Almost 20 years later, I still want a remake of the PC simulation game that turned me into a Hollywood movie mogul and rocked my world
May. 6, 2024Opinion | From making my own films to discovering talent, The Movies brought out my creative side and kickstarted my love for management sims
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Star power
Because of the toolsets Lionhead provided, it was easy to emulate the classics I grew up watching. Many of the built-in scenes you could add in the advanced movie maker feature were playful homages to iconic movie moments, albeit with their own goofy spin. Once I had the right sets and costumes, I can remember excitedly creating my own Clint Eastwood-inspired Western, with my actors tensely dueling with pistols against a desert backdrop, sporting wide-brimmed hats and boots with spurs. If I wanted to make my own version of Star Trek, I absolutely could thanks to the sci-fi sets. And a detective noir? A piece of cake. In many ways, The Movies always felt like a big, humorous love-letter to cinema.
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That being said, it did have its darker sides that fed in the challenge of managing a successful studio. Keeping track of your actors and directors' moods, for example, was key to keeping them film ready. With stress and boredom meters to maintain, some of the ways to help them let off steam could lead to addiction, or damage their image. Sometimes, that would mean they would have to take time out to go to rehab, or have cosmetic surgery, which seemed to poke fun at the shallow side of the industry and all of its vices. Looking back, I was probably a bit too young to fully grasp certain features in the Movies, and I didn’t know all that much about the Hollywood studio system. But with age and experience, I can see Lionhead’s signature style of humor at play here.
The KMVS radio stations, which accompanied you throughout the decades as you helped your studio grow, was another highlight for me. The music and hosts of the show would change over time, with the likes of William McDuff in the ’20s and The Mad Dog in the late ’50s. It constantly helped shift the tone and set the scene for the different eras. There were also definitely elements that spoke directly to me as someone who also spent a big part of their childhood playing The Sims. You could, for example, change up the look and style of your actors with the ever-changing fashions of the times, and maintaining their moods felt akin to keeping my Sims happy at home.
In my loftiest dreams as a teenager, I was going to become a film director and Lionhead’s management sim absolutely helped plant that seed. Of course, you can ever quite predict where life will end up taking you, and it’s fair to say that dream did not come true. It’s also pretty unlikely we’ll see Lionhead’s management sim resurface, but hey, if I ever want to run my own studio and make films, I can always unearth my old copy of The Movies and try to get it running again.
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I started out writing for the games section of a student-run website as an undergrad, and continued to write about games in my free time during retail and temp jobs for a number of years. Eventually, I earned an MA in magazine journalism at Cardiff University, and soon after got my first official role in the industry as a content editor for Stuff magazine. After writing about all things tech and games-related, I then did a brief stint as a freelancer before I landed my role as a staff writer here at GamesRadar+. Now I get to write features, previews, and reviews, and when I’m not doing that, you can usually find me lost in any one of the Dragon Age or Mass Effect games, tucking into another delightful indie, or drinking far too much tea for my own good.
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