Not every game needs to be 80 hours long. Sometimes the most interesting experiments happen in tiny packages that explore ideas rather than padding content. This is Adam, a student FMV project from film student Cine-Mart, takes just 3-7 minutes to complete. It features one room, one camera, one continuous shot, and one newly-created being named Adam who needs your help making choices he cannot make alone. It’s available now on Steam, and it challenges what we consider a video game.
Born Into The Void
The premise is deceptively simple. Adam has just come into existence, dropped into a room that exists in a world called the void. He’s a blank slate, a character without history or context, facing his first moments of consciousness. Your job is to guide him through choices that will determine what kind of existence he’ll have and what conclusion he deserves.
This existential setup lets Cine-Mart explore fundamental questions about agency, choice, and what it means to begin. Adam literally cannot make decisions on his own. He needs you, the player, to navigate this strange new existence. It’s a metaphor wrapped in an FMV wrapper, executed in a single continuous take.
The One Room, One Shot Approach
This is Adam was shot with severe constraints that became creative advantages. One camera. One room. One continuous shot. These limitations force focus on performance, dialogue, and the weight of each choice rather than flashy cinematography or elaborate sets.
The single-shot approach creates intimacy and immediacy that quick cuts would destroy. You’re locked in this space with Adam, experiencing his confusion and uncertainty in real time. There’s nowhere to hide, no editing tricks to mask weaknesses. What you see is what the filmmakers captured in that one room during that one take.
FMV as Student Experimentation
Cine-Mart created This is Adam as part of a film school project that encouraged exploring unconventional formats. Rather than making another traditional short film, they chose to experiment with interactive storytelling through the FMV game format. It’s a smart move that demonstrates understanding of emerging media forms.
FMV games have experienced a renaissance in recent years. Titles like Her Story, Telling Lies, and Immortality proved that live-action footage combined with interactive mechanics can create unique narrative experiences impossible in traditional film or standard video games. This is Adam joins that conversation from a student perspective, exploring what you can accomplish with minimal resources and maximum creativity.
Three to Seven Minutes
Depending on the choices you make, This is Adam takes anywhere from three to seven minutes to complete. That brevity is intentional. The game isn’t trying to pad runtime or artificially extend playtime. It explores a single idea, executes it, and ends.
This micro-game approach respects player time while encouraging multiple playthroughs. With such a short runtime, you can immediately restart and explore different choice branches to see how they alter Adam’s story. The game becomes about discovering the full possibility space rather than committing to a single lengthy playthrough.
Choose Your Own Adventure Mechanics
The gameplay follows traditional choose-your-own-adventure structure. At key moments, the video pauses and presents you with choices. Select an option, and the story continues down that branch. Different choices lead to different outcomes for Adam.
What makes this work within the one-shot constraint is careful planning and performance. The actor had to deliver multiple branching dialogue paths and reactions in sequence, creating the illusion of natural conversation despite the predetermined structure. It’s technically impressive even before considering the interactive layer.
Available Now on Steam
This is Adam launched on Steam in September 2025 and is available for free. As a student project exploring experimental formats, Cine-Mart opted to release it without charge, prioritizing exposure and feedback over revenue. This accessibility means anyone curious about FMV games or micro-narratives can try it without financial commitment.
The Steam page includes a teaser trailer and screenshots, though notably lacks a full gameplay trailer. According to Cine-Mart’s Reddit post, there is a review available that showcases gameplay for those wanting to see the experience before downloading. The static screenshots don’t immediately communicate the FMV nature, leading some to initially think Adam might be a doll in a stop-motion project.
Student Games Matter
Projects like This is Adam represent an important part of game development culture that often gets overlooked. Student work serves as experimentation ground for ideas too risky or unconventional for commercial development. These projects push boundaries, test assumptions, and explore what interactive media can be.
Many successful game developers started by making weird experimental projects in school. Jonathan Blow created experimental games before Braid. Jenova Chen made flOw as a grad school thesis. Student work provides freedom to fail, to try bizarre ideas, and to learn by doing rather than following established formulas.
