Astride: Bad launch, good response

Astride, the upcoming horse game from Raidho launched its Early Access, and it went less than stellar. Since then, Astride has made a response. In this video I will go through it and give my thoughts on the situation.
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[@YTRattle]

I did back this game's kickstarter and I've been an adament supporter for this game. So, if you feel I missed something or I did not approach this correctly, please let me know! I'm always willing to listen! ♥

[@smooothoperatorrrr]

I was waiting for your response to this game out of all the others I've seen, you're a really fair person who gives good criticism and knows what they're talking about . Love your videos and you deserve so many more subs x 🫶🏻

[@YTRattle]

@@smooothoperatorrrr FFFFIOJMFP Thank you! ♥:D

[@Hawaiianhotsauce]

HGSGDGS Rattle I can’t express how much I love you 😭 I bought patreon for Astride, and when the playtest update released, I did not expect that the Early access and playtest were going to be so similar LMFAO. I was also waiting to see what you would say, you’re outstanding! ❤️❤️

[@YTRattle]

SDHJAOHF THANK YOU!!! ♥♥

[@Emily_Bondevik_Official]

There is no such a thing as "government funding" for games💀 and yall believe such a blatant lie it's comical. Govermnent does not fund games, there are dev grants specifically for this purpose.

[@Jessie_438]

At least Astride’s devs are listening to players and are taking accountability unlike SSO. I’ve high hopes for the game and it’s still in very early stages

[@JDPr0233]

100% agree. Until they prove to us that they don't care about the players, I will support them and keep hopeful for this game

[@vadimsky]

Don't you think you're setting the bar a little too low?

[@YTRattle]

@@vadimsky Would you be kind enough to expand on what exactly is the issue you have with Astride? Asking random questions with absolutely NO backing or anything else just comes across as bitter. I'm curious why exactly you're so angry about it.

[@vadimsky]

@@YTRattle exactly where do you see bitterness or anger in my simple comment?) I think the bar must be a little bit higher, than just "listening".

[@LolbeeSFM]

Yeah, I’m not willing to ditch Astride so fast. They’ve been transparent and the devs are really nice! I’ve had good conversations with some of them. Plus, I really need a horse game that isn’t Star Stable or ETG. :’) Edit: it’s also extremely fun watching the game update, I plan to buy it sometime next week or next month simply so I can watch the game progress in basically real time

[@mistei5148]

If you’re looking for new horse games to play you should definitely check out The Ranch Of Rivershine

[@CL0UD3D.]

I wholeheartedly agree with you. SSO was and is still kinda fun from time to time but it’s filled with payments and grinding. ETG has so much potential but the micropayment’s suck and there really isn’t much to do imo

[@mellowa235]

10 month later it’s doing much better!

[@noones6109]

Im still hopeful for how this game will turn out in a year or two when they release a full title. im sad that they had such bad luck with development and the way they are tied to funding. But its nice to see that they arent being ignorant about whats going on in the community

[@YTRattle]

Exactly!

[@mistei5148]

At least they’re taking accountability... I won’t be putting any money into this “game” for quite a while though. Not until it has become an actual game, not a playtest. It bothers me seeing players trying to defend Astride by saying it’s in early access. This is not early access. This is barely a demo. But at least the game developers are acknowledging that it was released too early and are working to get it up to an early access standard.

[@MusicComet]

Same, I know that most probably don't know the steps to making a game but there at least should be gameplay. Interested to hear that they're taking accountability since I also heard that they're bashing on sso in their discord and are just very shitty towards any competition. I still wouldn't trust Astride for now since we can only trust their words and I've seen a game that said pretty things but did absolutely nothing and it ended up in a broken community that had to deal with a rugpull.

[@vadimsky]

​​@@MusicComet when somebody posted YT link to a review of a horse game I've been following for a couple of years and rooting for wholeheartedly in #other-games, Astride's mod Osara replied: "Be aware of any free games, they probably aren't made well or the workers aren't paid in any way, or they are full of advertisements and micropayments to get forward. Just saying." I mean… 🤷‍♂️ €25 made your title legit?

[@MusicComet]

@@vadimsky Jesus christ, so I guess it's not the devs doing it but they ought to have better mods. I know there's a few bad apples every once in a while but you'd figure they'd be kicked out by now unless the devs are biased or there's no way to tell them about this.

[@vadimsky]

​​@@MusicComet as if. Green Horse and Osara posted memes mocking users in #ea-feedback and sometime later had deleted those messages with a bunch of users' valid comments right after "release". There's a linked pdf in that channel, describing that incident. Green Horse is a dev, afaik. I just don't understand those kinds of people.

[@TBliebtTB]

@mistei5148 true words! 👍

[@kaypreston819]

I’m glad the devs are being so transparent but I am glad I didn’t buy the early access. It’s not a typical early access release and it’s barely a demo, it’s a horse creator and some rather… glitchy animation previews. I will back it again, just not till they have gotten a little further along.

[@atwinflower]

They were very honest with how bare bones the game is, which i really appreciate. I could decide that It's not for me, I have had enough EA experiences but I know many people love to be along for the journey and be playtesters. And I know there will be years until its a full game. But I still love to be in the discord and follow the progress!

[@darkunykorn404]

Honestly the explanation makes me even more worried about the development of this game. It confirms what I thought -- they sound inexperienced, and like they don't really know how to handle software development and management. Especially management. If a platform upgrade causes so much harm you need to restart the whole project, to the point of being left with a week's worth of game, after over a year of development, this close to a deadline for EA which, presumably, was known in advance... that's really concerning. I say that as a developer myself (not game, but software) who *has* had to update platforms, some pretty big ones. I know hindsight is 20/20, but... yeah. I wish them the best, I truly, absolutely hope it works out, but... I fear they'll just burn themselves out, at this rhythm.

