Manor Lords was guaranteed to be a Steam hit, as the medieval city builder reached the top of Steam wishlists just before its release today. Right now, the game sits at #5 on Steam’s most played charts as it leaps past a resurging Fallout 4, Helldivers 2, and GTA V. It’s an impressive achievement for a game made by a single developer, Greg Styczeń from Slavic Magic.
First announced in 2020, the hype surrounding Manor Lords has exploded over the past 12 months, as city-building and strategy fans alike have been itching to get their hands on the game.
Early critical reception has been overwhelmingly positive, but understand that the game is only now entering early access. The usual bugs will be present, and some features might be undercooked. According to the developer, Manor Lords will probably stay in early access for about a year. But the developer also stresses that “that might change depending on how the design develops with player feedback.”
What today’s release offers is “the structure and major mechanics of the game, ” says the developer.
As for a roadmap of what’s next? Styczeń is hesitant to release one right now.
“I’ve made a mistake once or twice before, of promising and working on a feature only to find out that the testers didn’t care as much as I did and that they actually wanted something else.”
Instead, what comes next will focus on what the community really wants. For the next month or so, work will focus on critical bug fixes and continuing to polish the game. “During that time, together with Hooded Horse, we’ll be collecting your feedback and then prioritizing work based on what we hear,” Styczeń writes.
It wouldn’t shock me to see the current peak player count of 146,000 grow even further as we enter peak gaming hours this weekend. Manor Lords is launching with a 25% discount to celebrate its early access launch. If you’re looking for an even cheaper way to try the game out, Manor Lords also launched on PC Game Pass today.