App Army Assemble: Movie Tycoon: Film Studio Sim - "Is this movie making sim a box-office hit?"

Anyone who has a vaguely creative streak has often thought about making their own film - be it esoteric indie stuff or an all-action Hollywood blockbuster. Movie Tycoon: Film Studio Sim lets you do that on a much smaller silver screen, so we handed it to our App Army readers to see if it made them feel like the next Spielberg. 

Here's what they said:

Movie Tycoon: Film Studio Sim is a casual film production and promotion sim game. The best things about it are the character names, which are similar to famous people of the era, and random things happen while you're making/promoting movies and how you respond. It includes almost everything since the 1960s for making movies (pre/post). For example, we have OTT rights after release nowadays.

The bad things are that the graphics look outdated, you can't zoom in, and there aren't many cute animations that you can watch while playing or idle. It's also not clear what/when will unlock later on, especially when I am playing the full game. It has no dialogue, and the music lacks variety.

Movie Tycoon: Film Studio Sim is a movie simulator with classic tycoon-style elements. If you’ve ever dreamt of creating and running your own movie studio, Movie Tycoon gives you a look into how it all goes down - and it does so with a very streamlined and accessible approach to managing essentially every major aspect of a Hollywood production.

From putting together scripts to balancing production costs and hiring different types of actors, it’s clear a lot of love was poured into making sure your experience was authentic. While I would have liked some specific quests to guide more of my decisions, I enjoyed the freedom to experiment and find out what works and what doesn’t. Movie Tycoon lets you try before you buy, so you can see for yourself if Hollywood is your calling.

Movie Tycoon is a management sim where, as the head of a studio, you are in charge of making the decisions to get a movie made. As you play and hopefully make money, you can research more types of film and upgrade or replace your crew of employees.

It’s an easy game to play, and the graphics, while simple, do the job. However, there is very little variation in the graphics; it would have been nice to see a difference when shooting a sci-fi movie versus shooting a drama. If you like management sims, then this is an easy game to recommend.

This is a simple and kind of fun movie studio sim, as the name suggests. It’s pretty basic, not too many things to learn, although you can adjust how much you’re willing to spend on actors, crew, and so on. Obviously, the more you spend, the better results you get, but the less profit you make. Story beats are a bit limited at first, but as you progress, the variety gets better.

The setting is pretty basic, be it the office or where you film. But really, the immersive factor isn’t a big point in this game. I did find that the font can be hard to read sometimes. Colour contrast and font size. But that’s not really a big problem. It’s a cute distraction, and if you like this kind of game, and especially if you’re a movie fan, it’s definitely worth trying for free, and probably picking up the full game.

Well, first of all, hats off to the creator for making something out of the box. Movie Tycoon is a great movie sim. I made a mythological indie movie, and for casting, I was getting very few options. I would add a few things that were missing in this game, like the marketing budget for the movie, more cast options, or adding high-quality music. Still, I love the game and will give it 8 out of 10.

Movie Tycoon is essentially a film studio simulator where you manage your own business in the industry. The mobile version runs smoothly and is practical and easy to play, with responsive touch controls; it is also a lightweight game featuring simple graphics. I liked that the game allows you to create movies across various genres and set your own budgets. You can hire directors, actors, technical crews, and staff to improve production quality.

All of this makes you feel like a major business mogul; you must make the right decisions, or else you’ll face crises and could even go bankrupt. The game is highly engaging, and if this genre appeals to you, you’ll really enjoy it despite the simple graphics. One potential downside is the lack of Portuguese subtitles, which might deter some players.

Movie Tycoon lets you create movies and set box office records over and over again.
The graphics and audio are very simple, which is very nice. But some QoL elements would have been great to give a better feel for the game. The main studio looks like a tabletop element or a book nook you're looking at. The entire screen doesn't feel completely used. The immersion feels a bit off, at least for me. 

Then it comes to the movie acting scenes where you pick genre and story elements, but when the acting is happening, it shows a preset of a western street with buildings, which doesn't fit a sci-fi or horror selection. I also created two movies with the same elements, and the second was rated way worse, which felt too trivial to me, especially after some things had levelled up. There is a small gap between my potential misjudgment and the fact that the game is nice in its own right. So eventually I have to rate the review as neutral.

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Movie Tycoon: Film Studio Sim