CtrlMovie Editor is the professional macOS authoring tool for interactive, branching-narrative films. Design the story graph, script every branch in Lua, edit the timeline, simulate the audience experience, and produce a distribution master for cinema, mobile, game console and CtrlMovie streaming — all in one document.
macOS 13 or later · Apple silicon & Intel · Licensed per production
Released 3 days ago | 71.9 MB | Requires MacOS 14 Sonoma
Editor unifies the parts of interactive storytelling that other tools split across editors, spreadsheets and scripts: story logic, picture, audio, subtitles, localization, validation and mastering.
Lay out segments, branch points and episodes on an infinite canvas. Connect outputs to targets with a drag, drop branch points to fork the story, and group segments into episodes — including chapters that can be unlocked progressively or sold as in-app purchases for mobile and console rollouts.
Each segment carries its own timeline: multi-track audio with waveforms, subtitles, decision bars, markers and runtime actions. Edit with keyboard arrows, autoscroll during playback, lock finished timelines to prevent accidents.
What makes a CtrlMovie interactive in the first place: a Lua scripting runtime that runs inside every player — desktop, mobile, console and theater. Every branch, decision and action can be scripted, so the story can react to anything you can express in code.
Play the project end-to-end inside the editor with the same playback engine your shipped app will use. Drive decisions yourself, shuffle for replay, or scan the QR code to run a full multiplayer session from real phones — no build required.
A continuously running validation engine inspects every segment, condition, asset and subtitle. Grouped issues link straight to the object that needs attention, so the project is always ship-ready.
The composition analyzer walks every path through the graph and reports reachability, runtime min/mean/max, and ending probabilities. Useful for festivals, scheduling, and finding the dead branches you didn't know you had.
Dedicated translation and subtitle sheets let you author every language directly in the project — no spreadsheets to chase, no re-import step. Coverage, fonts and per-language subtitle styles stay consistent across episodes.
Editor produces a distribution master — .ctrlmovie /
.ctrlpack — that feeds the rest of the CtrlMovie pipeline:
shipped apps for mobile and console, the CtrlMovie streaming platform,
and the companion Packager app, which turns the master
into a DCI-compliant DCP for theatrical release.
Everything you need to ship a branching film lives in one window — and every change is undoable.
Auto-discover video, audio and images from disk. Editor organizes them per episode and warns on conflicts.
Wire segments and branch points on the graph. Use Lua conditions when you need variables, traits, or collectables.
Trim picture, drop in audio tracks with volume curves, position subtitles and decisions to the frame.
Play it in the built-in simulator. Test multiplayer from phones with a QR code, no build pipeline.
Let the validation engine surface missing assets, dead ends and broken conditions before export.
Export an encrypted distribution master for mobile, console and streaming — or hand it to Packager for a DCI-compliant DCP.
Editor is a native macOS document-based app. Files are portable, undo is bottomless, and projects scale to feature-length stories.
Frame rates
23.976 · 24 · 25 · 29.97 fps
Image formats
Full HD · UHD · 2K · 4K
Audio
1.0 · 2.0 · 5.1 · 7.1
Targets
Cinema · Mobile · Console · CtrlMovie streaming
Editor is licensed per production. Get in touch and we'll set up a contract, provision your license, and onboard your team on the full CtrlMovie pipeline — Editor, Packager, the streaming platform and the mobile/console SDKs.
Contact us