Harvey Smith and Ben Horne have revealed Black Pony Immersive, a new studio built around the kind of single-player, first-person games the pair have spent much of their careers making. The studio’s official website describes a focus on narrative-rich worlds and expressive systems that let players create their own solutions.
The public reveal came through a GamesIndustry.biz interview with Smith and Horne, rather than a game announcement. Black Pony has not named its first project, shown a trailer, confirmed platforms, or given a release window. What the founders have made clear is the design lane they want to stay in: single-player action RPGs and immersive simulations where exploration and player choice matter.
A team reunited after Arkane Austin
Black Pony opened its doors last August and has grown to 26 people, according to the interview. The group includes several developers who worked together at Arkane Austin, including Horne, who was a production director on Redfall, and Ricardo Bare, Smith’s longtime creative partner. Monte Martinez, whose credits include Ion Storm, 2K Marin, and WolfEye Studios, is also part of the team.
Smith’s own rĂ©sumĂ© reaches back to the original Deus Ex, where he was lead designer, and through Arkane’s Dishonored series. Their stated target is a focused, narrative-led game in which players feel slightly underpowered, collect creative tools, explore at their own pace, and solve problems in more than one way.
That emphasis gives the studio a clear identity before it has a product to show. Smith described the project as an action RPG or first-person RPG hybrid, with the label immersive sim available if it helps explain the experience. The reference points are not hidden, but the studio has not suggested that it is reviving Dishonored, Prey, or Deus Ex. It is building something new with a team shaped by those games.
The first game remains under wraps
Black Pony’s website keeps the public message deliberately broad. It promises imaginative games in well-realized worlds, but offers no title, story details, publisher information, or production schedule. Smith told GamesIndustry.biz that the pitch existed before the company did. The founders have not attached a public title or release window to that pitch.
The timing also places the announcement in a larger conversation about what happens to experienced teams after a major studio closes. Our report on Warren Spector’s retirement from game development covered one end of that story this week. Black Pony represents another response: keep a small group together and give it room to make the kind of games its founders believe in.
That approach arrives after a difficult period for game development, including the wider Xbox restructuring covered in our analysis of Microsoft’s reset. Black Pony is not promising a launch date or asking players to buy into an unfinished product yet. For now, the reveal is a statement of intent from veterans who want to prove that carefully built, single-player immersive games still have a place in the market.
The next meaningful update will need to show what that intent looks like in practice. Until then, Black Pony Immersive is a new home for a familiar design philosophy, not a named game waiting around the corner.