[@azurih]

I felt this too. I wasn't sure what Untity DOTS was, but it definately can't be something a game needs to be completely deleted for...just to use it. That would mean all Unity games have to be deleted in order to upgrade? It's strange

[@darkunykorn404]

@@azurih It doesn't. I've worked with unity before, and the upgrade process is fairly painless. The platform itself warns you to NOT upgrade if you're not sure. The fact they did so anyway and didn't manage to salvage anything but the very basics, tells me either the code quality was awful to begin with or it was wholly incompatible, which is concerning. The way I see it, they should've delayed the upgrade to a point in time when they had at least *something* set down to sustain them, split the migration progress, or scrap the multiplayer altogether for the time being. Something's gotta give. 😕

[@azurih]

@@darkunykorn404 Thanks yea I have no clue about Untiy except what I try find out online. What you said there is what I thought too and what worries me a bit as well.

[@YTRattle]

Early Access is not something I have a lot of experience with, which is why I'm now taking the time to educate myself on the matter. There were a lot of setbacks, and they did focus a lot on the graphical aspect. I'm hopeful, but they have a lot of work ahead of them for this game to be considered worthy of the pricy tag.

[@JDPr0233]

They were honest and apologized and promised to do better. They were real about their own mistakes. If they learn from them then I am more than willing to accept the apology and even thank them for their genuine interest in bettering the game and proving it.

[@bitapetrone1220]

I get that these setbacks were out of their control in this moment, but they put themselves on the road to these dead ends. When I first read about this game my eyebrows raised the moment I saw the scope of it. This game is claiming to eventually be a lot and I am not seeing the team showcasing the knowledge to pull it off. Why start so freaking huge? I don't think they're intentionally scamming anyone, but I do think they will end up doing so in the end. Just because they believe super hard this can happen, it doesn't mean it will. This kind of game is extremely difficult to build and they wouldn't be the first developers who took on way too much for a Kickstarter. Having to restart multiple times is a frustrating but realistic aspect of design. You'll realize the thing you made is not scalable and you gotta break it down and build it again so you don't run into issues later. That being said, asking for this kind of funding when they're really just not sure how even the foundation is going to be laid out is a massive gamble that is on them 100%. I think the devs have been somewhat transparent. They share a lot, but I feel like the technical stuff is sort of swept under the rug? The misleading trailer showing the rider out in the open world was up on the Steam page right up until the early access trailer was changed a few days back. That's pretty squidgy. Also, tossing the fault on Steam for not having the EA ready is massive blame displacement. Steam obviously has a review process. They either knew about it and hoped their zealous community would believe them when they blamed Steam, or they somehow had no idea Steam has a review process which is not much better. Their order of operations seems totally wack too. The model is getting hyper-fixated on but the actual controller and gameplay is a dumpster fire. I believe I read they were hiring an additional coder now. With what funds? There's no way people didn't drop out of support after this EA release, and if they were so tight for funds they had to rush this out in a state they didn't want to release it in, it does not speak well for their budget. Quick comment on the community. I dunno what it is about some horse game communities, but I am so sick of toxic positivity. Watching a community kill the thing they love because they refuse to see how it can grow/change/improve is insufferable. The more zealous members made the launch even worse by being nasty towards people with actual critique. Most of them know nothing about how games and their systems work and that makes it even more annoying. I did appreciate the TEAM let people vent and offer feedback. TLDR: They bit off way too much. Calling this release an EA is begging to get crucified, 'cause it's a tech demo at best and does not belong on Steam for $25 as an EA. They should have started with something of a much smaller scope and built upon that so they didn't have to rush due to funding. I don't want to see another horse game fail, but I will be shocked if this one can pick itself up off the ground. I'll be watching and hoping but won't be investing until I see more.

[@seeing8spots]

I do reeeally wish they'd back off on the horse model. Frankly I was shocked when they reworked the whole model not long ago when it was clear to me the whole rest of the game needed work. I feel like in other games you often work with a janky model while you get game mechanics working and the model itself comes last or midgame. They're doing the reverse. I kinda get it though from a marketinf/patreon perspective. The horse models coat patterns etc are eye catching,visible and help draw people in. They're fun to post about and people love to interact with those types od posts. Comparatively how do you make a fun, interactive patron post about coding something mundane ya know? So I get it. But I do wanna shake them a bit and tell them to focus on the *game* not the anesthetics.

[@bitapetrone1220]

@@seeing8spots Yes! I really wish they would swap the order they're doing things in at least somewhat. Like you said, I do get that showing visuals absolutely is better for marketing, which has to be frustrating from a dev perspective too. Hopefully they end up switching focus.

[@darkunykorn404]

They forgot the actual gameplay loop, if they even know what it is at all, since there's nothing of it visible yet. When you're small with a small team, you don't plan the next Legend of Zelda (and even when you are Nintendo, you plan and make the game loop *before* you work on the models and animations; there are some very cool concepts from Nintendo out there showing them testing mechanics with just cubes and shapes instead of characters). You need to know your limits and your priorities, otherwise you'll overwhelm yourself and burn out.

[@MusicComet]

Preach my dude! I'm not surprised that people can't see the red flags, though since you need to know a little about developing games and I doubt that's common knowledge.

[@togavibes]

I am so pessimistic about... well, everything, but I just feel like they're going to run out of funding before they're able to give us what they've promised. Taking their time is great and everything, but will they really be able to fund for another year? 2 years? 5 years? And at what point will they have to restart the game AGAIN because of Unity or other systems failing because they're so old? I just don't have faith that they can do everything they (and we) want within a decent timeline.

