Horses has been a hit, but its studio may still be in trouble

Yet the indie narrative horror game horses It was banned from Steam two years ago, putting Santa Ragione Studio at risk of closure. Co-founder of the studio W horses Producer Pietro Righi Riva had to make a difficult phone call with the game’s director, Italian director Andrea Locco Burlera. “I felt terrified for him,” Riva said in an interview. Edge. “This was his first game and he had put in a lot of work, a lot of passion, a lot of years, and it was supposed to be a huge achievement for him.”

But while this all sounds like a happy ending, Reva isn’t ready to breathe easy just yet. “I’m relieved that with all this interest, I’ll probably be able to return most of the money (about half of the $100,000) I had to borrow,” he said. “But we’re not out of the woods yet, no.”

horses It’s a short and crunchy-looking game, featuring Dreamcast-era graphics with gameplay that’s not just about clicking on things to put them in and take them out of your inventory. While Santa Ragioni was a success Saturnalia and Milky Way Prince Before the ban, he was a largely unknown developer. Riva knows what that’s like, and admits that the ban has been instrumental in that horses Punching through the noise.

“The same kind of interest couldn’t have happened,” he added. Despite this difficult first decision, Riva says Burlera is very happy with what the ban has done for his game. “He is very happy with the reception the match received,” Riva said. “People are reading the game and (…) interacting with it the way he hoped.”

However, this engagement is not enough to make up for the reach that Steam would have provided. While Riva is grateful for the support of players and storefronts like GOG, it’s not enough, and he’s still very afraid for Santa Ragioni’s future. “Even with all the hype, all the reporting, all the reviews, and everything else,” he said. “This still can’t compare to the kind of audience we’ll have on Steam.”

Steam has had a huge impact on the PC video game market. Independent studios that can’t afford to port their games to consoles are at Valve’s mercy mysterious, fickleand often Inconsistent Passions of moderation. Nevertheless horses Having found a roundabout way to achieve relative success without it, Riva said the journey has been painful, affecting not only him and his team, but his peers and future projects.

“I think there will be, in my case, and in the case of others, a certain degree of self-censorship,” he said. “It’s terrifying, and it will make people make safer and more secure games, including me.”