Manor Lords is another one of those games that seemed to come out of nowhere to steal a piece of the limelight on Steam. Perhaps one of its most notable selling points is that the medieval?-themed RTS is said to? have been created by a solo dev. Except, there's some contention about that.

On places like the official website for the game, the developer of Manor Lords - a small outfit called Slavic Magic - has received criticism for its claim that it was made by a "solo developer." Specifically, it was Farthest Frontier studio Crate Entertainment's CEO Arthur Bruno, speaking to PC Gamer, who seemed to strike out, arguing that Slavic's team ??size "is maybe e??ven larger than ours."

Indeed, credits for Manor Lords does list other people who were involved in the game's making, including additional programmers, arti??sts, animators, writers, and more. As such, it's easy to see why it's quite baffling that it's been considered a solo project.

It's "fair criticism"

In response to this, Slavic Magic's own Greg Styczeń has responded. A recent post on X says the developer agrees about the criticism, though they do add "kind of" as a caveat. While Styczeń acknowledges the extra help gone into Manor Lords, they do argue that they "ear??ned the solo thing."

An additional post says what Farthest Frontier (presumably that's what "FF" is referring to) says is "a fair criticism." However, a rebuttal is offered, in which Styczeń says: "if I quit, it's game over, no more M?L. If [Bruno] quits his studio, nothing changes." Whether this will result in further comment from the likes of Bruno or the community remains to be seen at this stage.

Manor Lords sold over 1 million copies in one day, and is sitting on a pretty comfortable "Very Positive" on Steam at the time of writing.

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Farming is one of the activities you’ll want to jump into as soon as possible in Manor Lords. It will provide the main food source for your digital villagers and will a?lso fuel their ale-filled after-work frivolities.

Manor Lords: Farming Guide

In the beginning of the game, Wheat should be your primary crop because it feeds the townsfolk and could determine whether they survive the first few winters in Manor Lords. There is no harvest during the winter, so you’ll want to ensure there’s a surplus of grain after the harvest in autumn, as well as a Windmill and Communal Oven to churn out bread. Once you’ve got some Wheat stocked up, your next focus in Manor Lords should probably be growing Barley and making ale.

Crop types

• Barley â€?Used to make Ale
• Flax â€?Used to make Linen and Clothing
• Rye â€?Used to make Flour and Bread, more hardy than Wheat and can grow in low fertility areas
• Wheat â€?Used to make Flour and Bread

Key structures for farming

• Farmhouse â€?Employs up to eight families for working the fields. They still need Burgage Plots as permanent homes.
• Windmill â€?Grinds Grain from Wheat or Rye into Flour
• Communal Oven â€?Converts Flour into Bread

Fertility indicator and crop types

Select the Farming tab in the Construction menu, and a list will appear on the right side of the screen with the following relevant options: Emmer, Flax, Barley, and Rye Fertility. These represent the four types of crops available to plant in Manor Lords. Selecting one will overlay a color-coded land fertility indicator on? the map, with bright green representing most fertile and orange/red designating areas to steer clear of.

What is Emmer?

If you’re like me, the term “Emmer Fertility�might lead you to assume there will be a new crop introduced later in the game. However, when laying out fields specifically to grow Wheat, you may also notice that there is no “Wheat Fertility�indicator. That’s because Emmer is an old-timey word for Wheat. It would have been nice if terminology were used consistently in Manor Lords, but then you wouldn’t be learning new vocabulary that you’ll probably?? never? use again.

Soil fertility and crop rotation

In Manor Lords, the fertility of the soil will diminish as it’s used to grow crops, so it’s helpful to enable crop rotation. This will let you schedule each plot’s grow??ing cycle over a three-year ?period. It’s a good idea to let a field lie fallow for at least one of those years, as this will replenish soil fertility.

The fields are measured in morgen, an old-school unit of land measurement, and a single family in Manor Lords c??an manage about 2/3 of a morgen per year. When laying out your first farm, a tooltip will advise to make fields 1 morgen, and one plot of wheat of that size should produce enough to feed a small town. But due to diminishing land fertility, you’ll want to have at least three fields: two for growing and one laying fallow or being used for pasture.

Useful Development options for farming

Each time you increase your settlement level by upgrading Burgage Plots, you'll earn one Development Point. There are four skill trees to invest these points in, and one of them directly benefits farming in Manor Lords.

• Bakeries â€?Converts Flour into Bread more quickly than a Communal Oven
• Fertilization â€?Allows you to Fence Up a fallow field, turning it into a pasture and quickly restoring lost fertility
• Heavy Plow â€?Enables the use of oxen for faster plowing and crop transportation
• Irrigation â€?Greatly decreases damage from droughts

You may remember illustrations of medieval times with vast farmlands stretching to the horizon just to feed all the people. In Manor Lords, that’s not nec?essary, though it does look nice. And now that you have a handle on farming in the game, blanketing the land with planted fie?lds will be an aesthetic choice and not a haphazard mistake.

