In the next version… Events during production and producer decisions

Another, at first glance, a small modification that will appear in the new version of the game is to change the approach to evaluating the developers that occur in the movie. So far all of the enumerations associated with the determination of how well individual developers have done their job (enumeration performance) were made at the time of release. Now the most important element of which is the assessment of performance artists will be made at the very beginning of the production. This small change and has tremendous consequence and creates completely new possibilities. It's probably the biggest revolution in the game since the introduction of writing games.

What are the possibilities?

Several times I met with accusations that the player after the start of production has too little influence on the final result of the film. And it was hard to argue with this, really was. So far during the production of the film occurred some random events. They were, however, quite static in nature. The player could only come to terms with fate and acknowledge the consequences of these events (sometimes they were positive and sometimes negative effect for the player). It is true that some decisions that you make in the course of production, however, their number was small (censorship).

Well, from now on, the work of the manufacturer will be more interactive because you will need to have the opportunity to respond to the events that occurred in the course of production (events during production). These decisions will have an impact not only on the final effect produced the film, but also on the whole environment.

General events during production will have the following schema:

  • a trigger (the condition that must go to the event)
  • action (what can we do/what decision to take on the event data)
  • profit (what can we gain by making your choice)
  • cost (at what cost/risk we have to count)

Events can be divided into several categories:

And) Event with a particular decision

  • When we can improve some element or prevent but it will cost us (e.g., time, money, relationships)
  • an event in which we can take some risk but their consequences are not possible to predict (and whether it is successful depends on various factors, partially random)

II) events related to the:

  • the creators (performance, relationships)
  • Studio and post-production
  • advertising and hype
  • other

To better illustrate the whole concept here is two examples.

Example I

  • A trigger: At the end of production, it appears that the director has fallen poorly (evaluation <3 *) (and the player still has some free resources)
  • Action: Everything indicates that the director's work was not the best. Do you want to shoot extra shots that will allow you more freedom when installing?
  • Profit: If a player agrees, the director's performance will increase by 1 *
  • Cost: Increase production time by month and production cost increases by 5% of film budget

Example IIless obvious (here the player can gamble but not necessarily)

  • A trigger: Actor has a rating of >1 * and 5 *
  • Action: He reported to you an actor X with a suggestion that if he could make a little more improvise on the plan his performance could be better.
  • Profit/Expense (risk): If you agree his performance may increase or decrease by 1 * (randomly but depending on the talent so the creator of the more talented the more likely to be better)

Because I'm a fan of games with difficult moral choices (Heavy Rain, Alpha Protocol, Life is Strange) decisions that the manufacturer will have to make also will not always be simple and black and white. Often one decision can have positive effects in one aspect but negative in another (e.g. improving the relationship with one of the creators but deteriorating with another). There will also be decisions whose effects are difficult to predict (i.e. they can be positive or negative) and it is the manufacturer who must decide whether he wants to take the risk or not.

Sounds interesting? I feel excited about the new possibilities, because the first tests show that it works at least intriguingly :).

It is impossible to hide that in order for the mechanism to produce the appropriate WOW effect, it is necessary to have as many different such events as possible. I will admit that the process of inventing them is quite time consuming (I personally did reserach regarding the real situations on film plans but you do not have to immediately model yourself on reality).

That's why I have a proposal a little play for you. Give me your ideas for events that could occur during the game. Of course, it would be best to determine for any such proposal not only the action itself, but also the trigger, cost and profit (however, this is not necessary).

Probably not all of your ideas will be able to implement (I know that you have lush imaginations, and not always everything can be mapped in the game but perhaps even those ideas that today are not realized will inspire me to introduce some new ones mechanic or future options – this has happened several times).

You can submit proposals in any way (including entry in the comments, on Facebook / Google ) or by email (and even on forum ;).

So I look forward to your suggestions.

2 thoughts on “In the next version… Events during production and producer decisions”

  1. Can a director change during the game? or to get the other? I see more and more that most film productions include two directors, the purpose of improving the final effect can be precisely the director's hardship, it can randomly generate an extension of the entire production process or just reduce it, as it we record a big hit for about 12 months, the second director could shorten it best by up to 2 months less, and quality would not deteriorate.

    Myślę, że wymiana aktora, albo żądanie podwyżki z faktu, że film na razie wypada znakomicie i wszyscy wierzą w jego sukces, wyzwalaczem może też być prośba o dodatkowe środki na reklamę.
    Najbardziej oczywiste są te zdarzenia, które będą zmieniać relacje twórców. Np.: reżyser mógłby prosić nas o to by jednego z aktorów drugoplanowych uczynić jako pierwszoplanowego albo jako epizodycznego. Można by było w ten sposób stworzyć historię z 3 aktorami pierwszoplanowymi 😛

    kwestia też zmiany zakończenia, to chyba aż prosi się by się pojawiło, tak samo zwiększenieakcji” either sex in film or humor, these values need to be changed, it can be asked by each creator in total. Even the person responsible for sound to improve drama could ask for a change in parameters.

    • Co do zmiany reżysera to eksperymentuję z taką opcją ale nie wiem czy ostatecznie pojawi się ona w grze (poza tym zmiana reżyser nie będzie wyzwalaczem jeżeli już to akcją, którą można podjąć). Boję się że będzie ona bezsensownie nadużywana. (Dodatkowy problem to fakt, że opcja ta wymaga specjalnego nakładu pracy i nie wiem czy zdążę ją dopracować w wyznaczonym przez siebie terminie). Tak więc zobaczymy co z tego wyniknie

      For sure there will be employment opportunities two directors… (ani operatorów, ani kompozytorów) kompletnie nie widzę takiej potrzeby. Sam fakt, że coś występujew przyrodzienie jest wystarczającym argumentem za tym aby prosić się o kłopoty. Dodatkowy twórcy to wbrew pozorom ogrom pracy. Pomijając już fakt, że nie pasuje to do założeń gry, generuje to mnóstwo problemów na każdym poziomie (koncepcyjnym, implementacyjnym, na testowaniu kończąc) przy czym największy to te z testowaniem i balansemtaka zmiana to tysiące godzin szlifowania algorytmów (a nie mam stworzonego odpowiedniego frameworka testowego aby ten proces jakoś zoptymalizować).

      I do not see so meaningful profits from such functionality… and just a lot of problems… jak oceniać film stworzony przez dwóch reżyserów, jaki procent których umiejętności powinny być brane pod uwagę… What will be the “style” takiej produkcjino i w końcu jak gracz będzie wiedział, który reżyser odpowiada za co i na co wpłynął. takich pytań są dziesiątki i z mojej perspektywy nie ma żadnych korzyści w pakowanie się w takieekstrawaganckiefunkcje.
      (Inna sprawa że jakoś nie kojarzę aby dwóch reżyserów kiedykolwiek polepszyło ostateczną produkcjęgdzie kucharek sześć😉

      O ile zmiana typu ról już jest interesująca (choć tak średnio realistyczna bo w praktyce musiałoby oznaczać przepisanie scenariusza) to na pewno nie będzie zmiany schematu ilości dostępnych ról 1-2-2-3 (patrz akapity wyżej).

      Zmianie parametrów rozważę ale też kłóci się to trochę z ideąwolnej ręki reżysera”… to on może zmieniać te parametry a nie byle chłystek z ekipy 😉 (no ale pomyślę nad tym).

      Dzięki w każdym razie za propozycje i uwagi.
      Regards

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