I’m talking to Devin Reimer, the original creator of Job Simulator, right after visiting his latest virtual world. Stellar Cafe is a bold idea for a virtual reality game from his new company, AstroBeam.
Stellar Cafe seems to ask – what if the bots in Job Simulator expected verbal responses from their interactions with humans? So here I am, days after my demo, thinking about my time speaking with the bots, and I’m just a little bit agitated.
I was sitting with one of them across the table of a space station’s cafe and, as it talked to me, I was finally grokking the mechanics of the world. The bot wanted me to perform an interview for its podcast, seeking verbal input from me. This was all a bit baffling, sitting there trying to figure out what to say. I tried explaining how hard it is to rewire my brain to remember bot names and the differences between each of them. I’ve spent more than 30 years interacting with virtual characters exclusively through button-mashing, receiving my tasks in little flat boxes I dismiss when I’m done reading. How am I supposed to suddenly unwire all that?
“We have to somehow break through some pre-conceived notions of some stuff,” Reimer says after watching my time in the Stellar Cafe, suggesting I was approaching it thinking “how would a traditional game handle this prompt? What we’ve found is people that don’t play as many games have an easier experience in onboarding.”
The bot’s line of questioning in the podcast interview seemed to zero in on my inability to connect with them as an area of personal weakness for me. I told the robot I wanted to end the interview there. What the heck just happened? Was I just accused of racism toward robots in a mock podcast recording – by a bot?
And wait – did I just have fun?
“We’re just starting to ramp up our user testing now,” Reimer explained. “The variety of ways people like to talk about things, what they like to talk about, what their expectations are, which is also super wildly different.”
Before the demo, I nearly messaged Reimer to ask whether Stellar Cafe required controllers before remembering an article from January 2024 titled “Why Every VR Developer Needs A Hand Tracking Plan.” That was written by Devin Reimer, so I decided not to send that message. Reimer calls their effort “hard” mode. Not only is Stellar Cafe hand tracking only, it is also voice-first input. There’s a character called “Visor” you can invoke for certain high-level interactions like teleporting to specific areas of the cafe.
Reimer is the original technical mind behind Job Simulator and its sequel, and he’s the founder at AstroBeam behind this particular exploration of human and robot behavior, slated for release later this year on Quest headsets first. In 2016, Reimer told me he estimated it took 850 hours to prepare the underlying systems that make a hot cup of coffee in the game. Nearly a decade on from that release, after selling the technology to Google, he’s licensed some of it back for use in Stellar Cafe. He wouldn’t yet confirm additional platforms for the game, but did say Stellar Cafe is not exclusive to Meta’s headsets.
“Like with any good thing, if I had known all the challenges when I started that might’ve changed some of my decision-making process,” Reimer told me. “But I’m glad I didn’t because of where we’ve gotten.”
We’re extremely curious to see how this game shapes up after user testing and refinement. The bots don’t respond to hand gestures, at least not yet, but they do understand when things are being looked at and Reimer says they can understand if you nod or shake your head.
How long does it take to play through Stellar Cafe? When it comes to VR, AstroBeam’s upcoming game is the first I’ve played that really starts to reframe that question back at the player.
How long is an engaging conversation?
“With Job Simulator people were like, ‘where’s the lose state in this game? It’s not a video game if you can’t lose.’ That’s not the point,” Reimer said. “Tech hasn’t allowed us to do things with voice yet. Anything that’s incorporated it has been, like, let’s memorize some commands for…my home or whatever. This is a different animal, trying to treat that very conversationally.”
Reimer pointed out the bartender in the Stellar Cafe could have made me any drink. When I visited I just picked from the menu. Next time I go, though, I’ll have to ask for a coffee or perhaps an Earl Grey tea, hot.
The wishlist page for Stellar Cafe is available now, and it’s launching later this year.
