FarBridge Launches $150,000 Kickstarter for 4-Player Job Simulator Spinoff

Q: Why is a beloved Google-owned VR franchise suddenly relying on a Kickstarter campaign to fund a flat-screen party game?

Because Google is not funding this game. *Job Simulator: Human Relations* is being made by FarBridge, an independent Austin studio, under license from Owlchemy Labs, which owns the franchise and is itself owned by Google. Owlchemy has explicitly said it licensed the “Simulator-verse” to FarBridge and is not developing the project internally. That distinction matters. A licensed spin-off can use a well-known IP without receiving full corporate financing from the IP owner. In this case, FarBridge is treating the game like an independent production: it is building a new flat-screen co-op title from scratch, not porting Owlchemy’s VR game, and it is using Kickstarter both to raise a modest amount of development money — $150,000 — and to build an early player community. FarBridge’s public explanation is that crowdfunding is meant to bring players into development through playtests, Discord feedback and stretch-goal input. That makes practical sense for a party game whose success depends heavily on tuning chaos, co-op comedy and replayability. Kickstarter also doubles as a market test: it shows whether the *Job Simulator* brand can attract an audience beyond VR and whether a flat-screen, *Overcooked!*-style take has enough demand before full production scales up. So the answer is less “Google needs Kickstarter money” than “an independent partner is using crowdfunding to de-risk and shape a licensed experiment outside the franchise’s original VR lane.”

3 articles · Updated · Tech Times · Aug 11

FarBridge opened a Kickstarter with a $150,000 goal for Job Simulator: Human Relations, a new four-player co-op comedy made with Owlchemy Labs.
The project marks the franchise's first non-VR release in 10 years: a flat-screen game built natively for standard controllers rather than a port of an existing headset title.
Up to four players share cramped office space, scarce resources and escalating disasters, with missed quotas carrying into later in-game days and success unlocking more abilities and responsibilities.
FarBridge, an Austin studio with 25-plus employees, previously worked on Owlchemy titles including Cosmonious High and Dimensional Double Shift, a track record Owlchemy cited in backing the spinoff.
No release date or campaign end date was announced; the game is already wish-listable on Steam as FarBridge posts development updates during crowdfunding.