Manor Lords creator "kind of" agrees that he isn't really a solo dev but says he's earned the title because "if I quit, it's game over"

May. 7, 2024

“I’ll think of a better term moving on, even though I think I earned the solo thing”

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

Manor Lordsdeveloper Greg Styczeń says he’s thinking of a new term to replace ‘solo dev’ when referring to himself after pushback from a competing game developer.

Since the hit city builder launched late last month, it’s been said that it was developed by a single developer. This all started from the game’s own marketing, with its official website saying it was “hand crafted by a solo developer.” However, some folks are now challenging whether Styczeń deserves to be called that since, technically, he isn’t theonlyperson working on the game.

It’s no secret that Styczeń, under his studio moniker Slavic Magic, had some help with Manor Lords thanks to his Patreon and a hefty grant fromEpic Gamesa couple of years back. However, I reckon in this case Styczeń didn’t stop using the term solo dev because he remains the primary creative driver behind the title as well as the only developer actively working on the meat of the game.

“I want to address some devs being angry that I call myself a solo dev even though my credits are so long,” Styczeń said. “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.”

Not to take sides here, but I definitely wouldn’t be surprised if it’s fairly commonplace for “solo devs” to take on outsourced work and still refer to themselves that way. In Manor Lords case,Styczeń sayshe hired a few extra programmers in April to deal with build issues and because he and publisher Hooded Horse wanted to “mitigate risk.” And although he says he’ll think up a new term for himself going forward,he maintainsthat he’s “earned the solo thing” because Manor Lords would crash into the ground if he simply got up and stopped working on it.

“‘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.”

Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

Step aside, Drake and Kendrick, there’s a new beef in town.

Meanwhile,the Manor Lords dev recently asked what the city builder should do next in Early Access, and the community is split.

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar’s west coast Staff Writer, I’m responsible for managing the site’s western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I’m too afraid to finish.

After 2.5 million sales, Manor Lords publisher says it “would almost be arrogant” to not be surprised by the city builder’s success - but “you cannot count on it to repeat”

Overthrown is a unique sandbox game “relative to most of the genre,” with an ever-changing world that separates itself from genre giants like Minecraft

Untitled Goose Game publisher is back and weirder than ever with a bizarre FMV game called Blippo+, and no one’s even quite sure what exactly it is: “video is no game™”