Ijust finished it and what a creepy and atmospheric game it was, it made me feel very uneasy at certain points. As someone else also already mentioned, it reminded me of Salo and some giallo movies. Some find the days monotonous, I find that fitting as you play a teenager doing a summer job at a farm, long hard days.
The first time seeing the dog outside of his doghouse caught me off guard lol.
Ok, I figured the code out lol... but on day 14 when you have enter the wine cellar area to enter the code i somehow managed to click on something (I think it was the kitchen chair from far away) and it took me out all the way back to the kitchen and now I can't go back into the wine cellar so I had to reload a save...
I finished the game and I think is not a good one. I read people saying good things about it, but I think it’s just because of blind support for this game.
But we must be honest: the idea is nice, but as a game it is a fail, because of the design. Supporting a game is ok, but we shouldn’t lie to ourselves.
I have a lot of criticism, but I will write just one, which was the most annoying thing and also the most simply avoidable one: all the doors open in your face, ruining the immersion. The repetition of the days makes it even worse, because that means it’s not a singular event, becoming a non-optimized recursive scene. I can understand if it happened once, but every day you have to slap doors in your face.
Don’t get me wrong, I support the game and the team, but we must be honest and doing good critics.
I don't really understand some of what the game was trying to say, but I enjoyed it. There doesn't seem like there's anything here that should have had it banned from Steam, I've seen more extreme stuff on there anyway. It is worth a play, and I'd recommend it for those who want something to think about rahter than just jump-scares in their horror.
What a stirring experience reminicent of classic Italian film. This game is brilliant. Well done!!!! We need more mature games like this for grown-ups.
I bought this over on Humble but decided to add to this interesting comment section.
Perhaps the scariest thing about this game is that when you take away the grotesque metaphors and individual story, turn off the game and go outside, there are many people who dehumanise others. People who look at the horrors of dehumanisation and find it acceptable or even desirable.
Haha yes. I'm looking at A24 in the corner of the room scratching and sniffing and drooling. Seems you did what they couldn't.
What a profound little experience! I assume the warzone in this comments section (and across the internet) relates to that profundity. And pretention was always good. Plus, a polarizing piece is usually one we never forget. If you wanted to make the waves unforgettable, you've done it. Or should I say: unforgettable hay. I'm grinning right now after having played this. I'll play it again in due time.
It'll be disappointing to open my door and see people without nudity and a horse mask. Bummer. Maybe I'll do it for them.
ITALIANO: Una storia che mi è rimasta dentro, anche con molti interrogativi. Sono rimasto piacevolmente sorpreso di come mi abbia catturato. Consiglio di comprare il videogioco e di viverlo. Un ottimo lavoro.
ENGLISH: A story that has stayed with me, even with many questions. I was surprised by how much it captivated me. I recommend buying the video game and experiencing it. Excellent work.
thank you. I do see great potential in you and your team. I just think this was a miss. I do honestly hate being so negative, and it isn’t your fault that the game was hyped because of the bans of course. I really wanted to like this game. I think you and everyone working on the game is talented and can be amazing in the industry. I just don’t think this showcased the real potential of your studio is all. Basically I see more in the team and I want that to be shown. This wasn’t for me and I can admit that easily. Thank you for your work and I do really hope you continue to make fun art you love, even if grumpy gus folks like me can’t enjoy it. Also to clarify what’s the email? Info@santaragione.com?
