Screenshot from Activision's new Machinima-friendly video game The Movies.
I've posted about the Machinima phenomenon a few times this year (see previous post), which I've been watching develop with a lot of interest because I believe it's simply a homebrewed form of digital puppetry. One of the biggest stumbling blocks for Machinima creators has been a lack of good, easy to use authoring tools. The situation is getting better slowly but surely and hopes are high for The Movies, a new video game from Activision that cast the player in the role of Hollywood mogul.
What makes the game promising for Machinima and more than a simple "Sim Studio" tycoon game is its sandbox and freestyle modes which allows players to create their own films within the game and export them as Windows Media (.wmv) movies. The game has a wish-list of features Machinima makers clamour for including custom character creation, limited lip-sync, editing, weather effects and the ability to import custom content. Machinima.com was given an advance preview of the game and you can read their report here as well as their interview with Stephen Hood, one of the game's lead designers. Chris Anderson has also posted some thoughts on the game from a Long Tail point of view on his blog.
The Movies is now available for the PC, Xbox, PS2 and Gamecube at most major video games retailers.
Update: I forgot to mention that you can watch the movies that users are creating with the game here. The site just launched, but already there is some great stuff posted. My favourite so far is King Kong 1940.
