New features

|GAME FEATURES & FUTURE|

Q: Can you change the new feature of teams to set a maximum for sales and cover GP so that they can't reduce it once it's set to a number? Because right now people are getting scammed out of being able to use the horses they bought left and right because they put for sale and then the GP gets lowered, so the buyer can't use the horse.

A: (game designer) "We are aware of this issue, and we are working on a solution to prevent this problem."

Q: Are there any plans to rework the daily genetic curve?

A: (game designer) "It would be very complex to rework the daily genetic curve and above all very risky: both on the side of the reception of the players and from a technical point of view, with many possible side effects that would be difficult to anticipate. We therefore think it is more cautious not to change this aspect of the game."

Q: How do you determine and prioritize upcoming changes and new features?

A: (producing team) "Our number one priority is obviously to keep the game functional, stable and alive the whole year long. And it’s already a pretty nice task that takes up a lot of the team’s time!

Then, for the time remaining for the team, we prioritize the new features by putting into perspective the following two elements:

� The contribution of the new feature for players and/or for the game
and
� The estimated cost of development.

Once this prioritization is done, we take the topics in order, and we strive to deliver them as soon as possible!

We are particularly proud of the new game mode: Ascent of Olympus, and the warm welcome you have reserved for it tells us that we are on the right road!"

Q: Only one question, will you ever add Exmoor ponies? And will they be fluffy chonkers!!? They are such sweet lil guys, we need some!!!!

A: (game designer) "We can't agree more with you: they are so fluffy and so cute! We will think about it"

Q: Will you add a random system of marks on the coats (legs and face marks)?

A: (game designer) "We would really love to, and it has already been discussed and considered in the past years. Unfortunately, the technology we use on the game and the format used for the horse images prevent us from implementing it on Howrse. At least, not without massive development work."

Q: Can we get back the function of sending divines to Safe Haven, or at least get a “toggle on/off” feature for certain divine perks?

A: (game designer) "We don’t have plans to implement it for the moment, but we have seen your many remarks and questions. We understand the issue some of you are having, for example with Tarpan, so we are trying to figure out a solution for this problem."

Q: Do you consider building on a lore for Howrse, and thus creating original divine horses tied to this lore? With the freedom you could have on the concepts themselves, it could provide new interesting mechanics directly tied to the game itself, different from mini-games to earn Black Market objects.

A: (producing team) "We have already made some preliminary thoughts on the subject. It would require a massive amount of work to be well done. According to our studies, this is something that would not necessarily interest many players. Considering the prioritization matrix showed above: Moderate interest + high cost = low priority feature

This being said, only fools never change their mind."

Q: Will the lootbox system in the game ever be improved or ended?

A: (game designer) "We are working on an adjustment for the number of divine fragments in our luck items to reduce the random aspect of it, and are thinking about more possible evolutions of those items."

|COMMERICAL OFFERS|

Q: What are the plans to include items like Knight's Equipment and the Coat of Iris in the black market? They are currently the best items for the Grand Prix, yet you don't offer them.

A: (game designer) "We are aware of this, and some things are going to change a little bit. However, some items are voluntarily kept away from the Black market because their price in Passes would be too high to be sold there."

Q: Are there any plans to bring more availability of some items that we currently can’t purchase until promos are available? For example, BP, Magic Hat etc. Also, the access to tears, wand and Apollos lyre privileges more often? A lot of people agree that all three of these are sought after and are popular. I could see it being a good hit.

A: (game designer) "Halloween customization items are sold during the Halloween period and can be won regularly during our events and from some divine horses. However, we don’t plan to increase the availability of privileges."

Q: Why are all new Black Market items excluded from the item exchange? Will the possibility to trade them ever be added?

A: (game designer) "This feature is the source of too much traffic and cheating, so we have decided to stop adding items in it."

Q: Will Jade be available in Titan’s Challenge this year?

A: (game designer) "There are no specific plans for Jade at the moment, except for the possibility to get this divine horse in the next Christmas packs."

Q: Will there be ever an option for us to buy Hestia’s gift?

A: (game designer) "We cannot add the option to buy Hestia’s gift, it isn’t our intention because it would force unicorn breeders to buy it to keep up with the rankings. We want it to remain a rare item in the game."

Q: When does Howrse plan to bring back Bucephale's/divine tack?

A: (producing team) "No spoil... But we heard you, and it's coming soon!"

Q: Hello, are you going to change some dress of horses because many races this look like is it hard to differentiate them, thank you.

A: (game designer) "No, we are not planning to do that."

Q: Are there plans to change the default horse graphics again?

