In the summer of 2020, the announcement by Manor Lords caused quite a stir. The realistic look promised an interesting building game in which we see the Middle Ages from a much more authentic-looking side than, for example, in Anno 1404 or The Settlers. Instead, the designs were more reminiscent of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. In addition, Manor Lords should start real-time battles on a large scale, which are a little reminiscent of the battles from Total War. In combination, it all sounds like a dream for fans of the Middle Ages.
But what about Manor Lords now? The last developer update on Youtube was from the beginning of 2021, after which it became frighteningly quiet about the building game. Our last exclusive preview, in which the developer personally told us about his plans, is now more than a year in the past.
So we did a little bit of research and gathered all the latest information on the promising indie project. The trailer gives you a general gameplay overview.
4:21
Manor Lords: New gameplay trailer shows how house building & medieval battles work
When should Manor Lords appear now?
An early access release was originally planned for 2021. The individual developer Grzegorz Styczen will no longer be able to meet this deadline. We’re pretty sure of that two days before the end of the year. The next possibility would be a release in 2022.
But there is still no guarantee here. In the official Discord it is noted again and again that Manor Lords receives an open alpha phase before the (paid) Early Access, in which voluntary testers can give feedback. It has not yet started either. Should an EA still take place in 2022, it will probably be in the second half of the year at the earliest.
Where does Manor Lords appear?
Manor Lords opened very early on after its announcement a page on Steam to get. But meanwhile it has also been announced that Manor Lords will also appear on GOG. If you value games without copy protection, you don’t have to cut corners with Manor Lords. The developer has also made the selling price official. Manor Lords is said to cost 25 dollars.
Still a developer?
Manor Lords is self-developed by just one person. The developer is called Grzegorz Styczen, but is better known as SlavicMagic
, that is also the name of the development studio. Styczen is still the only permanent member of the team. But Manor Lords is not built entirely on its own. Styczen pays some freelance workers for their help. For example, an environment artist was recently searched on Twitter and a video shows the motion capturing process with friends.
Link to Twitter content
What has happened in Manor Lords?
Bugs are fixed
We still haven’t had a look at a playable version. So far we only have the promises of the developer and his updates. Mainly shares on Twitter SlavicMagic
the waiting fans with what’s going on in development. A lot of time goes into fixing various bugs. One of the reasons for the postponement to 2022 is said to be a bunch of bugs that moved into the game as the zoom increased.
There is fire
A minor innovation, which was also shown on Twitter, are the fire effects. You can see it in this short videohow a burning hut is not only consumed by the flames, but individual beams even gradually crack down.
Houses and cities design
Originally, the developer wanted to cover a period of time and pick up on the Middle Ages from the 11th to the 15th century. Some elements from different epochs should overlap, after all, Manor Lords will not be a perfect simulation of the Middle Ages. In the meantime, however, the philosophy has changed a bit. According to Styczen, Manor Lords is now firmly focused on the 14th century and should no longer show an architectural mix of French and Anglo-Saxon construction methods. Instead, it is based on the southern Europe construction method.
Also exciting are new in-game screenshots, in which larger cities can be seen for the first time. In it, the developer gives a very atmospheric foretaste of what awaits us outside of the small villages in Manor Lords and how organic it all could look:
Short answers to small questions
In November the developer of Manor Lords set up a new FAQ with questions from the Discord and provided a few answers. The complete question-and-answer document is available here. But we also summarize some interesting details.
- Do residents die of old age? Not at the moment, and they probably never will. Manor Lords is not supposed to be about managing the family relationships of individual citizens.
- Are there cannons? The developer actually wanted to use hand tubes as weapons, but since a large part of the community does not want black powder weapons at all, he is thinking about deleting them.
- Is there a fog of war? Probably not. One was introduced for a short time, but the developer was dissatisfied with how this affected the strategy and that the card lost much of its optical quality as a result.
- Do units gain experience? No, there will be no experience point system. Units can, however, be trained.
- Will there be laws? At the moment, the most important thing is the loyalty of citizens, which depends on resources such as food, wood, candles or shoes. If loyalty drops too much, rebellions can break out. There is also a law mechanism, but it is still very rudimentary and needs to be revised.
- Will there be diseases? There was once an epidemic system that didn’t work well. But the developer wants to explore further possibilities.
- Can you look into buildings? No, such a mechanism would increase the workload enormously.
How do you feel about Manor Lords? You are confident that the developer can implement his plans. And do you think there will be an EA release in the coming year? Feel free to write it in the comments!
Table of Contents