hearing that this game cost over $100k to make is… surprising. This game has some low effort graphics, like pretty damn bad. Clipping, choppt animation, the sound design is medicore, the story is half baked, you never find out anything remotely interesting about the “horses”, how they each got there, how the farmer feels about each one, how each are treated individually, how fido got there, etc. The gameplay can hardly even be called gameplay. All you do is run, grab something, click something, are forced to bring whatever you grabbed back to it’s og location, and then the day ends. The “controversial” parts? I’ve seen worse on games that are on steam. This game only has a reputation because steam wouldn’t let it be on their store page. Why do I think it was banned from steam? Personally, and yes i’m being harsh, but i think it was a quality issue. There’s basically nothing to this game. The entire point seems to be “shock value rape slave evil farmer” and nothing else. “Oh but it has a point it’s trying to make!” Does it? Or is that a convenient way for a developer to excuse making horror porn? Regardless, it’s a slop fest of a game. Boring. Not fun to look at (graphically speaking. The “horror” is… incredibly boring) it’s just not worth the time or money. There are far better games to play for even less than $5. Play those instead. Devs are slowly losing grip on the fact that just because your game has shock value and a point, doesn’t mean it can’t be an actual game and have engaging mechanics. This would have done so well with choices and a variety of outcomes. But it’s just a short linear hallway of a game. 1/10. Practically nothing. $100k. That’s insane. This does not look like $100k of effort. It looks like a game made for free by one person who doesn’t get how to make games. Nobody would be mentioning this game if it weren’t banned. It’d be a game we mocked.
After finishing the game, I've a question: does this game have only one ending? I did my best to be the most despicable human being possible, snitching and abusing horses, supporting the farmer and his crew of perverts, etc. in hopes of getting some sort of comeuppance, and it was a bit weird to get an ending that could've been considered "good". I wonder if it got bugged out for me, or there's only one ending indeed.
Overall, I disagree with Steam ruling. It's not a shock value game, it tackles a huge real life issue through surrealism, and has artistic worth. Tamer and more abstract than Bober Bros who tackle similar themes in a much more direct manner, and yet their games are published. Probably because tehy bring more moneh. Anyhow, this was an interesting experience, I fairly enjoyed it. A shame it is too linear, but I know how hard it is to make a non-linear game especially with a small team.
PS: RIP, Fido, your story was the most tragic one of all.
Thank you for trying. I was curious if the choices affect anything beyond the next line of dialogue, but did not want to spend 3 hours on replaying it and assumed that the Level Select function would not be available if it did (e.g. not helping Linda with the flowers would lead to her not introducing the other "horse").
And yes, making an even small immersive sim game would require much more time and funds or very specific development experience.
I am very grateful that you wrote this comment because I also tried to find an alternative ending by trying to support the farmer and exploiting the horses, but in the end I always came to the same conclusion... I thought it was my fault, so it reassures me to see other players in the same situation...
Anyway, I think it would have been really nice if there had been another ending and that the choices you make in the game actually changed your destiny.
At the end of Day 11 the farmer says he doesn't know how the horses poisoned Fido, even though I did not add the pills to his food, so he wasn't poisoned.
While I am thankful that you did not forget to update GOG it's a bit disappointing that you still unpublish older builds which makes a rollback in Galaxy impossible (hence GOG asks devs to NOT unpublish older builds).
I was so happy when I read this but unfortunately you did it again with the actual update on GOG today. Old build is gone for everybody - rollback not working because of this.
Qui dopo il gameplay di Karim, e qui durante l'intervista ad Andrea Lucco Borlera sul canale di Abicocca. Sono rimasta particolarmente impressionata dal gioco rivedendo con estremo piacere una critica ad un certo regime che abbiamo conosciuto bene, un'atmosfera che all'estero spero (ma dubito, nonostante il vostro ottimo lavoro) abbiano colto. Ho deciso di acquistare il gioco nonostante la scarsa rigiocabilità perché a volte la questione non è trovare intrattenimento per sé, ma supportare chi ha un'idea e si trova a dover combattere con la censura. Complimenti di cuore per quello che avete creato.
Hello, there's an issue with multi screen For some reason the game started on my secondary monitor, and I had no ability to move it to the primary one. I launched it again after disabling the second monitor, it launched on the primary but after that I couldn't be able to keep the secondary monitor back on after enabling it again (it would stop working after any action in game).
Very sorry for the issue and thank you for reporting. We'll be invetsigating! Meanwhile, have you tried deleteing the app's playerprefs?
