Oculus Story Studio Alumni Form New Studio to Push Boundaries of VR Storytelling & Affordability

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Oculus Story Studio, the company’s internal production studio tasked with creating ridiculously polished cinematic experiences, first announced they’d be winding down production last summer. Now officially defunct, studio alumni are heading off on their own to form a new firm dubbed Fable Studio, which is furthering development on Story Studio’s last remaining project, Wolves in the Walls. Fable is also introducing a new pricing model for its upcoming character-driven VR experiences.

Oculus Story Studio co-founder Edward Saatchi and Pete Billington, director of Wolves in the Walls, join as co-founders of Fable Studio. Fable is launching with the premiere of Chapter 1 of Wolves in the Walls at Sundance New Frontiers on January, 19th. The project, a VR adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s book The Wolves in the Walls, will span three chapters.

image courtesy Oculus

Shortly after Oculus Story Studio ended production on the Emmy Award-winning Henry in early 2015, the team wanted to dig further into one of the most important problems in VR—creating an experience with an interactive character that’s both natural and meaningful. The goal is essentially feeling like you’re really inhabiting a space with a thinking, feeling person. Fable says Wolves in the Walls protagonist Lucy displays natural behaviors, as she can “remember and callback to actions you’ve taken in a story, be handed and hand you objects, be interrupted credibly and have a hierarchy of emotions toward different objects.”

“Where we’re going is not VR movies anymore. It’s characters who live with us and who we believe in,” said studio co-founder Edward Saatchi, pointing towards the future of character-building.

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Fable says all of its future projects will be paid experiences, something they hope will “kickstart a new phase in VR movies of charging for content and seeking to break even.” The studio will charge $1 for every 10 minutes of content, meaning a 20 minute experience would cost $2. Considering how arbitrary pricing seems to most people right now, setting a standard pricing model could give smaller studios incentive to start creating VR narratives.

After Wolves in the Walls, Fable has announced four upcoming projects that will all explore “different elements of VR,” all of which are hand-made in VR using Oculus Quill and other Made in VR tools.

Fable Studio’s Upcoming Projects

Origin

A group of artists work together to solve a virtual reality scavenger hunt to recover stolen art.

concept art, Image courtesy Fable Studio

10

10 is an illustrative realtime documentary using Quill to explore a real life story.

Image courtesy Fable Studio

Derailed

A social virtual amusement park ride with the theme of sleep anxiety.

Image courtesy Fable Studio

Magic River Yacht Club

The viewer follows a giant salmon and its crew up river as they compete in a 500 mile regatta.

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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • I particularly love the sound of character development for Wolves in the walls.

    I keep hoping we can spend the free time (and money) at our own animation studio to develop a piece of creative vr storytelling ourselves.(we’ve tinkered in the past). The possibility of charging to break even does make it all the more tempting.

    Also, I’m kinda pleased that Story Studio is closed, since I founded and head up a UK animation studio called Stormy Studio. (*We’ve existed since 2013).

  • Roman

    This time think about to support more HMD’s