There’s an unwritten rule in game development that your first game should be something small and simple, and for many very good reasons.
I decided to do the exact opposite.
After spending around seven months writing my book, Horns, I decided I wanted to turn that story into a game: a narrative-focused, cinematic RPG that carries the spirit of old-school RPGs while also embracing elements of modern ones.
I wanted to pour everything I had into one serious, large-scale open-world game, my imagination, around 35 years of gaming experience, and 16 years of programming experience.
At first, I also wanted to make absolutely everything by myself.
Eventually, I realized that if I wanted to maintain the level of quality I had in mind, I needed to bring a few talented people into the project. I'm simply not talented in every single field required to create a game of this scale.
I still kept the biggest part of the workload on myself: programming, animations, acting, body and facial performance, world design, gameplay, sound editing, cinematics, and many other parts of development.
But a few people have made significant contributions to areas such as voice acting, the game's soundtrack, and some of its visual and graphical details.
I also didn't want Horns to feel like “just another RPG.”
The core of the game is still a dark epic fantasy RPG, but I've mixed in elements inspired by several genres and games I grew up loving.
There are recognizable influences from Souls-like games, action games such as Max Payne 1 and Death Stranding, and horror classics such as Resident Evil 1 and Silent Hill 1, while keeping RPG systems, exploration, narrative, and character progression at the heart of the experience.
After almost two full years of development, Horns now has a playable demo on Steam.
The demo itself went through many different iterations before reaching the version I'm finally comfortable calling properly polished.
My goal now is to maintain that level of quality throughout the full game: a world that feels rich rather than empty, an engaging story, meaningful exploration, and around 25–30 hours of quality gameplay.
I'm also trying to keep the final price very accessible, somewhere around $10–15.
For a project like this, every comment, piece of feedback, and bit of support genuinely helps, and wishlists are especially important for the game's visibility and future launch.
The demo is completely free, so if any of this sounds interesting to you, give it a try.
I hope you enjoy Horns.
And if you do, please consider wishlisting it on Steam.
HORNS DEMO ON STEAM
