August-October 2016 Update

Oh boy oh boy its been a while since my last update. I've got quite a few emails lately that have asked "is the game still being made?" and the answer is YES :) This game is going to be finished come hell or high water. I have been busy at work though and dont like spending my weekends working on the computer like I do every other weeknight so I dont always get time to write updates. But rest assured development is still happening and its happening regularly. It takes time to write blogs as well and i've found it difficult updating through the website so now blogger.com will host all of this and it'll make things a little easier. Lets get to it...

Changes Galore

In this screenshot you can see that you are now given an industry standard for your films. I got a lot of complaints from people on Steam that Showtime never really explained what was "expected" of you when developing a script for different genres... so i've added in "industry standard" indicators so you know what is generally expected of your script before green lighting the film. I've also added in a new Setting Tone which helps define your movies a little better. You can now select from the following tones: Neutral, Joyful, Serious, Humerous, Fearful and Dramatic.

Premiere Time!

I've done a lot of work on the premiere over the past couple of months. It has a completely different skin and something I think looks good against the other graphical changes of the game. The premiere screens will change depending on the type of movie you're premiering. For instance a Sci-fi film will have a green-screen feel, "erotic documentary" will have another, etc. I've done my best to add in a bit of humour as well so you can mess around with some of the genres and the game will spit out (hopefully) something funny occasionally :) 

Much like the first game you will also get a run-down of sales from each region. This screenshot is a very early "work in progress" but it will display some additional regional information against the map which should be familiar to players of the first game. The sales algorithm is being updated for the game as well -- and it wont be as erratic as the first game. In Showtime 1 i wanted to have a certain degree of randomness to the sales. They always more or less were the same but a lot of people complained that if they reloaded a premiere 2-3 times it would sometimes give off different sales values. Personally I think that takes the fun out of the game but some players wanted to get the maximum amount of dosh; so this time the algorithm will be pretty steady and there will be very little change (if any) if the player reloads the game. 

And finally here we get a run-down of how well the cast has performed as well as the script quality, set quality and technology used... and for Showtime 2 how well your storyboard went down with critics. The storyboard is a bit subjective but when you're initially developing it the structure has to more or less suit the type of movie you are making. You will always be given a default structure and you can change this but if you change it too much then you might get a bad rating during the premiere. I will go into more detail at a later time about the storyboards.

Critic Reviews

One thing ive been working on lately are 'dynamic' critic reviews. Similar to the first game, the reviews are chosen from a database based on the score of your film. I have added a ton of extra review types to the editor so things wont get so stale, and in addition to that critics may also comment on any element of your film which they found either pleasing or negative to their experience. For instance a critic may comment on the look of your actors; if you've got a romantic comedy and your leads aren't 'lookers' then you're bound to get a critic commenting on this. Or if you're director generally doesn't direct Action movies and they did a good job then they may comment on the accomplishment. I'll be adding in about 100 of these so there's a lot of variety to what is said during this screen. It makes your films come alive and makes you want to actually read these reviews to see if you missed anything which can be improved on next time.

And finally this is the audience reaction screen. I am still working on this but you will now gain both new fans and a reputation, as well as a score/rating from your audience. It is possible for an audience to adore your movie and critics hate it -- so if the critics pan it then hope is not all lost; people may still go to see it or turn it into a cult classic.

Final thoughts...

I am committed to the devblog and I will be sure to share something new next month. I really would like to thank everyone who has continued to follow this blog and send me emails -- it does mean a lot so thank you. I really really want to do a video update because its been so long since I released the alpha footage. Its a big undertaking but hopefully I can do a bit of a commentary play of the game to show off some of the new stuff. Thanks heaps!!

March 2016 Update

It's been a long time since my last video update. I've had lots of emails from people regarding the game so I am sorry to keep you all hanging so long. Truth be told there isnt a whole lot to show off at this stage as most of the past few months have been lots of back-end programming. So in other words, I have been working a lot on the Editor and making sure that a lot of the smaller things in the game like dropdown menus and sliders are working well as well. Real boring stuff. But since everyone has been so patient I have thrown together a few new screenshots of the game.

