RuneScape is a grind. As we chase the dream of getting all of our skills up to level 99, we ignore the monotony of it all. The towns, the music, the NPCs, they all serve to dress it up a bit, but if you boot up Old School RuneScape now, it’s staggering just how much time we used to spend cutting down entire forests, and setting up a mile-long line of campfires, just to reach that magical level 99 in every stat.

The serotonin boost is undeniable - that’s why you sink so many hours into it. Every MMO has a gameplay loop like this, of course, but RuneScape is more honest about it. It knows the appeal of seeing those numbers go up. In that sense, Melvor Idle is the natural progression for an entire generation who grew up on the popular free MMO. Because while it takes a lot of inspiration from RuneScape, it’s first and foremost an idle game - a game that’s played by clicking on various menus, grinding away without much player input.

Related: Is New World Basically Just RuneScape? Well, Sort Of

“I took the best elements of RuneScape, the ones that I personally enjoyed, stripped them down and put them into an auto form,” Melvor Idle creator Brendan Malcolm tells me. “Being in a full-time role prior to Melvor Idle, I didn't necessarily have the time to play an active game. So auto games are really good to give you the sense of progression and the joy and the fun while not necessarily having to pay attention to it. You spend a lot of time getting to that glorious level 99, which makes you feel like you've taken a journey.”

Playing both games back-to-back, it’s clear RuneScape’s sense of progression is captured in Melvor Idle, completely in spreadsheet form. It’s RuneScape without having to boot up the game and actually play it. Who wants that? Just make the numbers go up, please.

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We’re not making all of these RuneScape comparisons just because we’re both fans. Melvor Idle made headlines this week following the news that it will actually be published by RuneScape creator Jagex itself, following an extremely successful stint on Early Access. Dream partnerships like this don’t get announced often - usually I’m reporting on fan projects being shut down, not being offered funding.

“Having Jagex come and want to work with me is basically a dream come true,” Malcolm says, having been a fan of its work since 2006. “For the company that inspired me in the first place, the company I've looked up to since the beginning, to want to work with me and get this product out there and help with my vision of Melvor Idle - It's just absolutely amazing.”

To go from indie dev to working with the dream team in just over two years is amazing enough, but even more so when you consider this was Malcolm’s “first solo project as a developer”. In fact, Malcolm doesn’t have “any professional experience in development at all”.

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Simply put, he was a RuneScape and idle game fan who thought the two would naturally be a great fit. “A lot of idle games have some kind of a linear path,” he says. “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.

“Adding Jagex onto it is a very different experience. Going from starting off just as by myself, and getting my own employee earlier this year to working with a company of 500 employees was very overwhelming at first. They have so much knowledge in creating video games, and they are just throwing all of that onto me.”

Despite much of Jagex’s time being spent on adding visuals and music to the world of RuneScape, the team is actually a massive fan of the stripped-back Melvor experience. Jagex’s Chris Pfeiffer is also on the call with us, and shares his own experience with the game.

“It’s a game that I play every single day. There's not a day that's gone by since I started playing it, that I haven't opened it up, checked it out,” Pfeiffer says. “When you choose a game, especially like an MMO, it's almost a binary choice. It's like ‘you pick this one instead of this one’. And what I like about Melvor Idle is it's additive to my experience. As I've levelled up multiple skills to 99, as I progress, my character, the world plays out in my mind.

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“You do, in your mind's eye, build a picture of what's happening with your character. And it's very personal. And part of that too is its RuneScape influence where you can choose your own adventure, you can choose which way you're progressing your character.”

This is how the partnership came about - one person at Jagex picked it up and, according to Pfeiffer it “started spreading around the office” because of its idle nature.

“People [in the office] watch TV. And then they're playing RuneScape while watching TV. And then they're playing Melvor Idle while playing RuneScape.” In that sense, not a lot has changed at Jagex since the big partnership. “A big portion of my week here at Jagex now is playing Melvor Idle and helping get ready for commercial launch.”

Long-time fans will note just how similar this all is to another Jagex project - RuneScape: Idle Adventures. Pfeiffer does bring up the similarities, and it hits me how this is something you don’t often see in the industry: a big company seeing a fan create something that is getting a whole lot of attention, and investing in that. We haven’t seen that kind of attitude thrive since Valve’s heyday with Team Fortress and Counter-Strike.

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“I think it's really amazing that companies do work with those that are inspired by them. I think it's a really good avenue to take,” Malcolm says. “Because those are your fans. Those are the people that you know you've inspired and to be able to go in the direction of working with them is really good.”

Pfeiffer agrees: “If there are other developers out there that are interested in potentially working with us, and you have a demo, then they should reach out to us. We called Brendan wondering if we could work together knowing nothing about him at all. And we started talking to him and realised that he's smart, he's new to this, he's a small studio that at that time was two people. And there were areas where we could legitimately help, amplify his message and bring his game to the hundreds of millions of people who have played RuneScape.”

The future of Melvor Idle still has the same team at the helm - Malcolm isn’t going anywhere - but one thing that will change is that it’s coming to more players. Not only will it be promoted by the RuneScape team, but it’s also getting localised into 11 different languages. The entire brand is being refreshed too - something Malcolm is looking forward to having done it all himself for years.

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Melvor Idle will, on the face of it, look like a very different experience to typical RuneScape players. But what you actually have is a fantasy game that drops you into the world, letting you do whatever you want. Aside from that, you have this story of an indie dev who took a bold leap and is having it all pay off.

“The community that I interact with every day, they're basically the reason I'm sitting here with Jagex and working alongside them,” Malcolm says. “Being able to see so many people enjoy and love a product that I have created brings me so much joy.”

Melvor Idle’s full commercial launch is scheduled for November.

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