One of 2024’s standout strategy hits, Manor Lords, is about to enter a new phase: its creator, Grzegorz Styczeń, has decided to step out of the spotlight and shut the door on interviews, social media, and publishing chores. Instead of splitting his time between community expectations and production meetings, he plans to disappear into development, focusing all his energy on actually building the medieval city-building strategy – which, in the long run, could be the best possible news for the game.

Medieval strategy has never really gone out of style, and Manor Lords is the clearest proof of that. Slavic Magic’s game arrived in early access in April 2024, has already sold more than three million copies, and enjoys a 92 percent positive rating on Steam. The last year and a half, however, has been anything but easy for the game or its creator. A steady flow of patches and tweaks has been trying to sand down rough edges, and Styczeń has ended up so overloaded that he finally chose to take a step back and change how he works.

As the developer explains, his decision is directly tied to the current state of the project. Over the past six months, development on Manor Lords has slowed to a crawl, with only one major update released and very little concrete news about future content. The reason is straightforward: the lead developer has been trying to wear two hats at once, both pushing new systems forward and personally managing live balance changes and fixes. Those improvements demanded so much of his time that long-term development was effectively pushed into the background.

Another Development Team Will Now Handle Manor Lords’ Adjustments

As reported by the team at GryOnline, the way updates are handled is about to change. From now on, the publisher Hooded Horse will take charge of rolling out patches for Manor Lords, making use of its access to Slavic Magic’s private server to see exactly what the developers are working on. In practice, this should free up Styczeń and his team to concentrate on designing and implementing future content instead of constantly firefighting.

This new setup will not be fully visible in the next patch – that update is already nearing the end of its beta phase – but it will still include a range of improvements to gameplay, AI, the user interface, and technical performance. Among the changes already announced are rebalanced building costs, slower wear and tear on clothing and footwear, and refinements to systems such as tree felling and livestock management. All of this underlines that the team is diving into the smaller mechanics as well, with the clear goal of polishing the game before it eventually leaves early access.

Players have reacted positively to the plan, even if the new features on the immediate horizon are not especially flashy. Fans appreciate that development is visibly moving again, and the community has been quick to offer suggestions for future patches. Many strategy enthusiasts are now watching closely to see how Manor Lords marches toward its planned 1.0 launch sometime in 2026.

Source: 3djuegos