Horse Life on Roblox – The New Fantasy Horse Breeding Game is Now Available – Developer Q&A

About two years ago, I took a brief look at some of the horse games available within the popular game creation platform Roblox. Since then, the popularity and scope of the games in question has grown, as has the number of horse games available on the platform. 

Despite Roblox’ general nature as a platform where casual users create their own game experiences, the platform’s significant rise in popularity has lead to professional development teams using Roblox as their game engine and storefront of choice. 

As of a few days ago the Roblox horse game line up has grown once again with Horse Life, a new fantasy horse breeding game made by a Roblox-focused studio. Developer Twin Atlas reached out to The Mane Quest to give us some insight into their development and what to expect from Horse Life. 

“Players can breed horses, mix and match coat colors, patterns, and hairstyles to create their dream horse,” says the game’s Creative Director, Erythia, citing a variety of mount types from horses and ponies to fantasy creatures such as unicorns and bison horses that can be acquired through breeding them or taming them using a lasso or treats. “Developing this game within the limitations of Roblox pushed us to think outside the box and get creative with horse modeling, skeleton structure, and patterns,” she adds. 

Horse Life has been playable as a private alpha version for a few months already , which reached over 5000 concurrent users at its peak, according to Erythia. “We're confident that Horse Life will be one of the biggest and most exciting horse games on the market once we launch.”

Whether Horse Life can live up to those ambitions, you’ll be able to judge for yourself now. Find the game right here, or read on to learn a bit more from the developer.

Developer Q&A

Since I lack experience with playing or making games on Roblox and was curious to learn more, I asked Erythia for some further insight into their processes and goals: 

THE MANE QUEST: You've mentioned the limitations of game development within Roblox - can you elaborate what those are and how you work around them? 

Twin Atlas: One example from the art side is our desire to offer players authentic herds of horses. Given the constraints of the Roblox physics engine, we had to be inventive in creating the horse rig and AI. We aimed to allow for a variety of furs, patterns, and unique cosmetics that could be bred and blended seamlessly. Roblox does not yet support texture layering and masking on mesh-deformed objects, so we developed a workaround by splitting the horse model into separate parts, each still weight painted and deformed. This method allows us to apply patterns and layers to each body part, preventing any strange stretching and keeping our base horse models optimized with a low part count—far more so than other projects where playable or tamable models comprise hundreds of parts.

Since Roblox is also a multi-console platform, our initial design goals included making sure the HUD and UX are extremely mobile-friendly while still maintaining a beautiful and seamless style. The game is optimized as much as possible, yet we still strive to produce a beautiful and immersive world. Where we lack in mesh detail, we compensate with the quality of experience and the diversity of devices the game can be played on.

TMQ: From a glance at your website, it seems that you are a 30+ people team making games exclusively within Roblox. Is that a sustainable model for you? What are the advantages of working within the Roblox ecosystem?

TA: For our team, a 30-person setup is sustainable! Our studio size as a whole is 60+. We manage multiple games and projects, with each game having a dedicated smaller team responsible for regular updates and maintaining content cadence weekly. As our games are maintained and grown, we can focus on new and exciting projects like Horse Life! Being embedded in the Roblox ecosystem means we are all familiar with the platform and have close ties within the development community, easing collaboration. Many of us started as players and have evolved into developers, giving us deep insight into what the player base desires as we evolve alongside new players on the platform.

TMQ: How would you pitch the game to players who have not played anything on Roblox before? 

TA: Horse Life is an experience where players explore an immersive, magical world to discover wild and even mythical horses. Players can use delicious treats or lassos to tame the horses and uncover hundreds of unique breeds. From there, players can breed their horses to create the perfect foal and sell them to earn money.

TMQ: You mention a lot of horse variety in the game, but can you share more about the gameplay loop? What can players expect to be doing in the game? 

TA: Breeding is a significant focus in our game; we use a color mixing system where, for example, red plus white equals pink. This encourages players to seek out horses and coats they like and breed them to create even more beautiful and trait-rich horses. Players can purchase lassos with in-game currency earned from selling their horses or target their horses on bushes and palettes to obtain resource drops. These resources help accelerate your horse's gestation time and reduce the birth time of a foal. To unlock the ability to tame more horses, players complete missions in their personal journal. After acquiring their dream horse, players can train and accessorize them! We're also developing a mutation system to increase the viability and rarity of players’ horses further. We are working on NPCs for players to interact with and a horse breeding competition activity.

TMQ: You say you expect Horse Life to be the biggest and most exciting product on the market – meaning on Roblox, or in general? What elevates it above the competition?  

TA: We believe our game offers a truly unique take on the horse game genre. For instance, we observed a noticeable lack of fantasy elements in existing horse games, and given our company's passion for fantasy and imagination, we decided to infuse our project with it. Our version of a horse game is enriched by our distinctive blend of fantasy, featuring not only traditional horses but also mythical creatures like unicorns, kelpies, pegasuses, perytons, and our own original fantastical horse interpretations. As we continue to develop and refine Horse Life, enhancing our core gameplay loop, we anticipate the quality and appeal of our game will only grow. Comparing our daily user engagement to others, we are on track to becoming one of the top horse games, both on and off Roblox. We’re hopeful that it will continue to expand its fanbase, potentially drawing players from non-Roblox platforms as well, which would be incredibly thrilling!

TMQ: Is the game free to play? How is it monetized? 

TA: Yes, Horse Life is completely free to play and will remain so. All features are accessible to free players, with microtransactions being entirely optional. We primarily sell in-game currency, which players can use to purchase accessories, lassos, horses at the stalls, and more.

TMQ: Anything else you’d like to share with The Mane Quest’s readers?

TA: As the lead designer and producer, my sincere ambition for this game is for it to become the quintessence of fantasy horse games, ensuring that every player feels their horse is uniquely theirs, distinct from those tamed by others. I am eager to see players excited about breeding the most unique and beautiful horses—achievements they can truly be proud of.