Manor Lords creator responds to criticism about calling themselves a ‘solo developer’

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 even larger than ours.”

Indeed, credits for Manor Lords does list other people who were involved in the game’s making, including additional programmers, artists, 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 “earned 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 ML. 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.