[@mimicri326]

At this point it seems like they are selling their "talk" and their "being nice to the community" not their game. Wished it was different but it seems for some reason a decent horse game is not to be. At least for now.

[@MusicComet]

Same, people are too happy to trust them.

[@ranouma147]

They didn’t set the deadline, they had to release it this fast to continue getting funding they are simply just being honest?

[@YTRattle]

I get what you're saying. I think part of me was just so happy to see a sensible developer XD After getting booted from three horse discords, it's a nice change of pace! However, yes, Astride has a lot of ground to cover before we will be open to trusting the development again.

[@Constellasaur]

This really goes to show what being open and honest with your playbaser/community can get you. The launch was disappoointing but considering even then Astride managed to mostly dodge a community blow up in the same flavour of other horse games, they're doing something right Im hopeful the game gets better, im waiting a little bit to see where early access lands but I'm excited regardless and the level of transparency leaves me hopeful it will get there

[@randomrandomson4855]

If they’re having this many problems with a unity update it worries me

[@HannaBostic]

My main issue is the transparency. This game is essentially only 6 months old, as they started over for the second (!) time in September. The rest of the previous work went out the window. First of all, the end result is still pretty sad looking for 6 months of work. In my opinion. Second of all, most importantly, I have been keeping up with it since the beginning, I made an account on discord for it, and I never, ever read anything about them starting over even once, much less twice. I gathered something had happened when I was noticing the difference between the horses’ beautiful texture in the kickstarter trailer vs the very Equestrian The Game-looking models they have now. I actually brought it up on discord, like “what happened, the models have completely changed, it looks like they’ve gone backward in quality actually” but in a much nicer way, and any time I pose any question about literally anything I’m always met with “it’s early access” by the community. Not even mods, but others in the community. You can’t question anything on discord. Also the kickstarter states that it’s early development in-game footage. This was not true and they’ve since said that the trailer was a program animation, not gameplay. They only just now said this after the steam uproar. If there will be a downfall, their lack of transparency will 100% be the reason. I’m disappointed with how the EA release looks, but that alone won’t cause me to avoid the game. What has turned me off is how they’ve only now admitted the trailer was never in-game footage like they’d previously stated (which is blatant deception, actually? And I paid money and backed them based off of the trailer but I digress), and how they’ve only now admitted that the game looks so bad because they’ve restarted from scratch two times. You already stated in your video how they made a mistake in not telling us as soon as it happened, so I’m only repeating you, but that was a huge mistake. It’s deception and lack of transparency. It’s more than just disappointment with how it looks or people not understanding that it’s early development. I’ve been a kickstarter backer from the beginning and made an account on discord just for this project, I get notifications for every WIP and check every other post, I get kickstarter blog posts emailed to me every time, I am well aware of the state of development, and I STILL felt we were put completely in the dark when it came out that the trailer wasn’t actual gameplay and that they’d restarted this project. And I’ve read every announcement. I would’ve known these things, had they mentioned them, trust me. They did not ever mention these things. I don’t think that’s right, at all. For the sake of wanting a good horse game, I can remain objective and still wait for the finished product and play it, because I want a good horse game. But I cannot say I agree with how the developers have handled this whole project in general. They’ve lost my trust. I’ll tune in for the finished product though

[@YTRattle]

I 100% hear everything you're saying, and I agree. This was bad, there's a lot of missteps taken. I can say, they are handling it well and are taking responsibility for those missteps. But this is still a make or break moment for a lot of people. I hope they can pull it out of the fire. I so badly want to see a good horse game!

[@HannaBostic]

@@YTRattle I’m dying for a good horse game. I want some like my old PC cd-rom games lol. The “planned features” for Astride are incredible, and that’s the game I want to see, and the kind of game I myself would develop if I knew how, but I’d never kid myself into thinking I know how. The team shouldn’t kid themselves either lol. Inexperience is okay! Just don’t get in so deep that you screw over a bunch of people you made promises to 🤷🏻‍♀️ wanting certain features in an ideal game doesn’t mean you’re able to make it happen. I hope they can bounce back and exceed expectations. They truly do need to go above and beyond now to redeem the game.

[@Wolfen__]

FINALLY a content creator who is not blunt on just saying its not worth it. I fully understand that yes, the launch was bad, but there were many notes saying it is pre-ALPHA. Not beta, but alpha. And i understand that some people will want a refund and/or changed their mind. But again, their hand was forced to publish it cuz of gov. funding and other reasons Rattle talked about. This is also their first game, and comparing them to people, who made a game on their own, is not fair what so ever. Im not gonna give up on the game, i truly want a good horse game to appear in the market (something that can finally dethrone SSO from their high horse), and they are quite transparent with their progress, so i have my hopes up and ill stay optimistic.

[@LadyMekona]

I was really shocked of the game's state when it dropped (only watched other people's videos of it) because it DOES NOT worth the 25 euros right now, and the showcases were REALLY misleading on Steam. Although I got really happy when they posted their answers and explanations (FINALLY a horse game dev team that isn't trying to find excuses and took full responsibility). Me personally cannot afford a simple horse customization game at this prize but I will definitely keep an eye out for it! I wish them good luck and I hope they can make their dream come true with their project! 💖

[@YTRattle]

I was so happy with their response! So many horse games fail at doing this!

[@jihys5899]

I wasnt a big fan of what I saw from this game from the beginning and now im even more concerned. To me there was a lot of showing off with graphics that i personally find unpolished and not much in terms of what the actual gameplay is supposed to be. I had a feeling that the devs dont really know yet what the gameplay is supposed to be and thats not a good start. I might be wrong as I havent been following too closely because of those concerns. However this didnt make me any more hopeful about it. I really hope im wrong so that people who supported the project will get their moneys worth and we get another nice horse game. Im also not sold on the idea of "communication is key". It is nice that they took the responsibility but i think in order to fix this bad launch we need to see improvement. not just be promised.

