The Mane Quest

23/07/2024

NEWS ARTICLE: The Mane Quest at Devcom and Gamescom: I'm giving a talk about Horse Games! ✨✨

I will be attending Gamescom and Devcom in Cologne this August, and I will give a talk on the topic of Horse Games – History of a Neglected Genre and its Untapped Potential.

16/07/2024

🐴🎮NEW ARTICLE: 🎮🐴 Adding Horses to your Game: Tips, Resources, Do’s and Don’ts

This article is aimed at game developers who want to include horses in their games without making the same couple of basic mistakes that make equestrians cry.  I’m trying to keep this text as accessible as possible for people without prior knowledge of horses and equestrianism. The intenti

14/07/2024

✨NEW ARTICLE ✨ New High Quality Horse Asset for Developers: This animated Horse by Aragon 3D is now available in Unreal Marketplace

There’s a brand new animated horse model available for Unreal Engine, and it looks like the best game-ready horse model I’ve seen to date. Let’s take a brief look.

07/06/2024

🎉NEWS ARTICLE 🎉Game Announcement Roundup: Here are 6 New and Upcoming Horse Games to have a Look at

Let’s have a brief look at a handful of games that were announced or released recently: I may not bee able to try them all out or research them in depth, but I can at the very least tell you that they exist, and maybe some of TMQ’s readers want to take a closer look at these new projects. 

02/06/2024

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

The Roblox horse game line up grows 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

07/05/2024

INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT GAME ANNOUNCEMENT ARTICLE 😱

Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori – An Open World Horse Riding Game set in Historical Mongolia

Aesir Interactive and Mindscape announce a horse game of unprecedented caliber today: Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori is an open world adventure game set in the Mongolian wilderness.

03/05/2024

NEWS ARTICLE: Announcing the TMQ Horse Game Press & Influencer Contact List – Sign up now! 🗣📣

Sign up to the TMQ Contact List for Horse Game Influencers so developers can reach you when they have new games to play or content to show.

01/05/2024

✨🏇NEWS ARTICLE 🏇✨Game Announcement & Developer Insight: Rival Stars Horse Racing is Coming to VR!

A brand new version of Rival Stars Horse Racing is coming to Meta Quest, SteamVR and Apple Vision Pro. During my recent call with PikPok’s CEO Mario Wynands, he was able to give me a bit of advance insights into what to expect from this new version of the game.

24/04/2024

NEW ARTICLE ✨ 🏇“We expect to support the game for years to come” – Insights on Rival Stars Horse Racing from PikPok CEO Mario Wynands

Rival Stars Horse Racing PikPok

Rival Stars Horse Racing is something of a rarity in our niche: it’s a polished game aimed at adult players, that’s generally well received and getting regular content updates. For the game’s five year anniversary, I sat down for a call with PikPok CEO Mario Wynands in order to talk about the ...

19/04/2024

The Key giveaway for My First Horse: Adventures on Seahorse Island concludes today!

Congratulations to commenters Samuel, Courtney and Amber! Please check your email (including spam!) for a message from me about your key! 🥰

My First Horse: Adventures on Seahorse Island is a brand new casual adventure game released on Steam for PC on April 8th 2024. The game promises an adventure about a young girl called Olivia that lets you explore the titular Seahorse Island, take care of and bond with your horse, take pictures and

13/04/2024

NEW ARTICLE 🐴✨ The Sims 4 Horse Ranch – An Alright Experience that Could Have Been So Much More

When the long hoped-for Sims 4: Horse Ranch expansion pack released in July 2023, I briefly thought I would be on time and relevant with a review for once. And then I got distracted and put on sick leave. My in-depth look at the Horse Ranch pack may no longer be timely, but it will be overly ela

09/04/2024

✨NEWS ARTICLE ✨ Game Announcement & Key Giveaway! My First Horse: Adventures on Seahorse Island

My First Horse: Adventures on Seahorse Island is a brand new casual adventure game released on Steam for PC on April 8th 2024. The game promises an adventure about a young girl called Olivia that lets you explore the titular Seahorse Island, take care of and bond with your horse, take pictures and

05/04/2024

🐎NEWS ARTICLE 🐎Windstorm: Start of a Great Friendship – The first Windstorm Game gets Remastered and Released on New Platforms

The first Windstorm game, formerly known simply as Ostwind/Windstorm and later rebranded as Windstorm: Start of a Great Friendship is getting remastered and released on Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S. The new version of the 2017 game is set to release on June 20th 2024.

31/03/2024

🏇NEWS ARTICLE 🏇 Game Announcement: Horse Racing Manager – A 2D Horse Racing Simulation Game

Horse Racing Manager is an upcoming management simulation game. Solo developer Jon Mäkinen describes his goals for the project as “if Football Manager and Starters Orders got a child”. Let’s take a closer look at what Horse Racing Manager will offer, who it is for, and who is making it.

16/03/2024

✨NEWS ARTICLE ✨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.

