Single-player MMORPG (an oxymoron if there ever was one) Erenshor was a surprisingly massive hit when it first entered early access, prompting its solo developer to quit his full-time job and pursue the unstable path of an indie dev because he "would have forever regretted not trying" otherwise.
During a recent Reddit AMA, developer Burgee Media (Brian) broke down what his life looked like before pursuing Erenshor, the MMO with simulated players that try to act like real people. A Truman Show twist on World of Warcraft, is the pitch here.
After spending 16 years at Coca-Cola, Burgee Media began developing the hit game during another six-year-long marketing job, mainly working on it at nights and weekends. "Leaving my job to do Erenshor full time was really tough," the indie dev said. "I loved the job, and if I had time to do both things, I'd have kept doing both."
Thing is, Erenshor was a surprisingly big hit right out of the gate, selling 30,000 copies in its first month, a massive jump from the developer's expectation of 5,000 copies. "It definitely justified taking the chance," he explained. "Erenshor / indie game development has been a lifelong dream, so I decided to take a risk on it and leave my career. I would have forever regretted not trying."
Although indie development was a lifelong goal, Burgee Media is still getting used to the self-employed schedule that can feel "a bit lonely working at home all day and not having coworkers." And for any aspiring indie devs out there, his advice is the same as Stephen King's: work on your project every day, even if it's only for a little while. "No matter what it was. If I just spent five minutes adding a new item, or five hours adding a new quest line or mechanic. Almost every time I would get sucked into it and put in hours of work," he said. "Some days it was hard to sit down, but I made myself. 100 days of a 'little bit of work' is still a LOT of development. It all adds up."
Elsewhere in the thread, Burgee Media doubled down on his commitment to not add co-op to the single-player MMO. "That's probably the biggest request I get," he said in response to someone asking for a co-op feature. "It's a huge undertaking to rewrite a game into coop, and I feel an obligation to deliver on what was originally promised (a single player MMO experience), so it's not in the official plans for the time being."
You can check it out on Steam.
If you are looking for an MMO with more "MO'" check out our picks of the very best MMORPGs to play in 2025.
