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.
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.