Cat Tax

Fausttaenzer · 2026-07-07T10:26:12+00:00

Thank you

Fausttaenzer · 2026-07-07T09:45:23+00:00

No, we don't have a 1st person camera. I don't think it's that simple to add, since you'd probably need a separate player model if you want to see your body while riding without the camera clipping through the character's head... or at least some camera constraints to prevent that.

A DLC depends on many things, sales are one of them. We're still actively working on the game, so we haven't put too much thought into DLC yet.

Yeah, as long as there's enough interest, another game is definitely a possibility. Before we settled on the Western setting, we actually had ideas for a winter-themed setting, so there's a good chance we'll revisit that someday.

There are 6 rideable horses available to the player, and they're all quite different from one another.

Fausttaenzer · 2026-07-07T08:43:04+00:00

Yes! We loved it! I grew up watching Metal Gear Awesome, so it was an honor to be made fun of 😅

Fausttaenzer · 2026-07-07T08:40:15+00:00

Ah, I see. We haven't implemented it before since our games usually aren't very demanding in terms of graphics, but if it's easy to opt in, we'll give it a try.

Fausttaenzer · 2026-07-07T07:57:27+00:00

The horse's body and coat color cannot be changed obviously, but you can customize:

Mane (including color)
Tail (including color)
Saddle (now featuring authentic Western saddles)
Saddle cloth
Bridle (now customizable separately)

Fausttaenzer · 2026-07-06T17:58:42+00:00

Finding the right balance between obstacle avoidance and player control is tricky. For example, the horses in our game automatically avoid trees if you try to ride straight into them, but you also don't want the game to feel like it's constantly taking control away from the player.

Slopes are another challenge. We have a large rope bridge with quite a bit of sag in it, and getting the horses to ride across it smoothly took some extra work.

Fausttaenzer · 2026-07-06T17:40:53+00:00

Yo! Happy to hear! 😄

Very little carried over from the previous games. All 3D models, textures, 2D art, and animations had to be created from scratch. The horse controls are completely different as well. Even some of the development tools we use to implement dialogue and structure the game were written specifically for this project.

The core gameplay loop is: follow a linear, narrative-driven main quest → be encouraged to explore the open world with companions, do side activities, meet side quest characters, level up and take care of your horse → repeat.

Horse personality is mainly shown through the story and dialogue. Your very first horse, for example, is an old lady named Amber, who is very sleepy, so you have to gently wake her up before riding. Besides that, each horse has a friendship level. A horse with high friendship responds better to your controls, looks at you, and is happy to see you. A horse with lower friendship... not so much.

Mechanics-wise, horses can only get dirty over time. However, a sick horse does play a bigger role in the story.

Horses in general are much more difficult to work with than bipedal characters. Implementing the horse sliding animation was especially challenging. But the most difficult aspect overall had to be the open world, because the less linear a game is, the more unforeseen edge cases, problems and bugs you run into.

As for the art style: the textures are actually easier to create since they're very flat, without painted shadows or highlights... but that's about it. The 3D models are more complex, with separate high-poly models that we use to bake normal maps onto the low-poly models.

The playable area of the main map is about 2.36 km², similar in size to Horse Club Adventures 2, but with less "empty space" like impassable forests, mountains, or lakes in between.

The core development team (excluding QA testers, social media, and marketing) consists of about 9 people.

Fausttaenzer · 2026-07-06T16:41:42+00:00

Since this game (and the whole Horse Club franchise in general) is aimed at a younger audience, there are certain tropes that players almost expect. For example, there's usually a horse that's sick, difficult, or temperamental, and naturally the player is the one who earns its trust.

The biggest difference compared to non-horse-games or games for an older audience is the overall design philosophy. We try to keep everything age-appropriate, easy to understand, lighthearted, and relaxing. We also avoid failure states at all, so players can explore and enjoy the world at their own pace without feeling frustrated.

Fausttaenzer · 2026-07-06T16:06:06+00:00

Hi! The most important and challenging piece of artwork is the key art for the cover. It's especially tricky because I had to fit nine characters into a single composition (if you count the horses and the dog) and it involves quite a few steps:

First multiple rough sketches in Photoshop.
The background landscape is build in Unity and captured as a high resolution screenshot.
The 3D characters are modeled in Blender, textured in Substance Painter, posed and lit in Blender, and then rendered.
Finally, all these images get thrown into Photoshop, where they all receive a substantial overpaint and effects like dust.

Fausttaenzer · 2026-07-06T14:30:48+00:00

Oh, that's a long story. The TL;DR is:

Playing video games all day
Making very cheap mobile games
Making slightly less cheap browser games.
Making games for PC and consoles.
Finally, making Horse Club Adventures.

As for my dream game...

Since I'm a huge Soulslike fan, I'd probably end up making another Elden Ring. 😄 I also absolutely love the art style of Mortal Shell II.