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Who doesn't love a Steam sale? People who don't have a gaming PC? Okay, fair eno?ugh. But for many of us, it's a joyous time of discounts on things that have been on our wishli??sts longer than we'd like to admit. As of right mow*, there's a load of farming or farming-adjacent games for you to peruse in the latest event.

Over on the Farming Fest page itself, you can get Stardew Valley for a pretty hefty 34% off. Considered to be one of the best indie simulation games in recent memory, if you've been on the fence about it, now seems l??ike a? good time to pick up a copy.

For something a little more contemporary, you can also get Manor Lords at a generous 25% discount. If you're not familiar with it, it's the medieval-based RTS that's currently in Early Access. It's doing pretty well for itself, topping the Steam charts and selling over a million copies in a day.

What else is there?

As is ?usually the case with these regular Steam sales, you've g??ot a week to make your purchases. Farming Fest will be ongoing until Monday, May 6, ending at 10AM PT. So what else is featured?

You could probably see this coming a mile off, but some of the Farming Simulator entries are also up for grabs for a bit cheaper. Both 22 and 19 are 30% an??d 60% off, respectively. Makes sense these would be in the sale. They're pret??ty much the OGs of the genre.

There are also quite a lot of things that don't ring a bell for me. Your mileage may vary. Maybe you've been waiting for Plum Grove or Call of the Wild: The Angler to go down in pric??e for a brief spell. Now's your chance to grab them. Or maybe you see this as a chance to try something new. The harvest is bountiful, as they say.

*This was a genuine typo, but I decided to keep it in because it works as a delicious farm-based pun. Yes, I'm this funny all the time.

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One of the more puzzling elements of Manor Lords are the piles of supplies that get left behind after demolishing a structure, or you'll find yourself side-eyeing a random log left abandoned on the ground. In Manor Lords, t?hese items get destroyed by the weather if they lay around too long, and they also impede the construction of new buildings on the si??te.

Yet, even if there is a storehouse nearby ?and idle villagers walking around, the supplies may remain there, taunting players who crave order in their medieval town.

Make villagers quickly remove supplies in Manor Lords

• Assign more workers to the Storehouse or Granary
• Unassign workers from the Logging Camp to free up oxen for moving logs
• Limit the work area to the specific location with the excess supplies
• Build a road connecting the supply location to the storage building

Move exposed goods/supplies to storage in Manor Lords

Occasionally, you will get an icon on the info bar at the top of the screen, warning that there are exposed goods that need to be moved to a Storehouse or Granary. One would think that assigning a villager to one of these bu??ildings would quickly clear up any supplies laying around, but someti?mes it feels like the discarded goods aren't being removed in any semblance of a timely fashion.

Unfortunately, the answer to the problem is basically to just wait, though there are a couple of tricks that can expedite things. Assigning more workers to the Storehouse or Granary, while also making sure that there is a road connecting the supplies to the buildings, may lessen your wait time. You can also “limit the work area�to the specific location where the excess sup??plies are, forcing workers to focus and move items to storage more efficiently.

Logs, on the other hand, aren’t held in a Storehouse or Granary, but rather a Logging Camp. As with the Granary and Storehouse, you can limit the loggers�work area to the spot with the surplus timber. If that isn't working, you can try either building a new, closer Logging Camp or un-assign workers from an existing one. This will free up oxen and cause the now idle villagers to pick up any abandoned logs sullying? your lovely town. Don’t forget to select “clear work area�in the Logging Camp, Granary, or Storehouse interface once the untidy items have been hauled away.

Now, if you want to build a pasture for your newly acquired sheep in Manor Lords and there are discarded logs clogging up that prime real estate, you won’t be forced to relocate or thumb twiddle while waiting for somebody to clea??n up the mess. A few quick clicks and some micromanagement should clear it right up.

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Ah, I remember the glory days of playing Age of Empires. I was terrible at it, mind, but it certainly seems like Manor Lords should scratch that medieval RTS itch. Released at the ?tail-end of last week, the new strategy game from Slavic Magic ha?s been making a bit of a name for itself over on PC.

Maybe it's just because it's a new release and gamers yearn for anything new in this modern gaming era, but Manor Lords is doing quite well for itself so far. According to recent data from SteamDB, it hit a pretty impressive peak concurrent player cou??nt over the weekend, registerin??g 173,178 players. At the time of writing, 87,901 are in a game.

Add onto that the fact that it's come straight in at number two on the Steam Top Seller's list. That puts it just behind the Steam Deck (as is always the case with these things �Valve's portable PC is nothing if not tenacious), but above the likes of Counter-Strike 2, Helldivers 2, and the recent re-emergence of the modern Fallout games.

A pattern emerges - how long will Manor Lords' popularity last?

As I always say in these situations, it's hard to know what the long-term popularity will look like. We've seen the ups of Lethal Company, Content Warning, and Sons of the Forest 2. They typ??ically have a huge boost early on in release??, which fades over the course of a few weeks.

