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)
Blackboard Ponies is a 2D Platformer where you play as a pony wreaking havoc on a classroom blackboard, developed by a two person team from Austria. The game’s prototype was originally created as an entry to the Tiny Horse Game Jam #2, a community game jam focused on making small horse games within just a month of work.
Driftborn is a multiplayer fantasy creature racing game coming to Steam for PC. Developer Redstride Studio aims to release a playable demo in 2026 and has been making waves primarily in the horse game spaces on TikTok and Instagram with a bunch of juicy creature animation showcases.
Champions Stable: Equestrian Dynasty is an upcoming simulation strategy game about horse racing. The game aims to provide an in-depth sports simulation along with riding races in first person and being able to ride around an open world for side activities.
Horse Games are an underserved niche and their players are practically begging for new projects to follow and support. With this article, I want to give people in the horse game audience some tools and background information on how to better gauge which projects might deliver on their promises, which red flags to watch out for in new game announcements and which critical questions to ask.
What makes horses in games feel alive and how do you get players to care for them? When complex independent behaviors are out of scope, what measures can developers take to give players a sense of emotional attachment on a budget? How do you get game horses to feel like actual living creatures rather than just four-legged bicycles? Fortunately, there are a lot of options if you’re a little bit horse-savvy, so let’s look at some of them
Following the announcement of Equinox: Homecoming, Harvey Randall at PC Gamer began to wonder why someone would make a game like that and what is up with the horse game niche in general. Naturally, I was happy to provide some insight.
How do horses live? What does a stable look like? Splendid barn aesthetics are nice to have for humans, but what horses really need are the so-called three Fs: Friends, Forage and Freedom. Today I want to have a look at what meeting those needs looks like and how horse-focused media can play an important role in education and normalization when it comes to the question of “What should a cool, fancy, high quality stable look like?”
This is a very fun little follow up to a deep dive article from The Mane Quest about Chariot Racing in Games: Mobile game developer Towering Towers reached out to inform me that the aforementioned article had “struck a chord” with them and that they’ve just published their own Chariot Racing game.