Patricio Valladares Developing Interactive FMV Horror Video Game

Chilean filmmaker Patricio Valladares is making his debut in the video game space with an untitled FMV horror title that merges analog filmmaking with interactive storytelling.

Currently in development through Vallastudio Films, the English-language game is being developed for platforms such as Steam and an app-based release.

“In terms of format, the project is being designed as a micro-drama-style FMV experience: a shorter interactive horror title, approximately two to three hours in length, with multiple endings and branching narrative paths,” Valladares told Variety.

Collaborating with Chilean and U.K.-based creative teams from the video game industry, the project is being conceived natively as an interactive experience rather than a film adaptation, combining cinematic language with branching gameplay systems.

Valladares is shooting the game production entirely on 16mm using Bolex H16 cameras.

The filmmaker co-wrote the project with screen and game writer Barry Keating, whose credits include the games “Steep” and “Sifu,” which is being adapted as an action series for Netflix by “The Maze Runner” scribe T.S. Nowlin. As a creative writing duo, Valladares and Keating also teamed on the director’s 2023 found-footage horror pic “Invoking Yell” and the recently completed upcoming sequel “Invoking Scream,” which is set to launch on the festival circuit later this year.

Described as a collision between slasher cinema and branching gameplay mechanics, the untitled game follows a mute masked killer trapped in a recurring cycle of death, resurrection and ritualistic horror. Players experience the evolving narrative from the killer’s perspective, with each repeated cycle revealing alternate outcomes, hidden supernatural connections and new layers of the nightmare.

Positioned as “Happy Death Day” meets first-person interactive horror, the game uses repetition as both narrative structure and gameplay mechanic, allowing progression through evolving loops and shifting player decisions.

The production embraces the growing appetite for analog aesthetics and “false nostalgia,” incorporating the tactile imperfections of 16mm film — including grain, flicker, instability and texture — as part of the game’s visual identity and atmosphere.

“This project was born from the idea of creating something that feels physically haunted,” Valladares said. “We wanted analog film to become part of the horror language itself, while interactivity transforms each cycle into a new experience.”

The title marks Valladares’ first move into interactive media after a career in genre filmmaking. “Invoking Yell” is currently streaming on Shudder and AMC Networks, while “Invoking Scream” expands the mythology introduced in the original film.

Casting for the untitled FMV horror title has not yet been announced. The project is being developed primarily in English, with the intention of working with Chilean actors based in Chile alongside U.K.-based voice actors for dubbing and additional voice work.