Manor Lords Is 'Historically Inspired' Game and Love Letter to Strategy Classic. Dev Asked Players About Crucial Change
The strategy from 30 years ago is, so to speak, an ancestor of Manor Lords, with the Polish developer reluctant to describe his game as faithful to historical facts.
Manor Lords turned out to be exactly the release that some of us were hoping for. Grzegorz Styczen's game immediately became the most successful Polish premiere of the first half of 2024, even competing with Helldivers 2.
However, this marks only the start of early access (not game testing), and Slavic Magic Studio still has a lot of work to do. For now, the dev of Manor Lords is asking players what to do with - according to some fans - too profitable global economy mechanics.
Players vote on trading in Manor Lords
Just a reminder: right before the game's premiere on Steam Early Access, the developer introduced one important change to the game. Frequent selling or buying of a single type of goods by a player (such as wool) will lead to an "oversupply" of that commodity in the market. In practice, this means that trying to build the economy around a single product will lead to the product being unsellable and a substantial rise in the prices of imported goods.
Already on the day of introducing this patch, Styczen admitted that he himself wasn't particularly bothered by such "gaps." He repeated this in a new post published on the Manor Lords channel on Discord. The developer doesn't mind the specialization of "regions" - in fact, he thinks that's exactly how it should be played.
However, he decided to seek the players' opinion on the supply system. On Discord you can vote in a survey about limiting the global economy. Most users agreed that this element should stay in the game but with some moderation to avoid overly harsh penalties for economically specialized regions.
Lords of the Realm 30 years later
It could be questioned whether the dev should have chosen "realism" here - but he indicated long ago that he is aiming for good fun. As he stated in an interview for GamesRadar, although he tried to remain faithful to historical facts, in practice Manor Lords is a game "inspired by history." In his opinion, it's not possible for any game to fully correspond with reality.
It's true that there is nothing "very contradictory" to historical truth left in the game. Nonetheless, Styczen focuses on balancing between reality and gameplay. Manor Lords isn't intended to be a "sim" at the expense of the fun of the game. The dev admits that sometimes reaching such a "compromise" is annoying, but it can also inspire him.
Of course, the opportunity to take on the role of a medieval noble in a relatively realistic virtual world is what generated interest in the game. Tim Bender, CEO of Hooded Horse, noted (via GamesRadar ) that in some ways, Manor Lords could be considered the spiritual successor to 1994's Lords of the Realm. Not only because in both titles you can breed sheep (which disappeared in the sequel of this older game).
The American also compliments the abundance of choices, which allows each player to customize the gameplay to their liking - for instance, to expand their properties during peaceful times. This, along with the possibility of becoming a medieval ruler (Bender even goes so far as to say that most strategies are "RPG in disguise"), is said to determine the strength of Manor Lords, according to the American.
Whatever the reasons, no one doubts the success of Manor Lords. The game rapidly gained popularity on Steam and quickly sold a million copies. Many larger studios could envy such a result.
