#pikpok

[horsegirlz]

Rival Stars Horse Racing (Desktop Edition) has announced an upcoming update that includes some multiplayer functionality (in "free roam" mode) as well as updates to showjumping as a career mode. PikPok also released a VR version of Rival Stars Horse Racing earlier this year.

[rivalstarsracinggirl]

Obsessed with this super pretty rich black Arabian I bred recently 🫶🏼

[gebo4482]

Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days

Gameplay Teaser

[sonichedgeblog]

A slightly different tangent for a second. Hope you don’t mind.

Outside of this blog, I'm also a game designer at PikPok in New Zealand. We've just released Into The Dead 2 on iPhone and Android. If you’ve got some time and want to try a kickass game, I'd appreciate it if you gave it a look.

http://intothedead2.com/

[gameui-kr]

Into the Dead 2

[rivalstarsracinggirl]

Art Angel won her first live trophy 🏆

[rivalstarsracinggirl]

Gutted I had to sell this mare as her stats were horrendous but she was so pretty 🫶🏼

[horsegirlz]

Rival Stars Horse Racing talk... why is it so hard for horse game devs to focus?

This is more of a personal commentary on what's been happening with Rival Stars, which I generally consider one of the best modern horse games (which sadly isn't a high bar to meet).

They've announced the release of another new breed (for mobile, assumably later for desktop), the Mustang:

It seems very random to me. This game was foundationally built on horse racing and only had the Thoroughbred as its sole breed for many years, until they added the Selle Francais in 2023, Arabian later in 2023, Quarter Horse in 2024.

While I don't inherently think adding different breeds was a bad choice, Mustangs are hardly known as sport horses. This game doesn't feature much in the ways of everyday equestrian life outside of high level sports - listening to player demand, they have added some casual things like a free roam mode, and a pasture to keep horses in where you can see them just chill. But there isn't much in ways of customising your character, and there is no way to walk around your stable, groom your horses, etc (though it's cute that you can poke them and they'll react). The game is focused on sports and on breeding better horses for sports.

The game originally only featured flat racing, but added in cross country in 2021 (2022?) and steeplechase in 2023, and a show jumping mechanic is on its way (the arena has been in early access for subscribers on mobile during 2024, and added this week to desktop edition, but is not yet a competitive mode).

One major issue - to me - is that the sports gameplay should always be the foundational focus of this game, and I don't feel that the cross country has gotten as much depth as it absolutely should have by now (2 or so years later). New courses? Continued storyline? AFAIK, not much has happened in a long time, instead they rolled out steeplechase and now show jumping.

They should focus on adding more courses and stories to the things they've introduced, instead of to throw in more and more things into the soup. Why add mustangs? Are they going to add in western sports next, and then neglect that and not add in new courses and stories for that either and move on to something else?

Adding new coat variations is one thing, because the breeding and the pretty horses is an important part of the game. And I can accept the idea of adding in some typical sporty breeds, because it fits the theme of the game, even if it also seems a bit unnecessary compared to working on extensions to the gameplay. (I just found out while googling stuff for this post that they also added the Knabstrupper earlier this year. Since I'm a passive player and mostly keeping my eye on gameplay updates to see when it's worth coming back to play again, I didn't even notice.)

They do make money on mobile by selling microtransaction (macrotransaction?) horses to people who clearly have no awareness to the value of money. So yes, on that end, releasing new fancy horses that make "whales" want to throw their apparently value-less money onto yet another virtual horse while refusing to stop buying products made in sweatshops or with slavery or with toxic materials and shipped across the planet to pollute a little extra on top (if you aren't who I'm describing, then don't take offense. If you are who I'm describing, please question your views on consumption and capitalism), sure, it's a decision that makes sense from a capitalist perspective. Release fancy horse, get money from consumption addicts. It "makes sense".

But capitalist perspectives are unethical and irrelevant. From a design and quality perspective, where you take pride in creating a good high quality product first and foremost and are aware to your effects on the world and the contexts you exist within, focusing on something largely cosmetic that barely ties in with the theme of the game does not make sense.

It's nice that PikPok listen to player feedback. It's nice that something that started as a racing game designed largely for the typical horse racing audience, was quickly overtaken by horse game enthusiasts and horse lovers that weren't the original expected audience, and that the company saw this and were ready to adapt and listen to requests they hadn't seen coming.

But, at the end of the day, I'm confused - where are the cross country courses? Where are the storylines? Not developing the potential quality and depth of the sports gameplay mechanics within reasonable time frames, and instead adding in horse breeds that don't fit the theme of the game, doesn't seem to make sense from a design and quality perspective.

There is one interesting factor in all this, which is that PikPok are currently developing a VR version of Rival Stars.

It seems that in this version, you'll be able to pet and groom the horses, and interact with them - and potentially the stable and the grounds - in a direct way. This is something we don't have in the mobile or desktop versions of the game.

This is a very welcome development for many (aside from the lack of access to VR equipment for most people), since a large chunk of Rival Stars players have been asking for exactly these types of everyday equestrian additions to the game - not because it makes sense to put it into their racing game that didn't originally feature these types of content, but because the horse gamer audience is desperate for good horse games, and when one shows up, we wish it would feed into as many of our horse game desires as possible.

And from my perspective, it makes a lot more sense to develop a separate version of Rival Stars - like this VR version - that is designed from the beginning with the intention to have more everyday equestrian things, more interactions with the horses and the environment - and if I could decide myself, then also decent customisation options for the player character and the stables. It doesn't necessarily make sense to change the original game to have the option to walk around the stables and pet the horses - sure, it would've been nice, but ultimately, that's not what the game is, and neglecting the core part of the game (developing the sports further, more courses) is not a good trade for it.

Personally, I think that they could've also turned the desktop version into a more expanded version of the mobile game. I think it's very possible to put resources into developing walkable stables and groomable horses and customisable content into the desktop version while keeping the mobile one highly focused on the sports and breeding (due to mobile game limitations).

I'd love to see lots of different courses and environments, the ability to ride along a beach or a snowy forest or a desert, whether in free roam and taking photos (especially if we had better character customisation and tack options), or in fun and varied races in the different disciplines. I'd be ready to pay money for DLC to Rival Stars desktop, whether it's new areas to ride in or additional packs of breeds and cosmetics, if it was fairly priced.

I would welcome the addition of the mustang and could see western sports along with it and the quarter, if it made sense for the game it was being added to - an imaginary version of what Rival Stars could be. Not what Rival Stars is right now.