Weappy, the developers of This Is the Police, have announced Hollywood Animal, a new strategy game in which you run a Hollywood movie studio in the 1920's. But it's not just any humdrum point-and-click sim; this Roaring '20s movie-industry game, which is in development for PC and due out next year, sounds like it's willing to get dirty.
What do we mean by that? The developers describe your activities in Hollywood Animal as such: "Make your moves behind the scenes, form unexpected alliances, lie and betray." Sure, you'll manage budgets, hire actors and directors, and deal with plenty of the deep-strategy minutae that fans of the genre crave, but it also sounds like you'll be able to go to great not-so-legal lengths to make sure that your motion picture succeeds: "You can stick to the law – or stay on the authorities' good side. You can raise the screenwriter's salary – or remind him about the prostitute he strangled, which you yourself had hushed up. You can delay a film's release to avoid competition – or ask your friends in the mafia to clear the whole calendar."
Check out the first screenshots in the gallery above, and the story-driven cinematic announcement trailer at the top of this page. For more on Hollywood Animal, wishlist it on Steam and keep an eye on IGN for more as development progresses.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
