September 30, 2008 - Consisting of humble but sturdy gray stone buildings Lumbridge is a quiet community ruled by Duke Horatio from an impressive castle that has protected it for generations. Located on the River Lum, its economy is primarily based on agriculture. Just to the north, many citizens work their farms to produce grain, which the town’s windmill grinds into flour for much of the nearby environs. Farther in that direction is Varrock, the capital of Misthalin, where King Roald resides. Heading west leads to Draynor village. A gloomy swamp lies southward, its twisted mangrove trees adding to the overall dreariness. Those who choose to travel east will find a tollgate to a major desert settlement, Al Kharid. Before departing at all, however, it’s worth your while to look around. You’ll probably want to obtain some training, and perhaps a decent weapon too.
Jagex’ RuneScape, takes place within the fantasy-themed world of Gielinor, where Lumbridge is the first town new arrivals see. Despite very little exposure in game publications, the java-based massively multiplayer title has attained truly exceptional popularity; with about a million paying accounts, it’s usually ranked second among subscription offerings. Actually, the user base is much larger since another five million are said to be active at least every couple of weeks on a free to play basis. We’ve been watching the project for a fair number of years, since not long after beta began in 2001. So, when the company became more receptive to interviews after the release of a High Detail version this summer, we were quick to take advantage of the opportunity to learn more about this intriguing endeavor by putting a set of questions to the team.
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Jonric: How would you introduce RuneScape to an online gamer who knows nothing about it except perhaps the name?
Adam Tuckwell: RuneScape is a massively multiplayer online game set in a fantasy world of warring races, ravaged landscapes and sinister powers. Having chosen an adventurer, players are free to find their respective roles within it: to live by the sword and face hundreds of enemies, to further the storyline in the quests, or to train in any of a number of skills. It is like your typical fantasy MMO, but with tons of content.
First, we launched RuneScape HD this summer, with significantly enhanced graphics that have taken the visuals to a new level. Second, we are updating the content constantly; every two weeks, there is something new.
Jonric: What key considerations attract people to try the game, and also to stay with it as players over the long term?
Adam Tuckwell: RuneScape can be played directly in your browser, requiring no installation or software. It is also free to play, offering everyone the chance to explore the involving story and vast game area without paying a penny; if they want to investigate more advanced features, there is a subscription service available for just $5.95.
The game is updated every two weeks with new content, quests, skills or challenges, which means there are always new things to do whenever players log on.
Jonric: How did the project initially come about? When and how did it become apparent that it could be a success?
Adam Tuckwell: The game was initially developed in 2001 by Andrew Gower, who was the coder, and brother Paul, who designed the content. They created it while studying at Cambridge University, and it grew virally from there. Once it was clear that RuneScape was popular, they joined forces with Constant Tedder, and formed Jagex to run it.
As for success, this has come with the evolution of the game and the easy access. The content appeals to a huge player base, who play and tell their friends.
Jonric: Taking into consideration both play styles and demographics, how would you sum up your core target audience?
Adam Tuckwell: One of the beauties of RuneScape is that it appeals to everyone. It is especially popular with the teen demographic, who love the social interaction, but also with an older, 30-plus audience, who enjoy the deep content and challenging quests. Because we add material on such a regular basis, we are able to please all ages with specific mini-games, quests or skills.
Jonric: How large is the player base, and what proportion subscribes? What languages are available, and are others coming?
Adam Tuckwell: We currently have over six million players who play the game every two weeks. Of this, five million are in the free game, and there are over a million subscribers to the member version. Right now, RuneScape is available in English and in German, and we are planning to launch it in a number of new languages in the next 12 months.
Jonric: Would you care to tell our readers more about your revenue model? What are the main benefits of membership?
Adam Tuckwell: The revenue model is one of the keys to the game’s success. It is free to play and enjoy for hundreds of hours, and if people want more, they can subscribe for one of the cheapest rates around, just $5.95. The key benefits include access to the entire world, more quests and skills, member-only servers, and the ability to build their own houses.
Jonric: Why should readers consider trying RuneScape? And if they already have, are there reasons to take another look?
Adam Tuckwell: Players should try RuneScape now because there is something for everyone. If you are looking for deep adventures, developing skills, socializing with friends or simply exploring the massive world… they are all available.
For those who have played before, it is now very different. First, we launched RuneScape HD this summer, with significantly enhanced graphics that have taken the visuals to a new level. Second, we are updating the content constantly; every two weeks, there is something new. Finally, it’s free to play, so why not give it another try?