To delete them, open regedit by pressing the Windows key and typing 'regedit', then pressing ENTER. Browse to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Unity\UnityEditor\SantaRagione\HORSES (you will have to start the game from the beginning!)
I'm sorry I didn't reply earlier, I ended managing to make it work on its own (and now it "remembers" the correct screen lol) What a fascinating game! Thank you, and have a merry xmas!
It's rare that anyone covers topics like these in such symbolism yet a way that is actually entertaining to play and not just constricting the player all the time. You can walk around and see the absurdity of everything yourself. Ride some horses. Weird, but actually interesting.
I also tipped you $10 to support you through losing Steam and Epic Games platforms. I know it's not much, but I want to show my appreciation for you and the person behind the game.
An extremely affecting narrative adventure game. I loved the confidence in its style and, like any good horror experience, it left me with something to think about.
HORSES is a game well worth your time. As an artist who dabbles in taboo (sexual) themes, I believe media with similar themes have their artistic and commentary value, and deserve to be accessible and be considered art. Playing this game was a breath of fresh air for me. It explores and criticises power structures like patriarchy, fascism and religion. It's also why I feel this game is important. In terms of story and gameplay, HORSES kept me on the edge of my seat all the way to the end. I really enjoyed it!
The censorship surrounding HORSES breaks my heart, especially when games with more graphic violence & sexual content exist. Santa Ragione doesn't deserve this. Even if you end up not liking HORSES, $5 goes a long way to support the devs and creative freedom as a whole.
It's quite a decent game, on the arthouse side, a grotesque psychosexual depiction of fascism which wants to be Saló but ends up a bit washed in my opinion. I appreciate the concept either way and the fact that some stores decided to shit themselves by censoring it only contributes to the point (stores that have a bajillion hentai games btw, huh, one can only wonder what may be the real reason why they chose this one game in particular...). Anyway, I may be giving it extra credit because of the discussion it started, but I think that's only fair.
btw I do see now why a little girl was designed initially, I would like to see how innoence is planted. I would like to see that tbh but we all know the censor system is going to be sensative. But seeing a young lady do makes me feel happy because she is very cute.
Some bugs I encounted, not sure if fixed: on day 10 has trouble trigger certain interaction with an unusual npc, and caused the speed really slow.on day 14 when I try to find the way out I could go out from a certain metal-related place and got soft lock by sinking myself in the sea. Later the exit space was vanished.
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Ijust finished it and what a creepy and atmospheric game it was, it made me feel very uneasy at certain points. As someone else also already mentioned, it reminded me of Salo and some giallo movies. Some find the days monotonous, I find that fitting as you play a teenager doing a summer job at a farm, long hard days.
The first time seeing the dog outside of his doghouse caught me off guard lol.
Please keep making more games like this!
Ok, I figured the code out lol... but on day 14 when you have enter the wine cellar area to enter the code i somehow managed to click on something (I think it was the kitchen chair from far away) and it took me out all the way back to the kitchen and now I can't go back into the wine cellar so I had to reload a save...
I finished the game and I think is not a good one. I read people saying good things about it, but I think it’s just because of blind support for this game.
But we must be honest: the idea is nice, but as a game it is a fail, because of the design. Supporting a game is ok, but we shouldn’t lie to ourselves.
I have a lot of criticism, but I will write just one, which was the most annoying thing and also the most simply avoidable one: all the doors open in your face, ruining the immersion. The repetition of the days makes it even worse, because that means it’s not a singular event, becoming a non-optimized recursive scene. I can understand if it happened once, but every day you have to slap doors in your face.
Don’t get me wrong, I support the game and the team, but we must be honest and doing good critics.
I have not fully finished the game yet, but is there a way to replay specific days by changing game files/etc?
Yes, once you finish the game you'll open a chapter select feature.
I don't really understand some of what the game was trying to say, but I enjoyed it. There doesn't seem like there's anything here that should have had it banned from Steam, I've seen more extreme stuff on there anyway. It is worth a play, and I'd recommend it for those who want something to think about rahter than just jump-scares in their horror.
