Michael's Poop Horse

3 March 2024

“I have a game idea,” Michael said.

“Okay” I reply. “Let me get my pen, I’ll write it down.”

Listening, I take the following notes:

• Chasing a horse.
• Horse poops.
• Avoid poop.
• Catch Horse.

A few moments pass, I expect him to continue.

“Oh, is that it?” I say.

“You think it needs more?” he asks, a hint of surprise.

Not that I’m complaining; after all, I love small ideas.

“Not really, it’s just... your ideas are usually bigger than this”, I tell him.

“Oh. What if you’re the horse, and you have to poop on the car instead?”, he suggests.

I remain silent, but inside, I think, Genius.

The Game:

It’s a game where you’re a horse, and you have to poop on a car as many times as you can, before it gets you.

How to play:

• Click anywhere on the screen to move the horse to that height!
• Eating a carrot will start digestion, after two seconds, you’ll poop. If the poop hits the car, you’ll gain a momentary speed boost.
• Eating a carrot while you’re already digesting a carrot will cause you to instantly poop. Good way to rack up points!

There was a moment where I was adding various hats and horse skins as unlocks, but was producer’d, correctly, by Leo who simply asked “Why are you doing that?”. A simple question, but it instantly made it obvious how I had let the game get away from me.

“I thought it would increase… engagement?” Just what the silly game needed, player retention. Work thoughts slipping into the hobby zone.

Funny how with smaller projects, it feels almost more justifiable to add new features, since all timescales remain small, relatively. Sure, it would have taken longer to finish up the wardrobe, but how long exactly, another hour? Wasn’t worth. Oh well, there are remnants, unlock a little hat at ten, twenty and thirty points.

Various horse colours, never to be seen.