To describeErenshoris to venture into the realm of the oxymoronic, as traits like “single player” and “MMORPG” should hardly fit into the same sentence–yet that’s exactly what solo developer Brian “Burgee” has managed to achieve.Erenshoris a love letter to old-schoolMMORPGslikeEverQuestwith an emphasis on exploration, discovery, and adventure. Its revolutionary single-player approach holds a strong appeal for gamers with fond memories of the EverQuest days who can no longer devote time to the still-running MMO for whatever reason.
Erenshor’s key feature is its population of lovingly crafted SimPlayers: simulacrums of players Brian has encountered throughout his years as an MMO gamer. These SimPlayers quest, level up, obtain gear, party together, and even chat with one another without the player’s input. SimPlayers possess unique personalities and playstyles, and their attitudes toward the player can shift depending on the player’s actions. The result is a shockingly close approximation to life in atight-knit MMO serverbut without the toxicity, time commitments, or social pressures these online communities bring to the table.
The free Erenshor demo is available now onSteam.
Game Rant recently sat down with Brian “Burgee” of Burgee Media to discussErenshor’s unique characteristics and how the game solves many of the issuesinherent to the MMORPG genre. Brian also weighed in on how he approached the interactivity of SimPlayers, how he handled dungeon content, and he also revealed–for the first time publicly–whatErenshor’s endgame will look like.This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
How Erenshor Appeals to MMORPG Fans
Q: What prompted you to create a single-player MMORPG in the first place? Was it due to personal taste, a desire to fill a niche, or something else entirely?
A:It’s a long story. Igrew up playingEverQuestback when it came out in 1999. I was like 13 years old, I grew up rural, so I had the crappiest internet you could imagine. I had to play the game solo. If I was in a group, I’d lag out. If I was in a raid, I’d lag out.
From that day on, I wished they’d made a solo version ofEverQuest. I told myself, “If they ever do, I’m going to get it.” But they never did. You know, as you mentioned—you were Googling the same kind of thing—and every time I searched for that type of game, all I found were other people asking for it. Four years ago, I decided to dive in and get started.
Q: Could you lay out the broad strokes ofErenshor’s setting and lore?
A:They’re stepping into a lot of the unknown, soErenshor’s story takes place on a relatively newly discovered landmass. It’s attracting adventurers, and the people who are already there are starting to realize that this land resembles one written about in ancient religious texts. It’s looking like a holy land where the gods actually walked and touched the earth—the birthplace of the world’s history.
The player lands on Stowaway’s Step, the demo island, at a time when the land is in turmoil. All new travelers are being held on this little island, and the player has to find their own less-than-legal way off of it. Once they make their way to the mainland, they begin to uncover this hidden history of the world, but the player isn’t a hero in this story. Instead, they’re experiencing and learning about the world without altering its course—at least not in the beginning.
Q: How did you approachErenshor’s world design and biomes?
A:Idon’t like snow biomes, soErenshordoesn’t have one—that was a deliberate choice. But we do have a variety of other environments: the island, the swamp, the desert, the forest, the enchanted forest, and the haunted caves. It’s a pretty diverse continent, and players will find a little bit of everything.
Q: What problems do you feel are addressed by translating MMORPG to single-player?
A:The busy gamer was the target, right? I have kids. I work a nine-to-five, and fitting in an MMO just doesn’t happen. I can’t set aside three-or four-hour blocks to play games anymore. That’s who it was originally made for, and that’s the problem I was trying to solve. You can log in, work on your character, and do the grind.
Like I mentioned, the folks who love MMO gameplay but don’t want to be social—they really came out of the woodwork and said, “This is it. This is awesome.” It surprised me, but I’m happy it helps.
Q: One ofErenshor’s most unique qualities is its SimPlayers. What’s your process like for creating each of these unique simulated players?
A:Every one of thecharacters in the demois a recreation of someone I used to play with long ago. I took their personalities to a tee. You know, like the guy who refers to himself in the third person and role-plays all the time or the guy who’s a jerk and even puts it in his character bio that he hates someone else—they’re all based on real players I’ve met.
For the folks who have access to the full beta build, there are a little over 100 SimPlayers in their game. Most of them are set up with a personality type and draw from a dialog pool so they speak appropriately. It’s not handwritten for each player like it is in the demo, but it still works well. One really cool thing I added is a perk for early supporters ofErenshorwhere they will have the right to create their own SimPlayer. I’ll send them a template with all the different dialog options, and they can write as many as they want. Then, I’ll import it into the game, and they’ll be immortalized as a SimPlayer. I’m really looking forward to getting that going.
