FMV-01 — cyberpunk noir FMV game
Cyberpunk noir
A hybrid interactive FMV prototype in Unity: video cutscenes plus still frames with hotspot choices. Working title FMV-01. Cyberpunk-noir rain, a contract, a chip on metal, neon — Blade Runner night, a gaunt hero in his thirties–forties. The current vertical slice runs intro_cs → still look (face / coat hotspots) → hire or walk → ending_hired / ending_walk. Narrative graph, VideoPlayer, and still hotspots are in; save (M4) is not. No public web or itch build yet — the Windows slice is local via the Unity pipeline.
Creator · Design · Direction
About the project
FMV-01 is a working prototype, not a finished game: a cyberpunk-noir vertical slice shot as live video and assembled in Unity. The scene is rain, neon, a contract, a chip on metal. The current slice runs intro_cs → still look (face / coat hotspots) → hire or walk → ending_hired / ending_walk. The narrative graph, video playback, and hotspots are in; save slots (M4) are not. There is no public web or itch build yet — the Windows slice runs locally through the Unity pipeline.
The project doubles as the practical base of my research on interactive storytelling: every directorial parameter (image density, hotspots, montage inserts) is a variable I can switch on and off. See the research side in The Evolution of Cut Scenes and Audiovisual Strategies of 3DO FMV.
Production-wise this is the same multi-hyphenate method as my films, tightened for interactivity: a small crew, live locations, and takes logged as graph nodes rather than as scene copies. Where a film edit fixes one sequence, here the edit produces variants — a take can serve two nodes if its entry and exit cut cleanly. The boundary between “film” and “game” in this build is deliberate and thin; the essay “Interactive Film or Video Game: Where Is the Line?” unpacks exactly where FMV-01 sits on that spectrum.
How it works
The vertical slice is one graph with five node types — Dialogue, Choice, Still, Cutscene, Ending — stored as ScriptableObject data. Playing is moving through the graph: a cutscene plays, a still frame waits for a hotspot, a choice forks the path, an ending terminates the run. The slice diagram below is the actual graph of the current build:
Tech stack
Unity 6 (6000.5.4f1) on URP. Video plays through Unity VideoPlayer; still frames use still + UV hotspots; idle stills get a Ken Burns treatment while video versions are not locked. The graph is authored as ScriptableObject data, so scenes are not duplicated per branch — nodes recombine. Save slots (M4) are the next system on the list, after which the slice becomes replayable end to end.
Why these choices: the ScriptableObject graph keeps authoring cheap — adding a branch is wiring nodes, not copying scenes; VideoPlayer keeps the video pipeline boring and predictable; and the still-with-hotspots form carries most of the noir mood at a fraction of the video budget. What is deliberately not in yet: persistence (M4 saves), a public build, and the still-to-video (I2V) upgrade path for the look frames.
Status: vertical slice
- Done: the vertical slice — rain intro, still-look hotspots, the hire-or-walk fork, two endings; the narrative graph, VideoPlayer and hotspots are in.
- Next: save slots (M4), then the still-to-video (I2V) upgrade for the look frames.
- Not yet: no public web or itch build — the Windows slice runs locally through the Unity pipeline.
- No release date and no platforms are promised until a build is locked; news lands in the devlog and on the contact channel below.
For press and festivals
FMV-01 is open for festival and press enquiries: a screener of the vertical slice, stills and production notes are available on request — write via the contact page. The authoring side of the project grew into a separate tool, FMV Builder, which is documented on its own page.
Stills and trailer
No public stills or trailer yet — they follow the first locked build. The cover above is the current key art.
- Still hotspots — click face or coat on the look frame to enter dialogue or the hire/walk fork
- Cutscene nodes — VideoPlayer clips with skip and fade; Ken Burns fallback until I2V lock
- Narrative graph — Dialogue, Choice, Still, Cutscene, Ending as ScriptableObject data
- Vertical slice — rain intro to two endings; save slots (M4) still open