Horse Racing Manager News

[p]In the last devlog we talked about new UI, Pre-Race scene, betting system and conditions.[/p][p] [/p][p]Horse Racing Manager is currently in its pre-alpha stage. This phase has been ongoing for nearly a month and includes both internal testing and early feedback from members of our Discord community. During this time, we've focused on identifying and fixing bugs, improving stability, and refining the core systems, and the improvement has been very clear and inspiring. The game has grown noticeably since the start of pre-alpha testing, and we will talk more about significant changes in this devlog.[/p][p][/p][p]We are now preparing for a public alpha testing. This next phase will take place on Steam and will allow players to access the latest builds as they are released. [/p][p] [/p][p]We've talked about DNA system a lot in the past, and now we've made significant progress on DNA-based coat system. Each horse now carries a genetic profile that determines its coat colour. This system plays a central role in breeding, where the genetic trait of parent horses are combined to produce an offspring with realistic and varied coat outcomes.[/p][p][/p][p]Several coat categories are now fully implemented. These include all cream variants, such as smoky black and palomino, as well as the full range of dun, champagne, pearl and silver coats. Each category has been carefully developed by our amazing artist to reflect real-world genetics and provide diversity in the game. Additional coat types are still in development and will be introduced in future updates.[/p][p]Showcase of new implemented coats[/p][p] [/p][p]Race tracks are set to receive an enormous visual upgrade. Our goal is to enhance the environments with more detailed assets and layered parallax backgrounds, creating a greater sense of depth and atmosphere during races. These changes are part of our broader effort to improve the aesthetic of the game.[/p][p]This work is currently in progress, and implementation into the game is one of our next key steps.[/p][p][/p][p]Detailed new race environment.[/p][p] [/p][h2]Theme System Enhancements [/h2][p]The theme system has been expanded to support a much broader range of node types. With this change, we increased flexibility in how themes are structured and applied. It lays the groundwork for enormous possibilities for everyone to express their creativity through custom themes. Our team has created multiple themes, that are implemented into the game as "Default Set', but we are excited to see themes created by the community.[/p][p] [/p][h2]Race Logic and NPC Behaviour [/h2][p]The system that determines which horses participate in races has been reworked to improve both fairness and realism. Previously, NPC-owned horses were selected in a way that could lead to inconsistent or unbalanced race lineups. With the new weighted ranking system, horses are now chosen based on their performance, condition and other relevant factors. [/p][p]This way we ensure more competitive races and more believable racing environment, also stronger horses are more likely to appear in higher stakes events, while still leaving room for surprises and disappointments.[/p][p] [/p][h2]Simulation System Overhaul[/h2][p]We've made improvements to how the simulation system is presented. Previously, when the simulation was running, the interface could make it unclear how far the process was. The updated version now provides a clearer and more informative simulation view.[/p][p]In addition, players now have more control over simulation process. Player can stop the simulation manually at any time, or let it pause automatically when an important event occurs - such as a race result, a message, or important decision point. [/p][p]The simulation panel has also been redesigned to provide clearer information to understand what is happening in the background and what is happening next.[/p][p] [/p][h2]Interactive Mail System[/h2][p]The in-game mail system has been updated to support direct interaction. Message that includes subjects such as trade offers, invitations, or other decisions now come with action button, allowing player to respond immediately without need to navigate through additional menus. Current state of this system is still buggy, but we are working on polishing it to desired state.[/p][p]We've also in the process of reworking parts of the mail system to improve how messages are structured. [/p][p] [/p][h2]Home Page Redesign[/h2][p]The home page has been redesigned to serve as central hub for all key information for player. It now includes a calendar view that displays upcoming events, such as races, training sessions and other scheduled activities. Each event is marked with a colour-coded icon, making it easy to distinguish between different types of events. [/p][p]Clicking on any event in the calendar takes you directly to its details, allowing quick access for player. The home page also shows the current status of all player-owned horses, including their condition and readiness. Additionally the most recent messages are displayed, helping players stay up to date without needing to switch scenes.[/p][p] [/p][p]Redesigned home page[/p][p] [/p][h2]Betting System Update[/h2][p]The betting system has been fine-tuned to improve betting accuracy and usability. NPCs now place bets based on logical criteria, and payouts are calculated correctly based on race outcomes, creating consistent betting system. We've also improved the race front view, where betting now takes place directly. This makes it easier to place bets and follow the action without needing to navigate away from race interface. [/p][p] [/p][h2]Database & Performance[/h2][p]We have upgraded to SQLite version 4.5. Alongside this, several database queries have been optimised, especially those that affect performance in the later stages of the game, leading to faster load times and smoother gameplay, particularly when the game world becomes more populated and complex.[/p][p] [/p][p]We are now in middle of internal testing of the game with help of handful of community members, who has contributed a lot to game development process, soon after it's mostly functional, we will open alpha testing to our whole community. In this version player will already own a stable, unlike in final version where you start out unemployed.[/p][p] [/p][p][/p][p]If you'd like to support our developers throughout the journey, we created Ko-Fi page for Horse Racing Manager. Donations are completely optional and won't grant any perks such as early-alpha, we'd like to keep testing open to everyone in our Discord. That said, any donations are appreciated!

