Hooded Horse CEO hits back at claims that Manor Lords slipped up in early access: 'Not every game should be aimed at becoming some live service boom or bust'

GamesCity BuilderManor LordsHooded Horse CEO hits back at claims that Manor Lords slipped up in early access: ‘Not every game should be aimed at becoming some live service boom or bust’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Slavic Magic)

Manor Lords promo art - knight on horseback looking at a medieval village in the distance, viewed from behind

Over the last couple of weeks, the same old debate about what makes a game successful and how devs can hold on to that success emerged yet again. Some decided that Helldivers 2 losing 90% of its playerbase was an issue despite the live service game having a healthy40,000 or more concurrent playerseach day. And nowManor Lords, the small city builder that managed to climb to themost wishlisted game spot on Steam, is also apparently showing cause for concern.

Over the weekend, Hinterland’s CEO Raphael van Lieropposted a lengthy takeon the city builder and how it’s failed to make the most of early access to LinkedIn: “Manor Lords is a pretty interesting case study in the pitfalls of Early Access development when a game with a small team (and heavily marketed as such) hits the reality of a hungry audience.”

“It launched with a pretty strong base game but without much content,” Lierop says. “A heavily systems-centric game needs either a range of maps, game modes, or some amount of proc-gen dynamism to keep it fresh. Manor Lords has none of those things. So once you [have] played 5-10 rounds of the game, there’s nothing more to do.”

(Image credit: Slavic Magic)

Manor Lords burgage plot under construction

It’s fair to say that you’ve personally had enough of Manor Lords and have found a natural end to it while still hoping for more added content in future updates to encourage you to return to the medieval city builder. However, coming to the conclusion that it’s failed to properly grasp early access is perhaps too harsh, especially after conceding that drop-offs in popularity are common at this stage of development.

Manor Lords’ run has been nothing if not impressive.Surpassing 100,000 players within hours of releaseandbreaking the Steam city builder recordwith over 170,000 concurrent players is a remarkable feat for a solo dev, but the success didn’t stop there. Since Manor Lords entered early access two and a half months ago, there have been three patches, one of which wasa pretty impressive updatethat saw a lot of issues addressed and some new features added. It currently sits at around10,000 concurrent players daily, which is a solid feat for a non-live service game.

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(Image credit: Slavic Magic)

Manor Lords trade - A small town

“If this industry is to find a more sustainable path forward, we need to move away from takes like the below,” Bender says. “Success should not create an ever-raising bar of new growth expectations. Not every game should be aimed at becoming some live-service boom or bust. And a release should not begin an ever-accelerating treadmill on which devs are forced to run until their mental or physical health breaks down.”

While I think it’s true that both arguments dance around a similar subject without actually understanding the point both are trying to make, this confusion stems from Lierop’s initial statement about Manor Lords being an “interesting case study in the pitfalls of Early Access”. I think it would have a lot more ground to stand on if it was done from a personal perspective, talking more about his experience with falling out of love with playing the game and less about using a drop in concurrent players as proof that this sentiment is widely held and an objective view that Manor Lords’ time in early access is some sort of failure because of it.

Like most LinkedIn posts, it’s full of buzzwords that do make it sound as if it’s an attack on the developer instead of what it really is: a fan of the game sharing their experience with it and why it’s interesting that said experience is common for many early access games.

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