Indie developer leaves Coca-Cola after Erenshor sells 30 thousand copies

The game Erenshor, a single-player MMORPG, was a surprising success in its early access, selling 30,000 copies in the first month. This significant result, six times higher than the developer's initial expectation of 5,000 copies, led the solo creator, Burgee Media (Brian), to leave his marketing job to dedicate himself fully to indie development.

Burgee Media, who spent 16 years at Coca-Cola and six years in marketing, was developing Erenshor on nights and weekends. In a recent AMA on Reddit, he shared the difficulty of the decision: "Leaving my job to work on Erenshor full-time was very difficult. I loved the work, and if I had time to do both things, I would have continued doing both."

The developer described Erenshor as an MMO with simulated players who try to act like real people, a concept he calls "a touch of Truman Show in World of Warcraft."

The success quickly justified the gamble: "It definitely justified the risk," he explained. "Erenshor/indie game development has been a lifelong dream, so I decided to take the risk and leave my career. I would have regretted forever not trying."

Although the solo work became lonely (the dev is getting used to "working from home all day and not having coworkers"), Burgee Media follows Stephen King's advice to aspiring developers: work on the project every day.

"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. I was almost always sucked in and dedicated hours of work," he said. "Some days it was hard to sit down, but I forced myself. 100 days of 'a little work' is still A LOT of development. It all adds up."

On another note, the developer reinforced his commitment to not adding co-op to the single-player MMO, despite it being the "biggest request" he receives: "It's a huge undertaking to rewrite a game for co-op, and I feel obligated to fulfill what was originally promised (a single-player MMO experience), so it's not in the official plans for now."

Erenshor, a single-player MMORPG by Burgee Media (Brian), sold 30,000 copies in the first month, causing the developer to leave his 16-year job at Coca-Cola to pursue a "lifelong dream." The game, available on Steam, is described as an MMO with player simulation and will not have co-op despite requests.