The Filmmaker - A Text Adventure

I haven't played a text adventure in many years, so it was a bit of an adjustment to get reacquainted with this game, but the benefit of this game is that it goes beyond the black screen with white/gray texts that any text adventure aficionado would have played or remembered. It is a bit of a mystery game and there's a lot of questions throughout the game, but it is an interesting and fun game.

So, of these Storycentric Worlds games, the first one I played was Shady Brook, and I didn't recommend it. I did like the game design, I suppose. It was a nice way to keep the reader engaged and showed that you could have point-and-click adventure game-style puzzles in interactive novel, something I don't think I'd seen before. However, the story just wasn't very interesting. I won't go into it more and rereview here, or anything. But I was interested in seeing a more original story with the same engine. I bought the pack, and the first one I tried was, Lifestream, which, if anything was worse than Shady Brook, and I was like, oh no, even though I've always reviewed every game I've finished, maybe I shouldn't even review this, I don't want to come onto this designer's page and dis all of his projects. Let's just say, it was not a good fit for the engine, it was less like an interactive novel and more like someone was describing an existing point-and-click adventure game to you. But! I'd bought the whole pack now! I might as well try the third one......and I'm very glad I did!

This game was great. It had a very unique setting and many puzzles throughout. And although the puzzles weren't hard, by giving you access to so many of them at the same time, it did make you think a bit more about them. Often the puzzle ends up being, do I think I have what I need to complete this puzzle yet? Which works for me. Also, I've always thought different worlds with a hub world was an artificial way of designing a game, here it just makes so much sense. I really think anyone who thinks they might enjoy this should buy it, it's cheap enough even if you don't. It's not like it gives you food for thought afterwards, like something like the Cat Lady does, but it's just unique and fun. So, far (if i'd have played the games in the order they were made instead of 2,1,3) each game has been better than the last, and I hope that means Stonewall Penitentiary and Summit of the Wolf will be the best of all.

(On a side note, in case the author of the game reads this. Don't talk down to your audience. you've put 17+ on these games, we don't need to have Roman numerals explained to us (as in this game), or the word 'homily' defined for us (as in Lifestream). If we don't know, we have the internet. You seem to want us to think of these games as novels. I have never seen that kind of thing in a novel.)

This became tedious quickly, when I could not find a way to get water to the toilet. Using the sink is constantly interpreted as wanting to wash my hands. I wanted to get water to the toilet. I could not use the water in the toilet, because that would mean opening the lid. I found no container that could be used to transport water to the toilet either. I'm here to play, which means that I do not want to spend hours re-searching. I took everything I could and nothing looked useful to me. Maybe an extended hint system would be helpful.

very interesting

Interesting story, good graphics and interface, and fun puzzles. An excellent example of the genre.

amazing text bases story game..

I was totally blown away by everything and I have nothing but praise for this game. This is one of the very few games that amazed me from the get go up till the very end.

Despite it being text based, it still managed to keep things surreal. The storyline and climax were spot on, controls were very smooth, loved the music as well. Puzzles were not frustratingly hard and were quite engaging. You never need to brood over a code or a certain puzzle for too long, only needs a bit of quick thinking. The length of the game was just right for the price. I bought this on sale for $1 but enjoyed way more than pricier games I have bought, but heck I'd buy it even without discount or for a higher price because it deserves it. If you're looking for a casual mystery / puzzle game, definitely try this one out.

I will definitely look out for the developer's upcoming games and try out the other games. All I can say is, hats off the the developer team for such an amazing game.

The game is fun. Most of the puzzles are good logic puzzles similar to an escape room. The price of real world escape rooms is more than this game. The game has good graphics considering it's a text game. The menus are a little clunky. There are 3 achievements that you will probably miss your first time through, but you can get 90% of the game the first time through. I got the game on sale, but it's worth full price. There are good songs, not catchy but atmospheric. The game sounded like it could only play one audio track at a time, so goals and achievements interrupted the music and backround noise. Despite the problems it's a good game and worth the price.

while the game is hard to control and some of the puzzles are weird and don't make much sense, the game is fair. The puzzles a logical (compared to some sierra games). While you can miss some optional events, you can't miss necessary items to finish the game. If you're stuck on a puzzle, the game will ask if you want a hint and the answer. There is a full walkthrough on their website if you're really stuck. There is enough characterization and detail to warrant a second playthrough.

