RuneScape developer Jagex has revealed that it will be publishing Melvor Idle, a popular idle game inspired by the classic free-to-play MMO. Melvor Idle is a passion project from a single developer, and this partnership ensu🎐res it ♏will be leaving Early Access in November.
Melvor Idle, which was being developed by a team of just two when Jagex came on ཧboard, is a RuneScape-esque game that purely focuses on progression. Players can level up numerous🐭 skills and take on enemies, all in the text-based format you get with incremental titles.
Speaking to TheGaౠmer shortly before the announcement, developer Brendan Malcolm described the partnership as a "dream come true", and said he never expected to be able to get a full-time j♋ob out of this.
"2006 was my first introduction to RuneScape. So I thought you know, I really enjoyed this game, can I turn this into an idle game? That's how Melvor Idle was born."
"RuneScape really drops you into this world where it doesn't necessarily direct you where to go. And that's what I really like about it. I wanted to put that into an idle game because a lot of the games I play have some kind of a linear path. Not that that's a bad thing - I just thought that I could probably open up a little bit and go for a more 'do as you please' route".
We also spoke to Chris Pfeiffer fro🐎m Jagex, who has been playing the game since 2020.
"Our own staff started playing the game and it starte𒀰d spreading around the office. So we called Brendan wondering if we could work together, knowing nothing about him at all", explaine♚d Pfeiffer.
"We started talking to him and realised that he's smart. He's a small studio - at that time was two people - and there were areas where we could legitimately help, as well as amplify his message and bring his game to the hundreds of millions of people who have played RuneScape".
Even during its run as an indie𝔉 game in Early Access, Melvor Idle has been downloaded 600,000 times across Steam, App Store and Google Play. Now with more fundinℱg, Malcolm hopes to bring the game to more regions with official translations.
Melvor ܫIdle wil🐼l leave Early Acess next month, and will be available on PC and mobile.