Huge news for fans of Hollywood Movie Studio, aka Hollywood Mogul 3…the game is now free!
HMS is the culmination of generations of text-based games simulating YOU running a major Hollywood studio. Sure, it’s not flashy and the graphics are near non-existent, but that’s a plus, not a negative here.
There have been countless attempts at making the perfect Television or Movie studio sim, and HMS gets it as close as anything has ever accomplished. Is it perfect? NO. Being text-based, it is not going to float every person’s boat. Still, no other studio sim lets you feel like you are actually green-lighting the flicks and seeing if they pay off in the end, raising your studio cash enough to try your next silly Rom-Com starring George Clooney. Or Jude Law. Or anyone for that matter.Continue reading »
I was very lucky recently and was able to interview Carey DeVuono (aka HMdesigner), the creator of Hollywood Mogul, about how the game series has developed and his thoughts on the Kickstarter campaign.
For those unfamiliar, Hollywood Mogul (now Hollywood Movie Studio) is a text-based Business Simulation game that puts you in charge of a major Hollywood movie studio. You choose which projects to develop, who will star in and produce your new movie, and everything else…right down to the budget and how many screens to release the final cut on.
Moby’s – How did you get into making a game about Hollywood and movie making?
Carey DeVuono – In 1991 I had written a screenplay and my agent took it into the system at Fox. They told me it was “too broad of a comedy.” To this day I really don’t know what that means. I think they just didn’t like it. The next year a director friend of mine wanted to do it, so we did a quick polish and took it back into Fox where he had a relationship. They passed again. The next year a producer with a housekeeping deal at Fox, who was also a friend of my director friend, said he wanted to get involved. So we went back to Fox. And they passed again. And I said to myself, (insanely, I realize now): If I just had a computer program where I could run the numbers I would show them this would make money.
And then I thought: That sounds like fun anyway. So I bought a book and taught myself how to program a computer, and the next year I released the original DOS version of Hollywood Mogul.
This is in response to Johna, who responded to a previous post. Johna was taken aback by my saying ‘so what’ about the 120K goal set by Carey (aka HMDesigner). He asked “…but do you mean to say that you actually AGREE with that amount?” Not really Johna, I do not. That equates to at least 2,000 pre-sells of the game in 30 days, and I thought that was too many pre-sells in too short a time.
Let’s remember this point: He was not trying to blackmail anybody. Every supporter at or above $25 or $40 would get the game. There were simply not enough supporters to hit the goal. My whole point of view is that Carey should decide how many copies have to be (pre)sold, since he has to be the one to invest his time. And we should respect that.Continue reading »
Well, that was not good. The games creator, HMDesigner, called it with about 3 days to go…it was not to be. Not enough support to warrant a fourth installment in the series. Not the result Moby was looking for. I was really looking forward to HM4.
The goal was to raise $120,000 for a project that had a delivery date of December 2014 and was to include the base game and also two expansion packs at the same time. It was ambitious, it was needed, and it failed badly. Of the $120K goal, less than $9K was pledged. For the record, Moby was a backer at the $100 level and I have waited until now to say anything (as though anyone cares).
I miss good business sims.
The fact is there’s just not quite any other game out there like Hollywood Mogul. I miss good business sims like Aerobiz. There are a ton of ‘tycoon’ games out there, but most are second and third rate. The Movies by Lionhead Studios was great and there are others, but this was THE Hollywood game Moby wanted to see.
What is to follow are my thoughts, and it is all made up. I don’t ‘KNOW’ any of this so take it all with a grain of salt, especially if you are mad at HMDesigner because I am going to defend him a bit.Continue reading »
Some great news has come out for fans of the Hollywood Mogul franchise. Carey DeVuono (aka hmdesigner), creator and writer of the HM game series, has announced the Hollywood Mogul 4 Kickstarter campaign is underway! Continue reading »
