Pixels Journal

Editor’s note

This review was originally published on February 14, 2025. Some information might be outdated due to updates and patches.

The Executive – Movie Industry Tycoon is developed by the French indie studio Aniki Games. This is the developer’s first game, and it’s certainly a strong debut.

In The Executive, you step into the role of the CEO of a film production startup in the early ’70s. Your goal is to grow your studio by producing movies and optimizing distribution. In many ways, the game is similar to Game Dev Tycoon, but instead of managing a game studio, you’re managing a film production company.

Making a Movie
The film production process in the game is quite simple. You select a genre, choose a theme, hire a director, lead actors, and give your movie a title. It’s really cool that you get to cast the actors and director yourself, and creating a new IP from the ground up and being able to turn it into a successful franchise is incredibly satisfying. The game just gives you so much freedom while creating a project and deciding what to do with an IP after your film is released. The Executive really lets you feel like an executive.

During production, a menu will pop up twice. Once during an early production stage and again during post-production. Within this menu, you will have the opportunity to make key production decisions. These choices determine which aspects of production you want to invest in. For example, during filming, you might prioritize writing over set design. Additionally, you can unlock premium features, such as licensed music or long takes, to enhance your film’s quality. Once the movie is distributed, all these choices will influence its success.

While the mechanics are straightforward, it can be quite challenging to figure out the best strategy for making a hit film, especially when experimenting with a newly unlocked genre for the first time. After each film, you can research your project to better understand what worked and what didn’t, which is especially useful for creating the next installment in a franchise. This mechanic is really fun to play with, and it feels so good when you accidentally create a masterpiece. However, it can also be frustrating because it often feels like a total gamble. The game doesn’t provide much guidance at first on what you should focus on in the production stage, so you’re left figuring it out on your own. Which in a way, is faithful to the real-life experience of executives.

Relive the Rise of Blockbusters
One of the most interesting aspects of the game is that you truly relive the history of cinema. You witness key industry shifts firsthand, such as the rise of home entertainment and, of course, its eventual decline. There are also award shows based on real-life events, like the Oscars and the Emmys. As a film enthusiast who has taken film-related courses at university, I found it fascinating to recognize all the accurate references in the game. Another small but neat detail is how electronic devices modernize over time, keeping the background from feeling static.

One more engaging feature is the need to adapt as an executive. Producing a movie isn’t just about making a film, you must also manage employees who may demand raises and handle with unexpected challenges, such as poor weather conditions delaying production. These unpredictable scenarios add realism and complexity to the gameplay. Occasionally, you’ll receive pop-ups forcing you to make tough financial decisions, sometimes pushing you over budget.

Ends Abruptly
The only big problem I have with the game is that your playthrough ends abruptly in the year 2020. In 2017, you get a message warning you to wrap things up because your story will be ending. This is really annoying because all your work just disappears, even though there’s still so much left to explore. When my file ended, I hadn’t even touched many genres yet, hadn’t hired as many employees as I could, and hadn’t made a successful blockbuster, so that was pretty frustrating.

The developers have said they are working on some sort of endless mode. In fact, they even added a message that shows up when the game ends in 2020, acknowledging the feedback and confirming that they are working on it.

Verdict
For now, The Executive is still an incredibly fun game to play that plays very well. It really lets you feel like an executive, and the references to the real-life film industry are done in quite a funny way. It’s an enjoyable game to try out, but the lack of an endless mode prevents you from going as deep into it as you otherwise could, and it can sometimes be annoying when the game doesn’t give you any guidance at all while creating a film in a newly unlocked genre for the first time. But The Executive is overall a really fun experience. It’s so satisfying to see your company grow from a bedroom to a big studio and to watch your franchises succeed.