Online multiplayer horse game Dash Society opens Player Registration

Dash Society is an MMO game about finding, taming and riding wild horses. It has been in the works as a passion project for over a decade by solo developer Benjamin Miller, known online as UnknownHero. At the time of writing, I have not yet tried the game for myself: I know of it through Benjamin’s participation in TMQ’s Horses in Games Discord Community.

While the game is far from done — about half the assets are still placeholders, Benjamin says — the game opens its registration today for a new round of playtesting and feedback.

On Dash Society’s website, he promises features like roaming the wild to find new rare horse breeds, as well as training and competing with your virtual horses. Unlike many other games in the genre, Dash Society claims to feature in-depth horse AI: the animals have a life on their own which continues even after the player logs off. “I could never find a horse game I liked,” Benjamin says, “so I made this one instead.”

“If you don't form a strong bond with your horse, it will most likely not listen to you,” the game’s website states.

In a Discord conversation, Benjamin calls Dash Society “like a zombie survival game, except you have horses instead. They are your transportation, livelihood and your companions. You're going to need them to survive on the steppe. They will carry you wherever you need to go. They depend on you for their food, water, care and survival. One wrong move and you may lose them. It’s a horse survival game that challenges players to brave the wild frontier.”

For the near future, UnknownHero plans to add a massive new area with wild herds of horses, as well as implement horse training and taming.

Dash Society is looking for testers to play the Alpha version and join the game’s Discord Server to provide feedback: if you’re interested in giving Dash Society a try and helping in its development by sharing your thoughts on it, head over to dashsociety.com to register.

If you’d like to support the game directly, find UnknownHero on Patreon.