Jonric: Do you feel game publications pay sufficient attention to RuneScape? How about other companies in the industry?
Adam Tuckwell: We have never sought attention in the press, and have become arguably the biggest free online MMO in the world without spending a penny on marketing. So, game publications have probably been a little unsure what to make of us.
A number of our biggest enemies recognize the largest threat in the area, and will focus on it, or bypass characters using defensive prayers, target those with portable cannons, eliminate the weakest links
RuneScape HD has changed that, and we are now in a more competitive market space, so we are getting more attention. As for the development industry, we are given quite a lot; we believe we are one of the leaders in digital distribution, so many of the key players pay us a good deal of notice.
Jonric: To pick up from your mention of the HD version that launched this summer, how did the idea to create it come about?
Jagex: The first time we started talking about OpenGL was back in mid-2006. It was quite an unusual kickoff. Andrew Gower came over to the Mechscape team to chat about some of the game’s features, and saw a printed picture of a creature roaming the corridors of a space base hanging on the wall. We created the image with proper in-game models, but using a real-time commercial OpenGL renderer just for kicks. The next thing we heard was “You know, there’s no reason we couldn’t do that with our engine if we create an OpenGL version of it…”
A few months later, after proper evaluation of the installed base, specs, a lot of brainstorming and engine roadmaps, our tools and engine teams were busy putting together the master plan for the HD version of the game.
Jonric: Since it seems natural to assume that a master plan has significant goals, what did you set out to achieve with HD?
Jagex: The mindset underlying it is to open a new, richer window to the great content featured in RuneScape, and of course, to keep it on pace with current technology. And “current” doesn’t mean high-end graphics and CPUs that only the top five percent of the installed base have access to, but to a much larger number of players, thus avoiding the pitfalls that are badly hitting the PC gaming industry in terms of sales.
If you’re in the business of delivering technology, it’s fine to go for high-end specs. But Jagex’ focus is providing entertainment, magic, stories for people experience in our virtual worlds. Why cordon off 95 percent of our potential audience by ramping up graphics requirements through the roof? We could create an engine that would render images as good as or even better than every boxed commercial product out there, but we made the conscious decision to not do so.
Jonric: Is HD still java-based? How much work and time went into creating it? What are the hardware requirements, and how much of your player base has adopted it?
Jagex: The HD version of RuneScape is java-based, and took us around 18 months to develop. The project also involved adding texture coordinates to every single model in the game; this task alone involved more than 30 artists working six months on a watertight schedule. Some areas had to be remapped, new models for the characters replaced the old versions and so on, requiring even more people full-time on the 3D editors and animation tools.
Even though HD is quite accessible in terms of specs - a 1.5GHz machine with 256 MB RAM and a GeForce3 or an Intel onboard 3D chipset is more than enough to run it at a good frame rate - you would be blown out of your socks if I told you what’s our current usage split between the original software-rendered version and the new hardware-accelerated one. This is a number we’ll keep to ourselves as it’s an asset only Jagex has, but you get the picture. For the former, the minimum spec is as low as 128 MB RAM and a 500 Mhz CPU.
Jonric: How would you summarize RuneScape’s art direction? What are the major factors that have influenced it?
Jagex: RuneScape’s artistic style is quite distinct. Inspiration comes mostly of classic drawings of mythical creatures such as dragons, faeries, goblins and the like… the kinds of thing you would find in original role-playing or fantasy books. Nowadays, the trend is to make monsters meaner, impossibly huge, somewhat over the top. We prefer to keep our look more grounded, almost like paying homage to what sparked the whole generation back in the day. A dragon can be threatening enough having the size of a big elephant; you really don’t need to make it a ten-storey building to get the point across.
We have lots of popular culture influences too. Allowing the feel of modern-day objects to shape fantasy medieval images often gets a great response from our audience. It’s a tricky line to surf, coming up with compelling representations yet also paying some homage to something crazy like The Adventure Game (a British television show from the ’80s) at the same time.
Jonric: Since we know the play includes a fair amount of dungeon crawling, what kinds of NPC enemies will we encounter, and how will they behave in combat?
Jagex: The higher-level play often focuses on a multiplayer experience, particularly in regards to big, aggressive opponents. Recent content like the godwar dungeons - a frozen snapshot in time from one of RuneScape’s forgotten ages, recently woken up by unforeseen activities in the deep wilderness - features four unique enemies themed around the various religions within the game.