Q: Each SimPlayer has its own playstyle. How did you approach them in terms of varying skill levels and how they interact with the player?
A:There are a lot of behind-the-scenes variables I set for the SimPlayers—like how greedy they are when loot drops, how long they wait before they start casting a heal spell, and things like that.
It’s funny, though, because one of the most commonly requested features is to make them more realistic. People ask for things like making the SimPlayers go AFK without telling anyone or getting mad and letting you die. I started implementing some of that stuff for the testers, and they reported it back as bugs. They’d say, “Hey, my SimPlayer isn’t healing,” or, “Hey, my SimPlayer is just staring at the wall.”
For as much as folks like the idea of realism, the whole point is to get away from those MMO hassles, right? All the SimPlayers are pretty proficient in how they play.They’re always online, and they’re not going to ditch you. That approach has been the most accepted so far.
Q: Some studios might have gone with something like generative AI for a concept like SimPlayers, whileErenshor’s are entirely handcrafted. What are your thoughts on that technology for something like this? Is it something you’ve considered yourself, or do you prefer the hands-on approach?
A:It’s a stretch goal. I actually have a line of code commented out that says,“Implement generative AI here,”right? But logistically, it’s just a nightmare right now. Users would have to pay for their own tokens, and the SimPlayers’ natural conversations would just gobble those up, which could end up eating their money.
Almost nobody has the hardware to run it locally on their own PC right now. It would be so cool to just set a personality and let the AI run wild, but there are other concerns too. For one, this is afamily-friendly game. You can’t fully control what AI might say, and I want to be able to market it to people and say, “Hey, it’s okay if your kids play this. They can’t play a real MMO, but this is safe. I wrote it, and I know what’s in there.”
Right now, AI feels a little too wild West. Maybe in the future, I’m sure someone will make a mod for it, but yeah, there won’t be official support for now.
Q: What’s your approach to cooperative gameplay with SimPlayers in dungeon encounters? For example, in online MMOs, some players might stand in the fire, while others play perfectly.
A:For every script and encounter I write for the NPCs, I also have to write separate scripts for the SimPlayers so they can interact with it. They don’t play perfectly, but it’s a really fine line of deciding what’s okay and what’s fun. For example, if you spend two hours getting to a boss and then the SimPlayer wipes your party—that wouldn’t feel fair because you had no control over it. They typically don’t. Instead, they’ll coach you through the dialog. They’ll say things in group chat like, “Hey, don’t stand there,” or “Move over here.”
I try to hit realism that way—by having them coach you and guide you through the encounter. But hopefully, they’re not going to cause you to lose.
Q: Do you find it difficult to create boss encounters that mesh well with the SimPlayers?
A:It’s tough, especially with the positional stuff—like, “Hey, you need to stand behind him here.” For a human, all that processing isn’t done by the computer, right? And you’re not using resources to control 10 other characters because they’re doing that process in their own brains instead.
Navigating performance and making sure the SimPlayers behave realistically—rather than just running straight to where they need to be when they need to be there—is challenging.The boss encountersare probably the toughest part of development. It’s a balancing act to make them fun and rewarding, but also engaging.
Q: Speaking of taking down bosses and mobs, how did you approach the concept of grinding inErenshor? On one hand, it can be fun to grind a little for a coveted drop. But on the other hand, nobody wants to spend an entire day killing boars.
A:There are really no essential items for quests or progression that require you to kill a boss more than once. Grinding for that stuff works great in a social environment where you’re chatting with friends and hanging out, but when you’re doing it alone, it gets old pretty quickly—especially after the second or third attempt.
That said, some of the best armor pieces and most fun loot are rare drops off things like trash monsters. It’s there if you want to work for it, but you don’t need to do it to complete the game.
I remember camping for items for days on end. Yeah, it’s in there—you’re able to do it if you want—but it’s not essential.
Q: Simulating an MMO is a massive undertaking. What do you feel have been some of the greatest challenges during the process? Were certain things unexpectedly difficult to get right?
A:Keeping it in scope has been key—not letting feature creep sneak in and cause the game to become bigger than it needs to be to deliver what I’m trying to deliver.Knock on wood,it’s been a really smooth development process. The people testing the game have been incredible—they’re reporting bugs, and we’re fixing them fast. I almost hate to say it, but it’s been a smooth ride. I had the plan laid out from the start, and so far, I’ve stuck to it. The hardest part, though, is going to be releasing it to the public—it’s really scary to share a project that I have so much passion for.