Ko-Fi link here! [/p][p][/p][p]We have member count of over 300 already. If you have suggestions, ideas or something else you want to talk about, it's a great platform and an easy way to reach us.

Join the server here!

[/p][p]We had originally planned to launch early access in early June. However, as development progressed, we identified more bugs than expected and saw opportunity to further improve the overall playing experience. Rather than rushing the release, we've decided to take additional time to polish the game and ensure it matches the quality we are aiming for.[/p][p]A new release window will be announced in future.[/p][p]Development is ongoing, and we will keep you updated on our progress. We are continuously working to enhance Horse Racing Manager, and your feedback is invaluable. Our goal is to make this franchise the most realistic horse racing simulator in the world. Don't forget to add Horse Racing Manager to your Steam wishlist! Your support is crucial for us and greatly appreciated. [/p][p]Wishlist Horse Racing Manager Here![/p]

[p]In the last devlog we talked about demo, localization, facilities and new scenes.

[/p][p]The game's UI has seen major changes, improving both functionality and visual aspects. UI is designed to be intuitive, with easy access to key features for pleasant, casual experience. Last devlog we gave you a sneak peek of command bar, since then we have completely implemented it into a game, command bar will offer possibility for quicker actions for players who prefer efficiency. UI is seeing continuous work, but now we've gotten a clear final vision, and we are moving towards it.

Moving in new UI

Command bar in action

We are also working on different colour themes, we will have multiple preset coloured themes, but we'd like to give player option to customise colours of their liking, our goal is to make it as flexible as possible, so each player can modify their surroundings exactly how they like it.

Sneak peek of themes, still work in progress

[/p][p]Our team has been working on a condition system to simulate exhaustion. Horses, jockeys, and staff now tire after certain activities, meaning horses can't race daily and staff can't work intensively for long periods of time. This introduces more realistic expectations for the player as a manager, and requires the player to plan more carefully around schedules and workloads. It has been implemented for horses but not for jockeys and staff yet.

[/p][p]We're in process of finishing pre-race scene, this scene will appear before the race itself. Each horse walking up to their starting positions, common information about horse and jockey will be displayed on the screen. On the side will also appear common information about race location, such as track length and condition. An announcer system will be implemented to introduce each participant, and music to match the race track location.

Showcase of pre-race scene. This is a developer UI used to pull data, the final UI will look different.

[/p][p]Our artist has been doing phenomenal work on new designs. Since last devlog, we've gotten 8 brand-new horse coats added, each with unique patterns and colour palettes. Additionally, new markings for face and legs have been added. Last but not least, new jockey animations implemented into the game.

