Enshrouded has turned out to be a surprise hit, and the developers are more than satisfied with it. Since the release in Early Access on Steam, the survival game has been continuously developed and has even won awards. MeinMMO spoke with the Creative Director Antony Christoulakis.
In January 2024, two major survival hits were released on Steam: Palworld on January 19 and just two days later Enshrouded from the German studio Keen Games based in Frankfurt. Both are among the best survival games on the market today.
Although Palworld could overshadow almost everything back then, Enshrouded still managed to attract over 100,000 players, a good portion of whom still play today.
According to steamcharts, the game still had 33,000 peak players in May 2025 – likely thanks to the new “Servants of Dusk” update, which improved many gameplay mechanics. In June, there were still almost 27,000 players.
Also in May, Enshrouded snagged a major award: it was crowned the best German game at the German Computer Game Awards 2025 and received a proud 140,000 euros in prize money.
MeinMMO had the opportunity to ask the creators a few questions. The answers were given by Antony Christoulakis, the Creative Director of Enshrouded and co-founder of Keen Games.
140,000 Euros: “We will come up with something nice”
MeinMMO: At the DCP, you won two awards and thus 140,000 euros in prize money. How did that feel?
Antony Christoulakis: It felt fantastic, of course! And we celebrated for a long time afterwards 🙂
MeinMMO: What are you going to do with the money now?
Antony Christoulakis: The money is earmarked and, as far as we know, must be used for new
platforms or new games. We will come up with something nice.
MeinMMO: Enshrouded had to compete against Palworld back then and still managed to succeed. Would you do it the same way now with the knowledge or choose a different release time?
Antony Christoulakis: It’s always difficult to say if it could have gone better. However, we are super happy with the success of Enshrouded, so we do not regret our decision back then.
“We still have a lot in store for the game”
MeinMMO: You still have tens of thousands of players on Steam. What is the feeling now, over a year after the Early Access release?
Antony Christoulakis: It motivates us immensely when we see that with each new update, we can bring many new but also existing players back to the game. We are super grateful to have such a large, positive, and active community. We still have a lot to do with the game, so we are very happy about the feedback that helps us make the game even better.
MeinMMO: In that time, you have released updates with quite a high cadence and continuously expanded Enshrouded. How much work has gone into this since release and how many people are working on it?
Antony Christoulakis: Since launch last year, we have released 6 major updates (and
numerous patches and hotfixes). It was very important for us to show our players that we really take “Early Access” and the many wishes and suggestions from the community seriously, which is why we haven’t taken many breaks so far 😉
We have also gradually expanded the team to progress more quickly and effectively in certain areas. Currently, there are 70 internal staff members and some external contributors working on the development of Enshrouded.
“The contrast between dark & sunny was very important to us”
MeinMMO: With Enshrouded, you have created a quite unique world. What were your inspirations?
Antony Christoulakis: It was especially important for us to create a world that can be freely explored and is mysterious. The theme of a fog-covered fantasy world had been in our minds for a long time and fit perfectly with the goal of developing a survival/sandbox RPG. There were, of course, many influences (from all areas of the team).
I have been playing Dungeons & Dragons (pen & paper) for many years, where the idea of having adventures with friends in an open world is also very fascinating. Enshrouded is, of course, different as a video game (and not a classic role-playing game), but I think we managed to capture that basic feeling quite well.
MeinMMO: The story of Enshrouded is rather dark and a stark contrast to the otherwise colorful and sometimes playful world. Which of the two aspects do you like more, and which do you want to expand?
Antony Christoulakis: Especially the contrast between dark & sunny, decay & rebuilding was very important to us. Our aim was to capture the dark but also slightly romantic melancholy of past places. The player should become part of the world, which is why it’s important to have beautiful and cozy places where one enjoys staying while preparing for a new, small adventure.
Dark places seem even darker due to the contrast of the world. The player should feel a sense of relief when escaping darkness in the fog and entering a sunny landscape.
Minecraft for adults “describes it quite well”
MeinMMO: Enshrouded is often referred to by some players as “Minecraft for adults”. What was your goal with the game?
Antony Christoulakis: That describes it quite well. Our three guiding principles were:
- Experiencing adventures together with friends (player-driven experiences/stories are more important than telling an epic story that the player has to follow).
- It is not just a game, but a place. One becomes part of the game world. It is a place where one can meet with friends. A place that reflects one’s own story of the journey through the game world.
