The present disclosure relates to a cloud-based system that records and plays back video images. The system includes a recorder service executing on a server and a client application executing on one or more client devices. The client application includes a player program and a recorder program. The recorder program captures screenshots based on a pre-defined list of events and sends the screenshots and a build request referencing the screenshots to the recorder service. The recorder service generates a play file in response to receipt of the build request using the screenshots. The play file includes metadata referencing variation images generated from the screenshots. The play file is configured to be accessible by any of the client devices for generation and playback of a video using the player program.