Hollywood Mogul Home Page

Press Page
for
Hollywood Mogul 3
(HM3)

Earlier versions of Hollywood Mogul have been seen on
Entertainment Tonight, and in Premiere magazine,
Daily Variety, Games magazine (awarded top 100 games of the year),
as well as many of the major computer game magazines, most notably Computer
Gaming World magazine.

Press Room Contents

Hollywood Mogul Company Contact Information

Bio for Hollywood Mogul 3 Creator Carey DeVuono

Hollywood Mogul 3 At A Glance

Hollywood Mogul 3 An Interview With Hollywood Mogul 3 Author Carey DeVuono

Hollywood Mogul 3: The Game Explained In Screen Shots. (This will open in another window or tab.)

Hollywood Mogul 3 Latvian News/Web Interview With Hollywood Mogul 3 Author Carey DeVuono

The legendary Johnny L. Wilson formerly of Computer Gaming World magazine
reviews Hollywood Mogul 3 for ManifestoGames.com here. (This will open in another window or tab.)

Blog Interview With Carey DeVuono, The Creator Of Hollywood Mogul 3
The Official Blog Of Henry Jenkins (This will open in another window or tab.)

Hollywood Mogul 3 Press Release

Hollywood Mogul 3 IMAGES: Author, Carey DeVuono (Color and B&W - 72 and 300 DPI)

Hollywood Mogul Company Contact Information

Carey DeVuono
Hollywood Mogul Company
HMdesigner@Hollywood-Mogul.com
www.Hollywood-Mogul.com
512.689.0582

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Bio for Hollywood Mogul 3 Creator Carey DeVuono:

At age 25 Carey DeVuono was under contract at Paramount Pictures writing a movie that never got made. In 1993, while shopping a screenplay to 20th Century Fox, DeVuono had an idea that a computer game about running a Hollywood movie studio might be fun to play. So he set out to write one.

DeVuono bought himself a computer and a book on programming. A year later the original DOS version of Hollywood Mogul had been written, and released. In 1995 DeVuono ported his game to Windows(R), in what became known as the 2.x series of Hollywood Mogul. There were more than 9 major game updates for Hollywood Mogul in the 2.x versions, over 7 years.

In August of 2003, Carey DeVuono began writing Hollywood Mogul 3. Improvements in computer speed and storage space allowed DeVuono to include everything he had had to leave out of earlier versions. HM3, as it is most often known, was written, on and off, over a four year period. The beta version was released in September of 2006. As soon as HM3 was released, DeVuono implemented an eight month "tweaking" period in which the game was tested, tweaked, finalized, and re-tested. Finally, in June of 2007, DeVuono proclaimed Hollywood Mogul 3 "ready for worldwide release."

Hollywood Mogul is played in 49 countries.

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Hollywood Mogul 3 At A Glance:

Created, Designed, Written, and Programmed By: Carey DeVuono on-and-off over 4 years.

90,000 lines of code.

Complete top-to-bottom rewrite of Hollywood Mogul 2.5 released in November 2001, the game Robert Coffey called one of his top three strategy games of all time in the 20th Anniversary Issue of Computer Gaming World magazine.

PC Strategy / Fantasy / Role Playing / Business Simulation

So far, Hollywood Mogul is played in 49 countries.

67 MB Download
... As text: http://www.hollywood-mogul.com/HM3_Install.exe
... As link: http://www.Hollywood-Mogul.com/HM3_Install.exe

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An Interview with Hollywood Mogul 3 Creator Carey DeVuono for
Latvian Website / Newspaper:

What were your main goals when you started creating Hollywood Mogul and do you feel you've achieved them now?

In 1990, I had written a screenplay about two computer companies that go to war using remote-controlled toys. My agent sent it into the system at 20th Century Fox. They passed, calling it "too broad of a comedy" (Whatever that means). The next year a director friend of mine said he wanted to direct it, and we went back to Fox. They passed again. The following year the director and I hooked up with a producer who had a deal at Fox and we went back in. They passed again. And I thought to myself, insanely, "If I only had a computer program that would run these numbers I could show them it would make money." And then I thought, "Well, that might be fun anyway." So I bought a computer and a book on programming, and taught myself to write a computer game. I finished in 1994, the original DOS version of Hollywood Mogul.

My main goal with Hollywood Mogul was to create a place for people who loved the movie business to play. To create. To express themselves. But I was limited in what I could do by two things: My programming skills at the time, and the fact that most computers had 8MB of RAM. Those were the days when an executable file had to be less than 640K. It was still the "beginning" of the computer game era.

But my goal was always to create a place for people to play, and dream. And do things their way. In Hollywood Mogul 3 I was able to add everything, every single thing, that I had wanted for the original game. Hollywood Mogul 3 is exactly what I want it to be. So yes, I do feel I've achieved what I set out to do in 1993. Hollywood Mogul 3 has so much depth, and so much flexibility, and so much customization that you could play it for years and years. It has every aspect of the movie business that I think is interesting and game-able. I'm very pleased with the end result. And I hope the players are, too. Ultimately, I wrote Hollywood Mogul 3 to be played around the world. Right now, it's played in 49 countries. That in itself makes me feel that I have achieved my goal.

How long did it take to create the first Hollywood Mogul compared to the latest version?

Now remember that I was teaching myself to program as I was writing the DOS version of Hollywood Mogul. I would get so far ... realize that I had learned something new, something major ... and start over. That happened three times. It took just over a year to write the DOS version of Hollywood Mogul. Then I adapted it for Windows(R) in 1995 when it became clear that the PC world was moving in that direction.

