Malcolm has been playing RuneScape since his youth and has also dabbled in the top idle games, such as Clicker Heroes, Cookie Clicker and OSRS Gold. While he was a fan but felt that the genre had the potential to do something more pleasing in a similar manner to Jagex’s top RPG.
“So, I set out to come up with my own idea but never even imagining that it would actually be released, let alone become so popular,” he tells GamesIndustry.biz. “I was trying to come up with something that was not in the traditional idle game mold, something that was feature-rich and offered players a actual choice about how they wanted to develop rather than simply increasing numbers on a constant treadmill.
After toying with it for bit behind closed doors I began combining ideas and the mechanics from classic MMOs with the popular idle game model, resulting in something that can be played casually, on the go and fit into the player’s hectic life.”
He goes on to say: “While the numbers and statistics stuff isn’t something that all players enjoy the most about MMOs It is the one that gamers who are hardcore stick to after exploration has been completed. Because it’s usually so important to what the longest term players focus on it’s logical to adopt this as a core part of Melvor’s game’s gameplay design. It also blends well with the design elements that are common to the majority of idle games.”
Although he drew inspiration from other MMOs However, the structure is the main focus of RuneScape was one he studied with particular attention, developing an entire world that was created by Melvor Idle to create a universe that was akin to the 20 years old RPG. “RuneScape became such a foundational base for the game due to the fact that it was a very fundamental game for me,” He explains.”
Much like many others I got into RuneScape because a lot of my acquaintances at the time had it. The fact that it was a browser-based game was a major factor in this, and the ease of entry combined with RuneScape’s extensive branching depth and complexity was what attracted me back to it for quite a while — which is something I’ve always wanted to replicate using Melvor Idle.”