The boss rooms are defended by bands of multi-classed opponents, with combat within them focusing on multiplayer PvE tactics. A number of our biggest enemies recognize the largest threat in the area, and will focus on it, or bypass characters using defensive prayers, target those with portable cannons, eliminate the weakest links, obscure the players’ vision, and all sorts of other nasty tactics.
Jonric: Considering many online gamers adventure alone, at least sometimes, is there also content that fits this play style?
Jagex: Of course, that’s just the dungeons designed for multiplayer content. Assorted single-player challenges await lone adventurers, like growing your own opponents via the Jade Vine quest, or hacking your way through waves of destruction to reach the fearsome Tok-Jad to wear the fabled firecape. Quests in RuneScape are generally solo affairs too; they provide a wide variety of challenges to the user through unique combat environments.
Last but not least, we are continuing our storylines, and can reveal that we are currently working on the largest and most challenging quest yet, which will give more insight into the history of RuneScape.
Jonric: Does the game allow PvP, and in what modes? Are there prerequisites such as level requirements? Is it completely optional?
Jagex: We have plenty of ways for players to battle each other, such as in the duel arena, which hosts tournaments with their own high score lists, or in the clan wars one, where whole groups of players can arrange to face off. We also provide capture the flag style-gameplay via castle wars, and more freeform combat pits in the TzHaar and bounty hunter caves. We tend to keep quest prerequisites out of PvP content (story- and conflict-oriented players are rarely motivated by the same things), and provide some for all our characters, from the smallest bronze-wielding beginnings.
There are plenty of players within RuneScpape, though, who advance their characters without taking part since there are always challenging monster to hunt. Some are so large that you shouldn’t try to attack them by yourself, so players go in highly specialized groups with very specific roles, which is just as thrilling as a PvP experience can be.
In addition, quite a few players pride themselves on progressing far into the game without getting involved in combat at all - focusing on creative skills rather than destructive ones.
Jonric: Before we leave this very important topic area, is there anything more abouyou’d like our readers to know?
Jagex: We are currently developing plenty more PvP opportunities. For example, we’ve recently started working on servers where every player can attack any other nearly anywhere, as long as the target is roughly as tough as you. This will add a thrill to any activity that can be done in-game, and we are sure it will be highly popular with our user base.
These will, of course, be optional, and they can continue to play in safe environments. Equipment designed specifically for use in combat on these worlds only will keep players hunting for the ultimate in gear. We also have two more great PvP mini-games in development. All these will be added to RuneScape before the end of the year.
Jonric: What are the significant improvements and additions you’re working on that will go live by the end of this year? And what are your key longer-term directions and intentions for the game?
Jagex: PvP has always been a strong element of RuneScape, and will continue to be important; we’ll support this with updates like those just mentioned. But the interactions among players and NPCs for storyline and character evolution purposes are much stronger. The game was always focused on quests, and the computer-controlled characters are the building blocks of this model. That’s why we have such a high number of different ones, human or not, playing all sorts of roles.
Additionally, we are looking at new ways of how players can interact with RuneScape. We will introduce content that encourages them to search in different places for a popular animal that has been hiding, or to locate a certain object that has fallen onto the planet of Gielinor.
Last but not least, we are continuing our storylines, and can reveal that we are currently working on the largest and most challenging quest yet, which will give more insight into the history of RuneScape. We can’t reveal more at this point, but it will definitely be worth the wait.
Jonric: To wrap up, would you care to tell us about Jagex? Are the founders active? Where is the company located, how large is the staff, and what projects are in progress?
Adam Tuckwell: Jagex is the Europe’s largest independent game developer. The company began to support the development of RuneScape back in 2001. It was founded by Paul and Andrew Gower with Constant Tedder. All three founders still play active roles. The brothers still work on the team, and he is on the board of directors. We have three offices, two in Cambridge and one in London. We employ over 380 people, including over 180 player support staff.
The company’s main focus includes maintaining and developing RuneScape and FunOrb, our new casual browser games site, and also developing a new MMO, which will be released in spring 2009.
Given that RPG Vault’s main focus is keeping up with the genres we cover, we’ll be watching attentively for information on Jagex’ unannounced massively multiplayer project. Considering it’s not very far off, the wait may not be long. Of course, we also intend to continue watching RuneScape and its ongoing evolution. Right now, of course, we thank Adam Tuckwell plus Chrisoph Vietzke. Henrique Olifiers and Mark Ogilvie whose answers were not individually credited.
– Richard Aihoshi - ‘Jonric’