New coats

Fresh facial markings (blazes, stars and snips) and detailed leg markings (socks and stockings)

New animations

[/p][p]It's been a while since we talked about our DNA system, but we're excited to share our latest progress. We've begun implementing realistic coat color inheritance, bringing a new level of authenticity to horse breeding in the game.

This has been a significant challenge, as equine coat genetics are remarkably complex with multiple interacting genes controlling color expression. Thanks to our incredible Discord community, we've received expert guidance throughout this process. A special thanks to users Billygoatsgruff and Ceenbee for their patience, knowledge, and continued support in helping us understand (read: somewhat understand) equine genetics.

One interesting consideration we've encountered is balancing realism with gameplay. In the real world of thoroughbred racing, the coat color gene pool is relatively narrow, with bay, brown, and chestnut dominating the field. For the final game, we're exploring options to either allow players to adjust genetic frequency weights or implement a slightly more diverse starting pool of coat colors. This approach would ensure that while rare colors remain appropriately uncommon, they wouldn't be virtually impossible to obtain through breeding.

Screenshot of top results

[/p][p]Our world is growing larger every devlog. Two new environments are being added to the game, one is inspired by enormous and beautiful Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and other one inspired by historical Navan Racecourse in Navan, Ireland. Both racecourses bring their own unique atmosphere and feel to the race, from the deafening cheers of tens of thousands at Meydan, to the quiet, muddy charm of Irish countryside racing.

Racecourse inspired by Meydan Racecourse

Racecourse inspired by Navan Racecourse

[/p][h2]Programs System[/h2][p]This system allows player to assign horses and jockeys to different care routines and training regimens. This way we are adding more flexibility to how player could manage their stables and prepare for each race according to what they think is the best. This is a work in progress right now, and operates only partially, but we are excited to see how it will function once everything is done.

[/p][h2]Betting System[/h2][p]Our team has been working a lot on the betting system, taking it step closer to its finalised state. The betting UI is complete, though it may still undergo minor changes, but it is fully functional. Player side of betting is close to being ready, and NPC betting logic is finished. Now we move to polishing the system, we are excited to get to show it in Alpha.

[/p][h2]Custom notes[/h2][p]We had amazing suggestion from Discord community about being able to write custom notes about horses, jockeys and staff. So we added something that is purely for the player to have on side panel, you can open side-panel notes and write your plans or other thoughts individually for each horse/jockey/staff member. This tool will especially prove useful with each leap player will take growing stable and creating own legacy.

[/p][h2]Updating to Godot 4.4[/h2][p]We are currently cleaning up and merging branches and fixing possible bugs, after that we are updating project to Godot 4.4. We hope that this will solve long-standing Apple compatibility issues.

[/p][p]We are now starting internal testing of the game, soon after it's mostly functional, we will open alpha testing to our Discord community. In this version player will already own a stable, unlike in final version where you start out unemployed.

[/p][p]If you'd like to support our developers throughout the journey, we created Ko-Fi page for Horse Racing Manager. Donations are completely optional and won't grant any perks such as early-alpha, we'd like to keep testing open to everyone in our Discord. That said, any donations are appreciated!

Ko-Fi link here!

[/p][p]We have member count of over 300 already. If you have suggestions, ideas or something else you want to talk about, it's a great platform and an easy way to reach us.

Join the server here!

[/p][p]We will start internal testing in upcoming days, looking forward to sharing playable version with our Discord community somewhere in late April. Our goal is to release early access in late May - early June, and finally full release once early access is in a state we are confident with publishing as complete game. Development is ongoing, and we will keep you updated on our progress.

We are continuously working to enhance Horse Racing Manager, and your feedback is invaluable. Our goal is to make this franchise the most realistic horse racing simulator in the world. Don't forget to add Horse Racing Manager to your Steam wishlist! Your support is crucial for us and greatly appreciated.

