#rival #Manor #Lords #criticizes #solo #developer
The developer Greg Styczeń also answered this, but for some reason we get the feeling that the head of the studio developing the other game just wanted to use it all to talk about their project as well…
Crate Entertainment CEO Arthur Bruno is also working on a city-building game, Farthest Frontier (similarly in early access). Manor Lords is also of this genre and is set in the Middle Ages. Bruno told PCGamer that he doesn’t like how people think his studio has 60 people (actually only 7) and everyone is working on Farthest Frontier and they’re really slow, while Manor Lords is supposedly staffed by one person and the cast list reflects this as well, while believing that the Manor Lords team is bigger than theirs.
In Manor Lords, we can see several 3D artists, animators, illustrators, concept artists, historical consultants, writers, and two “extra programmers” in the crew list. Tim Bender, CEO of Hooded Horse (the team that publishes Manor Lords), said that the game is being worked on by “one developer and contractors”, with Styczeń as the main man, and has brought in outside help to help. He started working on the game as a part-time hobby anyway, and after starting a Patreon in 2020 and getting funding from the Epic Megagrant in 2021, he started outsourcing work to others.
“I’m going to start telling people I’m a solo dev that’s just being helped out by a number of employees” says FF developer, it’s a fair criticism and I get it, but I think he doesn’t understand that if I quit, it’s game over, no more ML. If he quits his studio, nothing changes.
— MANOR LORDS (@LordsManor) May 4, 2024
Bruno jokingly said that then he would also call himself a solo developer, assisted by a couple of employees. Styczeń then responded to this on Twitter. He thinks it’s a fair criticism and he understands it, but I don’t think he understands that if he quits, the game will end and Manor Lords will cease to exist, while if Bruno quits his studio, nothing would change. (He also received a negative rating on Steam because Farthest Frontier was not updated for two weeks, even though it received a major update at the time…)
I want to address some devs being angry that I call myself a solo dev even though my credits are so long. I agree! Kind of. I face a huge pressure to grow and hire and it’s slowly happening. But also, THIS is the “mocap department”. My best friends in child photography studio. https://t.co/fOLZtLEJWg
— MANOR LORDS (@LordsManor) May 4, 2024
Styczeń then went on to say that he agrees that some developers are angry because they see themselves as solo developers while the roster is long, but there’s a lot of pressure on him to grow, but it’s happening slowly. And his motion digitization department is nothing more than his best friends’ children’s photography studio. It also shows how small he started…
Source: PCGamer, Epic Games