Hollywood Mogul 3 took me four years to write. I didn't work on it every day. I wrote Hollywood Mogul 3 by myself, and it's a lot of work, and to be honest, a lot of it isn't interesting. The early parts when I'm just writing sub-systems ... when the game doesn't even display yet ... it gets boring. So I would work on different projects. Write a screenplay for a friend, or write movie trailers, or do some other freelance writing work. And then go back to writing Hollywood Mogul 3 for three months. Then take another break from it again, then go back to it. But in March of 2006 I realized I was almost done. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. And then I worked 14 hours a day until September of 2006 to get Hollywood Mogul 3 ready for release. But I didn't really finish until April of 2007. After I released it I kept tweaking various systems, especially the box office result algorithms and the various AI systems. I'm fairly confident that Hollywood Mogul 3 is done now. But I'll probably still tweak it a bit. I love to tinker with it.

What was the research (both of movie and game industry) needed in the development of the Hollywood Mogul series? How do you feel you've coped with it?

When I was 25 I was under contract at Paramount Pictures. So I already knew the movie business. I really didn't do much research except in a few areas. The fun part was figuring out how to "game" the business; how to make it fun for the player.

The main area of research I did was in Agent Negotiations. I called some actor friends of mine and asked them about making deals, especially the negotiations for Sequel Contracts.

The really big research for Hollywood Mogul is done in the area of box office results. It started with a piece of research that a friend of mine did years ago, and then I had to factor into that the changing face of movie-making: ancillary sales (DVD's, Pay-Per-View, etc.).

Hollywood Mogul series have always been revered for almost brutal realism, which hasn't allowed it to achieve the accessibility of bigger profile games - do you think it has denied the series some renown?

In Hollywood Mogul 3 I tried to ease that a bit. At the easier game levels there's much more give-and-take. I let the beginning player (or the expert who just wants an easy game!) much better results in every part of the game. Hollywood Mogul 3 is very complex, and so I give the beginning player a chance to learn and still make money; still achieve box office blockbusters while making little mistakes. At the more difficult game levels, you pay for those little mistakes.

I don't know that anything other than my own lack of marketing skills has denied the series any renown. But this time I sat down and taught myself "How To Market A Computer Game." But every version of Hollywood Mogul has always been reviewed well, and has been loved by players around the world. Hollywood Mogul is played in 49 countries on Earth. That's not a bad start.

Did you had to sacrifice any planned game play elements in Hollywood Mogul 3 because of not having enough time or other reasons? If so, what were they?

No. Not one. Hollywood Mogul 3 is exactly what I want it to be. You'll love it, too. I hope.

What is your personal favorite feature in Hollywood Mogul 3?

That's like asking me "What's your favorite movie?" It's almost impossible to answer. Hollywood Mogul 3 has so many features, and it's so customizable that I don't really know where to start. You can play the game and if you also love to do graphic work, you can create and add your own graphics for Hollywood Mogul 3, and then share them with the world through the Hollywood Mogul 3 Message Board. You can play the game and if you also like stories and ideas, you can create source databases and share them with the world. You can play the game and if you also like to follow the business and statistics of Hollywood and movie stars, you can create talent databases and share them with the world.

You can play. And dream. And express yourself. Okay. I was wrong. I do know what my favorite feature is in Hollywood Mogul 3: the ability for the player to find their inner Creative Genius, or their inner Business Tycoon, or their inner Ruthless Negotiator, or their inner Hollywood Mogul. So get in their and play.

Do you plan to continue developing the Hollywood Mogul series? What possible improvements do you see for Hollywood Mogul 3?

I've worked on Hollywood Mogul 3 for almost five years now. There will be no Hollywood Mogul 4 (though someone has suggested my solution to that might be a Hollywood Mogul 5, that I'll just skip over 4!). I have no plans right now to continue this series. However, I may add some things along the way if I ever finalize some ideas that have been brewing. They're not really "movie business" ideas ... but something that might fit in well with the Hollywood Mogul 3 game scheme. But that's a long way off, so let's not even think about that, please.

Do you follow the indie/simulation game industry yourself? If so, which games are your favorites?

No, I write games, I'm not much for playing. Mostly I read. And I think. In order to create something, anything, one has to think of it first. I love to think.

Thank you for taking the time to interview me. And thank you to your readers, as well, for their time.

And good luck at the box office!

Carey DeVuono

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June 14, 2007

COMPUTER GAME MAKES YOU A HOLLYWOOD MOVIE MOGUL

Chicago, IL -- June 14, 2007 - Have you ever been in a theater at the end of a bad movie and said to yourself, "Even I could do better than that?" Well, now you can try. Hollywood Mogul 3 is a new PC Strategy Simulation that takes you inside the Dream Factory.

Written by a one-man game company over a four-year period, Hollywood Mogul 3 puts you at the Head Of The Studio. Create movies from your own ideas or select from thirteen sources such as Novels, Screenplays, Comic Books, TV Shows and more. Bring 100 movies to the Silver Screen, and every movie has your name on it as you watch the opening credits.

In Hollywood Mogul 3 each movie your studio releases has hundreds of options in story development, production, casting, marketing and release. You're in charge of every decision. You get the glory. You take the heat. This layered, intricate exploration of Hollywood will bring out your inner Creative Genius, Business Legend, or ruthless Hollywood Mogul.

Fans of the game have already created talent databases that include real-life movie stars and images, as well as dozens of other game files. All of these files are available to Hollywood Mogul 3 players as free downloads, and all of them enhance the simulation experience for running your own Hollywood movie studio.

A sure bet for a summer blockbuster, Hollywood Mogul 3 is only available on-line, and the full game can be downloaded for free from www.Hollywood-Mogul.com. Play free for eight days before purchasing a License I.D. for $29.99.

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Hollywood Mogul Company grants you permission to crop or resize
any or all of these images for use in any published writing about Carey DeVuono or Hollywood Mogul 3.

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