Wishlist Horse Racing Manager Here![/p]

[p]Last devlog we talked about horse updates, medical system, sound system and new scene.

[/p][p]The stable doors are about to open! We are excited for our demo release on 02/24/2025 Steam Next Fest. This is a huge milestone for us, and we can't wait to hear about your experience and possible feedback.

[/p][p]Exceptional progress has been made by our artist, we have implemented a new racecourse inspired by prestigious Prix du Jockey Club in France, it is designed to reflect the competitive spirit of real world horse racing and offers high-class racing experience.

Race track inspired by Prix du Jockey Club

The ranch track is a new local venue where races happen before reaching graded competitions. This track will add variety to race progressing structure and will serve as an early proving ground for horses.

Ranch

[/p][p]New horse model system is seeing continuous progress, this time we'd like to showcase some of new animations and coats. We also tried to make unique horses by making different parts, but this turned out not really work that well and we are now focusing more on making more coat colors. Perhaps different breeds in the future, but for now we are focusing on coat colours.

Trot animation

Walk animation

Yearling walk animation

Foal idle Animation

New coat designs

[/p][p]To make Horse Racing Manager more personalised for players around the world, our development team has implemented localization support. Now, players can customize the game to match their preferences, we've added wide selection of currencies, the ability to switch between imperial and metric units for distance, weight and temperature, and multiple options for date formats and number formatting.

Localization menu

[/p][p]We have finished the first draft of Facilities, we moved from a graph tree, to a folderlike structure. We think this is a bit cleaner. We added facilities for stables now, but the system is also built in a way where it can support facilities for race tracks and auction houses. We have integrated the effects of the facilities into the game around 50%. Currently there are 55 facilities in the game, but this might still change.

The UI is still a work in progress, but a sneak peek of facilities

[/p][p]One of many exciting systems that we are preparing for full game is betting system, which our team began working on recently, so far system includes betting types such as win, place, show, across the board, exacta, trifecta and superfecta. Our goal with parimutuel betting, also known as pool betting, is to create a betting experience that feels authentic, each bet that is placed is originated from somewhere, not just randomly generated.

[/p][p]In our last Devlog, we introduced the first steps towards immersive sound design, since then, we've focused on enhancing these elements. We've made improvement to the race track audio, adding some depth and detail to the galloping noises, crowd cheer, and ambient sounds.

The race announcer system has seen major progress, though the logic is still in early development. Currently, we are testing the feature using AI-generated voice to ensure that system works as intended and bring out immersion of racing. While this is a temporary solution, our long-term goal is to replace the AI with real voice actors, which will add more authenticity and excitement to every event.

This is also the reason why we put quite a lot of effects on the AI voice to hide its imperfections. One thing that is a problem with AI voice models is that you can't specify what tone or how excited the prompt should be, this makes it where this changes in a single sentence and sounds very off.

[/p][h2]UI/UX Development[/h2][p]Our specialist has made some significant progress on particular layouts, and I think we are reaching a point where game's final visual "identity" is beginning to take shape. More on this topic later, when we get closer to final designs. We have been thinking of doing a shadcn style, where we also change the top bar to be smaller and introduce a command menu.

Sneak peek of command bar

[/p][h2]Medical system[/h2][p]Several key improvements has been added to the medical system. the overview screen has been completely reworked and new graph has been added for player to see relevant data. We've also implemented allocate healing system, allowing player to manage horse treatment by distributing resources. This way system now calculates recovery times based on available recourses.

[/p][h2]Database handling optimisation[/h2][p]Now all database operations have been moved to memory, this improves performance significantly, allowing for smoother gameplay and better handling of large amounts of data.

[/p][h2]Scene management improvements[/h2][p]Our developers implemented a custom scene unloading system to handle larger scenes more efficiently and prevent crashes when switching between complex environments.

[/p][p]Once our full game is in a more mature state, we will start alpha testing. We will then invite a select group of players to test the game and give us feedback from the discord group. We will do the playtesting via Steam.

