Recommended: "A murder-mystery horse MMO baffled me so much that I spoke to gaming's resident horse expert"
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.
I bring Equinox: Homecoming up less as the subject of this article and more its origin story, but it's still worth talking about. It's a murder-mystery horse MMO being developed by people who worked on World of Warcraft and Helldivers. The core concept, let alone the developer pedigree, all but kept me up at night. I had to find someone who knew why this thing existed—what was I missing?
A lot, it turns out. There's a huge, brimming community of horse game enthusiasts who have been really underserved—and after speaking with one of gaming's horse experts, a consultant and owner of horse game website The Mane Quest, I am fully on their side. Horses can be better, please mare—sorry, bear—with me.
Find the full article right here on PC Gamer.
I am thrilled more and more games media people are becoming aware of and further spreading awareness of The Situation™ in the horse game space, so my chat with Harvey was lovely.
There’s a handful of statements in the article that are related to things I’ve written about in detail in the past, so I’ll add a bit of a glossary here as “Further Reading”:
“She runs down the list. Minecraft, Second Life, and even ARK: Survival Evolved have active horse gamer modding communities.” 👉 Horse fans mod The Sims 3, RDR2 into the horse games they crave
“Where's our Eric Barone of the equestrian world?” 👉 Its reach isn’t comparable, but The Ranch of Rivershine very much deserves a shoutout here. See my interview with the creator as well.
(on Equinox: Homecoming) “They agree that the evidence is there, but then they don't consider that enough to actually invest a few million dollars into it.” 👉 Game Announcement & Developer Insight – Equinox: Homecoming is a story-driven, horse-focused MMO that takes its audience seriously
“sexism and undervaluing female players and their interests plays a big part … I do think it's woven in there, this view that games are for boys and horses are for girls.” 👉 Horse Games and Gender – How Video Games often fail to combine Quality and Femininity
“They used to be made with, like, really small budgets and made by people who didn't actually know anything about horses. They just did whatever their publisher told them to do." 👉 “Working on a horse game nobody cared about was soul crushing” — The Unenthusiastic Making Of Riding Star 2
(on indie horse games) “But I also think they make some very basic mistakes. Horse game niche devs are too far apart from the rest of the indie game crowd and its learnings” 👉 The Indie Horse Game Revolution: 6 Upcoming Passion Projects to keep your Eyes on and 5 Crucial Games Industry Tips for Horse Game Creators
“But there's also the fact that a lot of them don't really try and marry their niches to different genres. Some of Ruppert's dream games aren't the "save the rundown family farm again" repeats she's clearly tired of, but are easy no-brainer wins that exist almost for zero legitimate reason.” 👉 Horse Games That Should Exist, Volume One, Two and Three.
“many games are missing out on them because they don't take this topic seriously … they're basically just bicycles” 👉 Horses in Games: Companions and Collectibles and Adding Horses to your Game: Tips, Resources, Do’s and Don’ts
Lest anyone can claim I don’t bring receipts to my various horse game opinions 😇.