Fable, the self-titled “Virtual Beings Studio”, has developed the Neil Gaiman story as a virtual reality feature. The company recently unveiled the second chapter of Wolves in the Wall at the recently held Tribeca Film Festival. In contrast to the trend of most virtual reality presentations, viewers will find that the elaborate VR characteristics are not the main focus of the experience. The focus lies on Lucy, a girl who suspects out of the ordinary things taking place in her residence. This character can respond appropriately to your actions and movements, and create customised gaming experiences.
Lucy, the character, is quite significant for Fable, and so is the technological innovation behind her. She is an interactive virtual being who users can interact through augmented reality, virtual reality, phones, and all other platform types. The initial episode of Wolves in the Walls had premiered at the Sundance Film Festival during early 2018, was the company’s first foray into the technology. The second episode, titled It’s All Over, is a few steps ahead in terms of technological innovation. In this episode, the main character Lucy is able to record and recall interactions of users, and even study intent.
Users who slightly delay actions will be subjected to comments regarding the same from Lucy. She even waits for players to complete their tasks, informs players where they are, and also regarding what they are interacting with.
Pete Billington, the director of Wolves in the Walls, has also co-created the project with Jessica Shamash. He remarked that the experience offers various subtleties related to artificial intelligence to create the illusion of gripping immersive entertainment. Billington also compared to the development to Alexa, which is an AI platform that many users feel emotionally disconnected from.
A player would step into the shoes of an imaginary friend of Lucy. As one gets into the experience, they come to realise that they are the character’s only friend. Throughout the experience, Lucy opens up about the strange sounds coming from within the walls to the player. Players are also tasked with assisting Lucy in taking a photograph to make the presence of the wolves evident. Once a photo has been taken, the player has to hand over the polaroid to Lucy.
Players experienced virtual reality-based interactions, and get quite acquainted with the main character Lucy. The experience has proven that virtual reality is a highly potent way of establishing a connection to a character. – Pete Billington
Billington elaborated further on the development, stating that the experience offers an intimate and realistic encounter for viewers, and lets them perform the lion’s share of actions. He also revealed that the team was also planning on incorporating AR, to give users the ability to communicate with characters via prevalent modes of digital communication.
The illustration application Quill was used to creating the settings of the experience.
