FMV Builder
Authoring tool · FMV & visual novels
A studio for interactive films (FMV) and visual novels: a branching-narrative editor with an NLE-style project room. Acts, scenes, and episodes live in a bin; each scene is a graph (Enter → Moments → End); choices and FMV mechanics — QTE, hold, explore, items, dialogue trees — bind to moments on the spine; a timeline with audio tracks and a viewer with inventory, meters, and diegetic mode complete the room. Projects validate and export to a web ZIP or an offline Electron build. Pre-release: the tool is in internal testing, public launch to be announced. The tool grew out of the FMV-01 production — see the devlog and the interactive film tools comparison.
Creator · Design · Development
Key features
One studio room for the whole film
Bin of acts, scenes, and episodes; viewer with instant playback; scene graph and timeline side by side. The workspace layout — panel positions, sizes, open panels — persists per project. Task: keep the entire film in sight and never get lost in files.
Branching without code
The project graph links scenes into a film timeline; mechanics — dialogue choices, QTE, hold, explore, items, evidence, dialogue trees — are placed with a click from presets and bound to moments on the scene spine. Task: assemble forks and branches as fast as the script is written.
Visual novels as first-class projects
A dedicated VN mode: a live novel preview right in the studio, dialogue lines with speakers editable in Info, endings as real scenes in the graph. Task: take a VN project from its first line to its finales without ever leaving the room.
Shared cast keeps characters consistent
Characters are created once at project level, placed on scenes, and referenced in dialogue; editing a name or a look propagates to every scene. Task: keep characters consistent across all branches — no more “which coat was she wearing in episode two?”
Story audit before release
The audit panel walks the whole story graph: dead ends, orphan scenes, scenes without art, empty scenes, broken targets — plus reading stats (scenes, branches, endings, text volume). Task: catch the holes before the audience does.
- Bin hierarchy — acts, scenes, episodes; project graph with groups, zoom, and a linked timeline
- Scene graph spine — Enter → Moments → End; captions, activities, and audio bind to moments
- Interactive presets — dialogue choices, QTE, hold, explore, items, evidence, dialogue trees, gaze, keypads, soft deadlines, diegetic UI
- Story tools — branch duplication, project-wide search, shared cast, integrity audit (dead ends, orphans, broken targets)
- Release desk — validation, publishing, Web ZIP, embeds, offline Electron kit