Caballus Collecting: The Virtual Model Horse Game is now on Kickstarter

Caballus Collecting is a game about collecting model horses and has just launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund its further development.

In case you’re not familiar with the world of real life model horses: there is a significant hobby community and subculture centered around collecting and displaying model horses. Breyer Animal Creations in particular is a widely known and popular manufacturer of realistic horse models that come in a huge variety of breeds, poses, coat colors and scales.

The real life models are traded on ebay and co., exhibited at shows, carefully arranged in photo shoots, and even taken apart, modified and repainted for completely customized pieces. While many a horse enthusiast may have a few models on a shelf somewhere, rare and highly sought-after horses can sell for thousands of dollars.

Caballus Collecting takes inspiration from this community, but takes it into the virtual space, thereby making the hobby accessible to anyone without the funds and space to assemble a large collection in real life. On its website, the game is described as follows:

Caballus Collecting is a first-person multiplayer collecting game currently in development. It's inspired by the love of collecting model horses in real life! Players will be able to buy, sell, auction, trade, display, dress-up, and customize various models.

Rather than trading horses for real money, Caballus Collecting will let players earn in-game currency through activity such as mini-games and participating in in-game model horse shows.

Promotional screenshot from the Caballus Collecting Facebook Page

Elements like boxes and stands for models are part of the collection fantasy.

This project is led by artist Natalie Widrig, who occasionally shares updates in our Horses & Video Games Facebook Group, where the detailed renders of glossy models on shelves tend to elicit a lot of excitement from users. On March 15th 2024, the game has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, with a funding goal of about 14’000 USD. “But, even if we don't get funding, we will continue our work on the game,” writes its creator on the Campaign page. “CC is a passion project, and has already been in development for 2+ years. We won't be stopping anytime soon! A bigger budget simply means faster developmental progress!”

The game’s website currently offers a free demo where you can try the Design A Model system (essentially a character creator for your virtual horse models) for yourself. This demo doesn’t include much else yet, but shows off lovely models and textures in a big variety of colors, with customizable markings and coat patterns.

Screenshot from the free demo

The horse creator includes options for different models, coat colors, markings and shading

If you’re a regular TMQ reader, you know that I appreciate projects with constrained and realistic scope. Caballus Collecting has chosen a niche within a niche, but knows exactly what it’s about and who it appeals to. I can well imagine that there’s plenty of model horse fans who will just be happy to appreciate the life-like models and variety of customizability, and Caballus Collecting appears to cater perfectly to that audience.

I can only recommend checking out the Demo and Kickstarter for yourself to see if you might be part of that crowd too.

Caballus Collecting does not have a release date yet, but is planned to come to PC. Download the Free Demo or Support the Game on Kickstarter.