Getting your debut game banned from Steam and Epic Games Store would shake most developers into playing it safe. Andrea Lucco Borlera is not most developers. The Italian designer behind Horses), the black-and-white surrealist horror game about brainwashed humans behaving like horses, says his next project will be just as disturbing as the one that got him blacklisted from the biggest storefronts in PC gaming.
ما تكلفته الحقيقية للحظر على المطور
Horses, made in collaboration with Milan-based studio Santa Ragione, was pulled from both Steam and the Epic Games Store before it could find a mainstream audience. The fallout was significant: Borlera describes himself as now being perceived as "radioactive" by publishers. That word choice says a lot. It's not just that he faced rejection. It's that the ban effectively made him untouchable to potential partners who might otherwise fund or distribute a follow-up.
The game did eventually sell 18,000 copies in its first two weeks through Itch, the Humble Store, and GOG, earning around $65,000. Enough to break even, but not enough to keep Santa Ragione from disbanding. GOG notably stepped up when others wouldn't, publicly backing the game after Valve's final decision to keep it off Steam.
خطر
The ban on Horses ultimately led to Santa Ragione disbanding, with Borlera describing the fragmentation of storefronts as a "lasting consequence" for indie developers making challenging content.البقاء مخلصًا للرؤية، حتى بدون ناشر
Borlera's next concept sits in the same unsettling territory as Horses, described as a continuation in terms of "alt-reality." He knows it won't be mainstream. He knows publishers are unlikely to line up. And he's saying it anyway: "I need to stay loyal to the vision."
Here's the thing about that kind of creative stubbornness. It's the same energy that produces the most memorable games in horror. Carrion, Phobia Game Studio's reverse-horror game where you play as a grotesque creature consuming everything in its path, worked precisely because it committed completely to its disturbing premise without softening the edges. The developers didn't ask whether players were comfortable being the monster. That commitment is what made it stick.
Borlera draws a comparison to film to explain the problem he's facing. Cinema has Blumhouse for expensive B-movies and A24 for cerebral, art-house horror. Both have established identities, audiences, and funding pipelines. Video games have nothing equivalent. "In video games, there is no equivalent," he says directly. "So it's hard to find a partner that can fit with your vision."
فجوة تمويل ألعاب الرعب المستقلة
What most players miss when they see a niche horror game get banned or struggle to find distribution is how few options actually exist for developers making genuinely challenging content. The horror genre has a long commercial history in games, but the infrastructure for funding and distributing experimental horror is thin compared to film.
Borlera is already thinking practically about what comes next if publishers stay away. "In the worst case, I could consider the Kickstarter way, or making it by myself along the years." That's not a defeat. That's a roadmap.
Horses' unsettling monochrome world
The experience has made Borlera more self-aware than before, by his own admission. The bans, the studio closure, the scramble to find alternative storefronts. He's carrying all of that into his next project. But the creative direction isn't changing.
For fans of horror games that actually take risks, that's worth paying attention to. Keep an eye on the latest gaming news for updates on what Borlera and the remnants of Santa Ragione's creative circle do next. Make sure to check out more:
