Developer Greg Styczeń also answered this, but for some reason we feel like the head of the studio developing the other game just wanted to use all of that to talk about his project as well…
Crate Entertainment CEO Arthur Bruno is also working on the city-building game, Farthest Frontier (also 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 supposed to have one person working on it and the cast list also reflects this with Believing that the Manor Lords are bigger than themselves.
In Manor Lords, we can see many 3D artists, animators, illustrators, concept artists, historical consultants, writers and a couple of “extra programmers” in the crew list. Tim Bender, CEO of Hooded Horse (the team that publishes Manor Lords), said the game is being worked on by “one developer and contractors,” with Styczeń as the main man, and he 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 the work to others.
“I'm going to start telling people that I'm a solo developer and that I'm getting help from a number of employees” FF developer says, it's a fair criticism and I understand it, but I think he doesn't understand that if I quit, game over, no more ML. If he left his studio, nothing would change.
— Lords Manor (@LordsManor) May 4, 2024
Bruno joked that he would also call himself a solo developer, with two employees helping him. Styczeń then responded to this on Twitter. He thinks it's a fair criticism and he gets it, but I don't think he understands that if he quit, the game would be over and Manor Lords would cease to exist, whereas if Bruno left his studio, nothing would change. (It also received a negative rating on Steam because Farthest Frontier had not been updated for two weeks, even though it received a major update in that time…)
I want to address some developers who are angry because I call myself a solo developer even though my credits are so long. I agree! Kind of. I'm under a lot of pressure to grow and hire, and it's happening slowly. But also this is the “mocap section”. My best friend is in the baby photography studio. https://t.co/fOLZtLEJWg
— Lords Manor (@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 list is long, but there is a lot of pressure on him to grow, but it is happening slowly. His motion digitization department is nothing more than a children's photography studio for his close friends. It also shows how small he started out…
source: PCGamer, Epic Games