Q: How close isErenshorto your original vision? Has the game evolved in unexpected directions?
A:It’s pretty spot-on, it really is. The idea wasto simulateEverQuestas closely as possible—the tried-and-true classic—so people who have playedEverQuestcan sit down, and it just comes naturally. That was goal number one.
It was always meant to be a difficult game, a game that trusted the player. That’s something I’ve kept in mind the whole time. I even wrote it down in my notebook:“Trust the player.”They’re smarter than I am. If I can design it, they can beat it. That’s been the approach I’ve taken so far, and so far, so good. The feedback has been really positive.
How Erenshor Tackles Its MMORPG Features
Q: The MMORPG genre encompasses a broad range of gameplay styles. Where do you draw inspiration from? How doesErenshorembody your favorite MMO characteristics?
A:It doesn’t hold your hand, right? You said you dabbled around in the demo a little bit. You have to read the lore documents, you have to talk to the characters and figure things out. There’s no quest marker, no map. It really goes back to that old-school way of doing things. Again, it’s all about trusting the player—they’re going to get it.
That’s the goal: to embody that old-school spirit but modernize it and make it more accessible to everyone. And like I said, make it safe for families and for gamers who don’t want to jump into voice chats. Yeah, I wish there was a more complicated answer, but that was the goal all along.
Q: You mentioned you’re pretty inspired byEverQuest. Was there anything EverQuest did that you wanted to avoid or learned a lesson from?
A:I took outthe death penalties.EverQuestwas brutal. You know—you’d lose days of work, right? That’s not fun. It’s great if you’re on a subscription-based model and want players to pay for another month, but I didn’t want that here.
Your punishment now is running back and trying again. There’s been a big request for a hardcore mode where your character is deleted if you die. I’m going to honor that request, but it’s definitely not going to be the default option. Those are the big changes. It’s a friendlier game. It’ll still beat you up and send you back to your bind point, but it’s not going to punish you too thoroughly.
Q: A large draw for the MMO audience is endgame content and the “gear treadmill.” What’s your approach toErenshor’s endgame?
A:I think it’s a lot easier to focus on the journey when you’re not trying to keep up with your friends, right? There’s no one inviting you to a raid that you’re not ready for yet, so the idea is that players can take their time, enjoy the journey, reach the endgame, and then enjoy that too.
The endgame will be 40 to 50% of the game, and once you’re there, it’s fine. I thinkit’ll take about 100 hoursto get there—that’s what I’m seeing in the beta right now. It’s around 100 to 120 hours, and then you’re there. These players are rushing through the content because they want to, not because they feel like they have to.
Q: How do things change for players once they reach the endgame?
A:It’s going to be a lot more about controlling the simulated players through commands. The raid system will have a different UI element where you’re able to set their tasks, like assigning a player as DPS, another as crowd control, and a third to focus on healing the tank. You’ll be able to strategize, set up your raid, and then attempt the boss. If it doesn’t work, you can make adjustments. There will be hotkeys or typed messages—if you want to roleplay it—to say things like,“Hey, we’re in defensive mode. Hold back DPS,”and then“Now, let’s burn it down.”That’s the design goal for the raids—you’re essentially going to become the raid leader at that point.
I think that’s a cool idea. The leveling process trains you to become a raid leader.
A:The idea is that, by that time, you’ll have built a relationship with a lot of the simulated players. You’ll need to help them gear up for raids. They gain gear and levels on their own, but they’ll also rely on you to make sure they have the right gear. You can tell them,“Hey, put on resist gear”or“Put on armor gear.”You’ll be the one they look to for leadership at that point. Therearen’t a lot of MMOswhere you get to be the best player in the game, but this is one of them.
Q: You mentioned relationships with SimPlayers. Can you talk about how that works?
A:If you’re constantly wiping your party, they’re going to be less likely to invite you to things. On the other hand, if you do great and give them loot when it drops, they’ll send you a tell as soon as you get online and say,“Hey, come here, let’s group,”or“What are you doing? Can I join?”
Q: Does something bad happen if you have a terrible relationship with a SimPlayer?
A:Not really, they’ll just more or less ignore you. I mean, they’ll still group with you if you ask, because, again, that’s a little more fun than actual realism—like, they’re the only ones around that you want to group with. But they will be less likely to reach out proactively.
Q: Are there beta players who are trying to tank their relationships with all the NPCs and be the server jerk?
