Blockbusters Inc

[JudgeDredd]

I was very glad to see this pop up on Steam last night.

Having seen a single review saying "If you liked Lionheads The Movies, you'll love this", it was an insta-buy.

I loved The Movies game and was longing for it when I realised I'd lost my disk and couldn't find it online.

[Grim.Reaper]

Yeah, I saw that in an ad on Facebook, at first didn't know what it was.  Will be interested in your thoughts, seems to be getting mixed reviews.  Not a bad price for $22 if good.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1793090/Blockbuster_Inc/

[JudgeDredd]

Well, it's not The Movies by Lionhead.

There's much less to do.

You basically create your film studio which includes a set and offices for the producer, writer, researcher etc. But you have no interaction with them. When you come to create a movie, you choose the genre and the set, the actors, director etc, etc. I remember in The Movies, you were presented with several scripts which you choose from.

You have a very limited pool of people to select from - I only saw 1 of each when I initially started - so selection is a cse of taking what's available. And that pool doesn't get any deeper (though you can try and swipe directors, producers and actors from other film studios).

You can make your sets more interesting by adding things - but the list is basic with a capital B. That's fine though...it allows you to up your set level for a better rating I think. There is a Mythical set you can select, but there's no items for it 

From my 6 hours of playing, you basically just click, click, click, click and click to create a movie. You don't even have to do that - you can just click 3 buttons to assign Genre, set, staff etc, etc.

Make the film, release it, get some reviews and make some money. It appears like it's impossible to lose money here. I am playing on easy - but I thought that just gave you a bigger lump sum...I'll have to try another mode. But Im making money out of pretty bad movies.

I can't really tell how you can make them better. You can get into the nitty gritty. You can edit the movie, add effects (very limited) and noise (also limited)...when I've tried it I don't think it's made any odds to how the movie turns out. But you can't tell, right, because if you didn't add them, you wouldn't know what the score was.

Anyway...you're kind of along for the ride mostly. There are things to do - but
1) I'm not sure it helps your movie
and
2) It seems quite high level mostly

Staff are a ******* nightmare. Directors, producers and actors actually. They are always pissed off. Since I started, they've all complained about the food. I eventually got it from Basic to High Quality - and they're still moaning about the food. One of my actors has a happiness rating of 0 - just because the food is bad - but I can't fix it. I can't seem to get better staff.

You can train staff...but you need to research Classroom - but that's 2000RPs and it takes a while to get a load of RPs. You start out with a lot - but you spend them quickly and then have to build them up. I *think* you build them up by creating research offices and putting researchers into thos offices. I'm not sure - I have 6 offices and rsearchers and RPs are still a slog to get!

That's the other thing - the market isn't overflowing with people to select from. When you start, and you search for staff - you literally have a choice of 1 or two (mostly one) of each category. Others come along - but there's often only one you can choose from.

There are some things I haven't gotten into - like visual effects - I don't see how I can create them. I know how to add them to your film, because the tutorial shows you - but how you get the VE machines is beynond me at the moment. I can't find anything under research to allow me to get those.

Also, regarding research, Military isn't showing as a Genre even though it is a genre you can select. And I think there's others missing too from the Genre Research section.

Two other bad things...1) your fans will fo their nut and 2) it gets slower and slower as you get into it.

At the moment, I have a fil;m being made but they've only shot two scenes of four - and the icon over the set tells me they're waiting for the actors - but it's been like that for two days now - so I think it's a bug. The movie isn't getting made so I'll have to junk it.

It's pretty basic all round and a bit bland if I'm honest.

It's not terrible. It's not even bad - but it's basic and you will likely get bored within a few hours.

[Grim.Reaper]

Thanks for all the details, seems like one to stay away from at this point and hope it evolves into something more.  Never played the Movies so I really don't have anything to compare against myself.

[JudgeDredd]

So I have just got enough RPs to make a Classroom and started to educate my employees. I started with the Staff Workers (work in the Lounge and the Kitchen) and the food seems to have gotten better - so just researching High Quality food doesn't mean you get high quality food - you need to have high levels of staff working.

Seems logical now - but it costs 2000RPs to build a Classroom...so when you start a game, it might be worth researching it early.

Still though - 4 years in and I've went from 300,000 to 22m. My 3 actors are in the most luxurious accomodation - that seemed to move quick.

