Manor Lords

Manor Lords is a medieval strategy game for Windows PC that blends city building with real-time tactical battles. It is made by Slavic Magic, the studio of solo creator Grzegorz “Greg” Styczeń, and published by Hooded Horse. The game runs on Unreal Engine 5 and entered early access on April 26, 2024.

Rather than following a fixed story, the game places you in charge of a small medieval settlement and asks you to grow it into a thriving town. Its architecture and daily life draw on European towns and villages of roughly the 11th to 15th centuries, with late 14th-century Franconia cited as a key inspiration. You can personalize your lord with a name, a character appearance, and a coat of arms.

Building is gridless and organic, so roads curve naturally and houses can be placed and rotated freely, much like real settlements that grew around trade routes and terrain. You gather resources, set up supply chains, trade goods, and plan around the changing seasons. A detailed economy adds several kinds of taxes, tithes, a yearly payment to the king, and environmental pressures such as soil exhaustion and deforestation. When threats arrive, you can hire mercenaries, train a personal retinue, or arm your villagers, then lead them in battles where fatigue, weather, and equipment all matter.

The game offers five modes: Rise to Prosperity, which has no combat, plus Restoring the Peace, On the Edge, A Duel, and Fractured Realm, which bring different levels of conflict and rival lords. Settings such as the map, starting position, and threat level can be adjusted. The usual view is from above, but a third-person camera lets you walk through your own streets.

Styczeń announced the game with a trailer in July 2020, and early work was partly funded through Patreon and an Epic MegaGrant. Interest grew far beyond his expectations, and it became the most wishlisted game on Steam before launch, selling over a million copies in its first weekend and more than three million by February 2025. Critics praised its ambition and historical detail while noting thin endgame content in early access. The game moved to Unreal Engine 5 in 2024, and a major update in October 2025 added new modes, maps, and a reworked perk system.