What if your next pet wasn’t just real—but also virtual?
Not in a Tamagotchi-dies-if-you-forget-to-feed-it way. Not in a soulless simulator where petting is just pixelation. We're talking about a creature with quirks, emotional memory, and a digital heartbeat.
This is Stay: Forever Home, the brainchild of Bernie Yee, a gaming industry veteran (Oculus, Bungie, Sony) and CEO of Windup Minds. It’s a virtual pet experience designed for Meta Quest—and a heartfelt attempt to make AI companions feel just as real, lovable, and occasionally exasperating as the four-legged troublemakers curled up on our sofas.
From Rescue to Reality
The soul of Stay: Forever Home comes from a real-life rescue: Roxy, Bernie’s German Shepherd/Lab mix with diva-level treat preferences and a wild case of main character energy. “Sometimes she won’t eat unless I’m sitting beside her,” Bernie laughs. “She’s got this princess attitude. But that’s the point. We love them for their weirdness.”
That insight, reinforced by dog cognition expert Alexandra Horowitz, helped solidify the core idea: Virtual pets shouldn't be perfect—they should be personal.
Bernie Yee CEO of Windup Minds and his rescue dog Roxy
It’s Not Just a Game
Unlike the digital pets of the ’90s, Stay doesn’t punish you with guilt trips and digital funerals. It’s not about survival. It’s about bonding.
Ember and other characters from Stay: Forever Home
Bernie’s vision? A world where even someone with limited mobility, chronic illness, or emotional trauma can come home to a joyful, wagging presence in virtual form. “I wanted to replicate the feeling of Roxy seeing me at the door,” he says. “That moment of pure joy.”
Built By Pet People, For Pet People
The Windup Minds team is a blend of developers, animators, and animal lovers—dog people, cat people, even a rabbit advocate who insisted that Ember, the game’s creature, never be coded to harm other animals. They capture tail wags, record quirky pet behavior, and share TikToks in Slack—not for laughs, but for authenticity.
“You can’t build something like this unless you’ve loved an animal yourself,” Bernie says. “That’s the difference.”
Charity Highlight: Saving Great Animals
In line with the episode’s theme of second chances and emotional connection, Bernie chose to spotlight Saving Great Animals, a rescue that takes in the dogs other shelters overlook, those with behavioral challenges, medical needs, or trauma. They don’t give up on animals that fall through the cracks. Instead, they build them back up for adoption and healing.