November 2025 Blog: Winter Festival, Magical Horses & Marchenghast

Winter Festival

By Ella Kårefalk & Daniel Q (Narrative Designer & Game Designer)

Hey there, frosty Starfam! It’s tiiiiiiime… for another festival blog post, and you know what that means. The one, the only, the mystical, the absolutely fantastic narrative designer, Ella!!

Wow, thank you for the introduction, pre-line break Ella! That’s right, winter is creeping up on us and bringing gifts in the form of the Winter Festival, snowy days, capran chaos, and gnomes galore! Wait, what? Gnomes?
Hey, Daniel? Did you put “gnomes” in here?

Oh, you weren’t supposed to see them yet. Some of the gnomes must’ve slipped out of my grip and into the script. I can only hold 17 of them at once, not counting the ones in my hair!

Again? You really need to get a better grip arou- Wait, you know what, Daniel. This will be terribly confusing for the readers, let me just…

*Rustle rustle*
*POOF!*

Ella: What about this? Yeah, this is much better!
Daniel: WHY DOES MY NAME APPEAR WHEN I TALK? WHY DOES YOUR NAME HOVER BESIDE YOU? WHAT KIND OF WITCHCRAFT DID YOU PULL?

Ella: Watch it, you know what happened last time you questioned me, Daniel...
Anyway, now that you’re here, faulty grip, rampant gnomes, and all, you might as well stay! Readers, this is Daniel, a fellow designer here at Star Stable! Talk, Daniel!

Daniel: Thank you, Ella! As you’ve read, I’m Daniel, a fairly new hire here at SSE. You may have played my race with Athena before, and I’m very excited for you to see what we worked on for winter and everything that’s coming up!  

The Winter Festival was incredibly fun to work on. And as I said before, we reframed it around gnomes. Making things about these funny creatures wasn’t easy all the time, and partly it’s because of the amount of content winter already had. 

A lot of what we had relied on roleplay entirely, and as fun as it is, it’s not really giving you, the players, more things to do. We wanted to do precisely that, give you plenty to do and give you a reason to do so year after year.

Ella: In the words of Bridle: Booooring… Can we, like, get all of this technical stuff over with and get to the fun stuff already?

While you’ve been exploring Gallopers Keep, tricking and treating, we’ve been behind the scenes, tossing snow left and right, wrapping presents, and yup, wrangling gnomes.

These bearded menaces have invaded the Winter Village, and it’s a total Gnome-aggedon! They’re bouncing off the walls, causing chaos, the caprans can’t get anything done! It is now up to you to help relieve the caprans of this gnomeful disaster. In what way, you ask? How about…

Daniel: Literally chasing gnomes around.

Ella: And escaped horses, too.

Daniel: Guessing what they’re trying to say.

Ella: Pleasing the frightening Decorator. He’s not here, is he?!

Daniel: I think I saw him going for lunch, we should be safe for a bit longer. You really don’t want to disappoint him.

Ella: Speaking of lunch, how about catching a yummy dinner for Truffle? A fishy one, that is.

Daniel: You really can’t forget the magical horses! Skylike Só— 

Ella: Oh no, Daniel! Help! The gnomes! They’re on me! NO, not the beard! Oh, my glorious beard! 

Daniel: Oh no, OH NO, THEY BROKE THE LOCKS! Your glue-on beard can wait, THE SNACKS ARE AT RISK! MY BEAUTIFUL CROISSANTS, I’M ON MY WAY…!

Ella: Ow… ow… ow… We gotta go get this gnome situation under control, see y'all at the next festival! NO, NOT THE SERVERS!! LET GO OF I—

Winter Magical Horses

By Suus (Senior 3D Artist)

Hello there! My name is Suus, and I’m the newest addition to the 3D horse team! Nice to meet you! :)
I’ve been at Star Stable for a few months now, so you might have already seen some of the things I’ve helped bring to life in the game.
I absolutely love horses, so getting to combine that passion with my work is a dream come true!

A little while ago, I received my next assignment: to come up with ideas for the upcoming magic winter horses.
Immediately, I was thrilled: winter! The most magical, festive, and cozy time of the year.
But then I started looking back at all the incredible magic horses that had been created over the years. They were so beautiful and unique. Unicorns, mystical creatures, and everything in between. (Did I mention unicorns?!)

