This month marks the 1 year anniversary of Erenshor. Over the last year, my life has changed in a major way: I’ve been able to make Erenshor into my full time job, and it’s not lost on me how incredibly lucky I am for that.
Erenshor is the result of over two decades of ‘dabbling’ in game development. It’s a project I constantly came back to, and constantly failed at, but I could never quite shake the idea that it could work.
The idea of Erenshor has been floating around in my mind since around the year 2000. Back in those days I was heavily into EverQuest, and I was absolutely mesmerized by its world where you could fight anything, go anywhere, and do anything you wanted. It was a time before the internet ‘solved’ every game within days. Most players would take a moment to bask in the magic and novelty. EQ came with this incredible sense of mystery, and that is something that I have never forgotten.
The issue was that back then, I didn’t really have internet service capable of serious play - I always found myself either kicked from groups or forcefully removed by lag. My playtime was forced to become more about exploring, looking for secrets, learning the lore, and just existing in that world. I would idolize all the high level players and their awesome gear and wonder where they got it.
My imagination would run wild with ‘theories’ that somewhere, in some city, a random merchant might drop a super powerful weapon. Or maybe, under just the conditions, a sea monster might spawn in some remote lake nobody goes to. Maybe it was my ‘kid imagination’ adding to that sense of fun and mystery, but I believed all of it could be true. Why not? After all, if I made a game, I’d put that stuff in!
After having seen what the creators of EverQuest pulled off, something in me was ignited. I had always been interested in how games worked, but now I was inspired.
I endlessly dreamed that one day I would create something and players would explore it with that same enthusiasm that I had for EQ. I hoped that they would wander and wonder, enjoy the journey and the stories. I hoped that they’d find some thrill in the mysteries that I created for them to uncover.
I always dabbled in DOOM level editors and a handful of other popular 3D game editors as a kid. I’d always try to buy games that came with level editors or modding tools. I hardly ever played the actual games themselves. Those foundations proved priceless once I started to get serious about game development.
I started some version of Erenshor about a dozen different times in every game engine I could find while trying to find my footing. It just never quite came together.
Today’s version of Erenshor was begun in 2021. Once Erenshor began to take shape, and it felt like this was the time I’d pull it off, my nights thereafter were spent in Erenshor. Without fail, I’d lose track of time, and suddenly it was 2am. I spent many days at work tired and yawning during those years, but as soon as the next night rolled around, my passion for this project recharged me and I did it all over again.
Having to play that laggy ‘alternate’ style of MMORPG all those years ago is a big part of what inspired Erenshor to be designed solely as a single player experience. It was really important to me that Erenshor catered to the kind of gamer that I was forced to be back then (and still am, in a lot of ways). So many gamers have limited schedules, or prefer solo play for whatever reason. For them, MMOs can be really hard to commit to.
Those magnificent worlds just end up becoming backdrops for stress and FOMO, instead of places to joyfully exist and explore. I think Erenshor is truly unique in offering that game play loop without the pressure to perform well or keep up. I’ve had at least a few e-mails from other gamers who have been looking for that exact formula for a long time.
Fast forward to 2023: I started showing off Erenshor to some close friends and sharing it on different social media platforms. To my absolute delight, people started to follow it. The Discord community grew quickly, and so many awesome people stepped forward and volunteered to help test the game. They did an incredible job of finding bugs, issues, and other things with the game, and I am so grateful to all of them.
One year ago today, after thousands of hours of work, the game launched into early access. My amazingly supportive wife looked over my shoulder as I typed “Release my App” into that Steam textbox, and pressed “Confirm”. (And then for the first time ever, my browser crashed. I wasn’t sure if it even launched. While falling apart due to nerves, I actually had to go through the launch process again).
For my entire life I’ll never forget the Discord channel going absolutely nuts when it did finally go live. What an incredible day that was.
Even after launch, there were so many times when I’d be overwhelmed with a piece of development, a bug, or balance issues, and the Discord was just filled with encouragement, ideas, and kind words from all of my new friends there.
The community creations that have come from Erenshor are nothing short of remarkable too. The incredibly complete Wiki (that I admittedly refer to during development), and the huge array of mods that people have published have always astounded me. They've done things that I assumed were impossible.
All of those things are just a few of the many ways the Erenshor community regularly lets me know that they're here for this journey.
One year later, I sit here late at night once again typing away at this computer. This time, I don’t have to go into “the office” tomorrow. I get to stay here and work on my favorite thing in the world and chat with the same people who were there with me a year ago (plus a ton of new friends too!)
Happy 1 year anniversary to the Erenshor community. I am grateful for you folks every single day. Thank you for being here with me!
-Brian
What's Next?
It's been a long stretch without an Erenshor update, but I am hard at work behind the scenes. I'm putting together some media to share in the very near future about what's coming in the next update.
(Hint: It's raids!)
Testers are going to get an early build this week, and then once all of the quirks are ironed out, it'll be in the home stretch.
More info very soon!