I recall many hours spent puzzling over text adventures on the Commodore 64. Who knew that in 2019 they'd still have fans and new incarnations? The Filmmaker has a decent amount of atmosphere and a mildly involving story, though it does get a bit exhausting and long-winded towards the end. It's good for playing in short 30-minute bursts until completion and will give you a nice nostalgic feeling for simpler times if you ever got to play them back in the day, but it won't last long and you'll be grateful games did manage to evolve light years past this. Some expensive trading cards and a decent amount of achievements are included too.

One of the best text adventures I've played in recent times. There are various subplots within the main story and they are pretty fleshed out. The audio does its job perfectly to immerse you into the game. The game hides important info(which award score points) in places you'd often overlook. So search every nook and cranny. There are 25 achievements to be unlocked and you can get all of them pretty easily, barring two. Play the game, enjoy the story and try to get as high a score as possible. I had a talk with the dev yesterday about my general feedback and he turned out to be a thorough gentleman.:)

My achievement score: 25/25
Mt total score: 734/735(tsk tsk)

Recommended!

Lifestream, Shady Brook and The Filmmaker are the first three episodes (in this order) of a planned long series, whose fourth episode is Stonewall Penitentiary and the upcoming fifth one is Summit of the Wolf. These episodes are (seemingly) very loosely connected, so each of them can be played on their own, but it is easy to see the connections and the slowly emerging overarching themes.

The first three episodes have a certain kind of choose-your-adventure-style interface, but the author still manages to integrate meaningful puzzles, which are mostly inventory-based. The main draw of these games however are the stories. All the stories are very different and their mood ranges from dark to extremely dark. :) But for lovers of good stories they are very much recommended.

That was a fun game to play. It tells a fantastic story where you explore a movie theater as well as enter 6 different B-movies. You will encounter ghosts, an hungry vampire, a very scary monster, adorable bunny-like fuzzies that love eating children, and a big bad demon that feeds on souls and whose killing spree you'll have to stop!
The writing is well done and the story compelling.

There are many puzzles (more than in previous titles I think), most of them solved by paying attention to what you read.

In all, a very enjoyable game to play. I recommend if you like reading!

There were a few bugs, but overall the game was entertaining.

Just Finished the Story and in waiting for the release of Stonewall Penitentiary. I hope to give an exaustive review on why you guys should buy and play this title first. So from the remakes of the original games/stories released by Unimatrix Productions: Lifestream, Shady Brook, The Filmmaker. this one is the last (for now) in a ever interesting Supernatural/Dark Mysteries interactive fiction series. Originally released in 2010 and remade two years ago is totally worthy for me to get because it got in it two things: Movies and Ghosts. You will be shown the possibility to travel inside 5 Black and white movies to release the trapped souls of the deceased Movie theatre staff. each movie got a different theme: Noir (Phillip Marlowe style), Ghotic Horror (Inspired by Nosferatu), Cartoon (I get a feeling this is in a way a parody to childish cartoons like teletubbies but twisted in nature and thought as if they were created in the 20s), Sci-Fi (A nod to low budget sci-fi black and white movies and I think a tiny tribute to series like Star Trek) Action (From this I get the vibe of Creatures of the Black Lagoon meet Indiana Jones setting). I appreciated the fact the author give us a taste of the past and loved the retro age atmosphere. the only complains I have are:

1) the Interface Icons. even if they go well with the "Old Theatre" vibe it Feel bad after Seeing Portraits in Lifestream and the Stylized one for Jake in Shady Brook to see a simplized head icon for this Character: Brianna Auberon sister of one of the "inmates" in the coming soon Stonewall Penitentiary (Gerard Auberon that make a cameo at the begin of the game) is the first Black Woman protagonist from a Storycentric Worlds story and for me pull off really good the sweet but hidden badass act. Unexpected for me is the return as side characters of Lucy and Paul from Lifestream (Liked their "flashbacks" scenes) and liked to see them again (this little nods to past titles are what make this games so appealing).

