It’s hard to think of games which defined your childhood without thinking of RuneScape. The original 2001 browser game was, for many people, their first introduction to gaming. This year the beloved franchise is celebrating its 20th anniversary. If you didn’t already feel the burden of old age, you might well do now, but don’t worry; the future of RuneScape is looking as bright as its past.
GameByte spoke with RuneScape Lead Designer Dave Osborne, celebrating the game’s successes and evolutions over the past two decades. We also discussed what’s to come in the future of the iconic MMORPG.
Childhood Magic
Logging into RuneScape in 2021 might feel a little different to how it did back in 2001. Thanks to the dedicated team of developers at Jagex though, we’re still able to recapture some of that childhood magic. For Osborne, RuneScape’s changes over the years have been a natural evolution. One for a game which has aged along with its players.
“If you go back 20 years, RuneScape was being played on browsers in school libraries and around mates’ houses. It was more a chatroom than it was an MMORPG, and any progress you made was mostly a bonus.”
“It’s amazing to me how much has changed, and yet how much has stayed the same.” Osborne tells us.
Adaptability
One of the biggest changes RuneScape has seen over the years is how you can play it. PCs and mobile platforms have improved drastically over the years. This has given gamers more opportunities to play games however they want to. RuneScape’s adaptability is one of its many strengths, and this year we’ll be celebrating its full launch on mobile.
“The accessibility of RuneScape is largely still there; although we’ve moved out of the browser, it’s an MMO that doesn’t put huge requirements on the device you play it on. It’s allowed us to adapt and move onto mobile, which is getting a full commercial launch this year,” says Osborne.
“The emphasis on sociability and playing in the same area as each other is still there, and so many players boot up RuneScape for the opportunity to meet others, rather than anything we’ve done for them. It’s why our annual RuneFest fan gathering is so popular, as it’s about putting faces to the usernames that you have got to know.
“But look at the game now versus two decades ago, and so much has been modernised in the way you interact, the interfaces, combat and in the look of the game world. It still has the recognisable flourishes. Players who played 20 years ago would recognise Lumbridge, Varrock and the rest, but it’s undoubtedly a modernised version of that original game.”
Familiar But Better
When you’re developing a game that’s been around for 20 years, it’s important to provide your existing players with the familiarity they seek while also improving the overall experience, creating new content and giving players a reason to stay in the action.
The 10-year-old children who fell in love with RuneScape are now 30-year-old adults. Keeping their loyalty while also welcoming new players is a balancing act that’s hard to succeed at. With both RuneScape and OSRS, long-time players are encouraged to shape the game’s development. They’re also encouraged to help those who are new to the games.
“Where our players were once chatroom visitors, they are now so literate about the game and its design that they are effectively collaborators in making it,” says Osborne.
“With Old School, every element is polled before it goes in. RuneScape has a weekly release structure, and the players inform all of the decisions. We’re also heartened by how much our legacy players welcome and embrace new players. We launched on Steam last year, and they have been mentoring the newbies.”
Listening to the Fans
Fan feedback has always played a role in the ongoing development of RuneScape and Old School RuneScape. Without their players, it’s safe to say RuneScape wouldn’t be what it is today. Plus we definitely wouldn’t be celebrating RuneScape’s 20th anniversary if it weren’t for the community.
“We don’t just pay lip service to [fan feedback],” Osborne proudly explains. “Old School RuneScape is a protected and curated 2007 version of RuneScape. The players help us to look after it like parents.
“Virtually every change, no matter how small, gets polled by our players. Unless it reaches a 70% threshold then it doesn’t go in. We’ve seen huge updates such as skills fall by the wayside because the player base simply doesn’t want it in there.
“While it’s not so visibly prominent, a similar player focus is on RuneScape. We develop the game in a kind of open workshop, hosting twice-weekly livestreams that showcase what we’ve made and how we’re making it. We do surveys, internal focus tests with players, and make every decision with players in mind. Then, once a game update is out, we make sure to follow the players’ responses and isolate their issues, so that we can keep updating the content until they are happy with it.”
Challenges
Despite their thriving communities, there are – unsurprisingly – challenges that come with creating a future for something as beloved as RuneScape.
“There are a myriad of challenges with working on a well-established IP,” Osborne tells us. “Even though I have personally been working here for 14 of the 20 years, it still feels like I’m just one of the current custodians of the world and its stories!
“The problems come up every day. One of the biggest is the battle between adding to the game versus modernising the old. We update the game weekly, and that can stack up to create a daunting amount of content.
“Our current members want more and more things to play and master, but there’s a tension between bolting new things on and making sure they still make sense to a new player. We are constantly struggling to maintain a balance between the two. Some years have skewed more to one than the other.
“Older content also degrades. It doesn’t meet the graphical bar we’ve set ourselves and the world begins to look inconsistent. It’s one of the big reasons that we’ve greenlit a project to update the player character and every item they could possibly wear. Older content causes issues with the new, and the supporting structures weren’t built to handle a game that’s coming into its 20th year. We need to always be mindful of addressing this.”
Runescape and COVID
2020 saw an increase in the number of people staying at home. This subsequently caused an increase in the number of people turning to video games. Some gamers branched out with the latest releases. Many of those who left video games in their past though took the time to revisit their favourite childhood hits. For RuneScape, 2020 saw a huge surge in player numbers.