In Production Updates

In this screenshot you can see how the in production screen now looks compared to the simplistic version of Showtime 1. I think it was important that at an immediate glance to your "works in progress" that you had a good overall guide on where your movie is heading and the stages of which things are progressing. I have also added in a "top billed cast" spot; this will display the top 3 talent attached to this film. Also I have added in a "shelved projects" screen; this is similar to the Bestseller feature where you can shelve projects or scripts for later use but not necessarily pursue them until you are ready. As an example; if you have flooded the market with all of your Marvel movies so they're not doing so well you can put them aside for future use when the market is no longer saturated with superhero movies. Its a simple but cool feature I think.

Casting Update

This is an updated screenshot of what the casting process looks like. Unlike Showtime 1 where you click on button to cast actors and then go down the list of "leading" or "supporting" roles, all roles can now be cast from this screen. You also get an immediate overview of your casting process; as you can see in the screenshot you have cast a director and producer but still have leading roles which need to be assigned. I find this extremely helpful when you dont necessarily want to dig through every screen trying to see if someone needs to be cast; its all visible from the one screen and is directly tied to your "project view" where everything else is handled. It makes screen-jumping minimal and (hopefully) is easy on the eyes.

Production Overview Update

And lastly I have been working on the production overview and trying to get the look of this right. It will no doubt undergo a lot more changes but what you can see here is that you can now get an overview of how long each stage of your film making process will take; pre-production, filming and post-production. As you put more money into the movie the longer it will take for each process (e.g. a movie with a massive CGI budget will take longer in the post-production stages). You can now also select between short or feature films and actually choose your run-time. You will also be able to create your own budget presets. There will be about 12 presets which can help you decide (if you are unsure in the game) what certain genres will need. For instance if you select an "Independent Film" preset the game will calculate which genre you are making and then change your budget allocations to something which is considered industry-standard for an independent film. Likewise, if you use a standard for your own movies then you can save it to your list and call upon it whenever you need it. Its just another way where the player can move fast through these screens without getting bogged down in sliders.

Final thoughts...

I hope you guys like what you see. I will probably make this devblog a bi-monthly thing from now on because it is time consuming to write and I'd rather spend my free time on the game. I'm so happy the game is still generating lots of interest and its definitely moving ahead. I will do my best to make the next update a video. Thanks for reading!

November 2015 Video Update

Apologies for being so late with the update. I could waffle on all day about how busy I've been but I know you guys/gals just want to hear about the good stuff... so here it is. I've compiled a short video showing off some of the game from the latest alpha build. It is not at all complete and still open to lots of tweaks but I thought it would be cool to show everyone how the game looks in action and the difference from Showtime 1. So here it is. Hopefully it wont be so long between updates and I will do my best to make video updates a more regular thing heading forward. Please let me know what you think in the comments. Cheers!

July 2015 Update

Steamlined Movie Making Process

I have been working on streamlining the process of film creation this month and also working on the new Storyboard feature. When creating a new movie you will now be prompted to enter a genre and sub-genre along with the title and plot summary. For those interested in capitalising on the market, a quick reference graph is also available which display's the market share of each genre. Market's themselves will be dynamic; changing and adapting to not only "whats hot" but also adapting to the films you and your AI players flood the market with. In other words, if you and your competitors capitalise on Action films then over time this market may shrink as the audience becomes fatigued with action flicks. Hopefully this will make it a little more interesting and challenging for people wanting a more dynamic simulation experience.

Interface Update

In the screenshot above you can also get an idea of how the new HD interface will look. This interface is native to 1920x1080 so things will look sharp and very cool up-close :) A lot of the icons I have also redesigned over the past month to be a little more easier to read. I will no doubt continue to improve icons as ultimately they should be easy to identify their purpose without hovering over them. Still, if you are unsure of what something does then each icon has a tooltip. Help icons also make a return to explain things a little more in detail for those players wanting to know everything they can about a feature.