What a stirring experience reminicent of classic Italian film. This game is brilliant. Well done!!!! We need more mature games like this for grown-ups.
test: https://www.horses.wtf/
I bought this over on Humble but decided to add to this interesting comment section.
Perhaps the scariest thing about this game is that when you take away the grotesque metaphors and individual story, turn off the game and go outside, there are many people who dehumanise others. People who look at the horrors of dehumanisation and find it acceptable or even desirable.
Haha yes. I'm looking at A24 in the corner of the room scratching and sniffing and drooling. Seems you did what they couldn't.
What a profound little experience! I assume the warzone in this comments section (and across the internet) relates to that profundity. And pretention was always good. Plus, a polarizing piece is usually one we never forget. If you wanted to make the waves unforgettable, you've done it. Or should I say: unforgettable hay. I'm grinning right now after having played this. I'll play it again in due time.
It'll be disappointing to open my door and see people without nudity and a horse mask. Bummer. Maybe I'll do it for them.
Just took the time to play, and finish this one. Despite not being perfect it's quite a powerful one. Congrats.
I hope you get at least your investments back and better yet, enough to grace us with another different game. :)
Question though, what's the song being hummed, and sang (at the end) ? Wondering the meaning behind it, if any.
Cheers, and never mind the edgelords pissing on a vidseogame project without any education on how it's made.
ITALIANO: Una storia che mi è rimasta dentro, anche con molti interrogativi. Sono rimasto piacevolmente sorpreso di come mi abbia catturato. Consiglio di comprare il videogioco e di viverlo. Un ottimo lavoro.
ENGLISH: A story that has stayed with me, even with many questions. I was surprised by how much it captivated me. I recommend buying the video game and experiencing it. Excellent work.
Can I get a refund for this?
It would be a pleasure, just email us at info at santaragione dot com with the email address you used to purchase the game and we'll issue a refund.
thank you. I do see great potential in you and your team. I just think this was a miss. I do honestly hate being so negative, and it isn’t your fault that the game was hyped because of the bans of course. I really wanted to like this game. I think you and everyone working on the game is talented and can be amazing in the industry. I just don’t think this showcased the real potential of your studio is all. Basically I see more in the team and I want that to be shown. This wasn’t for me and I can admit that easily. Thank you for your work and I do really hope you continue to make fun art you love, even if grumpy gus folks like me can’t enjoy it. Also to clarify what’s the email? Info@santaragione.com?
Yes, that's the correct email.
hearing that this game cost over $100k to make is… surprising. This game has some low effort graphics, like pretty damn bad. Clipping, choppt animation, the sound design is medicore, the story is half baked, you never find out anything remotely interesting about the “horses”, how they each got there, how the farmer feels about each one, how each are treated individually, how fido got there, etc. The gameplay can hardly even be called gameplay. All you do is run, grab something, click something, are forced to bring whatever you grabbed back to it’s og location, and then the day ends. The “controversial” parts? I’ve seen worse on games that are on steam. This game only has a reputation because steam wouldn’t let it be on their store page. Why do I think it was banned from steam? Personally, and yes i’m being harsh, but i think it was a quality issue. There’s basically nothing to this game. The entire point seems to be “shock value rape slave evil farmer” and nothing else. “Oh but it has a point it’s trying to make!” Does it? Or is that a convenient way for a developer to excuse making horror porn? Regardless, it’s a slop fest of a game. Boring. Not fun to look at (graphically speaking. The “horror” is… incredibly boring) it’s just not worth the time or money. There are far better games to play for even less than $5. Play those instead. Devs are slowly losing grip on the fact that just because your game has shock value and a point, doesn’t mean it can’t be an actual game and have engaging mechanics. This would have done so well with choices and a variety of outcomes. But it’s just a short linear hallway of a game. 1/10. Practically nothing. $100k. That’s insane. This does not look like $100k of effort. It looks like a game made for free by one person who doesn’t get how to make games. Nobody would be mentioning this game if it weren’t banned. It’d be a game we mocked.