[/p][p]We have member count of over 200 already. If you have suggestions, ideas or something else you want to talk about, it's a great platform and an easy way to reach us.

Join the server here!

[/p][p]We are continuing work on various parts of the game, and we will keep you updated on our progress. We are participating in Steam Next Fest 2025, and you will be able to play the demo there. After the Next Fest we have thought about doing an early access release given that the game is in a state where it's playable. Some side features might still be missing, but we want to have the core features there and somewhat of a balanced game.

We are continuously working to enhance Horse Racing Manager, and your feedback is invaluable. Our goal is to make this franchise the most realistic horse racing simulator in the world. Don't forget to add Horse Racing Manager to your Steam wishlist! Your support is crucial for us and greatly appreciated.

Wishlist Horse Racing Manager Here![/p]

[p]As we close our first year of development, we want to thank everyone who has supported the project and participated in our early testing phases through Discord. Let's review the significant progress we've made.

[/p][p]We've implemented a new racing venue inspired by the iconic Churchill Downs. Our artists have done exceptional work capturing the essence of this world-class facility. We are planning to add more iconic tracks in the future. We've also enhanced the environment with new grounds, sounds (more about that later) and even some ambient wildlife. We will add to this, with better clouds and more variety in the environment and crowd.

As a minor preview of upcoming features, we're also working on implementing weather systems, including snow conditions, which will affect racing conditions and strategy.

Race track inspired by Churchill Downs

[/p][p]For some devlogs we have talked about the new horse model system, and we have some updates to it. We have started with variance in coat colors, and we are looking forward to integrating them to our Pseudo-DNA feature (you can read more about it in our previous devlog). We are now working on different body parts for the horses, such as legs, ears, mane and tail. We are also working on a new animation system for the horses, which will allow for more natural movement and behavior - not only running, but also trotting and walking. This will also future proof the game, once we implement harness racing and Montê racing.

Updated horse designs and coat patterns

[/p][p]We have finished the work on tables for now, we think they are feature rich enough for the early access. We will continue to work a bit on the UI of them, but we are happy with the functionality. At the moment you can select what columns you want visible, select how the data is presented in some cells (like progress bars, raw numbers, stars, etc).
Preview of table functionality

[/p][p]We finally have live racing sounds implemented, and it's a step towards immersion. The integration of FMOD has allowed us to create dynamic and contextual sound design. This includes adaptive crowd reactions, ambient sounds, and situation-appropriate music.

We are now working on a race announcer system, that will have with over 300 lines of dialogue. We are planning to do it with AI first to see if our way would work, and then replacing the AI with real voices. For the upcoming demo, we've selected a curated set of these recordings to demonstrate the feature's potential. These announcements will provide real-time commentary during races, enhancing immersion. We also think it's necessary - a race without a commentator is just not the same.

On top of this, we are also still thinking of having somekind of pre-race news, and we actually already have someone interested in voice acting for that part. But we are now prioritizing the announcer and auctioneer first.

[/p][p]We've begun development on a comprehensive medical system for stable management. This system will require players to manage veterinary staff, make quarantine decisions, and maintain stable hygiene to prevent illness spread. While still in early development, the system will have direct impact on stable performance and horse welfare.

The idea is that depending on your medical staff ability and amount of staff, you will have a certain amount of healing point for your horses. Then different diseases and injuries will take a certain amount of healing points to allocate. You can then choose what horses to prioritize for treatment. It's not 100% realistic, but we think it's a nice "managerial" feature that fits the game.

We now have around 20 different diseases and injuries implemented, some contagious, some not.

Early preview of medical system interface

[/p][p]We updated the SQLite package that we were using, and it opened up possibilities to further optimize the database operations by doing them in memory. The lead dev found a way to do this, and we have done some experiments with it. This should improve the performance of the game and also help with world generation. This was a big find, and will for some machines make the game 90-95% faster to simulate. It will also help computers with older hardware. But we are still testing it just to be sure that it's working as expected.

