I always found it interesting just how rarely horse games let you play as the actual horse. A handful of browser titles, like Wild Horse’s Valley, do their best to fill this niche but, for the most part, the equine gaming experience remains focused on their human counterparts. Enter newcomers Indie Forge Studios, a Moldova-based team gearing up for the release of their first game: an ambitious open-world adventure focused on the epic quest of a lone wild horse, facing many dangers to be reunited with his lost herd.
If the premises sound suspiciously familiar to a certain staple of Horse Girl movie culture, I suggest you fasten your seatbelts and prepare for the ride. Loyal readers of The Bridle Paths, let me introduce you to Storm Horse Simulator.
A SPIRIT BY ANY OTHER NAME
It may sound incredible, but Storm Horse Simulator can boast an actual trailer. The voiceover regales us with a tale of lost freedom and the power of family bonds. We learn that our herd has been scattered across the land, and that it will be up to us to grow into the leader that can bring them all back home. Through our journey, we will also learn the ways of the humans—some helpful, others decidedly less so. It’s pretty much an open and shut case as to what IP the game is referencing, until the proverbial nail in the coffin drops towards the end:
“Our herd is in danger, Spirit.”
And there you have it, folks. As if combining the looks and aesthetic of Lucky’s Big Adventure and the setup of Spirit: Forever Free wasn’t enough, the official website drops the ruse entirely. Here, the game is openly advertised under the title of Spirit Horse Simulator, featuring the unmistakable design of the Stallion of the Cimarron we all know and love. Interestingly, Indie Forge’s Instagram account refers to the game exclusively as ‘Spirit’, making no mention of the name change (which, according to the Discord group, took place on September 2).
Both images were featured at some point as the Steam cover for the game. Can you spot the differences?
Storm Horse Simulator © Indie Forge Studios
Between the AI-generated art, anonymous company and obvious rip-off, we aren’t off to a good start. So much so, in fact, that this 2023 article on The Mane Quest immediately came to mind. For this reason—and to keep with the, well, spirit that drives people like me and Alice Ruppert up a wall regarding horse games—let’s take a good look at Storm Horse Simulator, starting with the gameplay trailer.
SOUND THE (WARNING) BUGLE
Upon pressing Play, we are unceremoniously dropped in a lush field, which soon turns out to be a fenced area—despite the game claiming that we are “born free”. It’s here that we meet our protagonists. A leggy colt with a distinctive buckskin coat (but no dorsal stripe) and a black stallion named Private Hart. From here, we have to complete a series of tasks that serve as our tutorial. Some are relatively straightforward, like finding food and water; others made me stare at the screen in disbelief. How about knocking down a (completely stationary) wolf with a single rear? Or sneaking around a wild horse, with the tutorial scrolls urging us to “attempt capture”?
What terrible things have you seen, tiny copy-cat?
Storm Horse Simulator © Indie Forge Studios
While the models and animations themselves are far from the worst I’ve ever seen, something is just slightly… off. Private Hart looks noticeably different from the adult model shown in the teaser. His coat is shiny, rather than matte, and his conformation feels much more realistic. Now compare him with the grey horse we’re tasked to retrieve, and draw your conclusions.
CRACKS IN THE ROAD
But wait, there’s more! Taking a stroll through Indie Forge’s Instagram page will reveal more troubling sights. Aside from dabbling in a bit of Star Stable-esque runic mystery, or recreating the iconic railway scene a little too closely, the worst offender is undoubtedly the camp scene. Surrounded by copy-paste mannequins, we must rescue an old man tied to a pole. This will allow him to climb on our back and shoot arrows at the enemies, before fleeing into the night. His name? Little Crack.
And the worst part? Digging through the Steam page, you will find these screenshots, which begs the question: what exactly is the plan here?
“Look at how they massacred my boys!”
Storm Horse Simulator © Indie Forge Studios
PLAYING WITH FIRE
I have several reasons to be concerned about all of this. Aside from with the obvious copyright infringement, the game just doesn’t look ready. The trailer, which dropped on YouTube at the end of July, is titled ‘Early Access Sneak Peek’. This would be fine, in theory, except that Early Access is never mentioned anywhere on Indie Forge’s official pages. However, the only available Dev Log tells a different story. Scroll down far enough, and you will discover that the team is focusing on “preparing an early build” and that “about 60% of the game is complete”. A troubling statement, given that the official Steam page received no further updates since then.
The game’s art style is a mix of realism and stylization, much like the original Spirit.
Storm Horse Simulator © Indie Forge Studios
The way I see it, the team likely intended to make bank on the looks and aesthetics of the Spirit brand from the beginning, only to backtrack as the game garnered enough interest to (possibly) draw the ires of DreamWorks. Just think of the different key arts I showed you earlier. Why would Spirit suddenly grow four white socks and turn into a draft breed (or turn from buckskin to chestnut, for that matter!), if not to add plausible deniability? However, whether this decision came from a bigger conglomerate, like Simon Carless states in this article, I can’t say.
As for me, I reserve to amend my judgement upon playing the official Demo coming out next week.
Storm Horse Simulator is set to release on Steam this November, and on the PlayStation store in 2026. The official website also mentions ports on the Xbox and Nintendo consoles, but as of October 8, 2025 all links trace back to the Steam storefront, and are therefore unconfirmed.
