If you ever wanted to produce your own TV show but never had the money, the crew willing to work for free, the ability to design realistic looking sets, or the drive to get up before dawn and shoot during the day's best light, there's hope.

Will Wright, the creator of the iconic line of "Sim" games including the popular "Sims," has created a program called the "Storymaker Engine" that lets ordinary schlubs like you and me create TV shows using Sims.

Wright and company are hoping that the stories created from this engine can be turned into an entertaining half-hour to hour of television for Current TV. "Machinima" shows like 'Red vs. Blue' and the 'South Park' 'Make Love, Not Warcraft' episode have helped bring some video game driven entertainment to audiences, but would you watch an entire show that was produced on a video game?

More fallout from Dr. Horrible, as machinima.com has hired Felicia Day to write a new sit-com. Of course, her work on The Guild probably had a lot to do with it as well. This is not just any sit-com though. It takes place inside a video game. Kind of implied by her employer, I know, but I think the fact that I recognize Gus Sorola on sight probably puts me in the minority.

Anyway... Lon over at Tubefilter got a chance to talk with Felicia about the new project. The short version is that she's still in the writing stage, so there is no cast at the moment. She wanted to take "archetypal characters from sit-coms and place them in a fantastical world." So long as that doesn't mean a fat stupid guy with a really hot wife, I like it as a starting point. The show is set to launch in the fall with five short episodes that will combine into one half hour pilot. Audience feedback will influence four more possible half hour segments.

If you were wondering just how the South Park team went about getting all of the WoW game footage for their "Make Love Not Warcraft" episode, machinima.com has the details. They did a rather detailed interview with three members of the team that put the episode together.

The idea for a MMO story had actually been kicking around for some time, but was initially shelved due to the technical aspects of it. Once they finally decided to go with the WoW episode, it took three times as long to do the WoW footage as a normal South Park episode. And that was with full cooperation from the fine folks at Blizzard. It's an interesting read for South Park fans, WoW fans, or anyone interested in machinima. And if none of that works for you, you can still go watch Red vs. Blue, because that's just good comedy.

[ via slashdot ]