🚀 go-pugleaf

  It's frustrating that there is so little talk about this game...
ever.  I know it's an old game but there are about zero strategy
guides on the net.

  I got this game a long while back, right after it came out... and I
played the tycoon game for a while and made a few movies.  I got the
Stunts expansion pack a few weeks ago, and I messed around with that a
littel, but it doesn't seem to really add much depth at all to the
game, unlike some of the Sims expansion packs (which is a very tired
series I'm bored with).

  The main problem I have with the tycoon game is I can find no
formula for real success at all.  At best I can only do a middling job
and keep a studio running through the whole game.  Trying to go the
big budget route or the Golan Globus route?   It doesn't seem to
matter at all wheather you choose to make big budget epic films or
lots of little cheap films, you still can't win.  Also, combined with
the huge amount of micromanagement, and there's not alot of strategic
feel in the game at all.   Some design decisions, like not letting you
do much of anything paused, really hurts the game because time becomes
a very important resource in this game, which to me is totally
unrealistic.  You can lose about a year or two in game time if you
decide you need to re-arrainge the studio to accomodate larger sets,
which the game tends to give you late in the game.  So minimizing your
layout early on is very important, especially if you want to get
bonuses for having a variety of sets.

  The only strategy I find that works, is to use older actors as
directors.  But this only bears fruition later in the game, adding a
few points to your releases that would otherwise only get 1 star or
so, by which point you haven't won alot of awards and the other
studios pull far ahead of you.  The fact I suspect the AI is cheating,
coupled with the total lack of a difficulty slider, means it just
feels very cheap to lose and not know what you are doing wrong.