[@seeing8spots]

Honestly havinf followed their patreon and sicord for a few months now. This is kinda what i expected of thr launch. While they could have been clearer, they did explicitly state multiplr times how bare bones it was going to be. I dont think they were trying to hide it; they just werent maybe working hard enough to lower expectations either. For a *pre-alpha* game this really isnt bad at all. Its juet people were expecting more like beta gameplay or more. And i do sympathize with rhe dev team. Two totally restarts basically and a harsh deadline due to funding all while utilizing a tiny team is hard stuff! In top of that the horse game community has relaly put the pressure on astride to be *the* next game. Which i think it *can* be given time. But as a community we have to give it time. I personally will keep supporting the game (im not a high patreon member but ill remain one). B3cause i think the dev teams response was phenomenal and i do think the Gme has tons of potenial if we can keep the momentum for the game rolling.

[@Siocain]

When I heard that the EA was out, I got my wallet and sat down at the PC. Watched the trailer and was incredibly shocked to see the state the game is in at the moment. Something very wrong with the funding scheme if it requires them to release a small broken tech demo at full price. If this demo would cost like 2 bucks, it's a whole different thing. If things are this rough now, I don't feel confident that we'll ever get a completed game.

[@aurered6387]

Yeah I followed their development and I know what state game is and I am not mad I still buy when I save because this purchase is not monthly but forever so even game doesn't look as a game but I believe in the future they will flourish

[@koharuhinata7938]

For now I've asked for a refund, I think I need to see a bit more and have the early access match the price tag to buy again. I'm definitely keeping an eye on the updates and further development of Astride and most likely one day support them again. And I'm super thankful for the way they handled the situation. Super open to constructive criticism and worries from the player base and looking for solutions and feedback. If only more devs were like that...

[@Sleipnir800]

It turned out as I expected sadly. I talked to several programmers and developers and all of them were somewhere between pity and wariness towards Astride and Raidho, as all of them came to the conclusion, that the content of the EA is one of a weeks work. With this knowledge, many people ask themselves why there isn't more to Astride after a year of development. Well, they now explained a fair bit about the reasons, yet it's pretty late for that and it doesn't change the fact, that there's literally nothing, even after 6 months of development. They surely lost a good amount of trust and, looking at the steam reviews, many longtime supporters as well. I hope they can recover from that and stay true to their words too.

[@YTRattle]

Can you send me the developers names? I'm working on a video about development and would love to chat with them! Thanks! ♥

[@lavenderwyvern]

It seems like they are trying watching "how to make a game" tutorials and trying to brute force it or something.

[@star-ij3ef]

Love your videos girlie

[@YTRattle]

Ahh! Thanks! ♥

[@EeveeHawkFan]

I'm so glad I found your channel, I'd never have checked Astrides news posts after seeing how bad the early access launch was, but thanks to you my hope is back that it'll end up good

[@singularity613]

My take is this: I understand that they had practically been forced by their contracts and whatnot to release by a certain time, and I fully appreciate their honesty about everything. The devs are great and I really like how they're listening to their player base and are letting everyone know what to expect with future updates. That being said, this is currently NOT worth the price they're asking right now. Sure, it's an investment and it might get expensive later towards release, but the price they want for what they currently have is not right. At this point, it's a glorified horse creator with some -highly bugged and laggy- animation. I'll continue following their development and will likely buy it when it's a little more developed, but as of now it's just not worth it to me.

[@Mumble785]

Really glad I waited now after this, money is tight rn so the price tag made me wait to see if it was worth it yet :') I really wish that they had been more transparent to begin with but the setbacks are understandable, I think they'll be able to recover if they keep going the way they are tbh. fingers crossed !!

[@makachu4899]

As someone who works for an indie studio who is seeking government funding and going through the loopholes they have, I really feel for the team ❤❤

[@iimdone]

fortunately i never had to pay since i was a gold patreon supporter and received the steam keys, but as an avid follower and supporter of the dev team and the game itself i was VERY disappointed with the ea release. the ea is quite literally just the recent playtest i booted up a week before the ea. it should not have been launched like this and i feel bad they felt so pressured to do so. im still of course supporting them, but have definitely been taken aback from the whole situation. im just glad they were transparent and are listening to their community unlike a lot of others out there.

[@IceRiver1020]

Even if it will grow into its price tag, and I'd never have to pay for it again, I don't think I can convince myself to pay that much for a game that isn't a game yet (even if I still had a job right now, rip my place of work). I'd just rather wait and see, because what if I spend that money, then the project collapses for one reason or another, and the game is never finished? No shade on anyone who's willing to pay out for it now, they need the funding to make the game, and different people have different situations. I still have cautious optimism for Astride, and their response to the situation is encouraging, I'm just going to keep watching from the sidelines for now.

[@corvus734]

As a tester, during Green Horse’s streams, it was brought up that what we were playing would be what the early access would include. They should’ve posted it for everyone to see, but atleast they stayed honest with us who were more involved in the process.

[@pixeltoaster8070]

maybe they weren’t clear on Patreon but i feel they were MORE than clear on discord about what state the game would be releasing as and what early access meant, I knew off the bat there would be a lack of features to begin with but they planned on working with players to fix bugs and continue adding to it

[@f1lthyfangs]

I'm really glad they're taking accountability, although I did have to refund it for the time being. I'll be waiting for a stage at which the game has some type of gameplay implemented until I pay for it again.