- The freedom of the player is super important (everything one sees can be reached, changed, touched, developed in many directions, problems solved in various ways, etc. – everyone plays their way, even within a group).
Before Enshrouded, we developed Portal Knights, which is aimed at a younger audience. Portal Knights has a similar mix of gameplay elements and was inspired by Minecraft and Zelda, among others.
The game was quite successful, but we noticed that a surprisingly large number of adults enjoyed the game. For us, that was an encouragement to build our next project on the experiences we had gathered, but to create it more for an adult audience.
It was very nice to develop a game with Enshrouded that embodies everything we would like to experience in a game. The great, creative and playful freedom was very important to us (similar to Minecraft) with our voxel world. However, we have created a hand-built game world rather than a procedural one, as that allows for a better realization of relevant discoveries and adventures.
MeinMMO: A group of players has already built some pretty crazy things, like Minas Tirith or Erebor. How did you react to that?
Antony Christoulakis: We are, of course, thrilled about what huge (but also partly very small and beautiful) things our players are building. I browse through new fantastic buildings created by players daily, and it is incredibly motivating to see how much love is poured into all the buildings and landscapes.
We are also in direct contact with the community and try to provide more opportunities to realize creativity in Enshrouded with each update.
MeinMMO: What people have created there was all done without mods and cheats. What is your stance on mods for Enshrouded?
Antony Christoulakis: We try to primarily offer as many creative possibilities through the game itself and make it easily accessible to all our players. Mods are certainly interesting, but unfortunately a complex topic, as they could easily affect the performance or stability of the game.
However, we are not against mods. Enshrouded was developed with our own engine primarily to realize our ambitious voxel world. Therefore, it is a bit less accessible for modding, although there are already some smaller mods available. Currently, we are focusing our development capacity on the game itself, but we can certainly envision supporting mods in the long term.
This is what the city looks like:
“With the next update, we plan to expand the game world again”
MeinMMO: With Pact of the Flame, you brought major updates for multiplayer. However, you also repeatedly introduced practical improvements for solo players. Where will your focus be in the coming months and how do you manage to balance all players’ satisfaction?
Antony Christoulakis: It is not always easy to maintain a good balance between new content,
improvements to existing content, single-/multiplayer, and entirely new features.
There are still areas in the existing world that we want to improve further. Our last update had a bigger emphasis on that; here, we primarily improved existing areas and features. With the next update, we plan to expand the game world again (there are already hints on our roadmap).
Our focus has been heavily on ensuring that all content is accessible in both single and multiplayer. The Hollow Halls, for example, were intended as an invitation to play together. However, anyone who wishes to conquer them alone can certainly do so. They just might have to level up a bit more to attempt it.
The game is certainly fun in both ways, but we want to make it as easy as possible for players to find like-minded individuals and new friends to embark on adventures together.
MeinMMO: With Frozen Frontier, you brought villagers into the game to make the world livelier. Will there be further updates in this area? Currently, the characters seem very static and like human “workbenches,” as there is no real daily routine.
Antony Christoulakis: We will certainly provide further enhancements for our residents. We are aware of the feedback from the community, and just this week we discussed potential ideas again. Whether this will be part of the next update cannot be promised at this moment.
MeinMMO: With your last update, you significantly expanded and improved the miasma. Will there also be ways to contain the miasma in the future and restore the world?
Antony Christoulakis: As a multiplayer game, it was very important for us that players always have the option to replay existing content. Bases can, of course, prevent this, so we decided (for now) not to allow building in the miasma – especially since skill points that can no longer be reached would be an issue.
However, we are indeed considering making this possible because it fits the theme of the game and we don’t want to limit players as much as possible.
MeinMMO: What plans do you still have for 2025, the future, and the 1.0 release?
Antony Christoulakis: We definitely plan to release another major update in 2025. We do not have a specific date for the 1.0 yet, but next year is definitely our goal.
With the 1.0, we also plan to release console versions, which are already being worked on in parallel. But I think we can promise that we want to continue working on Enshrouded for a long time even after the 1.0 … luckily, we have no shortage of good suggestions from the community 😉
MeinMMO: Thank you for the answers!
As Enshrouded prepares for the next major update and has already built up a considerable player base, there is a new challenger in the genre with Dune: Awakening. The new survival game from Funcom, the studio behind Conan Exiles, is already successful and has great plans: The head of Dune: Awakening knows what will happen in the game in 2035, but two factors could change the plan
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