Star Stable December Blog: A Year In Review 2023

NEW PLAYER AVATAR

A new year, a new me – the updated player avatar arrived in Jorvik this summer! It’s one of the biggest projects we’ve ever tackled, and we’re incredibly proud of our team and their accomplishments. Although it’s just a stepping stone, we significantly increased the diversity of what our previous player avatar offered (even more than we initially thought we could for a first iteration) and built the groundwork for additional opportunities ahead!

Releasing the updated avatar has now unlocked new possibilities for us, including new clothing, hair, and make-up styles that will continue to come your way. Additional advancements will require time for development and implementation. This is due to limitations within the current capacity to handle memory in relation to all player devices and our game's performance. So, even though we are eagerly anticipating the introduction of body sliders and additional facial offerings, we probably won’t see them released in 2024.That doesn’t mean we are not working on it, but a huge rendering overhaul is needed and it will likely take another six months before we can start utilizing it. We will, however, continue to improve what we have already released, including working on existing avatar animations in the game for both body and face.

ANDROID

Expanding our accessibility in 2023 meant finally releasing Star Stable Online on Android devices! With so many devices under the Android umbrella, this was much trickier than releasing on iOS, and it meant we had to make some tough decisions regarding which devices we would and would not support. Currently we are supporting 16,000 different devices out of 23,000 possible. Overall, the project has been a big success, and more players than ever can visit Jorvik!

CHEAT & SUSPECTED CHEATING

Without going into specifics here, we also focused on cheat prevention in the game. These detection and prevention systems helped us get a step ahead of those using third-party tools to gain advantages or interrupt the experience of other players. Some of you may have seen the ‘Suspected of Cheating’ screen yourselves (despite not cheating), which we knew might be the case in certain situations. We made the decision to go in strong with these solutions and then dial them back in places where they weren’t working as intended, instead of risking that they wouldn’t be strong enough to have an impact on the core problem.

HORSE RELEASES & PROGRESSION

It was an exciting year to be an equestrian! With the introduction of our horse progression changes, riders all over Jorvik have additional ways of leveling their horse, with new and improved unlocks along the way as your bond with your horses grows stronger.

Long-awaited abilities to call your horse and have your horse follow you were included in this update, along with a fresh restart of our HUD UI. There is far more to do in the UI department, including updating the visuals to feel more organic to Jorvik.trot

In addition to the Horse Progression and new Avatar, we also did a big overhaul of the animation system. This allowed features like horse-bunny-jumping, jump from trot, and better character positioning on your horse. And we’re just getting started! 

Throughout the year, we definitely released some of our coolest horses to date! Along with an assortment of stunning coat variations, we saw the Morgan and magical crystal horses – Calder and Ephyra – arrive in the early months, leading us to the release of the updated Lippizaner during the Equestrian Festival! Our magical rainbow horses, Prisma and Tenebri, arrived in June and were designed by members of our community! Thanks to hundreds of submissions from our talented players, this project was made all the more fun as we got to browse your creative designs. This experience was so enjoyable that we hope to hold a similar contest for more magical horses next year!

Moving through the year, we also released the insanely adorable Dartmoor Pony just in time for our Birthday celebrations, and the Mustang stormed its way onto the scene to become one of our most popular horses ever in Jorvik! Halloween brought us our Sive and Pi horses, Audra and Alvirah, who enchanted us all with their magic, and the Dutch Warmblood dropped in doing its extended trot in November.

Finally, in December, Lebkuchen and Vetle blew into the Winter Village, highlighting the warmth of holiday cookies and the frozen ice outside our windows. On the horizon for January is the horse with all the chonk – the Ardennes!

Next year, we have some player-requested breeds in the works, including a breed that the team and the community have been itching for a chance to revisit, and we’re aiming to make this version better than ever before! 

WESTERN & HOLLOW WOODS 

I especially want to highlight two unique releases this year, Camp Western and Hollow Woods! We experimented with different forms of gameplay to create entertaining things to do over more extended periods of time. And we were super thrilled to see so many of you enjoying the western theme, even if the wolves got a bit annoying. Also, the amount of beautiful pictures that you have created from Hollow Woods is insane! We have learned a lot from these two releases and these learnings will be the foundation we stand on for 2024. 

Between these new experiments and our fantastic festivals, we also snuck in some powerful primary quests this year – Storm Over Devil’s Gap and Fripp’s Agents! Our beloved Anne has her companion and full powers back, just in time to fight the epic storm threatening the island. The Chaos Vortex is looming overhead, and the fourth Dark Rider will be making her appearance very soon…

RETROFIT & WARDROBE SPACE

We had to pause the retrofit due to the Player Avatar, but we have still managed to make a strong comeback. Since summer, we have made sure that the Andalusian, Paso Fino, Jorvik Wild Horse, American Paint, Shire, Arabian, and the Icelandic can wear all tack. We have also taken a decision to release two saddles and saddle pads for the horses that are not retrofitted so you can all enjoy the new tack.

After the summer we also started to revamp the storage and wardrobe features. The feature is now done from a code perspective, and we are currently investigating how we can give you more space, as well as exploring the best solutions regarding design and UI. In parallel to this, we are investigating how we can add more slots in your horse and character sheet in order to give you more customization options. Options as in blankets and ear bonnets for your horse, along with things like being able to wear glasses and earrings at the same time. We aim for all of this to be released during 2024. 

MOBILE CONTROLS, UKRAINE DB SPLIT, & IN-GAME SURVEY TOOL

Three releases that were specifically requested by players! First out was the option to switch how you control and steer your horse on mobile. The default is the joystick control, and you can choose to switch and use arrows instead. Currently arrows are used by most players, but not by much, so it’s almost a 50/50 split between what you prefer. 

Second, we managed to create a new region for our Ukrainian players without them losing any account or player data. 

And since we truly believe in creating this game together with you, we are thrilled that we managed to release and start using a new tool for in-game surveys. So far, we have done surveys about championships, events, and the new avatar. This tool will allow us to understand how many different types of players we have, and also what this group of players wants and needs in order to create a magical experience in Jorvik.

SO, WHAT’S NEXT?

We will continue to make sure that all horses can wear all tack, and we will continue to fight bugs by setting aside dedicated time for bug slaying, as well as addressing bugs within normal production. We have put a lot of focus on this during the year, and even if the full results are not there yet, you will see a difference next year. My favorite bug this year was the player avatar standing on horses, not sure it was a bug, maybe it’s actually a feature 😇 Which bug was your favorite? 

During 2023, we had you test lunging and dressage. Most of you enjoyed it and had really good feedback for us. These two features are now made into systems and will be brought back sometime during 2024. 

In addition to the subtle hints provided in the text above, I would like to mention that 2024 is the year we plan to introduce more collaborative activities and provide you with additional means of self-expression, both within the stable and on horseback!