The Filmmaker: A Text Adventure
Storycentric Worlds
When my girls were much younger,
they would put cd’s on in the car by a favourite children’s entertainer,
and the songs were such that we would all end up singing along. Some
lyrics were very funny, others playfully childlike, others still with
that nod towards the fact that grown-ups would be listening. Years
later, the same entertainer reinvented himself (or rather his approach),
playing late night sessions in University bars, singing the very same
songs to the same now grown up kids, complete with actions and rowdy
raucousness. I know a number of 23 year olds who swear it was a whole
heap of fun. Well done him.
I mention this because The
Filmmaker presents the same product but in a different way, and, at
least in my case, is presenting it to the same audience. Is it also a
case of well done?
I think so.
I played (and reviewed) The
Filmmaker in about 2010 when it was an independent pc game by Unimatrix
Productions, which was really a one man show, one Christopher Brendel.
It was a product of the indie software of the time, but what I remember
most about it was the cheesy B-Grade movie theme and its puzzles, of
which there were many.
I haven’t played the original
since then, so I can’t say that this is step by step exactly the same
game, but by and large it is. The Carson Stiles Gateway Theatre is the
setting, a complex that has seen its share of tragedy, both celluloid
and real. It's been closed for years, but is re-opening with the
premiere of a new film from director Claude Ferucil. His varied oeuvre
includes the noir classic: "A Detective Story", the sci-fi cult hit
"Aliens From Mars", and the animated, definitely not for kiddies flick
"The Fuzzies". This time it’s horror, with the forbiddingly named
"Primal AtmosFear", and you (Brianna) have two tickets. That was all as
it was.
So too the meeting with Mr
Ferucil, the initial treasure hunt, the trapped souls, and the need to
enter his movies in order to resolve the plot. I don’t remember the
original end, but it no doubt involved the sort of vanquishing that
occurs here. So perhaps with some tweaks here and there, it is the same
game.
Except this time it is text
based.
You point and clicked in the
original. You do that here, but you point and click at the sort of
instructions you would have utilised in a text adventure – look at
table, take revolver, open chest, go down stairs. Each click is followed
by a description of what happened (which might be nothing), or where you
now are, and what you can do next. A small graphic will complement the
current location.
There are some shortcuts. A
compass enables you to travel in accessible directions, so there is no
need to select “go north” (you still need to click the desired direction
though). Nor do you select “use sword/toothpick/button” etc to wield
said item from your inventory. Equip the item it in the inventory
itself, and it will be usable in the game world by clicking the “use
item” button. If you are wrong, the game will say something like the
item can’t be used here, and try something else.
The game screen is a single
screen, with the top half being the graphic window and description of
what is going on, the bottom half being your compass, possible text
instructions and the use item button. A ribbon of icons on the left of
the screen is your avenue to the sorts of things you might expect in a
game – your inventory, access to a locational map showing places you
have visited and where you are now (helpful in using your compass to
move around), an information icon, giving access to your journal and the
notes, scraps and books you might pick up, one which shows your current
objective, your % progress through the game and your score, one for the
menu and one to return you to the game screen. It’s all very user
friendly, with indications that new things might have been added
somewhere or other. The whole screen is presented against the backdrop
of a stage, with theatre curtains left and right. I thought it quite
well done.
Cutscenes punctuate events,
there is music at times and sound effects, but no spoken voice. The
graphics are stylised to a certain degree, but fit the mood of the whole
piece. You will learn about Brianna as you go, though this drops away in
the second half. So too you will learn about the theatre crowd,
especially those that remain here.
The puzzles are both situational
and straight puzzles. They aren’t brain bursting hard, but several held
me up for a little while as I tinkered and pondered. The main hold up
was not having items I needed, and having to go in search, which might
involve jumping in and out of the films you need to enter. Things in one
movie can be important to what to do in another, and I encourage you to
read carefully. The puzzles depend on it.
There are codes etc, and these
are solved through the text instructions – rotate right, rotate left,
etc. Riddles can be solved in the same way. I could have done with a few
less Fuzzy riddles, but it was a small thing. There are two turn based
battles where a strategy will assist, although you might have to lose a
few times to work it out. Losing just means you get to try again.
I ended with a score of 660
which wasn’t enough to get an achievement award, and I only had 80% of
the achievements. I liberated all the souls, but a particular
achievement and a walkthrough suggests I could have done better.
The game autosaves when you
exit, which is the only way to save. It works fine but it means you
can’t reload from an earlier point should you want to. No real reason
why you would need to though. There are three separate save slots,
meaning three games can be in progress at any one time.
The Filmmaker was a very decent
length, it was different to other things I have played, and in my view
it was better than the original. It’s well worth a look.
I played on:
OS: Windows 10, 64 Bit
Processor: Intel i7-6700 4GHz
RAM: 32GB GDDR5
Video card: AMD Radeon
RX 470 8192MB
GameBoomers Review Guidelines
March 2017
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