Agree
It's okay to be triggered.
I know, right 🤣
i’m not “triggered” it’s just a bad game
what the actual fuck bro
is there a way to play it uncensored ?
non riesco a farlo girare appena mi muovo in game il gioco crasha
Scusa per il problema! Puoi scriverci a info at santaragione . com?
After finishing the game, I've a question: does this game have only one ending? I did my best to be the most despicable human being possible, snitching and abusing horses, supporting the farmer and his crew of perverts, etc. in hopes of getting some sort of comeuppance, and it was a bit weird to get an ending that could've been considered "good". I wonder if it got bugged out for me, or there's only one ending indeed.
Overall, I disagree with Steam ruling. It's not a shock value game, it tackles a huge real life issue through surrealism, and has artistic worth. Tamer and more abstract than Bober Bros who tackle similar themes in a much more direct manner, and yet their games are published.
Probably because tehy bring more moneh.Anyhow, this was an interesting experience, I fairly enjoyed it. A shame it is too linear, but I know how hard it is to make a non-linear game especially with a small team.PS: RIP, Fido, your story was the most tragic one of all.
Thank you for trying. I was curious if the choices affect anything beyond the next line of dialogue, but did not want to spend 3 hours on replaying it and assumed that the Level Select function would not be available if it did (e.g. not helping Linda with the flowers would lead to her not introducing the other "horse").
And yes, making an even small immersive sim game would require much more time and funds or very specific development experience.
I am very grateful that you wrote this comment because I also tried to find an alternative ending by trying to support the farmer and exploiting the horses, but in the end I always came to the same conclusion... I thought it was my fault, so it reassures me to see other players in the same situation...
Anyway, I think it would have been really nice if there had been another ending and that the choices you make in the game actually changed your destiny.
got nightmare after this
but the thing is - I was scared that there is no impact on the choice in the game
I mean this rly costs 50000$ to make or was it a lie?
It's a lie, it actually cost $100k. It's incredibly easy to spend money when you pay people to work.
If this game cost 100K to make, I wonder where it went to, because this game is absolute garbage from start to finish it every way.
Maybe a bug, but: [big spoiler ahead]
not a bug - the game just have almost 0 variety
If you have issues with a game - write a review instead of spamming into a bug report.
It's definitely a bug, thank you for reporting! Will fix in next update.
While I am thankful that you did not forget to update GOG it's a bit disappointing that you still unpublish older builds which makes a rollback in Galaxy impossible (hence GOG asks devs to NOT unpublish older builds).
Thank you for the reminder, we'll keep it in mind for the next update, sorry for the issue!
I was so happy when I read this but unfortunately you did it again with the actual update on GOG today. Old build is gone for everybody - rollback not working because of this.
Can you check now which versions you can download?
Hey, you rock!
Now I can download 1.0.16497 and 1.0.16498.
Thank you! :)
Added even older versions to keep track of all since release.
Qui dopo il gameplay di Karim, e qui durante l'intervista ad Andrea Lucco Borlera sul canale di Abicocca. Sono rimasta particolarmente impressionata dal gioco rivedendo con estremo piacere una critica ad un certo regime che abbiamo conosciuto bene, un'atmosfera che all'estero spero (ma dubito, nonostante il vostro ottimo lavoro) abbiano colto. Ho deciso di acquistare il gioco nonostante la scarsa rigiocabilità perché a volte la questione non è trovare intrattenimento per sé, ma supportare chi ha un'idea e si trova a dover combattere con la censura. Complimenti di cuore per quello che avete creato.
Grazie davvero!!!
Invert Y-axis still not working while riding, hmm, horses. Will this be fixed?
Next update!
Two months later...
Ok, so you're not fixing it.
Hello, there's an issue with multi screen
For some reason the game started on my secondary monitor, and I had no ability to move it to the primary one. I launched it again after disabling the second monitor, it launched on the primary but after that I couldn't be able to keep the secondary monitor back on after enabling it again (it would stop working after any action in game).