But there's nothing wrong with that. It's tough to get an??y sort of attention in today's gaming climate, especially among some huge titles from t??he biggest publishers.

But it's still an early success story. According to a recent post on publisher Hooded Horse's Twitter/X page, the game sold over a million copies a couple of days ago. Not many of us can make that claim now, can we? Also, for those playing, an update is being planned by the developer, which will fix some issues and fine tune a few mech?anics. Hang tight. It's still in Early Access, after all.

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If you're in the mood for some medieval-themed RTS-ing, maybe give Manor Lords a go. It seems to be doing pretty well on Steam, with a current review score of "very posi??tive." I know it's early days yet, but there seems to be a bit of buzz surrounding Slavic Magic's strategy game.

Also, if you have a Steam Deck, you may be wondering?? whether you can play it on the go. Get a bit of gaming in before you have to clock in at Evil Corporation, Inc. Who am I to ju??dge?

Anyway, if you want to be able to play Manor Lords mobile, it looks as though the game is indeed playable on Steam Deck. There are some caveats to that, of course, but the notes on the Steam page show that the visual options are running well, but there may be a few issues here or there. I?n any case, it should run on the device.

What does it all mean?

Before you go rushing to play it on your Deck, remember that it's been declared "playable." This means it's comparable to playing the game on a h??ome PC, but may lack some of the functionality. In this case, "some in-game text is small and may be difficult to read."

When it comes to the Steam Deck, only th??ings that are labeled as "verified" are 100% compatible. In these instances, the game in question has either been built with the device in mind or the developer has? sent out some updates to make it more mobile-friendly.

In its current state, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to play Manor Lords on the move, but don't expect it? to be quite on par with a gaming PC. No doubt if the game does well, the studio will send out a patch, so keep an eye out for tha??t.

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When first starting out playing Manor Lords, there will be five wee families at your disposal, which are only enough to make you quickly realize that you need more people. But how to attract more families to live and work in ??your fledgling village isn’t that obvious right out of the gate.

Attracting villagers in Manor Lords

There are two key elements in Manor Lords that will result in more families moving to your village: Approval and Living Space.? Approval can be tracked on the bar at the top of the screen, on the left side. You need at least 50% Approval before families will begin moving into your village at the rate of one per month; an Approval rate of 75% or more will attract two families every month. You also need to be wary of letting Approval drop below 25% because that will cause villagers to start bailing for greener pastures.

How to increase Approval in Manor Lords

In the early stages of the game, the easiest way to gain Approval in Manor Lords is by making sure there is a variety of food available and sufficient housing for the population. Building a Hunting Camp and a Forager Hut ?will satis?fy the food variety requirement; constructing Burgage Plots will provide the desired housing.

Burgage Plots in Manor Lords have three levels, and each has amenity and market supply requirements that will further increase Approval. For example, the needed amenities for Burgage Plot Level 1 are a nearby Well and a Church. In Manor Lords, Homelessness has a negative impact on Approval, so it’s also a good idea to build more Burgage P?lots than immediately necessary to ensure that new families have a home upon their arrival.

Other ways to quickly gain Approval in Manor Lords

• Build a Church
• Build a Marketplace
• Build a Woodcutter’s Lodge to make sure there’s always enough Fuel
• Turn Hides from the Hunting Camp into Leather at the Tannery. Set up a market stall in the Marketplace to get Clothing.

Once the initial hump is overcome and more families begin populating your village, things will progress more quickly in the game. There will be enough people to build farms and mines, and you’ll soon have a lively tavern with plenty of ale to keep everybody singing in Manor Lords. And paying taxes.

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Publisher Hooded Horse and developer Slavic Magic revealed today that the upcoming medieval strategy title Manor Lords has a release date. Players will be able to don the mantle of Medieval Lord as they oversee their own medieval manor on April 26. Manor Lords will also launch as a Day One title on Game ??Pass ??for PC.

Yes, mi'lord?

Manor Lords features a unique playstyle, allowing players to manage the ci??????????????????????????ty-building of their manor while also fighting off threats such as bandits and ??????????????????????????rival lords. As a lord, players will exploit the local resources to build up their castle and surrounding kingdom. As you expand your settlement you will establish trade routes and master your surroundings as you seek to meet the demands of your people.

In terms of combat, Manor Leads features a real-time tactical combat system where you rally your working population in your manor as militia to join you on the battlefield. As you??r military is also your workforce, each death on the battlefield can result in a labor shortage once the war is over.

It was also revealed that Manor Lords will eventually ?make its way to consoles as well, at which time it will also be a Day One on Xbox title.

I've had my eye on Manor Lords since it was revealed. There was a demo during a Steam Next Fest months ago and I know a lot of people enjoyed it. Even though I didn't get a chance to play it, the bits I saw looked like quite an experience. It look?s like things have been even furth??er optimized as well. It's always cool when you get to build things and then also go down in first person and explore.

Manor Lords releases on April 26 on PC and as a Day One on Gam?e Pass title.

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