Game designer Sam Barlow deserves a lot of credit for driving the “redemption” of FMVs. The full-motion video game format was pioneered in the early ’90s as a cutting-edge visual technique in an age when computer graphics were more simplistic.
But long before that, filmmakers were experimenting with ways to make films more interactive, in theaters and on home DVDs. The efforts met with uneven success — until Black Mirror: Bandersnatch became a hit, simultaneously justifying the interactive format and killing all future attempts at it.
As part of the launch of our documentary The Great Game: The Making of Spycraft, we asked FMV aficionado (…and prolific podcaster… and former Polygon writer) Justin McElroy to sit down with Barlow and talk about the appeal of this strange genre, and the ways it’s changed through the history of entertainment. You can find the whole conversation in the video above.
The Great Game: The Making
...
Keep reading this article on Polygon.