Star Stable January Blog - Q&A with CEO Johan

Is Johan part of the original SSO team?

I did not do hands-on work on the original SSO that shipped in 2011, but I spent a lot of time on the Star Academy (Spotlights) and Star Stable Season Riders games. For those eight games I did the writing, project management, and the majority of the (digital) paper design, so many of the characters and locations that I was part of creating are in SSO.  

What is your favourite horse?

In Star Stable Online it tends to be either one of the latest Halloween horses we’ve released (I think that we consistently outdo ourselves in what we bring to these, but if pressed I will vote Nemain) or anything big and bulky. The Friesian from last year is a recent favourite!

Would you ever revisit and revamp Starshine Legacy?

For our tenth anniversary we did a remaster of the Starshine Legacy games and made them available to play directly on our website (you can find them here https://www.starstable.com/se/starshine-legacy ). There are still many locations that I love in these games that haven’t made it into SSO and that I would love to see there when the time is right!    

Do you love rock? Is Johan a metalhead?

I wouldn’t describe myself as a metalhead, but I do love my rock, preferably of the heavier kind! I grew up with bands like Kiss, W.A.S.P., Twisted Sister, and Iron Maiden. Actually I’ve got tickets to see Iron Maiden later this year, something I’m very much looking forward to - it has been over 20 years since I last saw them live!

What does a day in your CEO life look like?

As CEO I don’t have one typical day, but my days vary a lot, which I find fun and exciting! I tend to wake up quite early and start the day by checking out what our players were busy doing yesterday by consulting various fancy graphs and dashboards as I have my first coffee of the day. If it is really early (before we have the data from yesterday) I try to get some hands-on time with SSO. I then respond to emails in my inbox that need immediate attention (I like to keep it clean, as opposed to my desk which is more or less covered in sticky notes). 

I spend a lot of time in meetings and checking in with the people that I work most closely with. This includes for instance Stacy, our Game Director, Anton, our Analytics Director, Gonzalo, our Chief Marketing Officer (you might know him as Gon, star of the Criollo video we recently posted), and Ismael, our Technical Director. They share what they are working on and how our many parallel projects are progressing. We discuss changes we want to make, things we would like to investigate and explore and what opportunities we have for the future.

My background is as a writer, game designer and world builder (and I’ve spent a lot of time writing stories in Jorvik), so I love attending the meetings where we discuss ideas for the future development of the world, its characters, locations, and stories! Probably much more so than most CEOs. But it is stuff that I really care about and enjoy, so I wouldn’t be able to keep away from it even if I tried. Really hard.

Then I naturally have to do a bunch of the normal CEO-y stuff. Like approving invoices. (“YAAAAWNIING”).

Any hints for the future?

We have many plans for the future that I would like to tell you about, but I will hold back on that so that we can share what is coming when the time is right and we know that we can deliver! But I can tell one thing! We are continuing to deliver lots of improvements to our core technology, the engine which the game runs on. This is something that will become apparent to you in the shape of performance improvements, better game stability, and new features! It will also allow us to keep delivering a great experience to you for many, many, many, many years to come!

What is your favorite character? Do you prefer Fripp, Darko, or Ydris?

These are two tricky questions! Star Stable Online is packed with cool, fun, crazy, lovable, and simply weird characters! It has always been a point of pride for me that we push the boundaries when it comes to what can be fitted into our world. If forced to choose just one it would probably be Galloper Thompsson, Sabine or Pi. If I’d only get to choose between Fripp, Darko, or Ydris, the choice is simple: Fripp. I love that little not-a-squirrel.     

When are we getting more story quests? 

Last year we ran into some unexpected challenges when the story quest we were working on didn’t turn out the way we wanted. So we took a break, focused on delivering the Winter Festival and the amazing content that you’ll get to see in February that continues to build on something we released last year. Now we have gone back and are working on what should come next in the story quests - they mean a lot to us and we know that they mean a lot to you! We promise to keep you updated!

What is your go-to snack when playing SSO?

Given that I in recent years have played mostly on mobile I avoid snacking, because it makes my fingers sticky and greasy, which is not great if you want to be able to handle your horse in races! But if I’m not playing SSO I love olives, crispy corn, and peanut flips!  

When are you expanding the map?

Funny that you should ask this … During the last few years we have focused on populating the parts of the map that you already have access to. In 2023 we gave you Hollow Woods and last year we shipped Silverglade Equestrian Centre. While we will continue to improve the experiences across the currently accessible parts of Jorvik, we have also started to investigate if it is indeed time to expand the map. If everything goes as planned you might get to hear more about this later in the year!