Pixely People Making Movies (by Nekomata Games)

[staffan_nekomata]

Originally Posted by TheGribble

Ok, i think I've worked out what's missing - there's no goal in the game. The actual gameplay is frantic and fun but I'm earning money to make movies to earn money and it doesn't really feel like I'm getting anywhere. The kairosoft games do the thing where they stop after 12 years or whatever and score you, and also tell you every year where you come in the top 100 malls / pig farms / canneries / whatever which gives you something to aim for and the time limit adds some strategic pressure to achieve fast.
Not saying you should do that exactly but a goal like winning an oscar, breaking box office records or having the most drug-addled showbiz party ever would really add some tension, especially with a time limit or some other studios to compete against (ideally everyone else's studios at the same time in their previous games, but that sounds much harder to do, so a bunch of imaginary ones would be fine!)

First of all, did you happen to miss that the goal in PPMM is to make the greatest movie of all time? And we are aware of that if you did miss it, that is our fault.

But I do think that the game would benefit from more milestone-progress-things. Contests and competing imaginary studios are great suggestions. It is very likely that we will add a yearly award show.

[TheGribble]

Originally Posted by staffan_nekomata

First of all, did you happen to miss that the goal in PPMM is to make the greatest movie of all time? And we are aware of that if you did miss it, that is our fault.

But I do think that the game would benefit from more milestone-progress-things. Contests and competing imaginary studios are great suggestions. It is very likely that we will add a yearly award show.

Yep, missed that completely - heard the line, but assumed it was just marketing gumf, rather than an actual part of the game!

In that case I take all that back, I guess all that's missing is some feedback on how close to the goal you are. I wonder if there's any legal reason you couldn't strip the names and box office figures from the top grossing 5000 films in IMDB and tell you which film you've just beaten and where you come compared to the real ones?

[dib]

I couldn't even figure out how to play the game. Went through the tutorial, started the game, and had no idea what the hell I was doing. I was hoping it might be an iOS take on Lionhead's The Movies, instead it seems to be another shitty Tiny Towers derivative.

[staffan_nekomata]

Originally Posted by dib

I couldn't even figure out how to play the game. Went through the tutorial, started the game, and had no idea what the hell I was doing. I was hoping it might be an iOS take on Lionhead's The Movies, instead it seems to be another shitty Tiny Towers derivative.

Thanks for sharing your impressions, I really mean that. I think we really need to find a better way of explaining the game than what we got now, or some compliment to it. More explaining with images than text after text is what I'm thinking.

As for the comparison with tiny towers I get it in the aspect that we have a setting with 4 floors and pixel graphic people walking on them, but gameplay wise I don't quite follow you.

Our game is about moving people around to produce as much points as possible in 3 minutes. The player tries to find the optimal workflow but then has to react to random things that happen during gameplay.

And if you find it in your heart to give the game another try, here's a hint: always make 5 pieces from the department with the highest starting score. It's not a prefect strategy but works excellent in the beginning.

[trundley]

This game is fantastic! It's great for people who like tycoon games.

I've also figured out a little cheat to get a high scoring movie.

When you select a theme (say zombies for this) there is a certain attribute that is higher than all the other (could be film, sound, video fx or editing) and then if you go into the 2nd theme option and you pick a theme which also has the highest attribute as well as the one on the first theme.

For example. under themes, Select "zombie" now. Zombie has the following:

Film: 1
Effects: 7
Sound: 1
Editing: 1

Now go into Genre. Choose the Horror genre. You can see on the stats of the card that Horror add +9 to the multiplier given by the "Zombie" theme, making a multiplier of 16 overall.

Now, when you're in game. On the left are the little boxes going from 1 to 5. Set all of the other sections to one, because they're only worth 1 point but set the the "FX (second floor)" stage to 5 as each piece made is worth a lot more! This means 5 pieces of "FX" will be made before the tube will move along! You will need to put 1 piece of "sound" and "editing" into it before it will finally count in the final score for the movie.

I've managed to get a score of 900+ on one movie and getting the maximum rating!

Below is the picture for the method described above and below that is my 900+ movie.

Note: the image on the left is the method above, and the one on the right is my 900+ movie!

[dib]

Originally Posted by staffan_nekomata

Thanks for sharing your impressions, I really mean that. I think we really need to find a better way of explaining the game than what we got now, or some compliment to it. More explaining with images than text after text is what I'm thinking.

Thirty seconds of the game did not resemble the tutorial, wherein the gameplay and goals were both unclear. Further, it never made the case for why I should care or want to play. That's why appending a longer and more verbose tutorial will be ineffective: if a game doesn't prove that it is worthwhile _before_ expecting the player to commit to a learning curve, then it's not worth the time.

As for the comparison with tiny towers I get it in the aspect that we have a setting with 4 floors and pixel graphic people walking on them, but gameplay wise I don't quite follow you.

The comparison goes beyond layout and design. It's another pointless busy-work game. I initially expected a creative studio, and got a dull experience as one of these time management games.

The 'making movies' part seems incidental to this formula. They could have called it 'pixely people painting a wall' or 'pixely people moving things around a conveyor belt'. I may as well be playing Diner Dash, which is more intuitive and user-friendly without a mess of stats and menus.

Our game is about moving people around to produce as much points as possible in 3 minutes. The player tries to find the optimal workflow but then has to react to random things that happen during gameplay.

In other words: our artists did their job, but the guy who was supposed to create something entertaining out of it opted instead to recreate the old Game & Watch model and bore people to tears.

And if you find it in your heart to give the game another try, here's a hint: always make 5 pieces from the department with the highest starting score. It's not a prefect strategy but works excellent in the beginning.

There was a recent app called The Sandbox which takes a fundamental pixel approach to producing an outlet for pure creativity. Kairosoft can combine simple systems and graphics and turn it into something greater than the sum of its parts. Minecraft took these same principles and turned it into a phenomenon. PPMM falls flat on its own uninspired expectations and doesn't offer anything worth a reinstall.

My one positive remark is the absence of IAP. I would rather spend a couple dollars for an app I didn't like than find an otherwise good game that is spoiled by a senselessly greedy business model. At least PPMM doesn't partition elements of the game with price tags, or attempt to attach a real world value to some virtual currency.

[Agas]

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PIXELY PEOPLE MAKING MOVIES
is one of the nominees for
Touch Arcade Game of the Week
06/06/2012


Do you like to create the Greatest Movie of all Time in this simulation RPG drag'n'drop mayhem game?

VOTE HERE

Poll close
06/14/2012 - 07:14 AM

- Devs cannot vote for their own games -

[kams]

I've never seen such app! Great job !

[CakeFuryzz]

App likes to crash on jailbroken 5.1.1 iPod Touch 4G

[Mogmi]

Originally Posted by CakeFuryzz

App likes to crash on jailbroken 5.1.1 iPod Touch 4G

I'm very sorry to hear that Can you tell me anything else about these crashes, do they happen when you're doing something specific in the game? Any other special circumstances when it happens?

It all helps when investigating, so I'm grateful for any info you can give me!