A: (game designer) "There are too many breeds for this, and it would take way too long. This is not something we are planning to work on right now."

|ART|

Q: Do you have an art department/team or is it a one-person job?

A: (artists) "There is an art department within the Howrse team with several people for different roles: manager, concept artist, 2D artist and UI (User Interface) designer. There are also a few freelancers working with us depending on the needs we have."

Q: Who is the artist or artists behind the coats for horses, divines and companions? I love your style and would love to follow them on Instagram if they have a page there.

A: (artists) "Thanks for the compliments, they have been forwarded. However, the team is quite shy, so we don’t have any Instagram page to share."

|CHEATING|

Q: Do you plan to do more about cheaters? I'm talking about people who are scripting, to automate the work of their horse, and particularly people who are using several accounts.

A: (customer support) "Ensuring a fair game environment for all players is one of our top priorities. Last year alone, a new code of conduct has been released, massive amounts of bots have been banned, and thousands of players who engage in scripting and/or pass trafficking have been sanctioned.

While cheating management is a non-ending battle, we plan on perpetuating our efforts to fight it without impacting the experience of players who respect the game’s rules. You can therefore expect us to continuously improve cheat management actions, tools, processes, and communication for the years to come."

Q: Why were warnings before karma docks/bans removed?

A: (customer support) "While we continue to use warnings for minor offences or very specific situations, we have decided to stop using them for major offences.

When a player decides to go against the game’s code of conduct to gain unfair advantages over other players, a warning is generally not enough to stop them from continuing to do so."

Q: Also, do you even consider lowering sanctions for already banned players (perm bans to temporary ones)?

A: (customer support) "It really depends on the situation. If a player feels like their sanction is undeserved, they are free to send a ban appeal ticket to our customer support. Upon receiving the request, the sanction will be reviewed by a different person than the one who applied it. Once the review is done, the player will be informed of our decision.

To be perfectly transparent, it is rare for us to lower or remove sanctions, as each one is applied after a thorough investigation. We do not give preferential treatment to anyone, no matter their seniority, financial investment, or closeness with the team.

Last but not least, I would like to add that sanctions are always applied for a reason. Except for ensuring a fair game environment on Howrse, we have absolutely nothing to gain by sanctioning players."

Q: Why do the docks and sanctions differ across servers? Aren't the rules for trafficking, multi-accounting, scripting detection systems and sanctions supposed to be the same across all servers? Aren't the punishments supposed to be done automatically through your detection systems, and not manually?

A: (customer support) " It is true that for numerous years, sanctions were server dependent. This was done to give us the flexibility to adapt to server specific cheating trends.

This has changed recently, and most sanctions are now the same for all servers. Some exceptions might remain on servers that still have forums. Sanctions can also vary depending on the number of misdeeds done by a user, but this has always been the case.

While detection is automated, our team always reviews and sanctions such cases manually. This is why we could – and still can if necessary – apply custom sanctions."


|COMMUNICATION|

Q: I know recently that you have been moving more towards the times. Like interacting more with the community and bringing the community to discord. I wondered if there are any plans to be more interactive? For example, live streams, specific channels/hang out on certain days. Much like the Friday Fun Topic that used to occur on the site in the forums? Also wondered if there are any other plans on allowing the community to interact more? For example, topics like other games or voice chats people can interact in? I am not sure about anyone else, but I am a gamer and play other games. It would be super cool to connect with others among other games too. Maybe ways that there can be partnerships made between Howrse and other companies?

A: (community developers) "Thanks for noticing that we are moving in the right direction. We do have plans to keep this going for even more interaction, such as doing more Q&As. There are no plans yet for live streams, but regarding the fun topic/channels to hang out in, we have recently opened the language forums, opened by moderators, where players of a specific language can hang out together, this depends on the moderators’ availability, but it happens regularly. Voice chats are not something we want to implement, as they are difficult to moderate and don’t really fit the community’s way of playing."

Q: What happened to the ambassador program? We haven’t heard from them in years…

A: (community developers) "The Ambassador program was quietly discontinued.

We launched it in 2018 when we were working on the new monetization on Howrse and have asked the Ambassadors for other feedback a few more times after that. However, due to time constraints and a lack of subjects we could consult the Ambassadors on, we stopped using it.

If we ever were to use a similar program again, we would start from scratch with new elections or a new system."

|HOWRSE TEAM|

Q: How many of you manage the game on all versions?

A: (producing team) "There are over 40 people working on the game in total, if you count all the teams (production, game design, development, art, testing, support and community management, marketing)."

