a good idea to throw one of these in high-traffic areas of your
lot. They can only serve one person and have double the impact on your Studio
Attractiveness, so place at your own risk. Personally I really don't even
bother with them.
These are good if you place a few in one area. The Large Restrooms can serve
more than twice as many people, but also have twice the Studio Attractiveness
impact. The VIP Restrooms have the smallest attractiveness effect out of all
restrooms, which is a plus.
-Script Office: Basic
Cost: $6000
Attractiveness: -10
Available In: 1920
Right-clicking on any of your Script Offices will show the public's current
interests in movie genres. This will tell you what kind of movies to produce
(unless you want to produce any kind of film you want no matter how badly it
may fair). The Basic Script Office can only produce a one-star script that will
call for one lead role, one extra, and three or less crew. These scripts will
be written the fastest and are the cheapest to produce into a film.
The same as the Basic Script Office functionally, except that this office can
produce a two-star script calling for one or two lead roles, one extra, and
three crew members. Obviously, these scripts will take a little longer to
complete and will be more expensive.
-Script Office: Proficient
Cost: $33333
Attractiveness: -20
Available In: Promising Studio Manager Achievement Award
The same as the other two offices functionally, except that this office can
produce a three-star script calling for lead roles, two to three extra, and
three crew members. Again, these scripts will take longer to write and will
cost more to produce.
-Script Office: First Class
Cost: $66666
Attractiveness: -20
Available In: Highflying Moviemaker Award
I think you can guess what these function like. They produce four-star scripts,
which call for two to three lead roles, three to five extras, and three crew
members. And of course I think you know that these will take more time and more
money to make.
-Snack Van
Cost: $3000
Attractiveness: -10
Available In: 1920
Capacity: 1
These small vans only serve a small number of people, offer half the stress
relief, and cannot aid in the building of relationships. But they can still be
a little useful so it can't hurt to have them.
-Stage School
Cost: $5000
Attractiveness: -20
Available In: 1920
Hopeful stars will line up outside this building. From here you can hire them
as stars, directors, or extras. There is also another room called Import Star.
Drop someone from the line into this room to turn them into any star you have
created with the StarMaker tool. I'll have more information on that and what
applicants are good applicants later on in this guide.
Another building that you don't really need, but it can be helpful. If you have
scripts or stars around that you don't want anymore, you can sell them to the
market. Keep in mind that newly hired stars or stars from rival studios will
not reach their highest market value until they've been with your studio for at
least eight years. Also, the amount you get for a script depends on its star
rating.
-Trailer: Palatial
Cost: $77777
Attractiveness: -20
Available In: Big Fish Achievement Award
All trailers are basically the same. The only difference is the size. The
bigger the trailer is the bigger the surrounding yard will be. Also, the bigger
the trailer is the more prestige it will have. The Trailer Prestige depends on
the size of the trailer itself and the amount and quality of ornaments in its
yard. A high Trailer Prestige will increase a star's status and mood.
Sets
----
Okay, now we get to the places where your movie's are shot. What you'll need to
keep in mind about sets is the Novelty value. This will determine how well-
received your sets are. Use a particular set too much and the audience will
tire of it, lowering its Novelty level. Each set has a different threshold for
this, so some may become boring quicker than others. If one of your set's
Novelty meter becomes low, try not to use it for awhile in order to refill the
meter.
Each set can also be used for practicing when it is not currently in use for a
movie. Right-clicking on a set will tell you what kind of genre experience an
actor can gain from practicing on the set.
-Rural: Field
Cost: $11000
Attractiveness: -30
Available In: 1928-1953 (Classic Household Pack)
Novelty Value: 40
Genre: Sci-Fi
-Rural: Forest
Cost: $22222
Attractiveness: -25
Available In: Junior Studio Manage Achievement Award
Novelty Value: 38
Genre: Horror
-Wild West: Street
Cost: $80000
Attractiveness: -40
Available In: 1928-1950 (Advanced Wild West Pack)
Novelty Value: 25
Genre: Action
Ornaments
----------
Right, now that the sets are out of the way I can tell you about ornaments.
These objects have the ability to increase your Lot Prestige by raising your
Attractiveness and Ornament ratings. There are also a number of ornaments that
have special abilities, like giving stars benefits when they interact with
them. With most ornaments you can pick up a star and place him or her onto the
interaction icon to have them use that particular ornament.
There is a limit to how many you can use, though. For instance, each ornament
has an Overuse Limit. This means that when you place one ornament, all
subsequent copies of that same ornament will have slightly lower positive
effects on your Attractiveness rating. Each drop is small, put if you overdo it
and hit the Overuse Limit be prepared to take a massive hit to your rating.
There are some ornaments with high Overuse Limits, allowing you to place more
of the same ornament without any negative effects, so make sure you take note
of each one's limit.
There are three ways that your ornaments add to your Attractiveness rating. The
first is the total Attractiveness of all of your ornaments. This is pretty much
scaled directly to the size of your lot. There is also a factor that deals with
the number of employees you have. If you have a lot you'll need a higher number
and more attractive ornaments to keep your Ornament Rating high. The last
factor is Trailer Prestige. If you place ornaments in the yard of a star's
trailer, those ornaments will have the same two above ratings as well as one
relating to the prestige of the trailer. Having a high Trailer prestige is good
because it boosts the owner's Mood and Star Rating. Placing ornaments with a
low Overuse Limit in a trailer yard adds more to the prestige as opposed to one
with a high limit.
-1924 Chrysler Six
Cost: $1050
Attractiveness: 34
Available In: 1920
Interaction: Boredom -5
Overuse Limit: 3
-1934 Chrysler Airflow
Cost: $1200
Attractiveness: 36
Available In: Laboratory Facility Research Pack
Interaction: Boredom -5
Overuse Limit: 3
-1940s Jeep
Cost: $1300
Attractiveness: 32
Available In: Intermediate War Research Pack
Interaction: Boredom -5
Overuse Limit: 3
-1948 Chrysler Town and Country
Cost: $1800
Attractiveness: 38
Available In: Basic Action Research Pack
Interaction: Boredom -5
Overuse Limit: 3
-1957 Chrysler 300C
Cost: $2125
Attractiveness: 36
Available In: Intermediate Action Research Pack
Interaction: Boredom -5
Overuse Limit: 3
-1960 Chrysler 300F
Cost: $2200
Attractiveness: 41
Available In: Intermediate Action Research Pack
Interaction: Boredom -5
Overuse Limit: 3
-1960s Sports Car
Cost: $2500
Attractiveness: 36
Available In: Advanced Action Research Pack
Interaction: Boredom -5
Overuse Limit: 3
-1970s Black Limo
Cost: $3500
Attractiveness: 51
Available In: Ultimate Action Research Pack
Interaction: Boredom -5, Shapeliness +5
Overuse Limit: 3