I've just created 2 "teams" with actors, writer, crew, producer, director so I can make 2 movies at once...but that's just going to mean more money and I've really ran out of stuff to do.

I've got more money than I could possibly spend.

I'll start a game on hard - see if that reduces your intake and slows everything down because it's kind of gone from 0-100 really fast.

[Grim.Reaper]

Most of the feedback I have seen on Steam implies incredible easy with the ability to make a lot of money quickly so not sure if different difficulty will matter.

[JudgeDredd]

And - so I'm truthful - more research does come along over time.

I think it might have been better to show you the entire research tree and hoovering over it shows you what you need to get that research.

It seems there's a handful of items available and you need RPs to get them. Then, out the blue (and I don't know the reason these turned up - over time I guess), some others are displayed with the RP requirements.

So I think that's just a poor design thing. It makes sense that better cameras, lights, microphones, genres, facilities etc become available over time...but being missing from the interface makes you think "Where's that?".

For example, the Sci-Fi genre has just come into my list in 1945 and it costs 10,000RPs to get it. That's waaaaay waaaaay off. It takes an age to get RPs (which is built by more research centres...I have watched that and the more you have, the faster research points are generated. I know that makes sense, but I couldn't confirm it before).

[JudgeDredd]

Most of the feedback I have seen on Steam implies incredible easy with the ability to make a lot of money quickly so not sure if different difficulty will matter.

Yeah I do have a shit ton of cash and not alot to spend it on. I could build more research centres, but I only have a limited size slot - it's not clear to me if that gets expanded or not yet.

[JudgeDredd]

So I started a new game on Hard. Yeah - it's easy to make money. You have to go a bit slower - but you're making money.

It is a bit more enjoyable not having all the RPs and cash initially - being a bit more spend thrift and taking your time.

I think that probably says alot about the game...you can either play it fast and loose or slow and easy - either way, you are going to be fine. There's a bank in the game for loans. I don't understand why you would need a loan. The only thing you are scarce of is resource points - and you can't buy them - you have to research them, and you don't have a whole pool of research folk around - so you're limited by that anyway.

I'm not regretting my £18. But hopefully there's more to come - either as free filler content or add-ons that make it worth while.

But there are some issues with "play balance" that need to be addressed.

[Grim.Reaper]

Thanks for all the impressions

[JudgeDredd]

One other thing I've noticed about the interface.

Using Teams, it's hard to tell who is shooting what. Your films you're working on are displayed on the right, but they don't say what teams are being used on the film. I think it's even worse if you don't use teams and just assign staff...

It would be nice to be able to see details about the film being made so you can assign your other teams to other projects

[Grim.Reaper]

Hopefully the developer improves things, sounds like it could be fun if they do

[Grim.Reaper]

Looks like developer admits the release not what was hoped and seems to commit to trying to make it better...time will tell.



Hello Movie Makers 🎥

Thank you for the valuable feedback you've provided those last few days. Rest assured, we are dedicated to improving your experience with Blockbuster Inc. by developing hotfixes approximately twice a week.

Almost a week after the release and two hotfix patches later (and more already being tested), we would like to address the most common issues and important questions you have for us.

We understand that some of you are frustrated with some of the mid-game+ balance issues and the overall management aspect of the game that in the long run proved to be trickier than we had initially thought. While we managed to deliver the scope of the game that together with the publisher we had planned, we see that there are still things left to do before we can move on with our initial post-launch plans.

In hindsight, it seems clear now that we had underestimated the time we would need to balance all our game features and fix performance issues during the final sprint. Naturally, we remained optimistic about the release as we knew that many great content updates were planned for Blockbuster Inc. right after the launch, but it in retrospect it is very clear and reasonable that most people were skeptical about our commitment to improving the game post release and raising concern that if that was our initial intention we should have launched the game as Early Access.

Initially, we planned to show you our roadmap for upcoming months shortly after the release, but currently we are re-evaluating it to make sure all the changes and new features meet your expectations. We will get back to you soon, presenting all the content we wanted to add to the game further, but at the same time readjusting some things that may be considered lacking in the current gameplay.

While we put our heads together to come up with the next bigger update, please check out the latest patch 1.7.14 that launched yesterday, adding multiple new animations and costumes to the Direct Scene in the movie editor and several smaller improvements.

Fret not, we will continue to work on the game and answer your comments daily! ⚡️🦊

Thank you,
Ancient Forge & Super Sly Fox