Project Hail Mary VR had a special preview at this year’s Gamescom, and we had a glimpse of what the upcoming adventure is about.
Project Hail Mary: Journey Among the Stars is a mixed-reality game set in the sci-fi universe of Andy Weir’s namesake bestselling novel and the recently premiered movie adaptation starring Ryan Gosling. The project, set for release later this year, is developed by Maze Theory, a studio well-versed in adapting high-profile IPs for mixed-reality interactive experiences.
“It’s in our wheelhouse,” says Sandy Lockie, the gameplay lead on Project Hail Mary: Journey Among the Stars. “Maze Theory has got this pedigree of taking beloved IPs, their worlds and characters, and transforming them into virtual worlds. We worked on Doctor Who, on Peaky Blinders, and most recently on the Thief universe, taking something that people are familiar with and then actually stepping into that world to interact with those characters.”
Project Hail Mary: Journey Among the Stars got its start at Gamescom 2024, when Maze Theory met with the executives at Amazon MGM Studios to discuss a potential mixed-reality tie-in to the movie, back then still in production. Despite only being familiar with the novel, folks at Maze Theory were confident they could make the VR game work: “We knew how to handle the ingredients of the experience we’d be working on,” they said.
“We were fortunate enough to get a lot of assets from MGM: scene and set scans, animations, textures. The key [was] to lean into the authenticity of what would become a very beloved film. Players know this world now; they’ve seen it on a big screen, and they’d know when something’s amiss. A lot of work went into making sure that we’re faithful to the scenes, and the world, and especially the characters.”
In fact, both Andy Weir and James Ortiz, the voice of Rocky in the movie, lent a hand in developing Project Hail Mary: Journey Among the Stars, including recording new voice lines, giving insight into the characters’ motivations, and shaping the general direction of the story. It is a wholly original one that will be new even to the biggest fans of the universe. “We’re not retelling the book or the film,” says Lockie. “We’re telling an untold story from within the same timeline as the film. It’s a whole new adventure; Andy Weir helped set the direction for it, especially in the early days.”
At this year’s edition of Gamescom in Cologne, I got a chance to play the demo of Project Hail Mary: Journey Among the Stars. Describing what ended up being a two-minute experience as a demo is generous, but it is a nice taste of things to come, a little wonky, but promising. The game utilizes only a VR headset with no controllers, which resulted in aggravatingly imprecise in-game handling, although it could have also been my fault due to inexperience—I didn’t look at my “hands” as much as I should have to let the sensors work their magic.
In the short time that I was allotted with the teaser, I was able to grab and hand things to Rocky, fistbump him, and catch and interact with objects floating around me on the ship. The demo is just “a small slice” of what is going to be a several-hour-long experience set within the timeline of the Project Hail Mary mission that alternates fast pacing with plenty of downtime.
“We’re targeting 3 to 4 hours because we want to keep it fairly tight from a pacing perspective, because this is a narrative adventure, like when telling a story,” says Lockie. “But we also want to give time for players to have sandbox modes, to have playtime with Rocky, to experiment. [Ryland] Grace is a scientist; the idea of testing things, observing interactions is part of his DNA. [We want] to let players step into that role as well.”
As someone who’s yet unfamiliar with the universe, I was worried I may not enjoy my time with the demo as much as a hardcore fan would, but I was wrong: it was entertaining and enthralling —a feeling VR games elicit so well—and I wouldn’t hesitate to play the game once it’s out. Of course, Maze Theory is banking on people like me to give Project Hail Mary: Journey Among the Stars a shot, not just existing fans:
“This is for everyone. We’re making sure that players familiar with the film can step into it, but also that people new to the franchise can understand the relationship, what happens, and the stakes. They are pretty high stakes in the game, but at its heart this is about Rocky and the player’s interactions with Rocky. You put a headset on as a single player, but you don’t feel like you’re alone; you feel like you’re collaborating with Rocky. He’s there; he’s your friend and partner, companion throughout. I think this kind of stuff breaks through regardless of whether you’ve seen the film or read the book.”
Project Hail Mary: Journey Among the Stars is coming to Meta, Pico, and Android XR later this autumn.
