Despite not having mod support, Manor Lords player adds Shrek to the delight of its developer: 'You can't deny the potential'

A peaceful and pastoral field with several sheep gathered, as featured in Manor Lords.

(Image credit: Slavic Magic)

Manor Lords is doing pretty dang well, huh? It crushed it on concurrents to the tune of 100,000 medieval landowners in its first day alone, thanks to being a surprisingly stable early access city builder with a lot going for it. Except for mods, that is.

See, Manor Lords doesn't have official mod support yet—but if you know anything about modders, you'll know that won't stop them. A VR mod cropped up near-immediately, causing the game's developer to marvel at the technological achievement.

But just because you gaming scientists could, doesn't mean any of you stopped to ask yourself whether you should.

Modder and green guy enthusiast ProudBavaria on Twitter, filled with a determination I can only describe as eldritch, has summoned Shrek the ogre into Manor Lords to live a life of pastoral bliss. Judging by the screams of his peasants, it's not going well.

This is what happens when you don't get out of my swamp pic.twitter.com/uDALYp2ruLMay 5, 2024

Despite the horror of an ogre (who I'm told squeeze the jelly from your eyes, which is allegedly quite good on toast) rampaging about their little hamlet, the game's developer Greg Styczeń seems well pleased. "This made my day today," he wrote on Twitter, adding that while "modding isn't officially supported yet, [you] can't deny the potential after seeing this."

A post that reads; "This made my day today. (Note: modding isn't officially supported yet but you can't deny the potential after seeing this)" — (Image credit: @LordsManor on Twitter/X)

I mean, listen—it's an inevitability that every game will have Shrek, Thomas the Tank Engine, or some horrific amalgamation of both modded into it. Square pegs jammed into round holes. However, I'm going to be a no-fun pedant and highlight that a lore-accurate version of this mod would also involve a complete gameplay overhaul.

Shrek's defining character trait is that he, for the most part, is a crotchety creature that wants to be left alone. Despite the position of power afforded to a medieval lord at the time, the constant demands of the peasantry to, say, stop filling the streets with corpses and eggs would likely drive the poor sod to madness. The mechanical changes would turn it from a city builder to a horror game.

What I'm saying is, we need a Lord Farquaad mod. Bonus points if you get to ride on the shoulders of your men-at-arms.

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.