Manor Lords: One Year in Early Access - Is It the Medieval City Builder We Hoped For?

Manor Lords is a new complex medieval age city builder strategy game featuring large-scale tactical battles, and multi-dimensional economic and social simulation. Over three million people wish listed the game on steam which is an impressive number. The game was released on 26 April, 2024 in early access and today its more than one year and the game has seen a lot of changes and improvements from where it was a year ago.

Early Access note:

“We love considering and implementing ideas from players, and we will use Early Access to both expand and improve the game. Early Access provides a great way of involving players in the development process, and we are looking forward to working with the community to make a better game together.”

First Impressions

How game was received initaially

Overall Reception

• Game Foundation: Manor Lords was widely praised as a fantastic start to city building games with strong foundations. Players also recognized that it’s in early access.
• Game Authenticity and Immersion: Game was highly appreciated for historical authenticity and free-flow organic city layouts.
• Emotional Investment: Players feel personally connected to their villages Due to immersive mechanics, players felt deep personal connection to their villages.

Positive Highlights

• Historical Connection:
  • The game was praised by a historian as a genuine effort in bringing a medieval town to life.
  • Building different system allowed intuitive, flexible designs reflecting medieval life at its fullest, from the muddy roads to the seasons and different building types.
• Gameplay Mechanics:
  • The game incorporated hands-on mechanics rather than menu based, which gave players more control.
• The game has a cool first-person view, which game it more depth too.
• Graphics and Atmosphere:
  • Game had some really cool visuals which captured the immersive feel of any medieval city at its fullest.
• Developer Praise:
  • The single game dev was praised for developing such a complex an intricate system that has a lot of depth.
• Players were optimistic about the game’s future and updates.

Updates & Improvements

One Year Later

Over the year, the game has seen some major updates and bug fixes with a lot of features and the game is going towards its complete vision. Keep in mind the game is still in alpha release as of the time of writing this article. Current version is (0.8.029a).

The latest Update fixes the following issues.

Manor Lords Future

What's Next For The Game

1. Team Expansion

• New team members joined:
  • Nathan (Map Design)
  • Tom & Kurtis (Programming, from Flix Interactive)
  • Niklas (AI)
  • Basia (2D Art)
  • Nicolas (3D Art)
  • Darren & James (Game Design)
• Continuing collaboration with QLOC (QA support).
• Daniel and others helping behind the scenes.
• Greg still leading development.

2. AI Progress

• AI can now build and manage a small village.
• Introduced new concepts to AI:
  • Burgage plots
  • Backyard extensions
  • Living space expansions
• Overhauled marketplace logic for AI.
• Improvements underway:
  • Better city planning.
  • Trading and farming functionality coming next.

3. Records View

• New detailed screen showing regional production and consumption stats.

4. Approval Reworks

• Approval balance now:
  • Fluctuates less.
  • Recent events have greater influence than older ones.

5. Upkeep System

• Buildings will require ongoing upkeep:
  • Smithy needs constant tool supply.
  • Deep mines need a steady plank supply.
• New mechanic: higher upkeep increases work efficiency.

6. Stone Updates

• New buildings:
  • Quarry for endless stone mining on rich deposits.
  • Lime Kiln — lime now needed for advanced stone construction.

7. Pathfinding Updates

• Reworking pathfinding for multi-floor navigation (e.g., castle gates).
• Evaluated new systems like:
  • Flow Fields
  • Continuum Crowds
• Conclusion: current system remains best for the Gridless, open-world design.
• Commitment to realistic narrow passages instead of artificially widened ones.

8. Camera System Updates

• Camera movement improved for smoother behavior, especially around cliffs.

9. Progression Rework

• Progression system under design phase.
• Will be revealed in a future update. (Coming Soon™)

10. UI Work

• Replacing temporary graphics with manuscript-inspired medieval-style UI art.

11. River Fishing

• River fishing spots will now replace pond fishing if the region has a river.

12. Castle Pieces Rework

• Level 1 castle pieces have been reworked for improvements.

13. Map Resource Nodes

• New art for map resource node locations, aligned with updated UI style.

The future of Manor Lords looks promising to us after looking at what's coming next, let us know what you think about it.

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