Others - Abandoned - Secret Horse Files 3 [v0.38] [Levy]

Review of the game itself:
it's great, see the other reviews.

This review is about the game's current long delay/dev time, written from the perspective of someone that went through the pain in the ass process of reverse engineering parts of the game in order to make a personal mod and do dumb shit like make them cum more.

Even though the release code is obfuscated and an absolute nightmare to reverse engineer, doing that gave me a lot of appreciation for both just how much thought the guy put into the systems and how ambitious their vision for it all is... and also how just how ridiculously badly in need of a complete refactor the codebase was. It looked like layers of systems on top of other systems making everything exponentially more complex, each decent on their own, but together was reaching or had reached a breaking point.

Despite how complex it had gotten, I think even running into that problem at that level shows a lot of competency and capability, as does the fact that they recognized when they did that it was time to start over. I can't imagine doing that for my own projects. If it were me, scrapping a project and redoing it from he ground up, committing to over a year of not getting any dopamine from positive feedback on builds, I'd have probably quit a dozen times over.

Reading their devlogs from the past year they've posted some really compelling ideas. I feel like they explain the systems in kinda vague terms that are hard to really look forward to and appreciate without seeing it in action, but I honestly see the vision.

Even with how elegant everything is fitting together this time and taking what he learned from his high level mistakes from the first pass on it, it's still an absolutely insane amount of work for a solo dev and the fact that it's taking years doesn't surprise me at all. This isn't a "renpy dev taking a year to add a couple images and some dialogue" situation, this dude can actually write code and it's clear they're putting a lot of thought into the systems design for this.

Dai Levy, if you're reading this, from a random ass modder/gooner that hasn't given you money: I believe in you, you can do it ("it" being make this porn game) (said in the most wholesome way)

TL;DR:
I feel impatient whenever I'm reminded this game exists because I want it to come out, but despite the wait duration and the lack of any new builds, I think the amount of time it's taken so far looks like it matches the amount of work required. I hope they power through any difficulties and make it to a release, I have faith in their designs and ability to code.

(though from the progress updates, I feel like we should be able to get at least a basic test build showing off the new engine by the end of 2025, even if it's jank and barebones; if we don't see anything by then I'll feel a lot less optimistic about their ability to power through any difficulties)

not a big fan of mlp.



gameplay.

the gameplay is the usual simulator which is not a bad thing however the thing that stands out the most is the personality mechanic, each character has different opinions of different toys, characters and actions which has a surpising amount of depth to it while also giving the game more replayablity since all the characters will react differently, added to this you can also configure the personalities yourself which allows for some fun experimentation.



the cast of characters is also quite extensive, this paired with the amount of customisation that can be done creates and infinite ammount of personalities. honestly i find this mechanic to be the biggest selling point of this game.



conclusion.

Secret horse files 3 is what all simple 2d simulator games in this site should aspire to be, simple and straight to the action yet in possession of surprisingly deep mechanics and good replayability. it is a shame that this game has been abandoned and i would have liked for the personality mechanic to be developed further for it is a mechanic that is mostly overlooked by most developers even thought it can make the difference between making characters actually feel alive and reactive or them feeling dead and scripted.

Solid game, runs pretty smoothly but the game would seriously benefit from being moddable/easy to add new characters, then it would be a hop, skip and a jump to add all the eeveelutions and then the game would be perfect

I... Uh... I gotta say I'm slightly ashamed to say this, but... this game is way better than it has any right to be. I sincerely hope this gets taken further. Easy to play. Lots of options. Great fun for several hours if you can move past the MLP thing.

a fav of mine. prefer the patron version tho.
love that every one of them has a personality
will always be one of my top favs amongst all of them
(kinda looking for random stuff to type as well because hate the 200 character cap limit just to rate za game)

I really liked the idea but sadly the gameplay is really bad and confusing which makes it unplayable. But I really like that there are girls boys and futas and the characters look nice too. The faces look really lewd also.

Creator is using this as a money pit. Not a good game, but it rakes in 3k per month from people too gullible to cancel subscriptions. I don't know why anyone would pay for this to begin with, but they're getting hosed.

Put up to three MLP characters on a restraining table(?) and stuff things into them until they cum, pass out, or whatever.
That's the whole game, for better or worse.
There's no goal, no currency, no unlockables.

You can attach a cum transportation device to one's dick, then transfer that cum into a different character's dildo, jammed deep into their butt, then watch as the cum slowly bloats their belly to the point of practically looking pregnant.
You can use a toothbrush or a feather to tickle their feet, or make a dildo into a huge vibrating stun gun and jam that into their vagina while they thrash about and eventually pass out from the pain... whatever it is you're into, I guess.

There are a wide variety of characters to choose from, each with their own personalities and fetishes (though it doesn't affect much, it's just to decide how much they like one thing or another.)
Each character has their own orifice elasticity, pain tolerance, and capacity; not to mention the choice of ponies, dragons, gryphons, male, female, crotchboobs or no.

TL;DR: read the first paragraph. What the game does, it does well.

Great pony customization game, lots of options to choose from like gender customization and body variants, different toys to use and lubricants to put on the toys, would I like to see a custom impregnation scene, yes; but overall the game is great.

Hyper customizable, good quality graphics, it's a lot of fun to play, it lets you really get into what gets you off without allot of frills. Great game, very happy to see that the RACK genre hasn't died.

Really well made game. Fun to see the interaction between characters. While you can't make their interaction directly, you can connect them with the toys.

You can play around with how they perceive others, toys and objects.

Keeping an eye for future updates on this one.

Well this game have potential. I don't really like pony's theme but there is really cool stretching system. Never seen such in any porn game. So it is some sort of exclusive mechanic. If you wanna plug a giant bomb in these goddamn ponies, this game is for you xD