[/p][p]Following the addition of our UI/UX specialist mentioned in the previous devlog, we've made steady progress on interface improvements. We are still in the early phases of the UI/UX project, and we are trying to draft how we want the game to look and feel.

[/p][p]Early versions of our demo are currently being tested by our Discord community. If you are interested in testing the demo, please join our Discord and we will get you access. We're targeting a mid-January public release, which will showcase core gameplay features like breeding and the live racing scene. Currently we are having some driver issues, and also issues with librarys so we don't have a Mac or Linux version yet. We are working on it, and we will have it soon.

The demo has been our primary development focus, but what we have developed there will be moved to the full game. Some major issues now in-game are the game balance regarding purses and the CPU skill. There also seems to be a difference in spectating a simulating races, even if there should be none.

[/p][p]Once our full game is in a more mature state, we will start alpha testing. We will then invite a select group of players to test the game and give us feedback from the discord group. We will do the playtesting via Steam.

[/p][p]We have member count of over 160 already. If you have suggestions, ideas or something else you want to talk about, it's a great platform and an easy way to reach us.

Join the server here!

[/p][p]We are continuing work on various parts of the game, and we will keep you updated on our progress. We are going to participate in Steam Next Fest 2025, and you will be able to play the demo there. After the Next fest we have thought about doing an early access release given that the game is in a state where it's playable. Some side features might still be missing, but we want to have the core features there and somewhat of a balanced game.

We are continuously working to enhance Horse Racing Manager, and your feedback is invaluable. Our goal is to make this franchise the most realistic horse racing simulator in the world. Don't forget to add Horse Racing Manager to your Steam wishlist! Your support is crucial for us and greatly appreciated.

Wishlist Horse Racing Manager Here!

[/p]

[p]In our last devlog, we discussed the auction implementation, user interfaces, announcing and team updates.

[/p][p]In our last devlog, we mentioned developing the inbox system, a key feature for any management game. This turned out to be very complex, as we guessed. But at least we've begun implementing the start of the inbox system. This system will keep you informed about important events, notifications, and messages within the game world. While we're still in the early stages, we're excited about how it's shaping up.

For now we have added the news articles for a race result and also, while a bit macabre, the horse death event. Our talented developer, Janne, has really built a good foundation to add more news. And we have then used AI to add differing news articles, with a different degree of "variance". There is already a massive amount of "news text data", to give you a sense of scale, when we put it into a text editor we got around 185 pages of text with a font of 11. This will probably still increase in the final game.

The variance basically tells how shocking or unusual say an result was, and we want the news to reflect this. So if the race was an upset or just a normal Sunday - we want to report it in that way. We have to do this for every type of event, you can see how it quickly becomes complex.

News should also be "clickable", so if a horse, race, auction, person or stable is mentioned, you should be quickly be able to jump to that entity just by clicking it. This adds complexity to the news event, but we think that it's crucial for a functional user experience.

The early implementation of the inbox system - we took inspiration from Football Manager. Still needs polish.

[/p][p]One of the most exciting developments is our new approach to horse design. We're moving towards a puzzle-like system that will allow for greater variety and uniqueness in each horse's appearance. This system will tie into our breeding mechanics, ensuring that offspring inherit visual traits from their parents in a realistic way. We are also dabbling in coat colors a bit, and how to make those semi-realistic. I say semi-realistic, because I think it could add some flavour to also have more rare colors for the horses - even if this is maybe not the most realistic for say the thoroughbred breed. But let's see, and we are obviously also taking input from you, the fans.

Comparing old and new designs.