[@YTRattle]

100% understandable. People have a right to be ticked off. Hopefully, with time and updates, it can prove itself. But for the time being, I completely understand being wary XD

[@f1lthyfangs]

@@YTRattle Absolutely! I look forward to your updates on it though, I'm too lazy to dig deep into all these new horse games lately hahah

[@qroon]

Lets Hope for the Best, thank for the Video! 😘

[@YTRattle]

Yay! Thanks sis! ♥♥♥

[@HorsesIC]

They had no choice but to address this or absolutely tank their studio. Or, frankly, face a lawsuit. They KNEW they were going to take heat and totally lacked in transparency anyway. Just because someone says they're being transparent doesn't mean they are. What they DID have was not good. The horses look bad. The price is far, far, far too steep for something like this. I'd be shocked if they ever move past this stage.

[@YTRattle]

You would be surprised. Horse Tales refuses to actually acknowledge that they borderline made an asset flip for a 30 - 50 dollar price tag. And they have now abandoned the game with no word. At least, so far. So, you would be surprised how far developers will go to just pretend everything is fine. Just look at Equestrian: The game. I do understand people's upset, and I do respect it. It was a shock.

[@HorsesIC]

@@YTRattle yeah, but Horse Tales was damn near an outright scam. Just because other developers were worse (barely) doesn't give THIS dev team, which has had a solid backing, an excuse. They're fleecing people and their Steam reviews will never recover. The studio just signed its own death warrant.

[@YTRattle]

No Man's Sky had much the same situation. It wasn't early access, but it had a rough launch. If they handle this with care moving forward, it could turn into another success story. But the ball is in their court. I'm willing to give it another chance. Either through emotional investment, or monetary investment, but I am hoping it will turn itself around. However, I do respect and understand why people are not endeared to the situation. It was a bad launch, to be sure!

[@KowalskiXMya]

@Rattle Thank you again for covering this! Unsure if you remember me from the last Astride video, but I was a Kickstarter backer and rather disappointed in the early state of the game when it first came into early access. However, I have been emotionally invested since then due to my fascination with Scandinavian culture and horses alike as well as all the features they offered. I really hope this game continues in a good direction, and I also applaud the devs for their calm and levelheaded explanation when we were all skeptical with their early access release. While I am upset, I haven’t quite lost my trust in them yet and I hope you continue to cover them to keep them accountable if it were to begin to spiral.

[@LadySagitar]

You only get one chance at a first impression

[@YTRattle]

This is absolutely true! Which is why I do not blame people for turning away from the game. That first sting HURTS.

[@agatalightningcloud7538]

i was dissapointed too when i saw the early acces but their response was good and i feel bad for the developers now too, i haven't lost my hope for astride yet! lets hope for the best

[@jordyn0]

i haven’t paid for astride yet but i love the updates and communication they are giving back to us! i want to be super happy with the game as i have , and mostly everyone else, been waiting forever to see it be at this point so i don’t mind waiting a good while longer to see the true potential it is going to give. i am excited for the updates they will give the game and then i will buy it then ❤

[@nofluffyplushieshere]

I was super excited about this game when I saw it on kickstarter. Since I heard so much about game scams though I decided it wouldn´t hurt to wait until the game actually game out. Ive followed its development and was super excited about the many many updates. It´s not often developers stay so close to their communities. Close to launch however I saw some buggy reel on instagram and decided once again to wait until the game actually came out and see what happened before buying. For once this strategy has saved me from disappointment

[@HannaFardew]

Astride being this transparent is rare. Most horse games are not transparent when things go wrong, so them doing this makes me more excited to purchace later on. I've been watching the work in progress on instagram and this adds a whole new light for me

[@kojikakoifish2862]

The no sound is what kills me. If I was making this game and was going to have the gall to charge $25 US on Steam for EA I'd have at the BARE MINIMUM recorded myself making some basic noises on my cell phone and stuck them in the game as effects. Steps in dirt, trees rustling, SOMETHING. The fact that there is literally no sound just makes me feel like the people developing this game think people are stupid and desperate. Horse games already get the short stick in the industry as is, to think people would happily pay a price like that for a game with no sound tells me they really have no respect for customers. You only get 1 first impression and they just blew theirs HARD and are now going to have to try and recover from mixed reviews status. Not saying it's impossible, but horse games are so niche I have serious doubts that this game will pull a No Man's Sky.

[@xxwillowangel1917]

Thanks so much for making this video and giving the information! I really don't wanna abandon the game yet since I believe Astride definitely is promising and we just have to give them time.

[@kellowstone]

I hope they see the video! I haven't heard of Astride before, but I can already see potential this game has. As of 2023 there's real humans working on these games and news flash! A lot depends on their attitude towards the project and the community they're building around it. From what I've been shown there's clear reasoning as to why the launch failed and concrete plans moving forward. Great work addressing everything, I'll consider supporting:)

[@yourpersonalfrenchfryoffical]

I don’t have it but I watched videos on it and god. It’s flopped… like there’s nothing to do.-

[@youraveragemexorican]

I’m sticking with Astride, the shear amount of passion I’ve seen put into it is enough to give me hope.

[@lajlach.5646]

the worst thing is that there is no "manual" when or how to release things like game + in what version to market, and when to hold them for refinement :/

[@sofiapatrao2796]

The first update that came out yesterday I feel like fixed a ton of bugs which made me feel better and more optimistic about the games long term success - at least the bigger bugs, we will see how this continues!

[@Citine]

I have been very curious about the game but after i saw the early access launch it made me take a step back. I'm gonna check in on the game every now and then but i will not get my hopes up. I feel like it would disappoint if i did. They claim the game to be in Scandinavia but they only have norwegian horse breeds and an Icelandic horse breed. There are very beautiful and interesting breeds in Sweden like Northern Swedish horse or Gotlandsruss and Denmark has the knabstrupper among others. That's my biggest disappointment so far but they might still add them in, hopefully.

