u/No_Golf_209

I’m working on a game, JoustVille, which is an Arthurian inspired medieval RPG. I had a few goals in mind when I started the game, and one of the most important is to get the horses right. I didn’t want them to feel interchangeable or unimportant. If a player has two heavy horses, each horse needs to feel like a Heavy, but each Heavy needs to feel different from another.

First and foremost, the horses can not get hurt, lost, or stolen. The only bad thing that can happen to your horses is they get Exhausted, and can’t be used until they have rested. 

Since the Joust is the core gameplay mechanic, I wanted the horses abilities, training, and personalities to affect how they perform in the joust. These aren’t just flavor texts, it affects the gameplay in ways the player can see and experience. I’ve got about a dozen systems working at the moment, but for this discussion, I’m going to focus on just a few.

First, the Gallop. The Joust starts with the horse at a standstill. The gallop QTE displays a pattern the player has to match, and this pattern is different for each type of horse, AND each individual horse. A heavy horse will have steady beats far apart; a Friesian might have short, staccato beats that happen in patterns, and you’ll need to match that rhythm to get the most out of that horse. 

When the player purchases a horse, the game engine looks at the base pattern for that horse breed, and adds some variation, or jitter. This means all Percherons will have a similar overall pattern, but you’ll have to learn the variances between individuals.

Next, my Horse Quest System - throughout the game, NPCs will ask to borrow your horses for various reasons. That horse will be gone from your stable for some time, but when it returns, the horse will have improved stats and new Traits that make it better in the Joust. 

One HorseQuest in the game currently, is a local lad who has to stand vigil in the graveyard at the edge of town for the night, to honor a deceased parent. He must do this alone. But… he needs a little help. After all, this is a world where ghosts and magic are real. He was impressed with the bravery your horse showed in the tourney, and he would like to have such a noble steed by his side.

If you agree, Bramble can’t be ridden in any tournaments until he’s returned, and he’ll be gone for a few days. Your reputation as a player will change too; the world reacts to these choices, even if you decline to help. 

Other Horse Quests might take weeks or months, but the benefits will scale proportionally. Horses have weight limits; if you want to play a heavy jouster build, you need horses that can carry the weight. One Trait a horse might gain from a Quest would be “Strong.” A light horse that can carry heavy armor will give the player massive advantages in the tournament, so suddenly the Arabian that you let another noble to take on his campaign will be very different to ride compared to other Arabians.

Once a Horse Quest is completed, that quest gets logged in the horse’s history. You can see this, and more, in the horse's stall. The stable stall for each horse displays two banners : one for their performances in the Joust, and another for the horses own personal history. The player will be able to lock in favorite memories, or have the banner display a new memory each time you enter the stall. In time, each horse will have their own unique decorations, props, and banners that showcase that horse's history. You’ll be able to see that Bramble not only defeated the Prince in the Tournament, you’ll also see that he stood in the graveyard, long ago, and helped a young man fulfill his duty.

Unlike movie horses, your JoustVille steeds can’t be galloped and exercised nonstop. Jousting is an intense physical experience, especially for the horses, and it’s quite possible to have a horse exhausted by the 3rd pass and do poorly, just when it matters the most! 

A horse's Stamina is drained a certain amount each pass, but this gets worse when certain things happen. Missing the gallop QTE inputs, switching lines, and even taking heavy hits all wear the horse out faster. So, how does one increase the horse's Stamina? Through training!

In Joustville, training is done by teaching your horse dressage movements. These are historically accurate moves that were taught to horses to not only improve their training but also their physical conditioning, and JoustVille represents this in several ways. Horses unlock Emotes (yes, your horse can Ballotade or Courbette before each pass, once you’ve taught them. Finding the training guides is an entire storyline / questline for each move) and training increases the horses Stamina and Bond score. 

The Bond score represents how well the horse trusts and understands you. A higher bond horse has wider windows in the Gallop, so it’s easier to get them right. Bond score affects how quickly Stamina is lost, and how quickly it’s recovered. It also affects how many emotes can be assigned. In short, the more you get to know a horse, the more they trust you. Bond will go up every time you ride the horse in the Tournament, but training sessions increase Bond much faster. 

Since it takes time to do all these things, owning a horse for a long time will have many benefits that simply can’t be unlocked any other way. A horse you’ve had for years will have a rich history, unique Traits, and better performance when you need it. 

Every thing I’ve described in this post exists in the code. I don’t have art for all the horses and all the dressage moves, but the game supports them. The scripts exist, the training system is built and fully functional, and all the gameplay effects I have described are all working. JoustVille is a world that reacts to your choices, and I wanted to make the horses feel unique. So far, so good!

I'm making a game focused on knights jousting. It's a combination of top down and sidescroller pixel art.

The ideal artist will know what different types of horses look like, including anatomy and movement. If you can't draw an Arabian next to a Percheron and make them look different, this is not the gig for you. I've spent a lot of time coaching artists who, according to the results they give me, have never seen a real life horse in their life. The artist needs to be familiar with how color swap pallets work and layered sprites.

In my game, the horse and knight need to fit into a 150 pixel square. The knight and his armor go on their own layer. The horse will be on it's own layer, and will need garb (called a caparison) and armor (called barding)

To start, I will need to see a portfolio that shows an animated running horse, and a sketch that shows different horses. If a rider picks a heavy horse vs a light fast horse, how will you show that?

I have art guides and references. The first project will be basic animations like idle, walk, gallop, jump, etc. Send me a DM with samples or references, please.