Zombie Awards

[cirqueofcruelty]

Name: Zombie Awards
Status: beta
Genre: survival horror + social (in progress)
Graphic: 2d, text+images / point & click
Time: action points
Link: www.zombieawards.com

Here is the homepage description:

"In ZA you play as a movie actor in the 'Zombie-Film Industry'. An actor may create characters, based on widely known horror stereotyped roles, then star in as many zombie movies as he wants as an 'hero' (survivor) or a 'villain' (walk-on actor playing a zombie). Such movies represent a multiplayer 'game-in-the-game' that is set in small city during a global zombie apocalypse, when neither social structures nor forms of local self-organization exist. Each player moves his own characters in a short film (3 real days) or a feature-length film (6 days) with no script: playing the game represents creating the story. Characters (and then actors) gain experience and fame shooting films (surviving  to them) and ZombieAwards are periodically appointed to best actors (best male/female leading/supporting role, best villain role...). While characters are likely to die during a movie, actors gain experience in acting out specific roles such that new characters will have more chances of surviving movies. The actors' main goal is to gain fame and fortune."

I'm looking for new players and for suggestions. I plan to introduce new features in the next month, but they will not change the game that much, so I'm looking for something to make the actor-level game work as a social game.

[Chris]

Not really compatible with your game, but maybe you would be able to pick something out of it.


In boardgames about movie industry you usually draw screenplay cards at the start of the game, you need to make movies out of these. Scripts have listed requirements like number and type of actors. Then players go and recruit actor tokens (usually auction by selecting a whole set of actor tokens). Next they assign actor tokens to scenario card and the movie is made (some tokens are better, etc). Once or twice during the game awards are give (for best cast, best something and... for the worst movie too, yes, if you make absolutely worst movie it is worth fame points since eveyone want to go to cinema and see if the movie really was as bad as the press described ). At the end the winner is of course the player with highest score (movies made + awards).

For social game I would do something like this. There are generally 2 groups of players, producers who own a studio and make films and staff (actors, directors, screenwriters, technicians, cameramen) that work for the studio. Studio's funds and producer's funds are separate to avoid unbalance (beside, studios can and will go bankrupt, no need to destroy whole finance of the poor player that happend to be a producer ). Staff is hired by producers (forum and other communication features heavily needed) and gets salary during moviemaking and royalties after the movie is finished (assuming it earns for itself). Screenwriters are a bit different, they are not hired but they create and sell scripts (they decide on actors number, movie type, etc), if they do not make something producer desires, well, bad luck for them (it creates a nice interaction since producers know better what they need and screenwrites have to either guess or ask or persuade their idea will sell better) In addition to main actors producer can hire any number of statists for very low minimum salary (there would be min/max salaries to avoid shady business like multiaccounts) allowing new and unskilled players to be hired right on the spot (quick integration of new players). Older players who can not find a producer could "sell off" their real actor as a statist, at least they will get skill points and same fame for participating in a movie. The success of the movie depends on its quality, fame of the staff and on how many similar movies are made by other players (bad idea to release an adventure film if 10 other players already did the same genre in that month). Producers can hire 1 accountant which reduces overall costs of moviemaking by 5-10% (depending on skill of the accountant). If we want to make it more complex, there could be also "special effects studios" run by other players, in such case producer would buy their service during moviemaking.

[cirqueofcruelty]

Hi Chris, thank you. Yes, I was thinking about companies, producers etc too and I think it might be the winning idea. It's a bit hard to design, but technically it should be plain.

[Chris]

Let's pursue the concept further then.


Players have skills and aren't bound to any occopation (can be actor, screenwriter, accountant at the same time). Any player can create a studio. Studio is a separate entity from the owner. It starts with its own funds and can take loans from bank. Newly created studio will always pay minimum salary to all staff (to avoid abuse by creating a new studio just to suck out its money) till they made one successfull movie. Further minimum and maximum salaries depend on studio class (so studio that makes "A" class movies is not allowed to pay pennies to actors and studio making "Z" class movies is not allowed to pay big money to actors), statists are exception, they are always paid absolute minimum. Royalties do not depend on movie or sudio class but on its income.

To start shoting a movie you need a studio, scenario and staff. Scenario decides on actors (1x male leading role, 1x female leading role, 3x supoporting characters, etc). Technical staff (cameramen, sound effects, director, etc) is independent to script (althrough director can provide bonuses to certain genres) and can be adjusted by producer to fit the budget.

Studio has funds, when it runs out of money it takes bank loan. After certain volume of bank loans is used the studio goes bankrupt, all movies are cancelled, everyone is immediately fired. The costs of moviemaking are modified by producer's production skill, director's money saving skill, accountant's accounting skills (if studio has no accountant then producer's accounting skills are used instead). Each of them can reduce overall costs up to 10%, which means up to 30% total. Salaries for staff are paid during move shoting.

Movie quality depends on skills of all involved actors, director's directing skill, scenario quality, money spend on special effects, costumes, locations, etc.
Movie buzz depends on fame of all involved actors (main stars count x3, statists do not count).
Movie success depends on quality+buzz+genre demand at the moment.
If everything goes right and the movie earns above certain thereshold, the rest is divided among studio and staff as royalities (studio always get minimum 50% of royalities, 70% if it has unpaid loans).

[cirqueofcruelty]

Hi. They are all good ideas. I just have to think about how to adapt them, because I cannot bound movies to the availability of investors or companies: each player should be free to star in a movie at any time (I could create a 'default' company). Btw I imagine production companies as a list of bonuses for actors who decide to sign a contract with them to receive such bonuses during/after the movie, so basically before starting a new film you select a company.