What is Hornachsen Games?

This is the short story of Hornachsen Games.

About Hornachsen Games

So, you have come to this page and might wonder: What is Hornachsen Games? And without any doubt, the term ‘Hornachsen’ which makes up more than half of this name needs an explanation.

Will you find it here?
No, I guess not. But you will find out about what Hornachsen Games actually does!

Hornachsen Games is a game development team consisting of two people. We are from the same town in northern Germany, and are now spread out through the world (if you can say ‘spread out’ while talking about two people).
Until now, we shipped three games for Android devices:

TopStack – Futuristic mining action (2018)

The store page reads as follows:

Welcome to TopStack.


This is a game about controlling Mining Bots in search for treasures.
You climb down into the depths of a futuristic society’s trash pits.
The never-ending stream of trash bears it’s own dangers, so keep your eyes open.
This game features:


・Many useful upgrades
・Various Level Layouts
・Increasing Challenge
・Expressive Visuals
・An automatic Save Function
・Responsive Controls
・Highscore Hunting
・Addictive Mining Action
・Sliding up Walls
・And much more!

TopStack – Futuristic mining action on Google Play

Actually, TopStack is quite an odd game.
The visuals are not exactly what you would expect on a mobile device, and since the game pretty much plays like a platformer game, it can be quite input heavy.
The game features upgrades which really change the style of play, based on which you choose. The economical balance is quite tight, forcing the player to think carefully before buying anything.
We might cover TopStack in more depth in an upcoming post.

If you want to check out TopStack you can follow one of these links:

TopStack

TopStack Lite

To the Bottom (2019)

Welcome to To the Bottom!
In To the Bottom you will ride an elevator to reach the bottom of the seemingly infinite Central Tower.
You will choose your character and help them on their way to the bottom.
On your way to the bottom you have to be careful!
There are many enemies who will try to stop you, so you have to fight them!

Go and board your elevator! The Bottom is waiting for you!
How far will you get?

To the Bottom features:

– Hilarious action
– Hordes of enemies
– 17 Characters
– 11 Companions
– 5 Stages with unique enemies and bosses
– 50 Weapons and items
– 5 Shops
– A unique soundtrack
– Countless unlockable characters and items (Free of charge!)
– A stats screen to keep track of your performance
– A tutorial to get you started
– Customizable volume settings
– Customizable screen shake settings
– Elevators!

To the Bottom on Google Play

To the Bottom is our biggest game until now. Even though it only took 9-10 month from the start of development until the recent release, it has quite a lot of content and depth.

You may want to take a look at the trailer!

There are quite a lot of moving parts in this game, and quite a lot of thoughts were put into its design.
It might sound weird, but To the Bottom can be understood as a 2 x 1D game. This means that the game is structured differently from our common understanding of a 2D space. While the usual 2D space consists of left, right, up, and down, 4 directions which per se are not hierarchically structured, To the Bottom‘s y-axis is subject to the x-axis, meaning that up and down are not implemented independently, but always rely on whether the character is on the left, or on the right side of their elevator.
This sounds confusing, looks trivial in action, and is probably interesting from a design perspective.
We will definitely cover To the Bottom a lot in the future!

For now, feel free to check out the game:

To the Bottom

To the Bottom FREE

Jump Rope Champion (2019)

Become the next Jump Rope Champion!
How long will you be able to keep jumping?
Test your endurance and reaction in a challenging session of rope jumping!
Will you be able to push yourself to the limit and update your Highscore?

Well, even if you won’t you can still have a great time with this sport!

– Simple game mechanics
– Challenging difficulty curve
– Easy to understand tutorial
– Lovely visuals
– Keep track of your Highscore
– Totally Free!

Jump Rope Champion on Google Play

Jump Rope Champion is Hornachsen Games’ most recent game. After finishing To the Bottom, I was hit by some kind of post release blues, and just felt like making something simple (and maybe kind of stupid) for a change of pace.

After working on a prototype of an ape sitting on a tree, throwing shit at passing people, I came to senses again and decided to make a Jump Rope Champion. Due to the minimalistic scope, the game was finished and released in about 5 days.
There really is not much to this game, but somehow it can really trigger the ‘one more try’ kind of feeling.

Want to take a look at it?

Jump Rope Champion

Currently, we are looking into all kinds of ideas for our next projects.
We will keep you updated here, but for shorter bursts of information, you can also check out our twitter account: @hornachsen

Thank you for reading this introduction to Hornachsen Games!
Feel free to leave us a comment or contact us if you have any questions!