[@Victor_Ego]

Personally , although I am dissapointed a bit with the current functions, I won't be making a refund claim because seeing the Dev's taking accountability, I believe, it will worth my money and waiting in the longrun.

[@Ferindel]

What they have so far looks great. I love the horses and their look, the world looks fabulous, and the shading is nice too. I also really like the animations. However, I won't be putting a cent in to this game until I see some actual gameplay where you do quests, or some kind of content, and show worldbuilding. Otherwise, I'll be waiting a couple of years.

[@LDavis1998]

I think until I have seen more information, game play etc I will refrain from playing this game 😅 Im remaining neutral until further notice on it.

[@malinnilsen5188]

The game so far looks great considering all the setbacks, and I am very very excited about what's to come. I do however feel that the price is way too high for what the game currently is, and I did have to ask for a refund. I will keep supporting from the sidelines and hope to see the game properly shine one day

[@YTRattle]

100% it's way too high! They can't lower it, apparently? I'm not entirely sure how it work. But let's hope that in a few months it earns that price. Because I agree, way too expensive.

[@blossom1450]

I am a little disappointed because I have a Mac so I am having to wait. I am very happy on how they are handling this and building a game is hard especially if you had to restart. I know this is early access and over time I am hoping it will be better.

[@Vexis_plays_games]

Their ability to recognize the mistakes they have made and talk about them with their consumers in a respective manner is what will make me buy the game. It's what will push me to help them in the only way I can.

[@JustASleepySloth]

This video answered my questions, I'm glad because I was worried this would end up being another horse game flop or scam like so many before it. I had my hopes up after buying ranch of rivershine, or ranch of rivergrind as I think we're calling it now lol. Because of the state of the game and my worries I decided to refund my copy, to wait and see if it would become a viable game to play before purchasing again. As the price tag was far too much of an investment to ask for at this stage.

[@judyseward4176]

I'm glad and thankful that Astride is noticing their mistakes and are taking it into consideration. However, off topic, but I feel like the horse model they have currently looks like a much better Jorvik Warmblood than the ones we have in Star Stable. Not only that, but please let me know what the horse game you were playing with the fire hooves is called, I'm interested in wanting to try it out! :D

[@skylarsouthhearth1523]

I love astride but as someone that doesn't really want to invest in something I cant get a promised result in, I'm not going to buy the game, I want to buy a game, Not donate to a studio, I have a lot of faith in Raidho studios and i wish them the best, I will follow along in the development of this game and once it gets to a good level of production and I can actually play and enjoy the game, I will buy it, I think the developers did a very good job at the apology and striving to do better, I really have a lot of faith in this game, Though i think i put my expectations to high, Either way I hope that raidho will get good funding and be able to provide a good game, Also i hate to say it, But we aint never getting a perfect game Rip

[@herpderp3916]

I'm kind of reminded of No Man's Sky and how bad their launch was, but even that game turned out great with time, so I'm hopeful here.

[@D0MiN0ChAn]

Except No Man's Sky was not a tech demo; even at launch it was actually playable, had multiple finished worlds we could travel to, an amazing OST and everything you'd think a game should have. It was just *much much* smaller in scope than was led on prior to its release. Absolutely not comparable to this garbage, sorry to say.

[@RavnDust]

im a big supporter of the game and honestly i still to this day have high hopes for the game its like the developers have seen the past horse games mistakes and are trying there hardest not do do the same :)

[@4ryx-xn5ev]

What you should take away from this is to not throw your money at projects that you know barely anything about. Nice horse model? Good looking animations? Cool custiomization? That's all great, but I am telling you, until you get to see the actual GAMEPLAY, do not give anyone your money. It happened years ago with dinosaur games community, now I can see it repeat with horse games. Bunch of new game teasers and kickstarters came out, they all "looked cool" at first glance, and people - desperate that their old game (SSO in this case) sucked, blinded by "oh THIS MUST BE THE SAVIOUR!" just threw all the money at them without second thought. And guess what? Only one of those "saviours" is still around, but barely kicking. Now I can see people praise Astride exactly the same. What makes you so sure Astride is "new SSO"? What makes you so sure it won't end up like Horse Tales, like Equestrian? The horse customization? Really? You guys need to realize that we did not see a single thing, that would prove Astride to be an actual good game gameplay-wise. What the "game" offers now is just NOT WORTH your money. Yet. The right move here is to WAIT. Just wait, observe what they are doing, until you see an actual gameplay. Something that really is worth buying the game for. Do not buy it just because "it might work out". Yea, it might. But you also might loose the money you threw at something that had "good looking customizable horse", which is far from a good videogame, let alone "a saviour".

[@Pinja04]

i agree with you. i personally have been supporting astride for a long time and in patreon probably supported almost 100€ but thats just not because i want this to be sso killer or anything like that. i have been really actively reading and following theyr progress in discord and the ea was about what i was expecting because the devs are really open in discord. But thats not can be said about everyone. some people might not even be in the discord or if they are, it might be just checking in sometimes to see how the game is doing and it might been or was a suprise how early in development the game still was and i get why some people are angry/disapointed. astride should have made sure everyone knows how early its in development but at least they said sorry and that they will try theyr best to improve. and also good thing that steam has a refund function so people who thinks astride is not worth it yet, can get theyr money back and maybe buy it later in more finished state

[@PrimeBullets]

well said

[@AbigailPinehaven]

First

[@YTRattle]

Abigail Speedhaven

[@Orangecatinahoodie]

Abigail Speedhaven

[@VivianaSilverback]

Abigail Speedhaven

[@VibingMeike]