Q: Are you hiring devs that could work remote from NA? (haha... unless? )

A: (producing team) "We are not hiring at the moment and if we were, it would be in France, not North America. Feel free to try your luck at any of the Ubisoft studios we have there!"

|BONUS!|

"Some of you were quite curious about our dev team, as individuality. We've asked our colleagues questions, hoping you will appreciate their answers!"

- A Lead Community Developer

Q: How long have you been working on Howrse? Are you working full time on Howrse, or do you also work on other projects?

A: "I've been working on Howrse for 11 years now, starting as a community manager. I'm only working on Howrse right now (as a Lead Community Developer), but I spent some time on other projects developed by the studio in the past years."

Q: Do you have a private Howrse account, and do you play Howrse regularly in your free time?

A: "I do have a personal account on Howrse, that I created before my job interview to be prepared, and I'm still using it after all this time. I don't always play regularly: it depends on the free time I have and the contest that is on (the Cards and the Mazes are my favorite). I must say that I became addicted to the Olympus Ascent in the past months, so I've been playing more again."
Q:
What part of the game did you have the most fun to work on?

A: "Most recently, I'd say it was the Olympus Ascent. It was really exciting for the whole team to work on a new game mode, testing it internally and then with testers and players, and seeing it improve over the months from the paper prototype to what we have now in the game. I'm so happy with the finished version and really proud of what the team delivered."

Q: Is there anything you would like the players to know?

"Thank you all for making this game keep going for so long. I'm really grateful for that. The Howrse community is really unique and keeps surprising me, even after all these years.

Please note that while we don't answer everything you say, we do read what you say on the different communication channels. Keep that in mind when you express criticism in a not so nice way."

Q: Any anecdote to share with us?

A: "When I started, I was the community manager of the German server, which means that I was using the Ow account to talk to players on the forums.

I took this monkey thing to heart, because that's when I started eating a banana every day, thanks to the fruit at the office. And I never really stopped."

- An Economic Game Designer

Q: How long have you been working on Howrse? Are you working full time on Howrse, or do you also work on other projects?

A: "I've been working on Howrse since 2011, that's a little bit more than 12 years entirely spent on Howrse ^^ "

Q: Do you have a private Howrse account, and do you play Howrse regularly in your free time?

A: "I do have a personal Howrse account. I keep playing every day without exception, even if I am less active than I was a few years ago."

Q: What part of the game did you have the most fun to work on?

A: "I love working on the creation of new events. But also on a less noticeable aspect: everything about rebalancing on the main game or in events."

Q: Is there anything you would like the players to know?

A: "We can give the impression of not being generous when it comes to rewards. But we always strive to keep the best possible balance between pleasing you so that you keep wanting to play, and not jeopardize the game economy and thus allow you to play for years to come."

Q: Any anecdote to share with us?

A: "I was a very well ranked Howrse player before becoming a Game Designer. It was through an ad posted directly on the game that I decided to apply. My strong knowledge of the game allowed me to be hired!"

- A Senior Concept Artist

Q: How long have you been working on Howrse? Are you working full time on Howrse, or do you also work on other projects?

A: "I've been working at Owlient for 15 years now. I have worked on many project like Aquariow, Babydow, Mojow locow and Dragow. Today, I am fully dedicated to Howrse, just like the old days ^^ "

Q: Do you have a private Howrse account, and do you play Howrse regularly in your free time?

A: "Arf, that's a trick question! Yes, I have an old private account, but I am not very active any more.

My personal life gives me less time to play, and to be honest: I was too bad. Because I don't like to hurt animals, I kinda stopped playing.

Yet, I remain very involved, since I draw every day our dear quadruped friends."

Q: What part of the game did you have the most fun to work on?

A: "All challenges are good to take on Howrse.

Not only to make each horse unique, regardless of the theme, but also to make sure that the community is always excited by our creations."

Q: Is there anything you would like the players to know?

A: "First, I'd like to thank them for their loyalty and investment at all levels on the game. This game would not exist without its community.

And I'd like to thank them when they let us know in the comments that they like our illustrations, it is always a great satisfaction to see that your work is appreciated."

Q: Any anecdote to share with us?

A: "Oulaaaaa an anecdote... There are so many when you've been working for 15 years in a company!

A memorable one among many others: the Celestial Eye horse. I had scribbled a horse with a goldfish head (as a joke); I was really convinced that it would not be validated, considering the poor thing's head... But it was eventually integrated in the game! �

Probably not the classiest horse in the game, but for me, it was very cool to make such an atypical horse from a crazy idea."