The Night Cafe: A VR Tribute to Vincent Van Gogh

The Night Cafe: A VR Tribute to Vincent Van Gogh
Information
VR/AR	VR
Developer	Borrowed Light Studios
Publisher	Borrowed Light Studios
Platform	SteamVR, Oculus Rift (Platform)
Device	HTC Vive, Oculus Rift CV1
Operating System	Windows
Type	Full Game
Genre	Casual, Indie, VR
Input Device	Tracked motion controllers, Gamepad, Keyboard / Mouse
Play Area	Seated, Standing, Room-Scale
Game Mode	Single Player
Language	English
Review	Very Positive
Release Date	Jun 3, 2016
Price	Free
App Store	Steam
Website	http://www.borrowedlightvr.com/the-night-cafe/
Infobox Updated	09/15/2016

The Night Cafe: A VR Tribute to Vincent Van Gogh is a free single-player virtual reality environment for Windows based on the work of Vincent van Gogh, presented as an explorable 3D space. It was released on Steam on June 3, 2016, as a VR-only title with tracked controller support. Steam credits the developer and publisher as Borrowed Light VR, while press coverage names the developer as Borrowed Light Studios.^[1]^[2] A separate page, The Night Cafe: An Immersive Tribute to Vincent van Gogh, covers the developer's earlier 2015 listing.

Reviewed 9 October 2026. Checked the Steam store page, Steam app details and review summary, and the Kill Screen article for title, developer, release date, language, VR features, awards and reception. About review dates.

Overview

The experience turns Van Gogh's painting Le Cafe de nuit (The Night Cafe) into a 3D environment that the user can explore, instead of viewing it as a flat image.^[2] The Steam listing adds that users can look at his sunflowers in three dimensions and walk around the chair from his bedroom painting.^[1]

Steam lists the title as VR-only, with single-player mode, tracked controller support and full controller support, and English as the only supported language.^[1] The listing carries an award note stating that the project won the Platinum award and the Community Choice award at the Oculus Mobile VR Jam 2015.^[1]

Reception

Kill Screen writer David Rudin wrote that each frame of the experience "is a painting in its own right".^[2] Steam user reviews were rated Very Positive as of October 2026, with 266 of 279 reviews positive.^[3]

Features

System Requirements

Windows

Minimum

OS: Windows 7
Processor: Intel Core i5
Memory: 1024 MB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia Geforce 780 GTX
Storage: 200 MB available space

Setup Instructions

Images and Videos

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 "The Night Cafe: A VR Tribute to Vincent Van Gogh on Steam". Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/app/482390/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 "New VR game lets you walk around inside a Van Gogh painting". Kill Screen. 2016-06-09. https://www.killscreen.com/step-inside-art-history/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
↑ "The Night Cafe: A VR Tribute to Vincent Van Gogh user review summary (Steam)". Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/appreviews/482390?json=1&language=all&purchase_type=all&num_per_page=0. Retrieved 2026-10-09.

[steam-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 "The Night Cafe: A VR Tribute to Vincent Van Gogh on Steam". Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/app/482390/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.

[killscreen-2] 2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 "New VR game lets you walk around inside a Van Gogh painting". Kill Screen. 2016-06-09. https://www.killscreen.com/step-inside-art-history/. Retrieved 2026-10-09.

[steam-reviews-3] "The Night Cafe: A VR Tribute to Vincent Van Gogh user review summary (Steam)". Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/appreviews/482390?json=1&language=all&purchase_type=all&num_per_page=0. Retrieved 2026-10-09.

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