Box Office and AI

I've also been at work tweaking the box office screens to be a little easier on the eyes. Since the game progresses week-by-week this time updates will occur each turn. Its still something I'm working on getting right... with so many additional factors at play in Showtime 2 it's been quite the ordeal balancing the game and AI to not be soul-crushingly hard. As I have been progressing I have been ensuring that most new features can be turned on/off when starting a new game. Much like the original game after adjusting the options you will be given a difficulty rating which should fairly represent your experience. I want players who love a challenge to be able to find one in Showtime 2 but also for newcomers to find their footing and pick things up with ease. Hopefully I get the balancing act right! Not all game settings will be able to be adjusted in-game though but I'll do my best to make as many of them available so you dont have to constantly start new games to tweak the difficulty slightly.

Final Thoughts...

As always thanks to everyone who have been giving their feedback in the comment section below. It's really great to hear cool new ideas and I've been adding/removing things based on what you guys have been saying -- so keep it up :) I do read everything but dont have a lot of time to reply sometimes but I'm just soooo happy you guys have been posting... it truly excites me to know people are passionate about this project. Next month I aim to show off the talent selection process, the production selection screens as well as the storyboard feature which should be a little more developed. Thanks for reading. Cheers!

May-June 2015 Update

Hi there everyone. I've been getting lots of requests for updates over the past couple of months. I've been going through some major changes in my life at the moment and havent had a whole lot of time to put into Showtime 2. One thing I have been working on though is bumping up the game's resolution. The game has so far been built in 1366x768 resolution to allow gamers on laptops to still be able to play the game... I have been looking at options to "scale" the game for larger screen resolutions and I just havent been happy with the image quality which has been quite blurry. I ultimately decided to re-create all assets for the game at a HD 1920x1080 resolution. What this ultimately means is that the game will now be built at a HD 1920x1080 resolution and can then be scaled down to 1366x768 without any quality loss. This has been a very time consuming process but ultimately I think its worth it.

These changes have all been quite cosmetic so far so I really dont have a lot to show off, however next month I should have a really good update lined up with some juicy new features. Thank you all for the interest so far; I havent forgotten you guys and the game is certainly still a high priority for me. I apologise for keeping everyone in the dark but I promise I will have a proper update for you all by mid-July :) I've been dying to get back into programming the game but I certainly feel it was necessary to sort out the graphics while it was still relatively early in development. At this stage I anticipate the development will go into early 2016 before it is available on Steam's early access. Thanks for reading!

March-April 2015 Update

Happy Easter everyone! Sorry about the delay with March's devblog, I needed something to talk about before I posted up. These last two months I have focused mainly on the technical side of Showtime 2. I have been migrating code and designs over to the new .NET framework and that has been quite a time consuming process. What I can tell you about this process is that I have discovered countless new ways to write the code and make it more efficient. This has led to faster loading in-game and a much cleaner way of approaching certain tasks and little effects within the game. It is a very challenging process though and unfortunately one of those things that cant exactly be hurried up.

The joys of programming!

Steam Achievements & Trading Cards

I am pleased to announce that Showtime 2 will come complete with a ton of Steam achievements for all you trophy hunters out there :) I know a lot of you wanted to see the Steamworks API integrated into Showtime 1, which was all but impossible at the time, so I opted to include them in-game instead. However with using the .NET framework this process is steamlined and Valve have done a great job in providing assistance for ways of integration. I have yet to establish the limit for Steam achievements but I'm aiming for about 40 - including some from the original game. Trading cards will also be made available on Steam day 1 for all you collectors out there.

Box Office Revisited

I got a request to show off a little more of the box office and how that's shaping up. The box office will now contain a Top 20 list of the week's top films, as well as a little icon where you can view the weekly takings from each region of the world via a drop-down. You will also be able to sort the list into a monthly run-down of chart data if you are so inclined. As with Showtime 1, the pie chart will make a return for visual representation. The game will also have a Year to Date section, where you can view the Top 20 movies of the year as well as a return of the Hall of Fame -- which will be limited to a Top 10 list.

