There’s been a generally ongoing dispute between the publishers of latest town builder sensation Manor Lords and Elder Scrolls survival sim juggernaut The Long Dull over how much of a significant update a game would require to Early Access, and each regarding the potential side effects. Developers are overworked and gamers are bored.
The day before, Hinterlands CEO Raphael van Lierop published a LinkedIn post calling Manor Lords “a very interesting case-study in the pitfalls of early access development” when a game with a small team ( and thus heavily marketed) collides with reality. Like the RPS’s in-house bourgeois surf-botherer Nick Ruben, Van Lierop is enthusiastic about Manor Lords, describing it as “very high quality”, although noting the inadequacy of the primary additions since the holiday. There’s a bone to pick.
Van Lierop writes, “It launched with a fairly strong base game but without much content.” “A closely system-focused game requires maps, game variants, or some amount of pro-gen mobility for unused stock.
“The Lords of the Manor are having none of this. So once you play 5-10 rounds of the game, there is nothing else left to do. The simplicity of fixed maps and resources means that there are not too many different permutations in the early game as the starting conditions are almost always the same. This isn’t good for an RTS/city-builder.”
Van Lierop claims that the builders of the Manor Lords have not been able to satisfy the Slavic Witchery’s desire for expansion because the studio largely belonged to one particular individual, Grzegorz Styze. (He’s gotten some support with sheepgut-based soundtracks), though he still feels that Hooded Horse will have to work with Styzeń to make some significant adjustments closer to the installation.
“As a result of the lack of updates, CCU (worldwide concurrent users) has decreased since launch (which is not so unusual – this is the current trend for a lot of Early Access titles that are blowing up these days),” He writes. “But given the large number of wishlists and hype surrounding it before launch, this is something the developer and publisher should have been better prepared for, IMO.”
The post continues, “Early Access is a marathon, and you need to queue up your next major content expansion for when you launch.” “The game has been out for 2.5 months and had three very small patches without any new features or content.
“As such, I have put the game aside and do not expect to revisit it for the next 6 months, at which time I will probably focus on playing something else. “Once you lose people’s attention it’s really hard to get it back.”
Van Lierop concluded with the recommendation that game builders quickly enter the plan for “2-3 major updates with new content and features (in addition to whatever hotfixes you need to roll out)” followed by 3 months of vacation. inside.
Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender, author of Manor Lords, doesn’t see the situation that way anymore. He described Van Lierop’s statement as “exactly the same kind of perverse endless growth/burden of expectations/the line must go up that causes so much trouble in the games industry”. He is also nostalgic for the waning of Manor Lords’ initial immense popularity, and is “poking fun at the apparently dark reality that some people, after enjoying the purchase of a premium, single-player title, want to move on and buy another”. Might decide to play the game (horror! horror!).”
Bender says he cautioned Styx that it would no longer be aware of feedback about gamers moving away from Manor Lords. “Before the holiday, I spoke to Dave from Manor Lords. I told him to leave then, he was listening to all kinds of commentators talking about neglected opportunities because he didn’t develop as fast as they wanted, and the game was somewhat of a failure based on their expectations. Were agreeing. Shaped.
“I advised him to forget all this – to concentrate on his original approach to the game, and to keep in mind that the initial approach to the road is long and he should no longer feel any sense of pressure from others. Expectations – to account for fluctuations in his personal situation and stress in the coming years and to maintain an environment of calm and non-violent thoughts that supports his simple vision.
Bender concluded, “If this industry is to find a more sustainable way forward, we need to move away from notions like (Van Lierop’s post).” “Success should not create ever-increasing levels of new development expectations. The goal of every game should not be to make the live-service boom or bust. And a release should never trigger a speeding-up treadmill on which developers are forced to run until their mental or physical health deteriorates.
Missing from the discussion is any indication of how much money Slavic Witchery and the Hooded Horse require to maintain the Manor Lords construction currently underway. I believe Bender is on the right side of things, although in defense of Van Leerop, he is demanding a selected rate of new expansions for returning stock gamers, now for “endless” expansions Not crunching. Hinterland itself is not accustomed to overwork in the name of thickening the roadmap – The Longy Dull’s early demo includes the phrase “made without any hesitation by people who care about their players in a studio that cares about its people.” care”.
We asked Bender himself earlier in the day how Manor Lords will trade during early access. He described Styze’s manner as “collaborative” and “community-engaged”. If you’re interested in this game and looking for things to do inside it, maybe take a leaf out of Rubensday’s tome and chase the farm animals.
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