Western Festival

By Ella (Narrative Design) & Jarrod (Senior Environment Artist)

Howdy, Starfam! ‘Tis I again, Ella, the narrative design intern, coming at ya with yet another festival. This time around, if you couldn’t tell, Western! And even though we are far from the winter festival, I come bearing gifts. Gifts in the form of my dear colleague, lover of muddy pigs, and environment extraordinaire, Jarrod!

We at SSE have been hard at work creating yet another wonderful festival, bla bla bla, please act like this is news to you and you’ve never heard me say it before. This time around, we’ve tapped into our mud-slinging, hammer-wielding, mule-kicking sides and created this year’s iteration of the Western festival! I also thought I’d get a little more in-depth into how we start off a festival, what our pre-production phase looks like!

If you’ve read the April blog (because you do read my posts, right? Right?), you know all about how we reactivate festivals, and the Western festival is no exception. However, since the Western festival is still relatively new, we’re still working on defining the theme. Before we even start brainstorming a festival, we get a so-called “brief” from our dear directors, telling us their wishes, requests, and the direction they want us to take for this festival. This year, a “state fair” theme, battered and fried, was requested! This was incredibly fun to brainstorm, carnival games, Americana, singing, and dancing to name a few.

After brainstorming, we start sorting through it all; what content can we make in the given timeframe? What do we think the players will like? And also, what is calling our names? What do we want to work on? This is done through “scoping”. Scoping basically means we look at our deadline, which is usually determined by when the update drops, and the content we want to do, and see what we can achieve in that timeframe! We sort through and cherry pick the content we need to do, such as fixing previous bugs, reactivating content and making sure it’s still relevant, redoing the layout so everything fits, and much more. These are called “must-haves”. 

Then, we start looking at what we want to do if time allows it, this can be more personal goals, such as updating the music, making new NPCs, silly quests (my fav), and updating the environment to name a few. Just stuff that us developers can do because we want to, not because the festival will crumble and break if we don’t do it, these are therefore called “Nice-to-haves.”

When all of this is done, we pitch our plan back to the directors! We present what we’re planning on doing, what the timeframe looks like, why we’re doing what we’re doing, so on and so forth. Just telling the directors how we’ve scoped and what we’re planning to do according to the brief they gave us! This time around, we passed with flying colors  (as we always do), and into production we jumped.

Now, here comes what you’ve all been waiting for…

TEASERS!

Yes! What did we think you would like? What did we end up working on? Let’s take a look!

What do pigs and carnival games have in common? Well, two words that make a great pun when put together, of course. Bonking and oinking! 

Once again, Gary Goldtooth and the Western festival go together like chickens and cats! 

…Wait, what?

Something I hold near and dear to my Potato is Heart! No, that didn’t quite work now, did it?...

Well, the items we’re bringing you this festival are truly Unbe-Ylva-ble!

Ain’t no festival without some wild outlaws! Mayhaps they’ll get you into some muddy troubles? 

The Western festival is all about that rancher and farmer life, but oh gourd! We don’t have any farmers yet! Better invite some geezers that are outstanding in their fields, and have sow much fun together!

And if this is your first ever Western festival, then don’t fret, cowboy! There’ll still be puppies running astray, gold begging for a diggi- OH GOD, BEASTS!!

…and all of that country-lovin’ stuff, ahem.

This is not all, but I better go now, that bull doesn’t look too happy with me! It’s been such a blast to work on this, and I can’t wait to see y’all stroll around Starshine Ranch this summer. I hope you’ll enjoy!

Now, let’s head over to Jarrod! I gotta deal with this bull for a sec…

Be careful Ella!

I’m sure she’ll be fine! Hehe…

I absolutely love the pre-production phase of any project! It’s the time to brainstorm tons of ideas—most of them funny, silly, and just plain fun! The thrill of new possibilities is incredibly motivating.

Working on the environment has been, as always, a blast! But I’m craving more—I want to do more, create more, give more! Patience, as you can probably tell, isn’t my strong suit.

One exciting new addition was the High Striker. I had a blast working on it, especially because I got to collaborate with our talented technical artist, Francis Rinsche, and our animator, Max Larsson. I designed, modeled, and textured the High Striker, then handed it over to Francis to rig it—essentially turning it into a puppet with controls. After that, Max brought it to life with some incredible animations for both the player and the Striker. To top it all off, I added victory confetti—and trust me, I didn’t hold back on celebrating that full-strike power! Words can’t capture the silliness—you just have to experience it for yourself!

Star Stable is a company built by passionate individuals from around the world who love our game and what we do.

Throughout the year, we have "Passion Weeks," where we dedicate one week to freely explore creative ideas and content for the game. The results are always brilliant, wacky, funny, and truly reflect our team's pure passion. However, many of these fantastic creations don't end up being implemented into the game.

During brainstorming for the Western Festival, I had an opportunity to share my ideas, and one concept I proposed was to introduce content into the game that stemmed from this personal passion, rather than specific instructions from a brief. I envisioned something personal, unique, and special.

This led to the "unique items" idea. This initiative allows our artists to create something born from their personal ideas and passions. It also gives our players the opportunity to acquire items they know were crafted with love and a personal connection.

Players will now be able to purchase items at Ylva's shop, knowing that the artist who created them had a special connection to the piece. These items are personal, distinctive, and provide each of our artists with an opportunity to express their individual tastes.

I am  excited to discover more ways to share the personal ideas of our wonderful employees with our like-minded players. This is just the beginning.

So farewell from us, till next time!

Voices From SSE - SoMe

By Hanna (Social Media, PR, and Communications Manager)

Hello, I’m Hanna—one of the voices behind the captions, the reels, the updates, and the occasional blooper at Star Stable. I run Social Media, Communications, and PR (though the crises are usually digital). If you've spent time on our social feeds, you’ve probably seen it all: the polished, the chaotic, and the moments that make you cringe.

My Gen Z teammates inform me that "cringe" is no longer acceptable terminology. Unfortunately, they haven't offered a suitable replacement. What can you do? We post. We learn. We try again.

My day-to-day includes keeping the team informed about upcoming updates, brainstorming and planning content, and managing our wonderful crew of moderators and content creators. Sometimes I act (badly), sometimes I write copy (better), and sometimes I craft responses for when the community has, let’s say, strong feelings. That’s right, if something doesn’t land the way we expected, I’m probably the one behind the scenes figuring out the best way to say, ‘Hey, we hear you!’ with kindness and maybe a little humor.

But there’s more happening behind the scenes than you might expect. I aim to be clear, transparent, and even a step ahead of our players’ wants. I regularly check in with our tireless, player-facing team to ask the big questions. Like: What does the community actually want to be informed about? And: Are we sick of pink clothes and tack, or is it officially iconic again?

Some of my favorite things we’ve rolled out during my 5 year tenure? The “Next Up in Jorvik!” updates, our player surveys on horses, and our video series where, if the stars align, we even get to drop a redeem code or two. Of course, we don’t make it too easy. Unless a player comments the code within five seconds of posting. Which they always do. You win this round, internet.

Our team serves as a vital bridge between the community and the game developers. We inform, we listen, and yes—we bring all the feedback. In fact, every week at our company-wide meeting, I present player reactions from the latest update. The enthusiasm fuels our drive, while the honest feedback guides our decisions moving forward.

So that’s just a small slice of my role! I don’t want to bore you, and I hope you’ll swing by our socials again soon. And if you catch a typo or a cringe moment along the way, just remember: it’s all part of the charm of our team. Thanks for being part of this wild, wonderful StarFam.