#Horsegame: Big Plans and Little Time

*Current screenshot of the #horsegame prototype*

After years of hoping that some indie developer will finally develop a quality horse game, I have finally decided to take matters into my own hands in Spring 2018.

This project - whose entirely uncreative working title is #horsegame for the moment - draws a lot of inspiration from beloved 2016 farming indie game Stardew Valley. A peaceful atmosphere and thoroughly cozy feeling are two of my main goals for it, as is the structure of daily routine that helps the player achieve long-term goals over time.

*Pferd & Pony: Mein Pferdehof, Pixon 2003*

Where Stardew draws its inspiraton from popular farming series Harvest Moon, I don’t have any long-running “AAA” horse games to call my inspiration, but it would be remiss of me not to mention the 2003 PC game Pferd & Pony: Mein Pferdehof as an important source of my conviction that a Good Horse Game™ can indeed be made.

Like Stardew, Mein Pferdehof had a daily core loop that revolved around getting certain tasks done (i.e. taking care of your horse(s)), with economic growth and expansion of your farm as a long-term motivation.

So essentially, the idea of my #horsegame was to take all the best aspects of one game that I played and loved as a child and combine them with all the best aspects of 2016’s best indie game, all without actually having more than half an hour per day to work on it because of my full time job. Because that’s definitely what sane people do in their free time.

My progress is frustratingly slow. But the good thing about that is that I can hope someone sees it and steals the idea and goes to implement it better than I ever could. Because really, playing a good horse game is what I wanted all along.

I post updates about the development of the #horsegame on Twitter. It will be released in approximately a decade. See posts.