Must-Read: Polygon Analyzes Assassin's Creed Horses with an Expert of Equine History
Polygon writer Simone de Rochefort and Horse Historian Professor Donna Landry take a close look at the horses in the Assassin’s Creed games: The recent titles Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla all use the same horse model regardless of their vastly different settings and cultural context.
De Rochefort and Landry draw comparisons between this horse type and modern breeds, and go through the games’ Viking, Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece settings to discuss how horses in those regions and time periods might have looked.
I absolutely love this deep dive and am incredibly happy that for once, I am not alone in reporting on video game horse accuracy. The article is an absolute must-read for TMQ fans, horse history enthusiasts and equestrian gamers. Go read it, and let Polygon know if analytical horse content is something you want to see more of!
Click right here: Polygon: A horse expert weighs in on the Assassin’s Creed pony debate (that we started)
Are you new to horse games and not sure where to start? Find out what’s the latest and best, and what you may have missed!
Earlier this year, I was interviewed by Cheyenne Macdonald for the tech and gaming site Engadget. I only just realized that Cheyenne ended up interviewing a handful of devs from the teams of Astride and Unbridled: That Horse Game and that the resulting article was published a few months ago!
I can only recommend having a look for yourself:
Tales of Rein Ravine is a new horse game now available in Steam Early Access at no cost. While “an intriguing story - more mature than typical in its genre” is planned for the future, the Early Access version of ToRR doesn’t have much narrative content yet, but lets you take riding lessons and explore.
I was invited to a brand new podcast called You Are Error, hosted by games journalist Nathan Grayson for Aftermath. Nathan and I talked about some of the many ways in which mainstream video games keep dropping the ball when it comes to including horses and why I’m sure that the horse game audience is bigger than anyone realizes and has a lot of potential.
I was a speaker at Devcom 2024 in Cologne, giving a presentation on my horse game work. The recorded talk is now available on YouTube!
Moon Channel, a YouTube creator of gaming video essays, has released a fantastic video tackling the history and market of so-called “girl games” – video games deliberately marketed to and targeted at young female players.
Noa Leibson is an art historian, life-long rider and writer of equestrian fiction and non-fiction. I finally managed to take her up on her offer to give us all some fascinating insight into ancient historical chariot racing, the men and women (!) who participated in it, and how video games like Assassin’s Creed: Origins succeed and fail in their representations of this fascinating sport.
A cute, somewhat silly little game that tackles the “horse game where you actually play as a horse” concept, which is remarkably rare in our niche. As of November 22nd, after only a few months of solo development, ROAM is now available on Steam for around 5 €/USD!