A:No, a lot of them are behaving. You know, every single one of them has found ways to fall out of the world. That’s half the fun—“Let’s climb the walls and see what kind of trouble we can get into.”I had to put in an unstuck button just for those guys. That’s the biggest culprit right now—climbing the geometry, looking for secrets, and getting into trouble.
Q: Do you hide secrets like that? Is that something you like to do?
A:Not really. Maybe I will, here and there, but for the essential quest items, you’re not going to have to spend five minutesSkyrimclimbing a mountainto get to it.
Q: How do you approachErenshor’s core game mechanics like classes, skills, and gear interactions?
A:I kept it super classic. You have your tank, healer, and DPS roles. A lot of classes can cover more than one of those roles, depending on how you build them. I stayed away from things like armor sets and set bonuses because I wanted players to feel like if they got a new item, they could equip it without penalty. I don’t even do stat penalties like“plus 10 strength… but minus 10 intelligence!”I don’t want players to feel punished for experimenting with things. That’s been the goal of development, and I think I’ve hit it.
The people in the tests share their character builds, and one of them focused on armor while another focused on hit points. They’re both having success and struggles in different places, which is exactly how I wanted it to go. Nothing makes me happier than seeing them strategize on how to beat a boss they can’t conquer yet—and then come up with a solution.
Q: Lore and worldbuilding are a big part of what makes MMOs immersive. Can you talk about how you landed onErenshor’s setting and narrative? How do you manage all of the various quest stories?
A:That’s been the best part. I’ve always been sort of a hobbyist writer. Whenever I write something, I just kind of let it flow. I’m learning the story as I write it.Erenshorhasn’t been much different. What I did was draw out a world map, name places, and just throw mountains where I wanted mountains—just randomly made the map. Then, I let that map tell me the story. I wrote down things like,“What religions live in this world? Who are the gods? Who are the big players? And why is everyone here?”The story kind of grew from there.
MMO storytelling is really coolbecause you don’t have too many cutscenes. You give it to the player in small doses, and it’s a lot easier to tell a story that way. You can trickle-feed the information, and they can fill in the blanks where they want to. Obviously, I have my whole guide on the back end where I know everything that happened, but the players will learn as they go. I’ve had testers reach out to me with questions about the lore, and that’s been the most rewarding thing so far.
And then you have the side quests too—like an NPC who just wants three pieces of meat. It has nothing to do with the main story, but it lets players pick and choose where they want to learn and where they just want to goof off.
Q: I noticedErenshoralso has a faction system. Can you talk about how that works in practice?
A:The factions—if you go into a town and wipe everybody out, that town is going to hate you the next time you come back, and the guards will attack you. But as a result, you might gain favor with another faction across the world. That’s actually a big part of the beta build right now. There comes a point where you have to choose between two factions. Once you start fighting for one, you lose access to the other. Players have to make a decision, or they can make an alt to see both sides.
A stretch goal is to introduce an undead faction that always attacks you, but if you do enough evil things, they’ll eventually accept you.There’ll be hidden questsand items that come with that. The sky’s the limit, really. During Early Access, I plan to explore some of those secret quests and hidden items you can uncover.
Q: Have you been surprised by what some players have pulled off in Early Access?
A:Yeah, there’s a character that’s supposed to be unkillable. One of the testers spent probably a week trying different strategies and builds, and he actually did it.
This character had a quest item on him that he wasn’t supposed to get yet. The tester got it and started progressing through a quest that wasn’t finished, so he eventually hit a dead end. The funny part is, I can’t even beat that monster myself—and I made the game! I don’t even know how he did it. It’s amazing. They take angles at things I never even think of. It’s fun to watch.
Q: What’s your approach toErenshor’s overall difficulty level? Where do you find the line between too easy and too hard in this case?
A:You can sort of set your own difficulty.It’s an open world, so if you want it to be easier, you can stay back and level up a bit longer on whatever you’re fighting. In this game, your level and your gear dictate how much of a challenge you’ll face.
If you want a harder experience, venture into a new dungeon, start pulling monsters, and see what happens, but if you want to take it easy, you can have a really laid-back, relaxed game experience. As for the endgame, I’m planning to lean more toward challenging than easy. I want players to have to work through strategies and tweak their builds to figure out how to beat the bosses. Of course, there’s always the wiki for players who don’t want to do that—the strategies will be there.
Q: How has player feedback on the demo helped guide your direction? Can you think of examples where something significant was changed thanks to player feedback?