Very sorry for the issue and thank you for reporting. We'll be invetsigating! Meanwhile, have you tried deleteing the app's playerprefs?
To delete them, open regedit by pressing the Windows key and typing 'regedit', then pressing ENTER. Browse to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Unity\UnityEditor\SantaRagione\HORSES
(you will have to start the game from the beginning!)
I'm sorry I didn't reply earlier, I ended managing to make it work on its own (and now it "remembers" the correct screen lol)
What a fascinating game!
Thank you, and have a merry xmas!
No problem! Thank you for letting me know!
It's rare that anyone covers topics like these in such symbolism yet a way that is actually entertaining to play and not just constricting the player all the time. You can walk around and see the absurdity of everything yourself. Ride some horses. Weird, but actually interesting.
I also tipped you $10 to support you through losing Steam and Epic Games platforms. I know it's not much, but I want to show my appreciation for you and the person behind the game.
Thank you so much!!!
Supporting fellow italian devs :) You deserve all the recognition for this bold project!
Thank you!!!
It's a solid walking sim narrative for $5. My main complaint is the lack of animations.
An extremely affecting narrative adventure game. I loved the confidence in its style and, like any good horror experience, it left me with something to think about.
My thoughts: https://kdgreenparty.substack.com/p/horses
Interesting game i ever play. And also it make make my skin crawl when i see what kind of horse the farmer been keeping for
Any chance of an uncensored patch or anything like that?
Recommended.
This is probably the most disturbing and unnerving horror game I have ever played. Not suitable for the faint of heart.
There are infinitely more disturbing interesting and fun games out there. This game is complete garbage.
How far gone am I that I find this hot?
To each their kink.
HORSES is a game well worth your time. As an artist who dabbles in taboo (sexual) themes, I believe media with similar themes have their artistic and commentary value, and deserve to be accessible and be considered art. Playing this game was a breath of fresh air for me. It explores and criticises power structures like patriarchy, fascism and religion. It's also why I feel this game is important. In terms of story and gameplay, HORSES kept me on the edge of my seat all the way to the end. I really enjoyed it!
The censorship surrounding HORSES breaks my heart, especially when games with more graphic violence & sexual content exist. Santa Ragione doesn't deserve this. Even if you end up not liking HORSES, $5 goes a long way to support the devs and creative freedom as a whole.
I regret buying this slop fest of a game. Not worth anyones time. Low effort lazy half baked unoriginal trashy boring slop.
It's quite a decent game, on the arthouse side, a grotesque psychosexual depiction of fascism which wants to be Saló but ends up a bit washed in my opinion. I appreciate the concept either way and the fact that some stores decided to shit themselves by censoring it only contributes to the point (stores that have a bajillion hentai games btw, huh, one can only wonder what may be the real reason why they chose this one game in particular...). Anyway, I may be giving it extra credit because of the discussion it started, but I think that's only fair.
I like this game and I love to support this small company. Now I only need to pass day 13 race, I really suck at moving that damn horse around!
btw I do see now why a little girl was designed initially, I would like to see how innoence is planted. I would like to see that tbh but we all know the censor system is going to be sensative. But seeing a young lady do makes me feel happy because she is very cute.
Some bugs I encounted, not sure if fixed: on day 10 has trouble trigger certain interaction with an unusual npc, and caused the speed really slow.on day 14 when I try to find the way out I could go out from a certain metal-related place and got soft lock by sinking myself in the sea. Later the exit space was vanished.
Stay weird, Santa Ragione 💙
I'm not sure how to receive the demo?
I love this game but i'm stuck, with a code to insert, any solution please?
Yes i saw the dvd, the doll is connect but i don't understand.
There is a diagram on the door of the doll's cupboard and the items from the video should be referenced with the numbers there.
If it does not help, 8692.
thx
to be honest this is type of a game which is so cluncky that its absolutely unenjoyable to play on the level of actual gameplay