To learn more about Jagex's decision to OSRS Gold publish This Means Warp, and Matt Rathbun and Lead Product Management for Jagex Robert Fox-Galassi for their thoughts on the new partnership.
Much like many indie game developers our first steps into the game industry began by experimenting with game ideas and programming over a long period of time before finally creating something that could be played!
I have 10 years' work experience at Google before I made the decision to move into developing games full-time. Matt's professional experience includes building Hollywood computer systems for film sets, and a brief stint as a player in South Korean esports and mobile game development. We're beyond excited to share the progress we've made using This Means Warp.
Many a video game has been a source of inspiration for aspiring developers to develop their own. But it's uncommon to see an original piece of work taken over by the company behind the original title.
This, however, was the case for Brendan Malcolm, the one-man team at Australian producer Games By Malcs, whose idle RPG Melvor Idle is published by Jagex which is the maker of RuneScape the title that was key to Malcolm's idea behind the project.
Melvor Idle strips away the graphics and 3D environments of RuneScape and other similar MMOs and distills it down into a game with a menu-based interface which lets players manage their inventory, skills and quests. Combat encounters are fought and winning earns XP and loot that can be used to purchase any improvement tree or skill tree players wish to purchase, and the same activities, such as making or cutting wood can bring the same benefits.
Malcolm has been playing RuneScape since he was a child as well as dabbled in several of the most popular idle games, including Clicker Heroes, Cookie Clicker and NGU Idle. Although he liked them but felt that it could be doing something that was more satisfying in a similar way as Jagex's most popular RPG.
"So I decided to create my own but never really thinking that it would be released, much less become famous," he tells GamesIndustry.biz. "I wanted to create something completely different from the existing idle game mold which was feature-rich and gave players real options in how they wanted to progress rather than just increasing numbers on a constant treadmill.
After pondering it for bit behind closed doors I began combining ideas and mechanics from classic MMOs along with the well-known idle game model, resulting in OSRS Buy Gold something that could be enjoyed in a casual way, while on the move and fit in a player's busy lifestyle."