A:My favorite story, and I think this dude’s getting sick of hearing it, is about the demo. Originally, it was just a dungeon—a long hallway that showed off some of the mechanics of the game. Early testers said it was okay, but it was too short. I built the whole island that you see in the demo now. But even then, it was a really short experience—get out of the dungeon, you’re on the island, and then you’re done. The feedback was good, except for one guy. It was like two days before the demo launched, and he said,“This sucks. It’s too short. It’s too simple. It doesn’t show anything about the game.”
A couple of late nights later, I really expanded the demo quest and the content. The demo went from about 45 minutes to about two and a half to three hours of content just because of this one comment I couldn’t let go of. It was the best decision. It was such a great, very blunt suggestion, but it was awesome that he said it. That’s the demo we have today—based on that one comment.
Q: You’ve been patching the demo. Have there been any big changes since day one that players who tried it earlier might like to come back and check out?
A:It’s a lot less likely to bug out on them now. From day one, I realized it wasn’t as ready for launch as I thought it was, and I learned that when people started playing. Butwe did the Halloween event—I don’t know if you saw that. We added a whole alternate-reality version of the island, which people really loved.
The problem is it wasn’t balanced for the rest of the game. People who played it thoroughly are now going to enter the full version a little overpowered because the goal was to carry over their save from the demo to the full launch. I had to roll it back for that reason, but it’ll come back every Halloween. That was the biggest change. Other than that, it’s just been polishing and getting ready to patch it again pretty soon. It’s coming with some fun new features. Hopefully, they keep coming back.
Q: Earlier you mentioned stretch goals. Do you have any ambitions for the game you’re comfortable sharing?
A:Not a ton that I’m comfortable diving into right now because stretch goals can be a dangerous game, of course. I will say I would love to see the generative AI mods come out. There are already a few mods for the game in other areas, so being able to make it mod-friendly is definitely a stretch goal. When I started building it, I was just building it for myself. The base project architecture will need some work to make itSteam Workshop and mod-friendly, but we’ll call that a stretch goal for now.
Q: It’s always interesting to see how developers look at mod communities. Have you been inspired by what modders have done withErenshor?
A: I absolutely love that people are making mods forErenshor, but I feel kind of bad because people don’t talk to me about what they’re working on. They’ll implement a feature I’ve been working on for a week, and I’m like, “I don’t want this guy to think I stole his mod idea.” But achievements were always going to happen, right? There’s an achievement mod that came out.
One of the coolest ones that a guy did was a global chat mod, so you can talk to anyone else playingErenshorthrough a global chat channel, which is awesome. I had looked into that and decided not to implement it, just again for the family-friendly safety perspective. But seeing the community be able to do that is really cool.
I’m willing to bet people will wind up making a multiplayer mod forErenshor.
A:It’s the number one most requested feature, I guess. I have some thoughts on that.Erenshoris designed to be a single-player experience. I want players to know it’s a single-player experience because, when you’re playing a game that supports multiplayer, you always kind of wonder, “Would this be better with a friend? Am I missing out?“There are a billion MMOsyou can jump into with a buddy and play, and I don’t want to be competing with those. This is different.
Q: Have there been any moments duringErenshor’s development where you realized it was really resonating with players?
A:I touched on it earlier, but when someone comes back and asks about the lore, it’s amazing. They were talking about it in the Discord today, and they were theorizing about why things were the way they were. That’s my favorite part. Ultimately,Erenshoris a vessel to tell stories, as well as satisfy MMORPG gameplay, but seeing people enjoy it for more than just watching numbers go up is incredibly rewarding.
Q: Looking ahead, can you talk about your plans forErenshorpost-launch? Do you intend to create expansions similar to online MMOs?
A:During Early Access, new features will be coming all the time because it’s still under development. After 1.0, I plan to implement content in patches, just like a real MMO. For example, we’ll add a new quest or a new dungeon that expands on a story element that wasn’t fully fleshed out in the beta. I would be really lucky if the demand was there and I got to keep working on this game. I’m fortunate that it has a community. This is the game I’ve wanted to make for 20 years, so if people are asking for content, they’ll get it.
Q: Any last thoughts you’d like to share?
A:I just want to give a shoutout to the community, the testers, and the Discord members. We have so many awesome people who contribute by asking questions, reporting bugs, and making suggestions for design improvements. I’m really proud to say that our Discord has over 2,200 users, and we’ve never had to ban anyone. It’s trulyan amazing group of peoplewho have come together to support the game, so I want to take a moment to thank them for being part of this journey with me.
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