Profile On: Miriam Grau, Wild Horses Valley

Recently on Instagram I became aware of an account that was posting very unique, very beautiful horse graphics. Looking a little further, I found about about this online horse game that is free for users. One of the developers, Miriam Grau was kind enough to answer some questions about this game she and her father have developed!

How much of your day/week is related to horses?
Personally, I spend almost every day of my week with horses! We have one horse of our own and a few horses that we help to take care of. For the game itself I draw horses at least every week, additionally I frequently photograph horses to create new reference photos to draw from.

What is it exactly that you do?
I am the game developer of the webgame “Wild Horse´s Valley“, together with my father I am creating this free game about the life of wild stallions and their herds. We are an independent game developer team, which means that we are not working with a big studio and have to do everything around the game ourselves. I am the artist, game designer, marketer, community manager and much more for the game!

In this field of work, is it possible to be a full-time professional and earning a liveable income?
For us personally it is only a hobby, unfortunately we would not be able to earn a living wage with the game. Our game has been online for over 2 years now and has a free-to-play, with optional purchases, monetization model. We are able to cover the costs of the game with the purchases made in the game, but do not earn any money for our work time. Luckily, we are in a position to spend lots of our free time to work on the game as our hobby.

What are the general steps taken to be employed in such a role?
Since we are an independent development team, we did not need to have any degrees in game development. My father has a programming degree and has been programming for over 40 years. I have been designing games and drawing horses in my free time for almost 10 years now. To create an independent game studio, I would recommend acquiring skills in programming, game design and art before creating your first game. If you want to specialize in one of these fields, it would be best to attend a game design school and get a degree in game design or programming!

Favourite horse memory?
This is hard to choose! Of course our own horses are very high on my list, for example riding tackless with our mare, even though she is a very difficult horse. Though, my absolute favorite memory is probably of a Lusitano stallion that I have ridden. It was a very beautiful stallion that played the main horse character in a series that I had watched prior to riding this horse. It was incredible to meet the horse in real life and get the honor of riding him on my own!

Future goals?
Our future goals for the game are to one day have over 100,000 players! Currently the game has over 30,000 players. We have many ideas for new features and content for the game and want as many people as possible to enjoy the game. Additionally, it would be amazing to earn at least the minimum wage with the game at one point, this would enable us to continue adding new things to the game up into the far future!

Best thing about your sport/profession?
The best thing about being a game developer is to see the creations you made “come to life” and so many people enjoying the world that you have created. I love creating new content that surprises the players and makes them curious for more! I have stacks of paper and hundreds of different documents with new ideas for the game and those files get bigger every day. I can’t wait to add all of them to the game some day!