Something like a minor rivalry has developed between the developers ofManor LordsandThe Long Darkfollowing the commentary of the latter’s lead developer, Raphael van Lierop. After “heat and hatred” was directed at Lierop and his team at Hinterland, he’s decided to apologize for his earlier statements.
This information comes from the comments found on the LinkedIn post of the CEO ofManor Lords‘ publishing company Hooded Horse, Tim Bender. Inhis post, Bender putsthe remarkable success ofManor Lordsin opposition to Raphael van Lierop’s comments that “Manor Lords is apparently a “case-study in the pitfalls of Early Access” because the “game has been out for 2.5 months and there have been three fairly small patches”,” as it were. Bender also explains how he warnedthe sole developer ofManor Lordsthat “he was going to hear from all sorts of commenters talking about missed opportunities because he failed to grow as fast as they wanted, and judging the game a failure by some kind of expectation they formed.”
In response to all of this, Lierop has apologized saying that he “should have found a better way to frame [his] original feedback.”
Manor Lords might not be a “case-study in the pitfalls of Early Access” after all
“I apologize to the developer, Slavic Magic, and to the publisher, Hooded Horse Inc., for any negativity this post may have brought to their work — a game I highly enjoy. I also apologize to all of you for any negativity that ended up in your timelines as a result of my poorly framed comments,” said Lierop, adding that he is not trying to “avoid accountability for [his] original words.”
According to Lierop, his team at Hinterland working onThe Long Dark“is starting to be impacted by this response, and there’s no reason that should be the case.”
The Long Darkstands out as one of the few true-to-form survival games on the market right now, even though it came out from Early Access years ago,back in 2017. Though excellent in its own right,The Long Dark‘s long anticipated Wintermute campaign mode is still not completed, and the admittedly expansiveTales from the Far TerritoryDLCserves as a stop-gap as its development continues.
Now, Lierop isn’t wrong thatManor Lordshasn’t received a huge amount of Early Access updates since it came outin late April, most of them have beenfairly chunky and meaningful. Sure, there is a dearth of content in the game right now, but the fact of the matter is that most players are happy with the current state of the game, and since it’s not a live-service treadmill as Tim Bender points out,concurrent player countsdon’t matter all that much.