[/p][p]While we had a slight hiccup in staffing, that hindered our progress on the tables we have in the past week made significant progress on our custom table system. As mentioned in our previous devlog, we believe that a game filled with data needs exceptional tables. Our new system allows for greater flexibility, enabling players to sort, filter, and customize the information displayed. This is still early, but we still wanted to show you a bit of the functionality. We also want the player to be able to build their own views. We are also thinking if we should give the player some way to say graph data, but we are still unsure on how to do it or if we are doing it now or in future iterations. Anyways, we're putting the finishing touches on the table feature and can't wait for you to try it out.

New table system

[/p][p]Are you guessing what I'm talking about? Optimisation.

We have started to do more long-time simulations and noticed that some of the functions did not scale with in-game time. For example the hiring process that is ran everyday in-game, started ballooning from 200ms to 2000ms in just a couple of years of game-time. There were other functions, that we had not "finished" so no new races where being generated after 5 years etc. We have now fixed most of these, and this also means that we are closer to beta (or should I say Alpha) than ever. More on this later.

Around a month of simulation on a M1 Macbook Air

[/p][p]For our expo, more on that later, we wanted to make a playable version of the live racing scene. This needed much love, since the live race scene was something that I had programmed at the start of this journey. We have now refactored it completely, and next up we are going to balance it. We also built it with balancing in mind, so all the variables are exposed so that it's easy to change. At the expo, we also saw how people were playing the live race and we still have to make some changes to make it more interesting.

You can see some of the new race logic UI here, we are moving to a target speed - basically how much power you are inputting. Then the stamina will be different for sprinter and long-distance horses. Where if a horse is long-distance stamina will unlock more as the race progresses. This is to make long-distance horses good at sprints vice versa. It's a balancing game, but we are going to still make the horse fight you a bit depending on it's temperament and your skill. Obviously you can just put a jockey to ride the horse - if you are more of the managerical type. We will talk more of the racing in another devlog.

Start of a race

[/p][p]Some of you might have seen us at the expo, and we officially now have a couple of people who actually own the game. The expo was okay, and we met with a ton of developers. It was however different from what we had thought originally, we were thinking that it was more consumer focused, while it was more B2B focused. But all in all a nice experience, mainly since we found two new employees and we actually met with some team members live.

Our expo table - thanks to Finnish brands Namitupa and Mad-Croc for helping us out! Try them out if you have the possibility.

[/p][p]For horse injuries and illnesses we started work, and the internals are now done as a first draft. We have not yet tested and balanced it. But there are features like contagion and we then want to add quarantines to the game also. Currently it works in a way where based on the medical staffs capabilities a "daily healing rate" is calculated. Every injury and illness has "points". Once those points reach zero, the horse is healthy again. This means, that if the player wants to have a higher healing rate (horses healing faster), they need to hire the best veterinary's and nurses for their stable. They will require a higher salary, so the player has to decide what they prefer.

We like this method, and it's pretty simple to understand. It's maybe not the "most" realistic, but as a game-mechanic I think it works pretty well.

We also implemented game-ending injuries and illnesses. They are rare but can happen, and the risk is higher if the horse has a high-level of injury/illness risk. This risk increases if you race the horse too much. We had some feedback to make these optional, and I think that's true since everyone might not want to play on "hardcore" mode. Everything is starting to "tie-together" more, and brings naturally more complexity and depth to the game.

Code of some of the illness and injuries, we are still thinking if these are going to be the ones in the end.

[/p][p]We had a couple of people leave and a couple of people join. I think we now have a more stable team. Additionally, we are also all located geographically in the same country (Finland), so it's easier with timezones.

An UI/UX designer is also joining us after a around a month, our game is heavily focused on that so I think it will be great. We like some web frameworks, they look very clean. For example a style similar to shadcn, is something that we think would look very nice.

[/p][p]We are still thinking on when to do the alpha, as said before, it's pointless if we just run into bugs when playing the game ourself casually. So we still need to do some polish before that and also add some additional news. The race scene and game world still also still needs balancing. The alpha version won't be perfect, but we at least want to strive for "playable".

