Game: Hollywood Animal (Early Access - 2025)

Release: April 10, 2025 (Early Access)
Full release: N/A
Director: N/A
Developed By: Weappy Studios (Cyprus)
Distributed by: Weappy Studios (Cyprus)

 

 

Do you remember The Movies? A PC game that put you in the shoes of a media mogul running a movie studio. Picture that, but with far more politics. More focus on making alliances, running a profitable business and making sure problems don’t leak to the media and ruin your reputation. Hollywood Animal is what The Movies, sadly, missed out on. It highlights corruption. It highlights the obstacles you have to overcome to reach success. And it makes me feel like a swearing family member straight out of HBO’s hit Succession. I’ve played 10 hours of an early access version and this is my experience so far.

 

 

Hollywood Animal removes the “make your own movie” part of The Movies. Instead, it focuses on how to run a studio in the corrupt world of the 1930s. The “talkies” have just been introduced and you get the chance to take over your own studio. But nothing is simple. Everything must be researched. New buildings take a long time to prepare and then you have to build the darn things! My first mistake was overestimating the fast-forward function. It made me skip months upon months where no movies were written or in production. That means zero income. You never make a profit unless a film is running on the silver screen. And the process to get there is long, so you have to plan ahead and be smart. Because movies cost money! Contracts can expire, costing even more money! And people can lose motivation, which means you’ll have to bribe them. WITH MORE MONEY!

At the start, you’re in luck. An advertising bureau is still around to promote your films for free. But not for long! Soon you’ll need to build your own marketing team to take over. The only problem, as I said before, is that creating such a team takes time. So in other words: be ready for anything! Unexpected police raids can ruin your not-so-legal productions. The mayor might want to talk about his campaign. And a bootlegger might demand to make a statement about alcohol in movies. But do the good people of America really want to see that?

As you can tell, this game is not kind. As much as I like it (and I do), I can’t stop wondering what the finished product will look like. There are still “locked” features in development and I’m curious to see if more will show up in future updates. What I’ve played so far is both interesting and puzzling. Sometimes I back myself into a corner with no plausible way out. But I refuse to give up. It feels like a board game with sharp mechanics and ideas that constantly make you think about how to save another dime or how to make that mafioso really love the movie you’re putting on the big screen.

 Visually, the game is simple! It’s mainly text-based with a few pictures and illustrations. It’s a lot of reading, but very engaging. Everything from angry dogs on set to lawyers ranting about dishonesty in society. And I’m stuck in the middle, trying to use everyone as pawns to achieve my will. Challenging, but never impossible!

7/10. A game worth trying for those who enjoy bringing order out of chaos.

Homepage:
https://weappy-studio.com/hollywood-animal/

 

/Robin Andersson
https://filmfett.wordpress.com/