I don't see a post about the game, and based on my experience with it and the numbers, it may be because half of you are playing it right now. Game went to the top of Steam's sales list on Day 1, which is impressive, because that list is by volume of revenue, and it displaced CounterStrike 2, the Steam Deck, and Helldivers 2. So, an early access game on sale for $29.99 on the first day made more money than CS2 skins, Helldivers 2, or the Steam Deck. Top concurrent players was in the 160K range, and the game had 3 million wishlists on launch day.
The game is excellent. Imagine if Banished and one of the earlier Total War games had a child, and that child married the offspring of Age of Empires and Cities Skylines and had kids of their own. There's seasonality, you have to plan ahead when you produce food-- but you don't have to micromanage-- and traffic is taken into account, so the more traffic a road sees, the wider and deeper the ruts get. You can double up families in housing if you lay the plots out correctly, and cottage industry can produce food and export goods.
And the game was developed by one guy. He contracted out some work (the music is stellar, and the voicework is atmosphere building), but this is a 7 year passion project from one guy.
Owned the game a day, have played almost 10 hours. 11/10, quintuple A game from one turbo autist with a dream.
It's one dude from Eastern Europe who named his company Slavic Magic. Cuckery chance is about 0. But his money was very well spent on the music and voicelines contracts. There are a lot of people who can play a hurdy gurdy poorly... not so many that can play it well.
My thoughts exactly. I'll wait a bit with it but I will watch it with great interest. AAA should feel ashamed by solo devs showing them how it's done.
Voices aren't as much of an issue now. Plenty of generation options that can cover most of your NPC needs without many issues in quality. Though the higher quality from such measures is fairly recent, so it's not something a lot of new games (like this year) could've incorporated into their development cycle.
There's also a lot of generic voice pack assets that can cover the usual combat voice sounds. Which can be a bit limited in usefulness.
Music is tricky though. There's a lot of purchasable assets, but it can be really hit or miss, and may rarely come anywhere close to fitting a developer's ideal vision. And it's not something most devs would have the natural talent to learn and do themselves, even with musical composition software.
Are you talking about netflix? Or youtube? Or modern AAA #2 or the pre-sequel?
On a related note, Hooded Horse is a publisher worth paying attention to. They tend to publish games made by small teams that are niche, in-depth, and focused on quality gameplay. I haven't encountered any woke garbage in any of their games. Hooded Horse is having a great run these past few months between Against the Storm leaving Early Access and now Manor Lords.
Thanks for the heads-up, I will add them to my follow list. Not many publishers are right proper these days, so it's good to know that one of them is focused on quality gameplay over ESG/DEI initiatives.
EDIT: Wow, just took a look at their library of games, these lads are right up my alley. Menace and Xenonauts 2 look like the exact kind of games I've been waiting to play since X-Com Apocalypse.
Terra Invicta is pure fucking gold. I'm about 240 hours of playtime with one win.
Humanity First, baby!
Wai, wai, wait. These people publish Xenonauts 2, Terra Invicta AND Manor Lords? ... can we get them to partner with Warhorse, somehow?
Against the Storm is unironically one of the best games I have bought in years, and that was most of a year before it left EA and gained a lot of its features that makes it now so loved.
One of the few games where I've gone up difficulty levels just out of sheer love and fun, as I'm normally a "just play on normal, maybe higher for achievements" guy.
Its why Manor Lords went on my radar a while ago and now I'm eyeing it.
I love Against the Storm. I’ve put way too much time into it.
Oh I watched a Let's Play to see what it was.
The game is good, has no forced diversity and your militia is comprised of the men of the village.
Support good based work when it happens.
I'm currently replaying Banished and likely will get Manor Lords if I get a decent computer and opportunity to play it.
P.S. : Another recent colony-management I really like is Timberborn. Manage a colony of beavers. Secure water with a dam for droughts. Grow crops, manage your ressources, especially water ( you can divert water into irrigation canals. There is evaporation. ).
Costumize drought settings to make your personal Apocalyptic Drought survival Hell, or chill in a mild predictable climate. There are no combats.
There are two beaver factions to pick from ( second one unlocked after pushing a colony far enough ). The tutorial does its job well. The real challenge begins at Hard mode and the exquisite torture lies in the costum settings.
It's on the High Seas to test, and on GoG to buy ( Link ), which means you get the full install file. No woke shit. No microtrasaction. Currently on sale for USD $20. ( Yes it's Early Access. Yes it's fully playable and worth the price. )
A small Timberborn map can run on a potato laptop with 4GB RAM and integrated graphics. Largest maps with huge colonies need a better computer to run smoothly.
My understanding is that only early game is currently worth it so will wait until it get more fleshed out, that and it can handle large cities.
Okay, NOW you have my attention
Well, fuck. Fine, on the wishlist it goes. I'll probably pick it up when my current obsession gets run through.
Yeah, imagine Banished, but with more depth, the possibility of combat (if you want it), and having to streamline production lines.
I'm a weak-willed shell of a man. I logged onto steam, saw it was on sale, and grabbed it.
If anything, the potential of combat alleviates the problem Banish had with endgame - beyond making a really pretty medieval city with mods, there wasn't much to do beyond diversifying your production. Which, admittedly, was rather fun, but could only carry you so far.
I figure if I atleast get thirty hours or so out of the game, I'll get back my money's worth.
Feels almost the same as Farthest Frontier
Judging solely on looks, it reminds me a bit of Banished.
On my wish list
Think you'll like it.
Yea. It looks really cool
Maybe I can get an answer over here. How "early access" is it? Are all the things shown in the trailers currently available? Any obvious gaps? Any major bugs or problems?
The two trailers I've seen are the ones from GOG: 1 and 2
It looked impressive but unfortunately i refuse to dabble in early access
if the project comes out complete then i will play it, i wish the devs luck in their endevours
it was one of the only early access models i actually invested money in, mostly because i saw gradual updates and the progression reached its conclusion in about a year or so
hell warband alone i dumped like 1000+ hours into like 2 dozen different modules (particularly The Last Days of the third age, Sparta, Renassiance, Chronicles of Might and magic and so forth)
they already do this but the discounts are not big enough (they're around 10-20%, it should be like 40-50% in my honest opinion)
I get it. I just see it as an investment in the kind of gaming ecosystem I want to see.
Haven't felt burned yet. The forest, m&b, rimworld, kerbal, subnautica. All yielded enough hours in not sour in the ones that didn't work out
Yeah those titles you mentioned bore fruit, but there have been many other projects there remained on perpetual early access (Hellish Quart is another fine example of a promising game selling well before its even finished, thus the devs lack the "encouragement" to actually finish the damn game)
i'd rather wait, and play a polished/finished product than be a "tester" to play early, regardless its just a matter of preference really
if i'm still unsure about it, again play-test it on the "one-eyed" sites and then decide if the game is "finished enough" for me to dip into the early access plan
because as you just said, its an investment.
This is the story of gaming now. Plenty of small studios are making interesting and good games.
I'm not into RTS or city builders, but a new favorite came out recently.
No Rest for the Wicked is an isometric Soulslike with survival and crafting elements and has a future promising expanded player housing and farming.
It's unlike any singular game I've seen, and the devs stated they're making the game THEY want, and not something for mass appeal.
It has its issues ofc as an Early Access game, but the devs are quick to patch and update, they pushed out like 6 in a week.
It is one of many games I want to play when I actually have time.