Wolves in the Walls is a virtual friendship wrapped in a detective story

What does it mean to befriend a fictional character? How should you be able to interact with them, and how should they respond to you? And can virtual reality help the process, by immersing you in their world?

These are a few of the questions nascent VR studio Fable began asking when developing Wolves in the Walls, an experience premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Wolves in the Walls adapts Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s eponymous children’s book, where a girl named Lucy becomes convinced there are wolves in her house’s walls. (Spoiler: there are.) In the first of three short episodes, she paces her attic looking for evidence that might convince her family. Her world is colorful and a little cartoonish, with moments that are even more stylized: as she’s explaining the existence of the wolves, the scene cuts to something like a three-dimensional chalkboard, with pictures drawn in a child’s hand.

But this is only part of the experience. Viewers put on the headset and become Lucy’s imaginary friend, who she’s conscripted into the investigation. The emphasis is less on detective work, and more on having small but meaningful — and sometimes very clever — interactions with Lucy. When you first appear, for example, you’ll see her from the viewpoint of an adult looking at a child. She’s not happy with this — so she redraws you at the “right” height, where you’re directly at eye level. Later, she tries to put a camera in your hands, only to realize you don’t have any. She sketches them out quickly, so you can help find the wolves.

Wolves in the Walls started at Oculus’ internal Story Studio, and it’s still primarily produced by Story Studio veterans at Fable, with support from Oculus. But it was also shaped by the work of immersive theater company Third Rail Projects, whose best-known work Then She Fell lets 15 audience members explore a Lewis Carroll-inspired world.

Wolves director and Fable co-founder Pete Billington says visiting Then She Fell was a pivotal moment for the team. Despite being dropped in the middle of a moving world, “you never felt like you needed to try and figure out where you should be looking. Your focus was always [on] where you needed to be, the moment it needed to be,” he says. “We realized that was exactly what we wanted to do in virtual reality.”

Fable soon partnered with Third Rail, whose live performers acted out scenes that would later make it into VR. They worked on creating something producer Jessica Yaffa Shamash describes as “curated intimacy” with Lucy — a relationship that feels close and natural, but has been carefully engineered behind the scenes.

The team also consulted with figures from the game industry, including System Shock director Doug Church and BioShock designer Jordan Thomas. Billington’s co-founder Edward Saatchi says Lucy was influenced by BioShock Infinite character Elizabeth, a friendly partner who bonds with players through small, constant interactions. But Wolves flips the narrative dynamic, so instead of a supporting character, Lucy becomes the protagonist.

Given how short the episodes are, though, you don’t have much time to bond with Lucy — especially compared to the long and complex relationships people build in role-playing games like Fallout or Mass Effect. The team says that there’s a different kind of connection going on in Wolves. You’re completely invested in Lucy’s quest, and she’s never out of your sight. You approach her in a natural-feeling way, and she responds with subtle reactions; if you run around picking up objects, she might get annoyed that you’re ignoring her. The team also cut more minigame-style moments that slowed down the pace, like a tic-tac-toe game with Lucy.

But a lot of the ideas Fable is describing — like a character that doesn’t wait around for players to do something, or one that notices and responds to little decisions — are already a part of video game discourse. The studio’s most interesting additions, so far, stem from VR’s sense of space and natural motion. As brief as Lucy’s story is, something as simple as physically handing her a Polaroid picture feels compelling. In the coming episodes, we’ll see what kind of relationship these little interactions can build.