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

Game Developer says celebrated designer Harvey Smith and former Arkane Austin executive producer Ben Horne are laying out Black Pony Immersive’s vision around one core idea: immersive sims still deserve to be made. Their pitch centers on systems-first design, player choice, and the kind of authored sandboxes that let players improvise rather than follow a single solution.

That matters because immersive sims sit at the intersection of design ambition and production risk. They tend to demand more content interlock, more simulation edge cases, and more iteration than a straightforward linear game, but they can also create the memorable emergent moments that players and developers keep talking about years later.

The broader context is familiar to anyone who has watched the genre’s ups and downs: immersive sims are often treated as niche, yet their influence shows up everywhere from stealth to RPGs to systemic level design. Black Pony Immersive’s framing suggests there’s still room for studios willing to build around depth, reactivity, and player expression instead of chasing only the safest content pipeline.

For developers, the practical takeaway is less about nostalgia and more about scope discipline. If Black Pony can make the genre’s strengths legible to players and investors, it could be another data point that systemic design remains a viable business and creative bet when the team is aligned around it from the start.