Manor Lords publisher says devs should not be "forced to run on a treadmill until their mental health breaks"
"Players are happy, the developer is happy, and we as publisher are thrilled beyond belief"
The CEO of the publisher behind Manor Lords has responded to claims that the indie hit is "an interesting case study in the pitfalls of early access".
Addressing the comments on LinkedIn, Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender said that "not every game should be aimed at becoming some live-service boom or bust", and "success should not create an ever-raising bar of new growth expectations."
Hinterland CEO Raphael van Lierop – who has since clarified that he did not mean to imply that Manor Lords was not "a huge success" and asserted his stance anti-crunch – initially suggested that while the game was of a "high quality", it was showed what happened when a "game with a small team hits the reality of a hungry audience."
"This is exactly the kind of distorted endless growth/burden of expectations/line must go up perspective that causes so much trouble in the games industry," Bender wrote.
After confirming that Manor Lords had sold over 250,000 copies last month – "after selling over two million copies in its first three weeks" – Bender suggested "we move away from takes like [this] in order" and recognise that huge concurrent players peaks naturally ebb and flow.
"Players are happy, the developer is happy, and we as publisher are thrilled beyond belief," Bender added.
"If this industry is to find a more sustainable path forward, we need to move away from takes like [this]," Bender concluded. "Success should not create an ever-raising bar of new growth expectations.
"Not every game should be aimed at becoming some live-service boom or bust. And a release should not begin an ever-accelerating treadmill on which devs are forced to run until their mental or physical health breaks down."
Bender added that ahead of Manor Lords' release, he had spoken to solo dev Greg Styczeń and told him that the "Early Access road is long" and not to focus on "all sorts of commenters talking about missed opportunities".
"I told him to ignore all that – to focus on his core vision for the game, and to keep in mind that the Early Access road is long and that he should not feel any sense of pressure from the expectations of others – for both his own health and stress levels over the coming years and for preserving the state of calm and peaceful mind that supports his creative vision."
Manor Lords passes 1m sales after just one day in Early Access.