FMV’s Continued Evolution
The FMV genre’s recent renaissance proves that live-action games aren’t just 90s nostalgia. Modern technology makes filming, editing, and integrating interactive elements more accessible than ever. Film students have equipment and software capabilities that professional studios lacked 20 years ago.
This accessibility democratizes FMV game creation. You don’t need a major studio budget or specialized equipment. A decent camera, willing actors, creative writing, and interactive game engine integration can produce compelling experiences. This is Adam demonstrates what’s possible with student-level resources and film school constraints.
The Power of Constraints
One room. One shot. One camera. These weren’t just budget limitations for This is Adam, they became the defining creative framework. Constraints force creativity by eliminating easy solutions and demanding innovation within boundaries.
Film history is filled with classics born from constraints. Hitchcock’s Rope used long takes to create tension. Buried trapped Ryan Reynolds in a coffin for 95 minutes. Locke featured Tom Hardy alone in a car for the entire runtime. Constraints focus storytelling on characters, dialogue, and performance rather than spectacle.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is This is Adam?
This is Adam is a short FMV choose-your-own-adventure game created by film student Cine-Mart. Players guide a newly-created being named Adam through existential choices in a single room. The entire game was shot in one continuous take with one camera and takes 3-7 minutes to complete.
How long does This is Adam take to play?
A single playthrough takes between three to seven minutes depending on which choices you make. The short runtime encourages multiple playthroughs to explore different decision branches and outcomes.
Is This is Adam free?
Yes, This is Adam is available for free on Steam. As a student project exploring experimental formats, the developer chose to release it without charge.
What is an FMV game?
FMV stands for Full Motion Video. FMV games use live-action footage with real actors instead of computer-generated graphics. Players make choices that affect how the video plays out, creating interactive movie experiences.
Who created This is Adam?
This is Adam was created by Cine-Mart, a film student who made it as part of a school project that encouraged exploring unconventional formats. The game served as an experiment in interactive storytelling.
When was This is Adam released?
This is Adam launched on Steam in September 2025. The developer promoted it on Reddit in November 2025 to reach a wider audience interested in FMV and choose-your-own-adventure games.
What makes This is Adam unique?
The game was shot entirely in one continuous take with one camera in one room. This constraint creates an intimate, unbroken experience focused on performance and dialogue rather than cinematic techniques or elaborate sets.
Are there multiple endings in This is Adam?
Yes, different choices lead to different outcomes for Adam. The short runtime and branching narrative encourage players to replay and explore various decision paths to discover all possible conclusions.
Conclusion
This is Adam won’t revolutionize gaming or win major awards. It’s a student project, a brief experiment in interactive storytelling created within the constraints of film school and limited resources. But that’s exactly what makes it worth attention. Not every game needs to be a 60-dollar, 100-hour epic that dominates discourse for months.
Sometimes the most interesting work happens in the margins, in tiny experiments that explore ideas without worrying about commercial viability or mass appeal. Film students making FMV games about existential choices. Solo developers creating tulip farming sims. Two-person teams merging fighting games with card battlers. This is where innovation actually happens, not in focus-tested AAA productions.
This is Adam asks you to spend 3-7 minutes guiding a consciousness through its first moments of existence. That’s it. No epic quest, no skill trees, no loot drops. Just choices and their consequences, captured in one unbroken take in one room. If that sounds interesting, it’s free on Steam right now. Download it, play through it a few times, and consider what interactive storytelling can be when creators prioritize ideas over production values.
Student projects like this deserve support not because they’re perfect, but because they represent the experimental spirit that keeps gaming interesting. Cine-Mart could have made another standard short film. Instead, they chose to explore interactive media, to see what happens when you give players agency over a character’s first moments of consciousness. That willingness to experiment, to try something different despite limited experience and resources, matters more than polish. Download This is Adam. It’ll take less time than reading this article. And maybe it’ll make you think about existence, choice, and what it means to guide someone who cannot guide themselves. Or maybe it won’t. Either way, you’ll only be out five minutes. Adam is waiting in the void, and he needs your help making choices he cannot make alone.