The Pony Factory

The Pony Factory originated as David Szymanski's 7-day contribution to the Dread X Collection, conceived as an exercise in doing a lot with very little. Winston, the protagonist's framing figure, has arrived at a solution to the moral decay of his town: call out to hell, accept hell's promise that the human body can be twisted into a kinder, more equine shape, and provide a factory in which to manufacture magical ponies from the sinful population.

Hell, of course, had other plans. The result is a short FPS inspired by Doom 3, with meaty FPS combat against highly agile foes who actively evade and flank you. Darkness is the central enemy — most of the game takes place in low-light environments where muzzle flashes, sparks, and audio cues are the primary tools for tracking foes during combat. The high-contrast black-and-white aesthetic borrows from early 1950s science fiction films.

This Steam release is the expanded version — the minimalist 30-minute jam campaign has been improved with quality-of-life features, balance and game feel adjustments, new story and gameplay content, full gamepad support, and bug fixes. The dark humor of the premise carries through every encounter, and the result remains a tight short experience rather than a stretched-out feature game.