Italian designer Andrea Lucco Borlera’s first work“Horses (horse/horse)”Being banned from Steam and Epic platforms is a heavy blow to any new developer. But he said in an interviewThese controversies will not put an end to his dark creative ambitions. On the contrary, because of this experience, he has a clearer understanding of the path he wants to take next., although it was more difficult, he still chose to continue.
It looks like radioactive material in the eyes of publishers, but I still want to make the same novel work.
Borlera bluntly said that his next project will look radioactive from a publisher’s perspective. because《Horses》It is a black-and-white, surreal, and extremely extreme horror game.The story revolves around brainwashed humans acting like horses, with a strong alt-reality feel.. He said that the new idea will continue this line in concept, and he knows that it cannot become mainstream, but he still wants to make it.
The ban brings exposure, and it does sell well, but the price is that the threshold for cooperation becomes higher.
The interview mentioned that although “Horses” was banned from shelves, it found sales outlets on platforms such as Itch, Humble Store and GOG, andThe lockdown itself also brought a wave of attention. The game sold about 18,000 copies in the first two weeks, and GOG even publicly supported it. But for Borlera, this experience made him more aware: exposure does not mean stable cooperation. The more distinct and uncompromising his creative positioning is, the harder it is to find a partner who can accept this style.
Don’t cater. If necessary, use crowdfunding or slowly do it yourself.
Borlera believes that in the fields of film, television or publishing, novel and non-mainstream works can still find relatively clear positioning and cooperation channels, but it is more difficult to find completely compatible partners in the gaming industry. Therefore he also saidThe worst case scenario is to go through Kickstarter, or take a longer time to grind out the work.. To sum up, he wantsNot to be accepted by everyone, but to complete the version he wanted to do。
For Southeast Asia’s gaming audience, this story matters beyond headlines: it highlights how platform decisions, creator behavior, and player trust can reshape market momentum across the region’s highly connected communities.