Everything is dragged and dropped to interact with the world. So, drag a writer into the script building and you can put him to work on a feature by dropping him in any of several rooms (a four-star room will have him try to write a masterpiece, or you can drop him in the one-star room to bang out a low-budget flick). The finished script can then be picked up and moved to another building, along with a director and stars, in order to start filming. As you develop scripts and hire people they'll appear as shortcuts on either side of your screen for fast access.
Movies demonstrates several of Molyneux's principles, including an easy-to-understand concept, simplicity, and an open environment to play around in. Black & White 2 demonstrates these principles in spades...
Black & White 2 In Action
It's your world, but they have to live there...
Next up, Molyneux and Millar showed off their newest baby: Black & White 2. "Are you the God of war or the God of peace?" is the idea behind it. And, almost like good-cop bad-cop, Molyneux and Millar described the different ways players might play the game. Molyneux wants to build the perfect city, a gleaming white metropolis with happy citizens frolicking in gorgeous fields. Millar wants to dominate the world, pushing his production in order to spawn massive dark armies to sweep over the land. Either strategy works, an example of a game being flexible based on the user's goals.
The controls, as in the movies, are consistent and straightforward. The left mouse button moves around, and the right mouse button manipulates objects. If you hold down the right mouse button and move around, you'll do something Molyneux called "Fisting" (!) You can use this to torment your people, scrub grass off of the land, or plant fields of flowers, depending on your alignment.
Everything is easy to manipulate and play with. Want to build a road? Right-click on an existing road and drag along an extension. Want to move trees or buildings? Just grab 'em and move 'em and drop 'em. Want to build a building? Tap an existing building to grab a ghost image of it, then plop it down where you want. Your citizens will have wants of their own, and they'll show you what they need by putting a picture of the building in their town center. Want to build it? Just grab that image of the building and drop it where you want it to go.
