Description

Winterover is a single-player branching narrative VR game set on Mars in 2049. Blimey, a_BAHN and Restless Pictures made it. Nir Sa’ar and Ido Mizrahy created it and produced it with Nimrod Shanit, François Le Gall and Marion Guth. Oury Atlan of Blimey was art director, Jeel Patel of Blimey led game development, and Velvet Flare handled design, animation and the original music by Damiano Picci. The game premiered at SXSW 2026 in the XR Experience program.

The player is Natalie Ramirez, a member of a Mars mission considered so unproductive that it marks the end of space exploration. Days before the scheduled return to Earth she finds a reservoir of clean subsurface water that revives the mission. When she tells her daughter she must stay on Mars indefinitely, the daughter goes into hiding and leaves a trail of clues. The game runs on the pull between finishing the mission and investigating the daughter’s disappearance, and dialogue choices lead to different responses and narrative branches.

Play combines physical tasks with dialogue scenes. The player drills into Martian terrain, handles tools and objects by hand, takes holographic calls from Earth and plays air hockey against a crewmate. A wrist-mounted AI companion, IRIS, assists with decisions, physical tasks and orientation. Characters on Mars and Earth respond to each dialogue choice.

Winterover is a single-user experience of about three hours, in English. Blimey released it in early access on the Meta Quest Store in October 2026, for Quest 2, Quest 3, Quest 3S and Quest Pro, and lists a PC VR version on Steam as coming soon to early access, running on Quest headsets through Link. As of October 2026 Blimey described the early access build as fully playable, with smooth turning, crouching and running still to come, and the project as seeking a publisher. Distribution is through the Meta Quest Store and Steam.

Additional information