Abigail Pinespeed

[@user19020]

I have mixed feelings on this game. I did buy it but only because there is no way I'm going to pay the full price if it cost as much as 25 dollars now. I really think Astride has potential to become the best horse game on the market, however the price is too much, but like you mentioned in the video it's probably because of their contracts. The devs have had a really rough start with the game, having to restart twice is a big blow to development. The biggest issue with Astride so far was the lack of communication regarding restarting the development and what we could expect from early access. I understand why people are mad, they have every right to be, as the early access is completely different from what they lead us to expect, but I will continue supporting this game as much as I can for one main reason: they are really trying to make up for messing the ea up and also they probably won't try to squeeze every last cent from their customers like a certain horse game (cough SSO cough)

[@gordonfangirl5185]

A horse game team taking responsibility for a bad move in this economy! All jokes aside i truely do like how they took full responsibility and makes we think they aren't scammers. However, i need to say something really quick as a equestrian for 7-8 years at this point. I really want western riding in a horse game. It is an untouch democratic for equestrian myself that do only western riding. Western can inlcude western pleasure, reining, cutting(It not as bad as it looks like), Barrel racing, Pole blending, Trail class, Tean roping, Halter(Basically does seeing the confirmation of a horse), and other side event that don't have a championship in them. I really hope one day. Some game would add western riding

[@catbatrat1760]

12:35-12:46 Damn! You know that horse you were just riding in RDR2, with the flaming hooves? Not even that could possibly compare to THIS burn! /gen

[@user-sm4sf4ff2i]

Cheer~~~with a leg on each side of.

[@LGStarstruck]

Anyone remember jumping horse champions 2? How it was an ok game and then they updated it to jumping horse champions 3 which is worse. They also removed racing horse champions 2/3. Anyome who payed in 2 or generally played lost all their progress to boot.

[@horsecrazy342178]

So, I have super mixed feelings about Astride. I probably always will until they release a final build. (If they ever do) Anyhow, I’m glad they were so open about it being a flop…. Even though it happened after an implosion. However, I am concerned about their current programmer and their future programmers. In regards to their future programmers, I may have misread somewhere but I think they mentioned they’re only taking on intern programmers? Which I don’t think is the best step with how green Greenhorse appears to be. Shortly after Steam requesting to look over the EA, they continued working on the current play test that would shortly become EA. I noticed there were changes with striding and asked if there was a change log, since I’m a) interested in what happened b) interested in game development. Greenhorse said there was no change log due to “being too stressed out”. I work in software development, and I understand the stress when there’s either a major bug or something goes horribly awry. However, I don’t think it’s appropriate to technically have a build open to the public and not have notes on what got changed. In addition he said some things that I read as being fairly condescending in regards to feedback about the play test build prior to EA. It’s not my company, and this is purely my opinion but I don’t think you should have developers be so people facing if they can’t take criticism during stressful moments. No one dev department where I work is client facing, and that’s for a reason. If you’re going to be talking to the general public you need to be in the right headspace to speak to clients. Which quite frankly, most devs aren’t, lol. They’re usually overworked and burnt out. Anyhow, I’m still concerned about the development. I think the fact that they’re so open is a good sign, however it could end up going poorly. Time will only tell.

[@sofiapatrao2796]

They are hiring an additional programmer as well as hopefully taking on an intern to my understanding

[@Yukiasahina31]

it doesnt deserve 25 usd for such thing. if this demo costs 25 usd then the actual game what, 100?

[@YTRattle]

Oh, I agree. Which is why I mention it a few times. I have no idea what the end price will be, but I do know that the game will remain 25 dollars until it's out of Early Access.

[@BanweVance]

well, it was a big disappointment and I get why the community is angry about it. The game itself is pretty lovely let's seem unfinished and has not worked to our expectations but at the same time like u said they are listening and are willing to take the blame and acknowledge it. That's a big W for the horse community. I'm not sure I can trust this process but I still have a little hope. At least we know what they're capable of with the trailer and clips :). I'm sure they will keep their promise but they won't get as much praise as they could have... The Prize should be lowered and given money to the players that bought it before... Idk how many ppl are working on this game but the Prize should be lowered by at least about 10 dollars or something. :) But Now they have better motivation to give time to the game itself and make it even better- If they are what I think they are they will make the game even better than expectations. It just depends on how they go about this and how they face it Tysm if anyone read this. there's nothing to give up on the game tbh but I get the anger and upsetness about it

[@foxgriin]

Your videos are THE BEST. Every horse game developer should be afraid if you post a review. LOL. (unless its a good horse game... when pigs fly...) Have you ever tried out Horse Isle 3?

[@YTRattle]

No! I've heard a lot about it though! And thank you so much! Have some big projects in the making :D

[@JDPr0233]

I'm not even disappointed in this because I didn't have huge expectations with the early acces. I personally find it to be a bit weird to have high expectations in this short time. But yeah I'm not really a typical gamer so it doesn't really sting me right now. However I didnt know that there was not enough information given about how the early acces would look like so I can understand the frustration here. But still it's unfair to expect the game to be a disaster after just one mistake. If these issues repeat, then ok I'll agree, but they are still at the beginning and figuring everything out to not make the same mistakes like, for example; star stable. This is another way of saying that I'm hopeful for this game and the company. I saw many reviews saying mean and belittling things about this game and it doesn't feel right to me to say that already...

[@nono-wo9ky]

I think the very first horse and girl rider was fine what heck happen

[@YTRattle]

Restarting twice happened XD

[@yavsevru]

It was "proof of concept" (not my word) rendered outside of the Unity game engine. In other words: there was no girl, nor horse. Everything we're seeing, was cobbled together in the last two months.

