Hi everyone! Jeremy here, community manager at Third Time, and today we wanted to give a sneak peek not only into the game as we approach Beta, but also a behind-the-scenes look at our team meetings!

Yesterday we assembled via Zoom to touch base, as we do every day. Not only do we discuss company business, tasks, and bug fixes, but we also test the game with a bunch of races. We all try to approach the game as gamers/owners first. Which means…we want to WIN.

So, with this in mind, I (Jeremy) perused the list of races and saw the Ephesus Allowance. As my stable is Greek mythology-inspired, I felt it was a sign from the race gods to enter the Greek-named race!

Checking out the initial competition, I saw 2 B horses: Paul F.’s Brilliant Blowoutand Tjay’s Cryogenic Mantle.

I clicked the Register button to see my best horse for this race. Odysseus is a proven winner: B graded, and matched the preferences of this race (Right/Turf/Soft).

Alright, feeling good about my chances!

I was hoping the race would fill out with similar horses. One minute til Post Time, and I checked out the final list of competitors. Brian P. and Paul N. had entered the imaginatively-named B P’s Horse and Paul N.’s Horse, 2 B+ horses with no prior race history. Ian entered Dirt Preacher, a B+ with a winning record.

…not feeling as good about my chances, but you never know!

I hovered my mouse over my horse’s grade, and saw that Odysseus is strong in Finish, pretty good in Heart and Temper, and not so great at Start and Speed.

I checked with Ian to ask him about his decision on why he picked Dirt Preacher for this race:

IC: “Dirt Preacher (named after my favorite song from one of my favorite bands All Them Witches) had won all 3 races he had entered at this point, all of which were > 10 furlongs. He was a slow starter, but had strong speed and stamina plus decent heart and finish. Unfortunately he wasn’t a perfect match for the environment. He prefers dirt over Turf (hence the name), but he was the only B+ horse that I had that was rested and ready so I figured he had as good a shot as any.”

The race began! When I say these races are entertaining, I mean it. We are so invested in our horses, and there’s not yet any money on the line…only pride!

Here’s the full race!

Ok, so, not the performance I was hoping for.

How did my stats play into this?

Well, Odysseus started really slow, and had trouble keeping up with the pack; to be expected with his low Start and Speed. He surged ahead in the end, per his strong Finish, but wasn’t able to overcome the higher ranked horses. Odysseus came close, which I attribute to his Heart and Temper.

Paul F.’s Brilliant Blowout turns out had the perfect preferences as well as a high Speed skill, to overcome the B+ horses and take the trophy. Ian’s Dirt Preacher was a strong contender but couldn’t overcome Brilliant Blowout’s sensational performance.

We saw Paul N.’s Horse boost ahead for a bit, thanks to very strong Heart and Temper. But in the end his Stamina was too low to maintain pace.

Tjay’s Cryogenic Mantle had Speed and Start, but his Stamina and Finish just weren’t enough to maintain his strong early position.

I hope you all enjoyed this look at our daily meetings! The game is so pretty and enjoyable, and we all love watching and competing. Though we can’t compete in the final product, we’ll be watching all of you, with buckets of popcorn and mint juleps close at hand!

Until next time, see you at the track!

• Jeremy (Community Manager)