Remember back in January when we covered Melvor Idle, an idle game fan project that was overtly inspired by RuneScape? Well, here’s a batch of warm fuzzy news on that project: Instead of trying quash it and having to backtrack later as Jagex initially did with the RuneLite HD mod, the studio is going to publish it itself.
“[Jagex] today announced that it will be working with indie developer Brendan Malcolm to publish Melvor Idle under the Jagex Partners banner. Currently in Early Access, Melvor Idle is a game heavily inspired by Jagex’s renowned RuneScape franchise and has already been downloaded more than 600,000 times across Steam, App Store and Google Play. The brainchild of Australian solo developer Brendan Malcolm, a player of RuneScape since his youth, Melvor Idle was devised as a means of reimagining the core components of the RuneScape franchise in a way that they could be enjoyed casually, fitting around the busy schedule of his adult life. Taking inspiration from the setting, skills, combat and mechanics of RuneScape, he distilled the core components down into an idle game in the same vein as games such as Clicker Heroes and Egg Inc.”
“The support this partnership has provided me will not only enable me to reach even more players with Melvor Idle, but will help me really establish Games by Malcs as an up-and-coming studio with an office in Perth, Australia,” Malcolm says.
It’s not an MMO, but it’s based on a big one, so you might wanna check it out; it’s in early access on Steam for $9.99, though it’s “free-to-try” there too as well as on on Android and iOS.