[@Lemon-wu9lr]

am I second?lol

[@Alfries]

All of this is understandable, but the price isn't, bruh.

[@YTRattle]

I KNOW! It's too damn high! But I wonder if it has something to do with the contract they have with their funding? IDK. But it is WAY too high! And they have admitted this!

[@Frappe2142]

Squeak

[@YTRattle]

Yay! :D

[@nickitatze2299]

"After waiting a whooooole year" As if A YEAR would be a long time to wait for a game. I think they felt pressured by the community. Stop pressuring people into release xDD Things like Cyberpunk, Battlefield or Anthem will happen, if you keep doing this. These people need to take their time.

[@YTRattle]

They had to restart twice and they have five people working on it. If they hadn't restarted twice, the game would have been fine and at a level people would be happy with. And one year of work is a lot, for most games that's a third of their life in development. People had a right to be angry and the Astride team is aware of this :) People shouldn't pressure them, but yeah, I honestly get the upset.

[@nickitatze2299]

@@YTRattle I get it too. And they should have told the people before the release, in what state it is. But 1 year really isn‘t much in game development. Look at Red Dead, look at all the other games that are reaaally good. If you really want a good game, you gotta be patient. I‘d happily wait 4 years for a really good game. But I also get why they had to publish it so quickly, because they needed the money. It‘s just.. if you know you had to redo everything twice and your game is in this state, you should communicate it early. But it‘s okay. Yes they‘ve made a mistake, but it‘s not like they are EA who are ruining every second game they publish. Publishers of Astride probably wont make this mistake twice.. hopefully.. :D

[@sprigtwig]

I was actually personally a bit surprised by the backlash, because from watching their development, to me, it clearly wasn’t a finished product, nor intended to be, but a release of what they had available. From what I remembered them saying, the pricetag was also never going to change, but rather, the game was going to attempt to grow into it. I feel like I also remember them saying that it was okay for people to wait to purchase the game, but early purchases would of course help their development. Maybe I’m getting things mixed up, though. My memory isn’t always the best. In any case, a bit of poor communication on their part in some areas regardless, especially with what was publicly visible on the Steam page ending up being misleading. For what it’s worth though, Astride’s team is doing very well with the criticism and attempting to take accountability which is super appreciated. I still have high hopes for them ! I think this game has the potential to be my new favorite horse game as long as it gets the right care.

[@AmbitiousDucks]

The suggestion that the dev team are "scammers" is completely outrageous to me. They're obviously an incredibly passionate, knowledgeable and -- as far as I can tell -- well-intentioned group. All projects will face their fair share of setbacks, and they seem to simply have been unlucky with the timing of certain things. They've gotten a lot of heat since the release and, granted, a lot of it is warranted, BUT I think they've done their best to be honest and communicative with their followers about the state of the game. I'd much rather see them release it in an unfinished state, than postpone it and lose their funding, possibly dooming the game completely. No, it's nowhere near really playable right now, but can we at least take a moment to appreciate what's currently there? Already, the anatomy and movement mechanics of the horses are probably the best and most believable I've ever seen, they don't seem to have fallen into any of the usual pitfalls that so many games do -- even AAA titles like RDR2 (ever stood with your horse on an uphill slope? Look at the knees, just saying). I still fully believe in this game and its team, it has so much potential and I feel certain they'll go above and beyond to create the very best game that they can, even if it takes years. (Btw none of this is directed at you specifically, Rattle, these are just my personal thoughts on the project)

[@Fidion]

I don't really understand how severe this backlash is I guess. Could customers not extend a bit of empathy and understand the devs don't consider this game as "finished" and the fanbase simply recieved the game mid-development rather than post? The only issue I have with this model is the ability for devs to release an unfinished game and full-on move on. If the criticism was less hurtful and more "you guys are sticking with the project, right???" Then I'd understand and be on their side.

[@montanamountaingarden476]

Wow, you really just hate on every single game out there don't you

[@YTRattle]

Hello Montana, hope you're having a nice day!

[@noraedwardstudio9321]

I love your videos ‘cause they make take a step back and I always end up thinking and analyzing what’s going on😊 You’re doing an amazing job Rattle!! I was impressed by how they handled this tbh! They’re owning their mistakes and try actively to repair them! Don’t get me wrong, I was a bit disappointed at the early access even knowing fully that it was going to be pre alpha. I just wasn’t expecting so much bugs! So I was quite disappointed at first but then I saw Mathilde message about how they want to respect all feedback, positive or negative as long as it is constructive and this just put a plaster on my EA wound😅 It stupid but when I saw that I was like « okay Astride is still Astride and doesn’t reveal to be filled with terrible persons (deep scars from ETG) and they’re trying to learn actively form what’s happening ». Then her message Monday, that really showed their want to be transparent and be better with their community! It made me feel listened and BOY this feels SO SO GOOD after being told for years amoung horse game community « stay positive in your feedback » or « No negative feedback allowed »🫠💀 They understand that people can not like the game but still be respectful and give helpful tips for the continuation of the development! It’s refreshing😌 They just need to remember we’re not all dev and some people will buy game based on concept art and videos. Not everyone is on the discord or on the Patreon or read the steam notes! So I get why people were confused and mad to pay 25$ for this. Also, as you said this is early access but Ranch of Rivershine is also early access and Project horse, and ETG was in soft launch and the sso character was in Beta test… Like I am fortunate to know what it means because I work in the industry so I knew how it could be but not everyone know what the hell means Pre-Alpha Early access especially with all these different type of horse games launches that we have seen just in the last 3years😅 I think they will improve their communication and make it more clear ‘cause first, they need to do this to keep their community and second they’re already trying to do it😊 I am still hopeful as long as we’re listened like this😊