A Proposal: Democratic Underground Studios

[Occulus]

First, go here:

http://www.lionhead.com/themovies/about.html

This is NOT a "gaming thread". This is an Extremely Good Idea thread.

Lionhead Studios has just (In November) released a game called "The Movies". This game is, at its heart, a sort of "movie studio tycoon" on crack. The breadth and depth of this one is simply incredible, and it's definitely worth the fifty bucks.

BUT-

This game also allows you to create and publicly release your own animated short films. Using any of five genres- sci-fi, action, comedy, horror, or romance- you can block your own scenes, add your own dialog, props, etc.... everything you would expect to see in an animated short. It even outputs to .wmv format, so effects can even be added later on, after the movie is completed ingame.<[br />
Why don't we give birth to "Democratic Underground Studios"? With over 19,000 movies and more being added daily to Lionhead's "The Movies" community site, this game is obviously an instant smash hit. We should capitalize on this.

How would we structure such a thing? Would it need its own group forum (very very likely)? How would we keep our scripts from becoming public (email list or via PM)?

I have to go to work, so I will not be able to respond to this thread until after midnight tonight, but I would very much appreciate input into this idea. I think this game has the potential to help us get our message out to a broader audience in a more sophisticated way, and I'd say that's one of the things we're all about here at DU.

Thoughts?

[Occulus]

1. .

Just kicking until I leave for work.

[The Witch]

2. I think I want this game.

Hope it's not too expensive. I will go put it on my NonPartisan Nondenominational Generic Winter Holiday list.

[Occulus]

4. Fifty Bucks. n/t

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Short films might be interesting

but are there other programs/venues where we could do this, too? I'd like to hear from DUers who are into making films to hear what they think of the idea.

[Ready4Change]

5. Interesting Idea.

I've no idea how they have organized the movie uploads, so I've no idea how effective attempting this might be. But its an interesting that they have produced a SIMS like game that also jumps onto embraces the concept of machinima. (RvB, ect..)

[Javaman]

6. I have been following the development of this "game" for 3 years...

It's amazing and I plan on producing my script on it.

Could I be a player in DUS???? Please please please? I have my own cyber posse and believe me I can have all sorts of attitude when I need to.

Besides: who loves you babe, you will never work in this town again, have you seen my prenup, where is my star on my door? See, I have the lingo down pat. LOL

:rofl:

[Occulus]

7. Kicking for the night crew- I just got home from work.

I don't see why we would have to "limit" the projects, seeing as how anyone who owns the game can open their own studio. Someone earlier mentioned something about how the uploads are handled. I don't know about that; I haven't uploaded anything myself yet, so I haven't any idea. I do know they give each user their own webspace (up to 20M, I believe) to use for their studio page (or maybe just their movie; I'm not completely clear on that point).

Voice talent would be a must, and of course we would need scriptwriters that would be able to work within the framework of the game. Still, that's a pretty vast scope we'd be working with.