01/03/2024

✨NEWS ARTICLE ✨Game Announcement: Fernhoof Grove - A Cute and Cozy Upcoming Horse Game to Keep your Eyes on

Fernhoof Grove is a recently announced upcoming single player horse game. It’s still early in development with lots of work ahead, but read on to find out why it’s worth keeping an eye on, and why I believe it will might have the best horse care minigame of any game ever. 

24/02/2024

✨NEWS ARTICLE ✨New Horse Game: Eternal Trails – a Hands-Off Horseback Exploration Game

Described as a “work background” game by its developers, Eternal Trails is a lightweight and low-resolution program intended to run on your computer as a casual, calm background activity. You can watch your horse explore or control its course yourself. 

22/02/2024

✨NEWS ARTICLE ✨Pro Show Jumping is out now! Developer Insight and First Impressions

Pro Show Jumping is a 3D horse sports simulation game, now available on Steam. In light of its launch today, I’ve given the game a first try and received some behind-the-scenes info from its solo developer, Sebastián Leguizamón. 

16/02/2024

NEWS ARTICLE: Catch up on recent releases and updates in the horse game niche 😊👇

There have been a handful of horse game updates in the past few months that I haven’t managed to cover individually. Let’s recap a few interesting updates and additions, for those of you who have not already heard of them. 

02/01/2024

NEW ARTICLE: ✨2023 in Review - Website Stats and Updates ✨

It’s time for my yearly review article to recap TMQ-achievements and accomplishments and statistics.Let’s have a look at the numbers: 

21/10/2023

NEWS ARTICLE: ✨Wildshade: Unicorn Champions – Tivola's mobile game is coming to Consoles this November ✨

Wildshade is a fantasy horse racing game initially released to Android and iOS in late 2021. Wildshade: Unicorn Champions will come to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series X on Nobember 9th 2023.

22/06/2023

NEWS ARTICLE 😱😱The Sims 4: Horse Ranch Expansion Pack - Horses are coming back to The Sims on July 20th

After numerous rumors and repeatedly shattered hopes, Electronic Arts and Maxis Studios have announced a horse-themed expansion pack for The Sims 4. The Horse Ranch pack is barely a month away, releasing on July 20th 2023.

08/06/2023

Recommended: Australia’s Equestrian Games – An Interview with Riding Star creator Andrew Niere

“By the 1990s, games were predominately designed with young male players in mind, featuring macho-adrenaline themes like violence, guns, and military simulations. Having never made a video game before, childhood friends Craig Laughton and Andrew Niere decided to do something different from other A...

11/05/2023

NEWS ARTICLE: Recommended: The Mane Quest has been Featured on Several Podcasts to talk Horse Games and More

I’ve been invited to three different podcasts recently to discuss horse games, my work at The Mane Quest, and what I’ve learned about working in this niche. All three podcasts were fun, interesting conversations that I can recommend listening to even if you’re already familiar with my work in ...

05/05/2023

NEWS ARTICLE: Horse Bonding, New Breeds and More Disciplines: Rival Stars Horse Racing teases Content Updates

Rival Stars Horse Racing is a PC and mobile game created and maintained by New Zealand based dev studio PikPok. To celebrate the game’s four year anniversary – that’s counting from the mobile version’s release, in case you’re noticing that the years don’t add up – PikPok released a tea...

01/05/2023

NEW ARTICLE: The Horses in Ghost of Tsushima – Wonderful Details and Fundamental Problems (Review)

Ghost of Tushima is an open world action adventure game released in 2020 on PlayStation 4, developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.  I don’t usually review AAA games on here, but I decided to make an exception. The fact that I started

16/04/2023

NEW ARTICL: My Horse: Bonded Spirits – A Newly Announced Horse Game and Why I'm Skeptical About it

My Horse: Bonded Spirits is an upcoming horse game created by Games Incubator from Poland. The game’s Steam page and announcement trailer first went up on April 13th 2023. My Horse: Bonded Spirits does not yet have a precise release date, but is scheduled for 2024. Let’s take a look and what it

14/04/2023

NEWS ARTICLE: Astride: Early Access Release announced for mid May 2023 🎉🎉

Astride is an upcoming adventure roleplaying game featuring horse riding in a Scandinavian-inspired environment. It is the debut and passion project of Raidho Games. In a recent update on Steam, the Raidho team confirms that a first version Astride will be released in mid May 2023.

02/04/2023

The Inspirations, Research and Future Plans behind Star Equestrian: My Developer Interview with Foxie Ventures is also available as a video! Watch it right here on Facebook, or head over here to YouTube (includes captions): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODQrjMmrFIY

01/04/2023

NEW ARTICLE: “We wanted to build a horse game that people could be passionate about” – The Inspirations, Research and Future Plans behind Star Equestrian – with Foxie Ventures 😍

Foxie Ventures’ Founder and Director Dineth Abeynayake and Product Manager Steven Ready took some time before the release to show me a preview of what their newest game would offer, and to answer a few questions about Star Equestrian ’s development and its future.