My brother actually asked me if I'm nervous for the alpha - yes, I am. It's a big moment when people actually start playing your game after a year of development and decisions, I'm most afraid of the game not meeting the standards the fans are envisioning.

I have recently been playing when I have some free-time in the evenings FIFA, or FC as it's called now, and it's quite an shallow shell with lot's of bugs. I can feel as a player, that they don't respect the game modes that I'm playing (mostly manager), when I read online that a bug has been precent for years. I do not want my game to ever be this or become this - and I hope that people don't experience the same sensation when playing my game, ever. If you ever see the game going in that direction, please email us at [email protected] and remind us of this devlog. Players expectations are high, and we want to deliver as a very small team.

If you are interested in alpha testing, join our Discord! More info below, we will inform there when we test it.

[/p][p]Some of you have already found it, with an impressive member count of over 120 already. If you have suggestions, ideas or something else you want to talk about, it's a great platform and an easy way to reach us.

Join the server here!

[/p][h2]Funding[/h2][p]We have made steps in some funding, we are applying for a government grant to be able to pay our developers before launch but also to make the game even better. We have high hopes for this.

[/p][h2]Racecourse Contacts[/h2][p]Our second outreach was not succesful either, we got some contacts, but they never really went anywhere. I think they first want us to see that we can make a quality product, so let's deliver that, before wasting more time on this.

[/p][h2]Upgrade from Godot 4.1.1 to 4.3[/h2][p]Some of you might know we use Godot, and if you are ever feeling like you want to try game development, give it a go! It's an easy to use and open source engine, meaning that it does not have any licenses or costs. We are upgrading our game engine, because we found out that FMOD does not work with our current version. We want to use FMOD for the music in game, but also to make race scene and auction scene sounds more dynamic. We expect the upgrade to be pretty simple, fingers crossed.

[/p][h2]Finishing custom tables[/h2][p]We are finalising the custom tables, and then implementing them around game. We also want them to have some additional functionality still, like selecting what columns are visible and then improved data presentation. Like in-table graphs, progress bars, text coloration and more.

[/p][h2]Finishing news system[/h2][p]We knew when we started the news system that it would take time, it's the most complex system in the game. We are trying to finish it in the next devlog, but it might also be a feature that is constantly developed as the game progresses.

[/p][h2]Finishing UI for medical UI[/h2][p]We also want to implement the UI for the medical area, where you can see statistics of health points and more. You should be able to quarantine horses, maybe give preventive medicine, research new methods/drugs or other things. We are still thinking of how to make it more interesting that just "sick horses".

[/p][h2]Maybe, just maybe, alpha?[/h2][p]We might start alpha testing at the end of the devlog, or atleast more extensively testing it internally, but as said we still want it to be a somewhat playable experience. But more of this in Discord.

[/p][h2]Implement actual game logic[/h2][p]Now development has mostly been done from the perspective of a stable owner/manager. So there are a lot of bugs/crashes if you are not a stable owner, or if you don't own any staff or if you don't own any horses. So we have to make the game safe to play also when you are not an owner. This is not that hard, more of a chore to go to every single page and making it crash-safe.

[/p][h2]Cleanup of code, reorganising and static typing[/h2][p]During this month we have also started to cleanup the code, while doing this we have actually fixed a lot of bugs that we never knew where there. Static typing will also help with this, and make the game a bit faster since the computer does not have to guess data types. Again, this is not hard to do, more of just taking time.

[/p][p]Next is finishing the features we have started in this devlog, and the as said possibly an alpha. At some point, we are also starting work on the stable facilities, and we might already in the next devlog talk about them more.

We are continuously working to enhance Horse Racing Manager, and your feedback is invaluable. Our goal is to make this franchise the most realistic horse racing simulator in the world. Don't forget to add Horse Racing Manager to your Steam wishlist! Your support is crucial for us and greatly appreciated.

Wishlist Horse Racing Manager Here![/p]