Greetings,
as someone who played a lot of Hollywood Mogul many years ago, it's great to discover this project. I only discovered it today and only played a few hours, so this is just first impression stuff mostly.
I'll start with a few concrete issues that I don't think have been mentioned yet.
- Once you go into production, the details of the project - title/genre etc. - should be on the screen somewhere when picking the director and actors. (This one has been mentioned, but I think it's a pretty crucial one so I thought I'd repeat it.)
- When approaching actors, I'd prefer it if the "No, let's look for someone else" option was the default one. I'm almost always going to be picking that option rather than re-writing the script just to please an actor, so that would save some dropbox-clicking.
- It would help to have a clear indication of the current date while on the release date selection screen. I've picked a date in the past a few times.
- Scripts for sale can pop back up in the list after you bought it and produced the movie. (Seen this happen twice in a 3 year game - same title, same details, just a different price.)
- At the awards ceremonies, it would help to display the studios with all the awards, not just best movie. I tend to forget which movies were mine, so I'm often not even sure whether any of the 5 nominations on screen are for one of my movies. A breakdown of which of your movies is nominated in which category at the start of the ceremoney would be nice too. (I do love that it's not just the Oscars, by the way.)
My other thoughts are a bit less specific and more in the first impressions and wishlist-y category. (I realize these are almost certainly things you've thought of or others have suggested throughout the process, but I'll write them down anyway.)
- Screenplays
I like the system with the different topics. Not so sure about the script points sliders (as a screenwriter, that kinda rubs me the wrong way) but I get that it's a gamification of something that's almost impossible to gamify, so I can live with it.
I do agree with some previous comments that there should be a re-write process though. Scripts being rewritten multiple times by different writers is the norm rather than the exception at Hollywood studios. So a system to judge a script's strengths and weaknesses and hire another writer to work on specific aspects of the script would be nice.
I'd really like to see the "buy script" part be expanded as well. Preferably to something a lot more dynamic than just choosing between 10 scripts with a fixed price.
It would be nice to create the sense that there are many thousands of screenplays out there, many of them rubbish, but finding that one gem in the pile would be exciting.
Perhaps your studio could employ a script reader, who reads the dozens of scripts your studio gets sent every day, and every week gives an overview of the five best ones. If you're interested in one, you can negotiate with the writer (or his agent,) but perhaps other studios are interested in it as well.
- Attaching talent
This could use some extra dynamics as well. Obviously the system can't be quite as convoluted as what happens in real life, where talent gets attached and potentially replaced several times before the movie even gets greenlit, but a bit more of a "living system" would be fun.
Contract negotiations with actors are an obvious big one, where gross points, net points or box office bonuses can be included. But I'd like to see it taken a step further as well, where a few more factors influence whether an actor is interested in playing a role and what his/her contract demands will be. Things like the quality of the script, or the other talent that's already involved.
Perhaps, once you hire a director, he can have his ideal cast in mind, and those actors might be a bit more agreeable in their contract negotiations. Perhaps, once one or two big names have signed on, other well-known actors might be a bit more eager to join on, even in smaller roles. Maybe you sign Cumberbatch as your star, and he goes "I've worked with this chap Martin Freeman on another project, and he'd be great for <support role> Want me to send him a Whatsapp message?"
I know I'm probably going a bit overboard with this, but the casting process is the big hook of a game like this, so the more fun and exciting you can make this part, the better.
I really like the "Open Audition" feature, by the way. Expanding it or making a similar feature like that for already existing actors would be very cool, I think.
- Game length
This was mentioned briefly in this thread. Low priority for now, but I think it's actually quite a crucial thing that games can continue indefinitely.
I don't really know if this is a general sentiment or maybe I'm just weird, but for me, I don't want to create a universe where 50 year old Maisie Williams is the biggest star in the world, only for that world to just end arbitrarily.
I'll leave it at this, for now.
Glad I stumbled upon this. Great work so far, and looking forward to see this game progress!