Luckily, I wasn’t on this journey alone. With the help of my super-skilled Art Lead, Lotta, we dove into brainstorming. Together, we came up with all sorts of ideas, from beautiful and cute to silly and downright ridiculous. (Candy cane horse, anyone?)

After hours of sketching and laughing, my brain finally ran out of ideas.
But then…

One evening, I was scrolling through old photos on my phone and ended up all the way back in winter 2021, the time when I had just moved to Sweden. I remembered the incredible amount of snow, something so different from my home in the Netherlands, where snow usually turns into a slushy mess within minutes. (Good luck building a snowman with that! :’))

Every morning, I would walk my little dog Dobby across a big open field on my way to work. There was one morning in particular I’ll never forget: fresh snow had fallen overnight and the rising sun glowed huge and golden over the glittering white landscape. It somehow felt both freezing and warm at the same time.

In the evenings, I would walk Dobby back through the same field. This time bathed in moonlight. The path was pitch black except for the soft glow of the snow reflecting the moon, creating this calm, peaceful silence. By the time I got home, the hair peeking out from under my beanie would be frosted from the cold.

Dobby

Those moments stayed with me.
So I started sketching, capturing the feeling of sunny winter mornings and quiet moonlit nights. When I showed my scribbles to the team, Lotta shared a story that took everything to another level. She said the designs reminded her of the ancient gods Sol and Hati, who chase the sun and moon across the sky. It fit perfectly with the spirit of the concepts, and from there the magic really began to take shape.

To give the horses that final, otherworldly touch, we experimented with a special shader that makes them shimmer with celestial light as if they truly belong to another realm.

I hope that whenever you ride these winter magic horses, you’ll feel like a winter god(dess) yourself: radiant in the day or serene in the night!

We're Marching Along on Marchenghast

By Stacy (Game Director)

Stacy here to report in on the development of our new area in the game, Marchenghast. Readers were so excited about the last blog post that I couldn’t wait to write up a little bit more!

So, while it’s still too early to officially lower the drawbridge, I will do my best to share some fun insights without tooooo many spoilers.

Some notes: The following screenshots are development photos I stole from our project channel. This means that the images show works in progress, not necessarily intended for players, without full atmosphere and decoration. Nothing is final yet - things can and will change!

Updated look at the drawbridge entrance on the Goldenhills side.

The heart of Marchenghast is the story. We’ll be adventuring into an area long lost to the majority of Jorvik, trapped eternally in the 19th century. But why? What happened here, and who are the mysterious residents of the castle and forest? Why is Goldenhills stuck in eternal autumn? Only those most connected to the magic of Jorvik will be able to pierce the veil and uncover the secrets that lie within. Are YOU that girl? (If you have access to Goldenhills Valley, yes. Yes, you are.)

While I shared mainly concept art in the last blog post, now I’ll take the opportunity to show you some of the work that’s been done in-game. The castle and forest layouts are generally in place, and our artists have been hard at work finalizing all the elements, such as walls and turrets. They are now working on set dressing, which involves adding smaller, individual components, such as bushes, fountains, props, and more, that fill out the space and visually provide context to an area. There is still much to be done, and the area comes alive even more every day!

Autumnal foliage and lights added to one spot of the castle grounds.

One common question we received was if there would be a home stable at this location, and the answer is yes! The castle will serve as a proper town hub, offering all the expected facilities. The forest will also have a hub, although on a smaller scale.

An early sneak peek at the home stable and transport trailer.

Forest sneak peek. Our Art Director wouldn’t give me any more photos of the forest because he said I’m sharing too many spoilers =(

Another important aspect of an area such as Marchenghast is the audio. The area is intended to evoke very specific feelings, so our audio team worked on cooking up something special. They built their own instrument with unconventional items to experiment with new sounds! They also spent a lot of time exploring what the soundtrack of the area should be, especially to separate the castle and the forest. I asked our Audio Director, Axel, if we could have a sample of what you’ll hear.

Remember, these videos showcase works in progress, not finished content.

Well, I think I need to wrap things up before I go overboard with the spoilers! I hinted last time at my journey to a frozen land, and now I’ve been invited to a creepy, old mansion that I heard might be haunted. Anyone who knows me knows I can’t resist a good scare! Where my many adventures will lead us, I cannot yet say for sure…but I’ll certainly be the first to let you all know.

With love, from Cadence and Minty!