Hollywood Animal is a nifty and detailed golden age simulator populated with eminently hireable alcoholics

rockpapershotgun.com:

Hollywood Animal is a management sim about turning a bankrupt movie studio into a money printing machine, set in Hollywood’s golden age. While a Frostpunk 2 or Manor Lords might have you grapple with the elements, here it’s all about balancing a fickle audience and Tinseltown’s seedy underbelly. Maybe making some worthwhile art, too? Sorry, did I say ‘worthwhile art’? I meant to say “lots of money.” Let’s get clicking!

First up, I need to name my studio (I settle on Horace's Revenge) as well as my crack new team of business bastards. There’s my chief legal officer, Jebediah End. My CCO, Anne Egg, and CFO, Rummy McLastdrink. He doesn’t have a sauce problem, because obviously I wouldn’t put him in charge of money if he did. In the wreckage of the studio, we find an unedited film reel hidden in the waffles n’ cocaine cupboard. It’s a noir thriller named ‘Messenger Of Death’. Whatever influential critic is currently directing this era’s discourse has chosen to categorise each film as genre percentages (‘60% detective/40% thriller’), and setting (‘modern American city’.) Let’s just hope those pigs in the stands recognise a solid gold picture when they see one!

This movie is already made, so things like themes, events, and roles are already picked out for me. Later, I’ll be able to customise these myself to drain as many dollars from the predictable pig public as possible. Uh, I mean, make great art! The game probably could have gotten away with being a bit loose and silly when it came to detailing these elements, but substantive flavour text for each pick starts to spell out a pretty convincing facade of a film. Hollywood Animal seems to love film in the way that, say, Two Point didn’t necessarily love hospitals, despite keeping some sardonic distance from the actual industry of it all.

Each film is rated for both ‘audience approval’ and ‘artistic appeal’. This may seem like an unnecessarily stringent binary, but remember this was pre-Boss Baby, so no-one knew you could