Cutting out live-action footage frame-by-frame may be an unorthodox way to create videogames, but Piotr Bunkowski makes it work. Based in Tczew, Poland, he enjoys working on FMV games in his spare time. So far, he has released two – A Trip to Yugoslavia, and One Rotten Oath. Alongside his games, he also works as an internal video game reviewer for Forever Entertainment.
Following on from a chance interaction on BlueSky (don’t forget to follow!) and an enjoyable email exchange, he agreed to answer some questions. His answers can be seen below, and are edited slightly for clarity.
The Indie Interview
What made you become a game developer?
PB: I guess something was always drawing me towards this career path. Since I was a kid, I wanted to know how games were made. I started small with a few Polish translations for simple indie games. Truth be told, I hadn’t really saw myself as a solo dev back then, but everything changed in late high school. The pursuit of creating a small, fun, experimental interactive project with (and for!) friends, turned into promotions on various events across Poland. It eventually ended with a publishing deal. It was a super weird and intense time from the perspective of a guy in high school, but that sparked my love for gamedev even more.
What was the most challenging thing about creating One Rotten Oath?
PB: Sprites were the most challenging aspect of One Rotten Oath. GDevelop (the engine that the game is running on) supports only one video per scene, so in theory FMV games shouldn’t be possible. The problem was that I’ve already recorded every animation on set with actors (well, actually me and my brother) in 50 FPS. Instead of giving up, I decided creatively overcome it by cutting out every mutant frame-by-frame in order to put them on the stage. The basic mutant is made of 237 frames, separated into 4 animations. I ended up with about 3000 frames in total. Cutting everything out took like half a year of instant grind, pain and tears. I worked around my job, but I’m happy with how it turned out.
Why use FMV elements instead of something like pixel art or 3D graphics?
PB: I used FMV elements for a few reasons. The first one is that it’s kind of my style now. I started with FMV games and it worked, so I decided to just stick to it and see what happened. Yes, cutting everything out frame-by-frame took a lot of work, but I was confident in what I was doing. I didn’t want to blindly change my style for something I haven’t done before. It’s tough, but I know what I was doing. The other thing is, you don’t need a big budget to come up with something creative in this technique. Sometimes, you just need old clothes and a few hairpins. FMV style unlocks something creative in you and I guess that’s part of the charm.
Do you have a favourite indie game?
PB: I have plenty of favourite indie games. The Long Dark, FTL: Faster Than Light, March of The Living, Easy Red 2, Death Road to Canada, The Consuming Shadow, The Organ Trail (yes, Organ not Oregon, although it’s also great!), Plague Inc, Help Will Come Tomorrow…
I can go on and on!
Without spoiling anything, what’s your plan for the rest of 2026?
PB: As for my plans on 2026, I have a few ideas and some might be related to One Rotten Oath, but more on that later this year. I’m definitely not ditching the FMV style 😉
Pushing ahead with FMVs
Clearly, an indie fan through and through. Piotr Bunkowski has an extensive list of favourite games to play, and a burning drive to push on ahead with his own FMV games. As ever, the indie scene is one full of people with massive amounts of creativity and passion.
I personally enjoyed hearing about the technical side of how One Rotten Oath came together. Piotr Bunkowski seems to fully understand the limitations of the tools he uses, and is able to work his way around them. If you want to check out his games, you can click through to Steam here.