2) The Journal Entries: It not end up messy like the one in Lifestream but I really would like to see a way to read the journal not only by "updates" but also with a little more order (example you got Brianna Diary in the Journal that updates itself. I thinked it was a nice touch as you get to read more from the main character perspective and keep also entries relative to notes and stuff that otherwise you will forget. But the problem is: the Diary is at the begin of the journal and when you open it will automatically go to the last page opened. Usually the last entries of the journal that are 5 pages later so after continuing "flip" to the right page I get a little annoyed.

About gameplay: This game is less into exploration and more into puzzles. A LOT of puzzles as you will see (some got me good as I had started playing with a short-sighted logic turned to be wrong as you don't get the "right" items in order and so you will need to backtrack the puzzle you first encountered and resolve it much more later. I end up banging my head on puzzles that had to "wait" for later: example the Toilet). This game discard the "time skip" from Shady Brook so it isn't possible to lose points on the way and keep a more efficient "battle" scenes: glad for this change. Villain is in my opinion the best so far in the games series (because the story even if it try to be isn't scary at all or even remotely disturbing as Shady Brook and the feeling at the end is that of a B-Movie Villain but as Brianna say in the game: it's good). The Story is appealing and give a good conclusion with little more choices that change the outcome. Liked the PREVIEW to the next game ( I thinkedit was a nice touch with the movie theatre theme and alll)

To the Authors: I found a minor bug in the game. When I had to put togheter the Doll "visitor" in the Noir/Detective movie I found out that the wig you use (in all cases: blond or brunette or ginger) when taken off from the dummy the wig in the inventory will always turn with the name of the correct one (Brunette wig) . The Description remain the original for the wig chosen (so if I picked the Blond Wig in the description is shown we're talking about the blond one but the name of the item become "Brunette Wig" until I put it back in the dressing room.

This game has a very interesting story that you must gradually uncover. The game is like a classic text adventure with locations and an inventory. At each location you are presented with interaction options that you must select with the mouse. It uses static artwork for locations and events that arise from interaction selections. The artwork is very well done and the music really adds to whole experience. You can tell that a lot of thought and effort went into the plotline.

You play as Brianna, a young woman who has been invited to a special screening of films by her favourite director, Claude Ferucil. When Brianna arrives at the theatre she finds it abandoned and a mystery is presented.

The game is creepy and weird at times, even downright unsettling. Being a text adventure, the gameplay is a bit slow as you must gather clues and piece together what has happened in the past - but eventually all will be revealed. The developers give you enough information to get past the puzzles/tasks that are presented. When faced with a challenge you have the option of receiving hints if you are stuck.

I really liked this game - I wasn't sure what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised. It is good for about six to eight hours of playing time. I bought this on sale at 50% off and definitely got my money's worth.

I give it 7.5 out of ten and recommend it to patient people who like story-rich point and click games like Black Mirror or Gray Matter.

I'm 2 hours in, so I can't say much about the story yet. But I can already say it's a fun game with a great atmosphere and interesting characters. Brianna, a b-movie fan like myself, is a very relatable protagonist.

I don't feel bombarded with walls of text, but I still get lots of information about people, the setting and the puzzles, which is a big plus. I'm also a big fan of the music and artwork. All in all, the game captures the atmosphere and allure of small movie theatres and the cult around b-movies very well. I generally don't play much text-based games, but the setting and story sold me on this.

Also encountered a bug and got support and a solution within a few hours.

I recently played The Filmmaker, to completion, on an Android Tablet so my hours shown here are minimal. As much as I love the portability of a tablet, this game is even better with a larger screen! This is a wonderful game that I give an 'A' to in my review at Just Adventure. Great story, well developed characters, throughtfully integrated puzzles, heroic quest... The Filmmaker has it all. I encourage those with a fondness for interactive fiction to check out this title as well as LifeStream and Shady Brook.

What can i say. I only played for 1 hour and i`m already in love with this game. The writing style is really great and it`s really enjoyable in general. This is a sure reccommendation for any puzzle fan (yes, this game includes a lot of puzzles in combination with a lot of text), but be sure to also check out Shady Brook or Lifestream.
I´ll write a more detailed review after i`ve fully completed the game!