Tentpole is a creative browser game where you spin the wheel to create unique films pulling from every genre to build something new.
Last week I went out with a friend to check out the new DC horror flick Clayface. It did something unique that only a few prior films like Blade and Hellboy have tried to do before it: comic book horror. It stands alone as a body horror movie that, although tied in to the Batman universe, requires no homework. Horror fans and movie lovers that know very little about Batman’s rogues gallery can still enjoy the movie as its own project. Aside from a few very small references to Amusement Mile, Jitters Coffee, and Sionis Industries, the story of Matt Hagen stands on its own two feet.
However, to deny the influence from Batman: The Animated Series is impossible. The film’s plot was heavily influenced by the two-part episode “Feat of Clay,” where struggling actor Matt Hagen becomes addicted to Renuyu and is forced to embrace the Matt Hagen that was hiding within all along. And of course with such lineage as the critically-acclaimed and fondly remembered Batman: The Animated Series, it lends itself to fantasy casting. Who was better: Tom Rhys Harries or original Clayface voice Ron Pearlman?
Fantasy and fan casting and casting debates are rife throughout cinephile circles. Who was a better Joker: Jack Nicholson or Heath Ledger? Which of the Bond actors truly claims the title of 007? Was Anthony Perkins or Vince Vaughn the better Norman Bates? (HINT: No one ever says Vince Vaughn was better.) Movie lovers live for these eternal debates.
All Jesse Wolfersberger did was add a roulette wheel.
“It was inspired by sitting around with my friends and talking about movies,” said Wolfersberger of his browser game Tentpole. “You get into conversations like, ‘I heard David Lynch was supposed to direct Return of the Jedi.’ Or, ‘If they made a Face/Off sequel – who do you think should play the leads?’ Or, ‘I wish [Tom] Cruise would work with Michael Mann again.’ I’m also a fantasy sports player, board game player, and a data scientist. I think if you put all those elements together in a blender, you get Tentpole.”
Tentpole is a browser game, a field not commonly covered by gaming sites, but with a simple concept and deliciously addictive gameplay, it’s one that deserves your time. The goal is straightforward: pulling one element each from eight randomly selected films, build a movie. Movies are broken down into genres, ratings, directors, leads, and supports. Whether your aim is an Academy Award or a Razzie is up to you – there is no right or wrong way to play.
The ability to make whatever kind of movie players want, says Wolfersberger, “is probably my favorite thing about Tentpole. There is truly no ‘right’ way to play it. Depending on your mood that day, you can go for box office, critic score, make a flop, or just make something weird and see how it comes out. I usually start out with the best intentions and try to get a billion-dollar movie or a 100/100 critic score. Then, once I realize those goals aren’t going to happen, I try and make it as crazy as possible. That’s how I end up with a G-rated serial-killer movie or a Zombie/Rom-com starring Prince.
“Even if I get off to a great start, there are a few options that I’ll always take. I don’t care if I start with Scorsese, Streep, and DiCaprio – if Air Bud pops up, I’m putting Air Bud in my movie.”
The temptation to say “screw the Academy” and go for something really off the wall can potentially arise at any spin. I, too, had a rule that if Robin Williams turned up, Robin Williams was going in my movie. (I have not yet seen Air Bud turn up.) Why one might cast Robin Williams in a sports fairy tale directed by Guy Ritchie? Why not?
If a film comes along that too seriously screws with your cinematic masterpiece (or disasterpiece, as it were), players have three “reshoots” to send a movie back into the pile and spin a new one. When all eight slots are completed, Tentpole goes to work telling you the title, the synopsis, how critics felt about it, and if people went to go see it.
It’s at the point the magic happens, according to Wolfersberger. “The first versions of the game were just assembling your movie and getting a score. I’m glad I started there because the mechanics and scoring are still the backbone of the experience. However, as soon as I started playing around with adding an AI synopsis of the movie, it was immediately clear that this would be why people would play the game and come back to it over time.”
Wolfersberger can even pinpoint which of his creations sold him on keeping the synopsis feature. The fictional film’s synopsis reads:
Delicensed and dying, an aging superhero (Burt Reynolds) drives a RV west to sell his irradiated blood on the black market — the last unregulated power in America, and it’s bursting out through his scars.
~ Glory Road: Last Tank of Blood
(“The last real power in America is leaking.”)
His reaction: “Hot damn! I want to see that movie!”
His reaction is not unlike many others, who post their popcorn hits, art house indies, and big budget bombs to social media. But the point where Wolfersberger believes the magic happens is also the point where many turn up their nose and walk away: the fictional movie synopses are created through AI.
It’s a topic that Wolfersberger has quickly become familiar with. “I would say 99% of the feedback is positive, but 1% have dragged it as an AI slop machine,” he says regarding Tentpole’s AI component. “My response to that is, ‘Yes, it is, and it’s not pretending to be anything else.’ AI feels gross when it’s being used to lie to you. When you see a sandwich board outside a restaurant and it has AI images of their food, that feels gross because that’s not what your food looks like.”
“Tentpole’s movie descriptions are never trying to pass as real,” he reminded me as he pointed out that every single movie description has a statement atop it which reads: This film is not real. It is the output of a game. The title, description, cast, crew, rating, quotes, and scores are all invented. “It takes no one’s job and it uses the same amount of energy as a Google search.”
The disclaimer, though necessary, dashes my hopes of ever seeing a Clint Eastwood-directed supernatural spy thriller starring John Wayne, Sigourney Weaver, and Tone Loc.
Despite calling himself an “AI pragmatist,” Wolfersberger acknowledges the drawbacks to AI, calling the hoovering of RAM and the excessive environmental impact not AI issues but “human issues.” “We need to regulate the AI companies, we need to prepare for job disruption, we need to share the wealth created by AI. Those are human problems that need human solutions.”
As a writer, I try not to let my own opinions bias my writing, but I was up front with Jesse about my own thoughts on AI. As seen in the gamersphere recently with big studios taking money from lauded developers and throwing it at AI in an effort for number-go-up-ism, job disruption happens anyway whenever AI is involved, and none of the laid-off developers are seeing any of that wealth. The only people who see a return are the C-Level executives and even they are only receiving nickels and dimes, if anything.
Wolfersberger says the anger at AI is misplaced. “Rather than being angry at AI,” he posits, “we should be asking why we don’t have abundant solar, wind, and geo-thermal energy by now. Green energy solves the water problem as well, because it makes desalination viable.”
Understanding that not everyone will share the same viewpoint as him, there is a killswitch for it in Tentpole. “If players still would rather not use AI in Tentpole, there is a switch at the bottom of the page called ‘score only mode’ which lets you turn off the AI and still play with the exact same rules and scoring.”
While the debate rages on, Wolfersberger’s primary focus is making Tentpole as fun as possible, with new features like Versus mode, where a group of friends share a pool of films and pull elements from the same movie, adding a cutthroat strategy element to the game. “A good friend of mine is a huge Justin Timberlake fan. In our Versus game, I got The Social Network before he did.
There are a lot of great choices from that film, but I got to block him from taking Timberlake. That was when I knew that Versus mode was a winner.” In the upcoming months, he also plans to release a challenge mode, where elements are already selected and players must work around them. Can Christopher Nolan make a flop? Can Will Ferrell win a Best Picture Oscar? Only the savviest filmmakers can answer that question.
To Wolfersberger, no matter how the game evolves, fun is always the ultimate goal. “My north star is making the game that me and my friends want to play.”
And for the record, he likes his Joker of the Jack Nicholson variety, thank you very much.
Tentpole is free-to-play at its official website.
