RuneScape 3 has come a long way from how RuneScape used to be
Jagex recently announced that it has signed a deal with indie game developer Outlier Games to publish the debut game by the studio, the spaceship management Roguelike This Means Warp. The game is set to release on PC through Steam Early Access on March 17.
The game was designed with replayability and multiplayer in mind, This Means Warp encourages players to play together and to think strategically in chaotic, real-time space battles. use shrewd strategies in order to steer their ships through a hostile, procedurally generated universe.
Taking inspiration from roguelikes like FTL and party games like Overcooked, The game Means Warp sees players control crew members on board a ship, manning different mechanisms, aiming weapons and conducting repairs, and ultimately making a plan for the treacherous void of space.
To find out more about Jagex's publication of This Means Warp, we asked Outlier Games' founders Paul Froggatt and Matt Rathbun as well as Lead Product Manager for Jagex Robert Fox-Galassi to get their thoughts on this exciting partnership.
As with many indie developers, our beginnings in the games industry was from playing around with game concepts and codes over some time before finally creating something playable!
I've been in the industry for 10 years and have experiences working for Google before I made the decision to pivot to developing games full-time. Matt's experience spans Hollywood computer systems on film sets, as well as a stint in South Korean esports and mobile game development. We're so excited to show what we've built using This Means Warp.
A variety of video games have given an ambitious developer the idea to create their own. However, it's rare to see an inspired work picked up by the same company that created the original game.
However, this was the case with Brendan Malcolm, the one-man team at Australian creator Games By Malcs, whose idle RPG Melvor Idle has been published by Jagex who is the creator of RuneScape the game which was the main motivation for his own game.
Melvor Idle strips away the graphics and 3D environments of RuneScape and similar MMOs and reduces it into a game with a menu-based interface that lets players control their abilities, inventory and quests. Participating in combat battles or winning them will earn you XP as well as loot, which can be invested into whichever improvement tree or skill tree players prefer, and repeating things like crafting or woodcutting will yield rewards of their own.