I am currently looking to expand the Hall of Legends list for a local Top 10 list of all top grossing films through ALL of your play throughs of the game, as well as AI opponents. I am hoping to expand this to also include an Online Top 100 list where you are able to compete with other players and upload your high scores to the internet. 

The AI I have designed to be more aggressive in Showtime 2, studying which genres you like to stick to and releasing competing movies on the month's you expect big returns. This encourages players to change it up to stump their AI opponents and ultimately bring a diverse range to their filmography. This will all be explained more in-game through the tutorials.

Facilities and Upgrades

And lastly, I have started work on the upgrade system for the game. I have done away with individual staff hiring and instead opted for a “Research Budget”. You can choose how much you would like to allocate to each department, or focus all your attention on a specific area: Film Technology, Sound Technology, Facilities, Sound Stages or Sub-Genres. Each facility will come with their own specific unlocks which make them more efficient too. You can ultimately tailor your research to the areas you wish to focus on. The screenshot provided is not at all final, but a very early representation of what I’m talking about here.

Thanks for reading!

February 2015 Update

Firstly I'd just like to say thank you to all those who have been commenting in the board below. I read them all and although I dont always have time to reply I take all suggestions and comments seriously. So thank you to everyone who has taken the time.

Secondly, this month has been pretty big for the game albeit rather slow in terms of development. I have decided to shift platforms and see what else was on the market to program the game in. Everything from C# to .NET to Xojo to even Unity Engine. I spent about 4-5 days "porting" the code over to these platforms (each!) to see how fast I could recreate the game and how everything was shaping up, so work on adding new features has been slow. But i'll touch down on what has happened...

Skins

Themes/skins will now be present in the game. It was something I wanted to do with S1 but wasnt able to in the end with how the design worked, but starting from the 20s all the way up until the 90s there will be seperate skins. These change when you move into a new decade and are (hopefully) reflective of what was 'popular' or the common themes. For instance the 20s is a black and white TV style theme where as the 50s theme is more shiny, daphne blue. You will be able to disable these from the start of the game and through the options menu, or just choose a theme you most prefer from the get-go (these will need to be unlocked though!).

Music

A lot of players from the first game wanted to see some sort of soundtrack accompany the game. Those people will be happy to know I have a wicked soundtrack lined up. It is comprised of a number of licensed, creative common and custom-made tracks, including some amazing tunes from Viktor Ståhl (check out his Spotify page here). The game will feature a growing soundtrack and adapt as you make your way through the 20s-30s-40s, etc. Its something I'm quite pleased to introduce. You will of course be able to switch to your own player at any time and can even separately adjust the volume of the music player, but with the incredible soundtrack I have lined up I highly doubt that :P

Movie Roles

I got a lot of requests from people wanting to create their ultimate super-hero movies and now that's entirely possible... Roles have been given a makeover to allow players to fully customise the characters in their movies. You can now assign up to 12 characters (6 leading and 6 supporting roles), as well as 2 cameo appearances and of course the usual speaking and background extras (which have had their maximum value bumped up to 100). When you add a new role to your film, it will be randomly assigned a character role, which you can change if you wish. From here you can also assign the role a gender before proceeding onto the casting stage. For sequels, your roles will be automatically generated, and you can remove/switch them around as you please.
I for one can't wait to make an epic Batman franchise! I even started building one in the pre-alpha (check out the screenshot! :P)

Platforms

Lastly I would like to discuss platforms for the game. The game is currently in development for Windows 7+ and will support Windows 10. The engine I am rebuilding my source code in is designed to allow multi-platform support, so I wont rule out porting to Mac or Linux systems when the game is closer to release. Porting isnt an easy thing and my resources are limited, so my focus is on Windows at this stage. Thanks for reading!