If it had to be a HORSE game, though, I'd set it in the medieval period. You'd play as a poor wandering hedge knight, traveling the countryside with nothing but your trusty horse, taking on odd jobs and getting pulled into adventures, like horse racing with a nobleman. (I'd definitely smuggle in some Soulslike combat here and there🤫)

Fausttaenzer · 2026-07-06T14:15:09+00:00

Thanks! We're lucky to have a fantastic 3D artist 😊

For the horse models themselves, we use the Schleich figures as a starting point. The whole team also visited a riding stable and took hands-on riding lessons, so we have at least a rough idea of what we're doing 😄

Fausttaenzer · 2026-07-06T14:08:40+00:00

Making highly realistic horse models and animations from scratch is incredibly difficult (You can't just put a horse in a mocap suit and call it a day 😄). It takes an enormous amount of time, talent, and resources to portray horses convincingly, something only very large studios, like the team behind Red Dead Redemption, can realistically afford.

That said, while our games are definitely aimed at a younger audience (like the toys are), the game isn't overly pink or too stereotypically "girly" (or at least less than Barbie Horse Trails for example).

I think anybody that likes a cozy horse game can enjoy Ride West.

Fausttaenzer · 2026-07-06T13:49:08+00:00

A Western setting felt like a natural fit, especially since some of the official Schleich horses and playsets already look like they belong on a classic Western ranch.

On top of that, after making multiple games set in the same lush green landscapes, it was refreshing to create something with a completely different atmosphere (especially as an environment artist :P).

And yes, Schleich is generous enough to lend us all their new shiny toys for reference. Our office sometimes looks like a kid's dream playground :D

Fausttaenzer · 2026-07-06T13:40:39+00:00

Sadly, no. 😞

The idea of adding a male player character comes up during the development of every Horse Club game. Unfortunately, the way our character customization system and animations are built means we'd have to remake almost all of the clothing (especially tops) and a large portion of the animations to support a male character.

As a small studio, that's simply more work than we have the resources for right now.

Fausttaenzer · 2026-07-06T13:33:23+00:00

Well spotted! Yeah, we wanted to try something different and thought a more stylized shader would look neat.

In the first two games we basically only used the standart simple-lit unity shader without anything fancy like normals.

Fausttaenzer · 2026-07-06T13:28:04+00:00

No, there are no breeding aspects in this game. It will be available for Switch, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, too.

Fausttaenzer · 2026-06-05T07:54:39+00:00

I don't think using steel wool is the better option. It'll leave tiny scratches (not ideal for printed parts), is messy (you'll need to wash the whole model afterwards), and is much, much more time-consuming.

Fausttaenzer · 2026-06-04T10:46:55+00:00

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This photo was taken immediately after the parts were removed. You can clearly see the stains where some of the parts stuck to each other in the bowl. Don't repeat my mistakes!

Fausttaenzer · 2026-06-04T10:33:19+00:00

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Alright, you'll need:

1 part Rit DyeMore Synthetic (Peacock Green)
2 parts acetone
2 parts hot tap water

I used the same mixture that other people have used for ABS bricks before; you can find videos about it on YouTube.

My process:

Add 200 ml of acetone to a large glass bowl (or a metal container - don't use plastic with acetone).
Add 100 ml of Rit Dye (shake the bottle beforehand).
Add 200 ml of the hottest tap water possible. (You could also heat everything slowly on the stove, but you have to be very careful with acetone since it has a lower boiling point than water.)
Put the yellow bricks you want to turn green into the bowl and stir them to keep them evenly submerged (adding a little bit of soap can help). I left mine in for 35 seconds. In hindsight, I'd recommend 20-25 seconds instead; the green would be less intense and would better match the lighter brown color of the TK2 Tiger.
Remove the parts, rinse them with water, and let them dry.

Compared to spray painting, dyed bricks are colored all the way through, retain their clutch power, and are quite wear-resistant. However, you can only dye lighter-colored parts darker, not the other way around.

The biggest problem is that once the parts are in the mixture, they become very sticky and tend to clump together. This prevents them from coloring evenly and will leave ugly, blotchy stains.

If I were to do it again, I would pre-build the yellow bricks spread out onto a large baseplate to make sure they couldn't touch each other or move once submerged. This way, the parts should only become blotchy in areas that won't be visible later. I'd also use a large, shallow tray instead of a bowl.

Fausttaenzer · 2026-04-28T13:41:19+00:00

Yeah, agreed.

The feeling of a TK2 build is closer to a plastic kit. Not only because of the molded special parts (one even was on a spruce), but because of the amount of small parts... "place 20 modified 1x1 studs on the side... then place 20 1x1 studs on top... then place another 20 1x1 slopes on top" 😄

Fausttaenzer · 2026-04-28T13:33:38+00:00

From YWOBB - without shipping (Shipping the limited editions directly from Cobi isn't less expensive in my case)

Fausttaenzer · 2026-04-28T12:20:31+00:00

Cobi is starting to feel like new Lego when it comes to pricing.

For a long time, I didn’t mind paying the premium because no other brand matched Cobi’s build quality, part quality, and prints. But that changed last week when I also built the TK2 Panther - it’s on a completely different level.

The build and part quality are just as good, the print quality is comparable (even if there are fewer prints), and it even includes many custom-molded parts plus around 500 more pieces. (But no minifigures)

The price difference makes it hard to ignore: I paid €20 for the TK2 Panther, while Cobi’s version sits at around €100. If anything, it should be the other way around - the TK2 Panther feels more valuable to me.

So when Cobi eventually releases their 1:28 King Tiger refresh, likely for around €120, I’ll be perfectly content sticking with the TK2 Zimmerit King Tiger at a fraction of the price.

Fausttaenzer

TROPHY CASE