Cinemaster, developed by indie game studio Overload Games, is a simulator game about owning your own movie theater. I was able to play the demo of Cinemaster, which limits your abilities in the game compared to the full version. However, having worked in a movie theater back in my day, I felt it really captured the experience.
Starting off you get to name your theater, have $800 in the bank, 1 theater, a counter, a popcorn machine, a drink machine and 1 refrigerator. You’ll have to buy licenses for the movies you want to show in your newfound cinema via the tablet, which is where all your purchases can be made from, including food and furniture items. I admit that the movie titles are funny as they are spoofs of legitimate movies. Depending on which movie you purchase a license for to show in your cinema, you’ll get a bonus based on the popularity of the movie choice.
After you have a movie to play in your theater, you can determine which showtimes you want the movies to show. If you show a movie too often, you’ll lose a bit of demand for your sales. There are also 3D movies available, but you’ll have to upgrade your theater to allow 3D. (This wasn’t available in the demo.) There are 3D glasses you can sell to customers, which is another added thing you’ll have to grab when ringing someone up at the counter. There are other upgradable options where you can theme out each auditorium you own.
Speaking of your patrons, this game really does capture that emergent feeling when working at a movie theater counter right before shows start. People rush in and line up like lemmings to purchase their tickets and snacks. Apparently, at your theater, people choose their dedicated seat at ticketing. You’ll quickly have to print out their seat ticket and grab whatever food/drink they want before the timer runs out.
Yelp must be a thing in this world since if your customers wait too long or you forget to clean up your theater before the next show, the popularity rating of your cinema will decrease. You can hire staff in this game to help you however, this wasn’t available in the demo, so I’m unsure of what the staff will do for you. Work the register, grab specific food/drink items, I have no idea.
Speaking of food and drink, there’s a plethora of items you can add to your theater as you level up. Candy, sandwiches, water, and more can be purchased using your tablet. Once you purchase items, they’ll plop down at the delivery service store next to your cinema.
Your new cinema is located in a shopping mall, by the way. There’s a bunch of clothing stores nearby, but unfortunately, you can’t go shopping at any of them during the downtime between movies. There is a little cart you can use at the delivery store to stack any purchased packages on, then stroll everything over to your cinema in one trip (depending on how much you buy).
I was able to have two movies available for my single theater room, playing at different time slots which really did captivate the anxiety of trying to quickly clean the theater room, then running over to work the concession stand with a line of customers wanting to watch the next showing, and being the booth tech by starting the movie on time. I imagine the more movie time slots you fill and movie rooms you have going, the more hectic the game will become. Fun fact: if you run in the theater room while a movie is playing, it actually does show something on the screen! Kudos to the developer team for that extra detail.
The purpose of the game, like any simulator, is to earn money and beef up your cinema with more movies, theater rooms and concessions. I’m not sure how much will be added to the game as, again, I only played the demo, which limited you to what you could do in the game as well as abruptly ending my gameplay once some limit was reached. But overall, having worked in a movie theater as one of my first jobs, it really captivates that feeling of running one pretty well. I’m looking forward to seeing how this game develops over time.
