Erenshor Is Making Raid Night a Solo Hobby

One of my favorite things in indie games is when somebody looks at a giant, social genre and asks a slightly perverse question: what if we kept the ritual, but changed the requirement?

That is exactly why Erenshor keeps sounding more interesting to me.

The elevator pitch is already weird in the best way. It is a single-player “simulated MMO” built around AI-style party members called SimPlayers, all chasing the emotional shape of old EverQuest-era online RPG life without demanding an actual guild calendar. That alone is a strong hook. But the new Planar March update is the part that really makes the whole project click. Instead of stopping at leveling, grouping, and nostalgia, solo developer Burgee Media is trying to recreate the thing that usually defines the MMO endgame: raid night.

It Is Not Just Borrowing MMO Aesthetics

A lot of games flirt with MMO imagery. Big bosses, loot showers, fantasy UI, the usual stuff.

What makes Erenshor more compelling is that it seems committed to simulating MMO structure, not just costume. GamesPress describes Planar March as the game’s largest update yet, with four raid zones, more than 20 boss encounters, new progression systems, and over 120 pieces of gear. GamesRadar adds a few details that really sell the concept: group commands, an “A team” of preferred guild allies, raid management tools, and loot systems designed to mimic the social logistics of old-school raiding without requiring real humans to show up on time.

That is such a specific dream.

It is not “what if Skyrim had more players.” It is “what if the strange choreography of an MMO could survive after you removed the scheduling headache?” That feels much more inventive than the usual nostalgia bait.

The Cool Part Is the Translation Problem

The challenge here is not making a bigger boss. The challenge is translating cooperative friction into single-player systems without flattening the magic.

Part of what made classic raids memorable was the messy social machinery around them: class roles, group composition, loot drama, calling targets, improvising when things went sideways. If Erenshor can preserve even part of that feeling through SimPlayers and command systems, it is doing something more ambitious than a throwback. It is redesigning an old ritual for adult lives that do not always have six uninterrupted hours and twenty cooperative friends.

That is a very 2026 indie instinct. Not bigger servers. Smarter constraints.

GamesRadar’s recent coverage gets at this nicely. Burgee apparently had to build systems that let NPC allies follow broad strategic directions without drowning the player in micromanagement. That means the real fantasy here is not “you are alone.” It is “you are finally the raid leader, quartermaster, and party organizer without begging anyone to log in.”

Why This Feels Bigger Than One Weird RPG

I also think Erenshor matters because it points toward a broader lane indie developers should explore more often: preserving the emotional architecture of online games without preserving every practical burden.

A lot of players love MMO worlds but age out of MMO maintenance. The appetite for long-form progression, social texture, and character-building does not disappear. The tolerance for mandatory calendars, flaky groups, and endless waiting absolutely does.

So when a solo developer keeps pushing a game like this forward instead of sanding it down into a safer single-player RPG, I pay attention. The whole thing feels like a reminder that indie games are often at their best when they take a genre’s most inconvenient assumption and ask whether it is actually necessary.

If raid night can become a personal hobby instead of a logistical nightmare, that opens up a fascinating middle space between solitary RPGs and fully online worlds.

Honestly, I want more games brave enough to live in that space.

Would you rather preserve the social chaos of classic MMOs, or reinvent the experience so it actually fits how people play now?

Got thoughts? Hit me up on Bluesky.

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