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Why it's still worth making immersive sims ft. Harvey Smith & Ben Horne

Celebrated game designer Harvey Smith and former Arkane Austin executive producer Ben Horne lay out their vision for Black Pony Immersive.

Game Developer Podcast

October 5, 2026

What happens when you're a talented game designer who's helped make proven hits in a genre that financial analysts are bemoaning as niche? Do you go make what's popular? Or do you fight like hell to make the games of your dreams?

These are the kind of questions you might ask former Arkane Studios collaborators and Black Pony Immersive co-founders Harvey Smith and Ben Horne, who are dead-set on making the kinds of ambitious games that defined the celebrated studio behind Dishonored, Prey, and Deathloop: first-person action-RPG 'immersive sims' with style and character.

They'd be the first to tell you it takes creativity and gumption to make these kinds of games when you don't have the backing of multi-million dollar companies like Zenimax or Microsoft behind you. So what are the 'first principles' of immersive sims, and how are Smith and Horne thinking about building these kinds of games at an all-new studio?

You'll find the answers on this week's episode of the Game Developer Podcast.

About the Game Developer Podcast

The Game Developer podcast is a bi-weekly podcast chronicling the triumphs, catastrophes, and everything in-between of game development, sharing lessons and strategies fellow developers can use to hone their craft. The Game Developer Podcast is hosted by Bryant Francis, edited by Pierre Landriau, and features music by Mike Meehan.