Historical strategy sim Manor Lords – which budding feudal despot Nic Reuben has deemed “a sturdy and immersive builder that feels incomplete yet alive with promise” – is now available on Steam, the Epic Games Store, Microsoft Store and GOG. It was Steam’s most wishlisted game before launch, and it’s so popular right now that Steam’s servers are struggling to keep up: there’s an official developer post on the game’s Steam forum warning that “the store is overwhelmed from all the people buying, it may take a couple tries for a bit while things calm down”.
It’s possible some of the frenzy is owing to the game being 25% off at launch. Perhaps in light of this, Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender has written a note for the Steam storepage reassuring people that they don’t have to buy Manor Lords right now – Hooded Horse will surely discount it again down the line.
“If money is tight right now or you’re still uncertain, we’ll run those 25% discounts often and give you plenty of opportunities to get the game later as well, no one should feel any fear of missing out or any kind of pressure,” he promised. “Or if you’d just rather wait some time and jump in later after some patches and updates have come out, that’s fine too – Early Access isn’t for everyone, if you check back later the game will just keep getting better and better.”
Developer Greg Styczeń, meanwhile, would very much like people to post reviews – there are already 681 on Steam at the time of writing – both with a view to catching the bugs and boosting the game’s profile even further. (Lest Styczeń seem greedy, this was before the game actually launched and it promptly bounded to the top of the charts.) “You know how youtubers always ask to “like and subscribe” and the simple fact of asking rises their subscriptions?” he wrote in a reddit post today. “Turns out it happens in game dev as well.
“Most players don’t leave reviews. Or worse, people who had a bug will leave a negative review, while people who just had a great, good or even OK time, won’t leave a review. Please leave a review. And I understand it’s going to be a mix of positives and negatives especially in that first month. I’m prepared! The game is early access for a reason and I’m very confident that it will only get better. I promise to work hard.”
Styczeń also commented that you might notice some slight discrepancy between versions of the game on different storefronts. “I decided to push some minor last minute localization fixes to Steam, but really EGS, GOG and Steam are quite identical. Gamepass is a bit behind but updates are already on their way – the process take longer there.”
Among the fixes already on Styczeń’s to-do list are the game’s archer units not having enough zap. “I’m hearing some early reports about archers being ineffective,” he acknowledged on TwiXer. “That was a risky last minute balance change cause they were reported to be OP (rightly so I think). This will surely take a while to get right.”
I haven’t had a chance to really investigate Manor Lords yet, and may end up joining the hordes taking their first steps in late 14th century Franconia this weekend. Apparently you have to worry about the soil going sterile when you overfarm it. What larks! For a more thorough accounting, here’s Nic’s Manor Lords review again. If you’re playing yourself, let us know what you think of the archers.
Laura Adams is a tech enthusiast residing in the UK. Her articles cover the latest technological innovations, from AI to consumer gadgets, providing readers with a glimpse into the future of technology.
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