gonna reshare my big HORSES interview that not enough people read since the game won the Nuovo Award at the IGF! vgbees.com/in-search-of...
To celebrate HORSES’ Nuovo Award win, we’ve launched a new Italian Horror Trilogy bundle featuring 2024 IGF Excellence in Narrative winner Mediterranea Inferno and 2022 IGF Grand Prize Honorable Mention Saturnalia, all for $15.99 for a limited time!
www.gog.com/en/game/ital...
Thank you so much to Santa Ragione and especially to Andrea for trusting me with the English script. And thank you to the Italian translation team at We Are Muesli for helping me navigate some of its unique, fascinating challenges. Thank you to the IGF Jury for seeing the beauty in the grotesque
Dajeeeeeee
HORSES won the IGF Nuovo Award. We’re profoundly grateful. To us, this recognition also speaks to a broader idea: that no gatekeeper should decide which games deserve to exist or what counts as art. Thank you to everyone who supported HORSES and helped carry it this far. PS: What a wonderful team!
Well, well, well. How the turn-stable...
Titanium Court by @apthomson.bsky.social has won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 2026 IGF Awards.
It also won Excellence in Design, and Thomson was part of the team that won the Grand Prize in 2025 for Consume Me
Other winners include Baby Steps, HORSES, and Perfect Tides: Station to Station
Winner of the Nuovo Award – HORSES | Developer – Andrea Lucco Borlera | Publisher – Santa Ragione #IGF2026
If you are in Vancouver this Friday... luma.com/zjgatp6i
Prepping this week's episode on autobiographical games, and it really is criminal that Despelote hasn't reached more people. Not just because it's important. But because it's ridiculously fun and moving.
HORSES was nominated for the Grand Prize and Nuovo Award at the 2026 Independent Games Festival! What a great opportunity to give shoutouts to the incredible talent that made this production possible. Check out the following posts to find out who they are, and what else they worked on! Thread:
There are many more wonderful people that worked on HORSES! Find out more about the team and their work on www.mobygames.com/game/251019/..., currently the only hyperlinked source for game credits!
That black screen though…out of place
Finally, the Seumas McNally Grand Prize nominees are:
Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, & Bennett Foddy's Baby Steps
Analgesic Productions's Angeline Era
YACHT, Telefantasy Studios, Noble Robot's Blippo+
Santa Ragione's HORSES
AP Thompson's Titanium Court
Three Bees' Perfect Tides: Station to Station
The first group of Nuovo Award nominees are:
@gcuzzillo.bsky.social, @maxiboch.bsky.social, & @foddy.net's Baby Steps
YACHT, @telefantasytv.bsky.social, & @noblerobot.bsky.social's Blippo+
@santaragione.com's HORSES
@threemoreyears.bsky.social's Mini Mini Golf Golf
The following games have been chosen for Honorable Mentions for Excellence in Narrative:
YACHT, @telefantasytv.bsky.social, & @noblerobot.bsky.social's Blippo+
@santaragione.com's HORSES
@eviltrout.com's The Roottrees Are Dead
@alamodegames.bsky.social's Sorry We’re Closed
My game of the year for Italian communist newspaper Il Manifesto is Andrea Lucco Borlera and @santaragione.com's Horses. I also think that this kind of "emersive videogames" can be important in a revolutionary perspective and I hope to explore this topic further in the future.
The games industry brings in 300 billion dollars a year. The guy who made DOOM gets his projects canceled, the guy who made Katamari Damacy is broke, everyone in your feed is begging for a job and there are 50 new games coming out on Steam every day all going towards buying Gabe Newell's next yacht
Subscribe today and get immediate access to my essay on Horses, but also get subscriber exclusives like my current posts on Christmas games: www.patreon.com/posts/christ... and older articles like my solution for A Bard's Tale! expzine.com/2025/02/20/h...
Code 09BAA for 90% off the first month!
It's my birthday! The ONLY thing I want is more subscribers to the exp. Patreon! It's just $1/month for consistent, quality video game criticism, but my gift to you TODAY ONLY (til 11:59pm EST) is 90% off the first month with the code 09BAA.
That's like 10¢! But if you can't sub, please share!
At the very edge of gaming's most commercially-charged evening, we bring you @midfalutin.bsky.social's interview with the embattled developers of Horses, a game conceived and executed as a corrective to the very nature of modern gaming.
vgbees.com/in-search-of...
I was disappointed to see the store page description put his name front and center while not mentioning any of the creators of the original games. This industry’s obsession with auteurs is not healthy.
That said, I hope the game will get a more nuanced label than “new Jon Blow game”. While the creative vision is his, he didn’t make any of the original games and there are a lot of talented people at Thekla who also deserve credit.
Mirror Isles:
alan.draknek.org/games/puzzle...
Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes:
alan.draknek.org/games/puzzle...
Promesst:
silverspaceship.com/promesst/
Promesst 2:
silverspaceship.com/promesst2/
Heroes of Sokoban:
sites.math.washington.edu/~ostroff/puz...
Heroes of Sokoban II:
sites.math.washington.edu/~ostroff/puz...
Heroes of Sokoban III:
sites.math.washington.edu/~ostroff/puz...
So, “Order of the Sinking Star” by Thekla was just announced, which takes several small free games (two of which are mine) and gives them a major graphical upgrade and mashes up their rulesets. I haven’t been very involved but it’s a great concept and looks cool.
Has the discourse moved on yet? I hope not, because this is the best thing I've written this year. For supporters, I go deep on a comparison you will have heard a few times: On Horses, Salò, and Pasolini's "indigestible art." expzine.com/2025/12/09/h...
Patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/horses...