“There are some more obvious reasons for that, and those that are more elusive,” says Osborne when asked about the renewed success for both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape.
“Coronavirus has created a very challenging period where our physical worlds have become a lot smaller; RuneScape represents a way of escaping that limitation and broadening the scope for interaction with other people. I often feel like I am not achieving as much as I would like in a given day, and RuneScape has always been a place where you can feel rewarded and achieve something, even in a short space of time. It’s led to a lot of people coming back to RuneScape.”
More Reasons to Play
It’s not just the global pandemic which has contributed to the renewed love for the classic MMO. With an exciting future planned, the only way is up for RuneScape.
“There was also the Steam launch in September, which brought RuneScape to those who had maybe forgotten it, or people who meant to try it but never found the time,” Osborne says.
“As I mentioned earlier, it led to fantastic moments where our players mobilised and gave out free stuff to new players, making the whole experience as welcoming as possible. In March we launched Archaeology, a new skill to train, which couldn’t have arrived at a better time for a lot of people who were suddenly housebound.
“The not-so-obvious reasons include a weekly release structure for RuneScape, which makes the game bustle. It feels like you are joining a healthy and active community where things are changing so substantially, and so frequently – a lot of players look for that in any game world they try. On a final note, Old School RuneScape has also introduced its ‘Leagues’ competitive mode, and we’ve seen a lot of people following that to see who wins.”
Shaped By The Players
Both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape operate very much on a “for the players, with the players” basis. Something which extends to the development team too. Many of the developers have been fans of RuneScape in the past and are no doubt excited by the future. For Osborne, the games have taken up a significant portion of his life, both as a developer and a player.
“I’ve just passed the point where RuneScape has been a third of my life, so it’s been a monumental influence on me,” says Osborne. “I’ve got so much accumulated knowledge about the game and its characters, and who knows what I will do with that information. It’s where I’ve learned to be a designer, how to parse player feedback into a high-quality game, and how to make something that still gets played after 20 years. There aren’t many places to learn that.
“As a player, it’s also been my ‘home-game’. While I might play other games, I will always come back to RuneScape, as it represents something familiar and safe, and I see that as a very good thing. It’s a constant in my life, and I get the feeling that it will be for many more years.”
Is Now the Time to Play RuneScape?
Whether you’ve been playing RuneScape for years, or looking for a new adventure, there’s never been a better time to jump in.
“The Steam launch a few months ago has made RuneScape into an even more welcoming place, so you’re going to have a community that is genuinely excited to have you join,” says Osborne when asked about those curious about playing.
“Equally, we have lots of events planned for the 20th Anniversary, so joining RuneScape now at the height of its bustle will be an exciting experience!
“There will be another good reason to join later in the year, as we launch fully on mobile. Not only will you have a new way to play RuneScape, but we are planning to make improvements to the tutorial and the starting experience with it. It will give this potentially overwhelming game a softer on-ramp.”
The Future of RuneScape
Despite being deeply rooted in its own past, the future of RuneScape has never looked brighter. We wanted to know just what we can expect from the 20th anniversary celebrations taking place throughout the year.
“There are two big things happening over the course of the year, dominating everything you’ll see and play in RuneScape,” says Osborne on the future of RuneScape. “The first is the 20th Anniversary. We’re plotting a crazy, chaotic story that will release episodically over the year, as the storyteller changes with each episode.
“We’re hoping it creates a Madlibs-style anarchy, all under the umbrella of the past, present and future of the player character. That’s before we included the Grand Party, which kicked off the 4th January, and many commemorative items, both in-game and out, that players can get their hands on.
“The second thing that dominates our 20th Anniversary year is the Elder God Wars. For a couple of years now, some eggs at the centre of our world have threatened to hatch, unleashing the Elder Gods that reside within them. If they do hatch, the universe will be unmade and life wiped out. Obviously we don’t want that, so we’re telling a number of stories over 2021 about the efforts to intervene, and there’s a tentpole in the middle of it all in the form of the Elder God Wars Dungeon.
“It’s here that players will confront the problem head-on, and we’re planning something intense over a four-month period to capture the moment.”
RuneScape in Another 20 Years
With its incredible successes and an exciting future ahead, it’s easy to imagine RuneScape fans will still be celebrating in another 20 years’ time. Will Osborne still be playing?
“I will! We certainly hope that we will be entertaining players for two more decades,” he says.
“If you rewound to the first five years of RuneScape, nobody was predicting that we’d be at our peak membership and nearing 300 million accounts created in our 20th year, not even internally. It just wouldn’t have sounded realistic – games simply didn’t last that long. But we’ve confounded our own expectations and it means that we’re definitely more bullish now.
“We expect to be here in 20 years, and we’re planning to adapt to wherever gaming takes us, just as we’ve found ourselves on Steam and mobile now.
“If anything, we’ve got at least another decade of stories planned to tell, and I want to make sure we get to the end of that unfinished tome!”
Both a relic of the past and a shining beacon of the future, we can’t wait to see what’s to come from RuneScape and Old School RuneScape. Whether you’re continuing or beginning your adventures in RuneScape, you can find out more and play both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape right here!
Featured Image Credit: Reddit/Jagex