Posts in development
“We want to build something that can grow over the years to come” - Windstorm Developer Aesir Interactive talks about New Plans and Past Struggles

Getting approached by the developers of horse games is always something exciting for me. In a call with Aesir Interactive CEO Wolfgang Emmer, I learned a lot about the development and reception of 2017s Ostwind/Windstorm and its 2019 sequel, as well as Aesir’s fascinating upcoming project.

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“There is no need to do anything differently” — Insights from Horse Isle 3 Lead Developer Joe ‘Jor’ Durbin

Shortly after publishing my latest article on Horse Isle 3, I was thrilled to receive a reply from Joe “Jor” Durbin, lead developer on all three Horse Isle games. 

Since then, Joe and I have exchanged a few emails about the development process of Horse Isle 3. As Joe does not have the time for a full interview with TMQ, I am happy to be able to provide a bit of insight in this form nonetheless.

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“It’s a dream come true” — Nika Bender talks about her work on Star Stable Online

Star Stable Online is a massively multiplayer online role playing game or MMORPG that has been out for almost 8 years. Despite the often underestimated target audience of teenage female PC players, the game is a huge success and continues to grow and improve. 

The Mane Quest spoke to SSO Product Owner Nika Bender about the work she and her team do behind the scenes of what is probably the most successful horse game of all time. 

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“I joined Tivola because I wanted to make horse games” — Studio Visit and Interview with Inga Panten

Tivola has been making and publishing games since 1995. While their portfolio has always been family-friendly, they have recently put more focus on horse-themed games in particular.

Product Manager Inga Panten invited me to visit Tivola’s offices in Hamburg for a day to get a look behind the scenes.

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The Most Popular Unity Asset for Horse Animation has a Fatal Flaw, but it’s Getting an Update

The Unity Asset Store offers everything from code toolsets, over individually animated character models to complete game projects. The quality of these assets varies drastically, with many being created by hobbyists.

In the case of one particular Horse Animset Pro however, the assets popularity has lead to several games having the same problem: the walk animation is completely wrong.

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“Horses are already magical, they don’t need fairy dust!” — Interview with the team of Equestrian: a Horse Game for Adults

Many horse games set the wrong priorities and get the most basic things wrong about horses. By stark contrast, watching the social media updates of Equestrian The Game has been an absolute delight. The Mane Quest reached out to developer Kavalri Games and found a kindred spirit in the team’s Vice President and Co-Founder Molly Ericson.

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Between Knighthood and Game Development : Interview with Jason Kingsley

To say that Jason Kingsley leads an interesting life is quite the understatement: Kingsley is the CEO and co-founder of a successful game development company and owns 15 horses and trains them in medieval style riding.

Needless to say, Jason Kingsley made for an incredibly fitting interview partner for The Mane Quest.

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