Movierooms - Cinema Management (PC)

I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with this preview of Mad Pumpkins’ Movierooms – Cinema Management, then it hit me this morning as I write this. The movie business is on a decline and has been since the late 90s, around the same time the tycoon game hit its peak and has since dipped in popularity. Of course, films are still making massive profits, but when was the last time you went out and watched a proper film that wasn’t animated or Marvel and enjoyed it overall? When was the last time a tycoon game revolutionized the genre?

These are questions I think we’ll be asking for a long while, as the cinema-going experience isn’t as cheap and comfortable as being at home, and the tycoon game doesn’t have the same luster as before. As I may be suggesting, Mad Pumpkins’ offering is aiming for that 90s-2000s tycoon, management game by way of the movie business. Either in the story mode or the sandbox mode, you manage a small picture house, Nickelodeon (that isn’t orange), cinema, multiplex, and countless other synonyms for overpriced popcorn and a soft drink as someone talks through the film.

Currently in early access, Movierooms – Cinema Management wants to take you through the decades and eras of film by way of sticky floors and unsatisfying endings. Neither of those in the fun Thursday night with your parents sort of way. The trouble, though, is that the story mode is curated to take you through some decades, and the sandbox offers a building so small you can hardly swing a film reel around your head.

At the time of writing and a couple of months on from the initial release into early access, Movierooms – Cinema Management sees you manage a pop-up talkie in the middle of a cheap fairground in the 1920s in Paris or a proper picture house in Rome in 1939. I wish I could say there is more, but there isn’t in my experience. The sandbox mode sees you do an endless run in the 1930s offering, with the 1920s Parisian outing being a tutorial. That would have been fine if it were mid-March and Mad Pumpkins had only just released Movierooms.

Of course, you can play on and progress throughout time to the point you get more films and more things to do, but Movierooms – Cinema Management is a shallow business management/tycoon game. That is absolutely a harsh thing to say, but playing what was available to us for more than I think it honestly deserves at this point, I struggle to even find much engagement.

Like all management/tycoon offerings, you start with a blank slate and have to build your cinema from scratch. A projection room, a bathroom, and an employee break room, with lobby furniture: This is as creative as you’ll be allowed to get in my experience. You can paint rooms, but I don’t believe anyone wants to watch a film in a room with neon pink walls and lime green carpet – there are no pink walls or green carpets. Once you’ve built the room to show your films, the register to buy tickets, popcorn, a soda machine, and so on, you have films to go rent and schedule. This is about as engaging as it gets.

Depending on the length of the film and its popularity, you’ll schedule each film for certain times of the day and hope to make a profit from it. My problem with the whole setup – the business and let it run thing – is that you can effectively do it and leave it to run on its own. Eventually, employees will fix stuff without your input, tickets sell themselves, films start themselves, and everything just runs. I guess the only problems that arise are when employees are fed up and don’t want to work.

You don’t set ticket prices, you don’t set prices for food and drink, you don’t really engage with what you’ve set up beyond movie posters (a cosmetic design option) and scheduling the movies themselves. Within about an hour, maybe two if you get really bored and go for a 45-minute walk, you’ve practically seen the gameplay as is. There is no research to go do for newer equipment as you progress, or how to get certain films; there is nothing but a shallow set of mechanics on offer to boot.

Now, do you want to know the really annoying part? After saving some story mode progress and exiting to the main menu to do a bit of research, a reload saw half the cinema disappear (toilets, break room, and a projection room), all the staff disappeared, and this save was now recognized as a sandbox save. My question: Why bother? The settings menu has a tab for audio with nothing in it, saves are broken, gameplay is shallow, and there is so much more to be desired.

I genuinely wanted to enjoy Movierooms – Cinema Management, but ultimately, from far too many recorded hours trying to dig a little deeper and getting no more engaged with what I’m “playing,” I wonder why this is out now. Early access feels like an understatement of how early Movierooms happens to be in this current state. I like the idea and ambition, but currently, Movierooms is buggy, broken, and most damning of all, often boring. I’m going to need to see a marked improvement that isn’t just a minor redesign of characters.