Idle games like Cookie Clicker and Idle Heroes are becoming increasingly larger and more popular. Melvor Idle is one of these games and it takes inspiration from one of the major MMORPGs – RuneScape. Now, RuneScape developer Jagex is getting involved and taking over the publishing.
What is Melvor Idle? The game Melvor Idle is, as the name suggests, an idle game. This means you hardly have to play actively, and the game carries out tasks for you automatically in the background.
In this way, you can continuously improve your character without really having to be present, which constitutes a large part of the appeal of the genre.
Melvor Idle clearly takes a large MMORPG as its model, namely RuneScape. Much of the game is strongly inspired by the well-known MMO and overlaps significantly.
Visually, it not only resembles RuneScape, but also in the activities that you can perform in Melvor. These include woodcutting, cooking, mining, fishing, thieving, combat, and more.
It thus brings a form of the RuneScape experience to anyone who has no time or desire to grind their way up in RuneScape.
What has happened with Melvor Idle? The game has found great support in the community and is also gaining increasing popularity on Steam. Currently, 94% of the reviews are positive, which is a very good score.
The developers of the major model RuneScape – the studio Jagex – have also taken notice of the game. They are excited about the title and want to get involved, which has now happened.
Jagex is not only a developer but also a publisher and will take care of the release of Melvor Idle from now on. In this context, Jagex will also handle the marketing, localization, technical support, and quality assurance of Melvor.
The developer of Melvor Idle writes in a larger thread on reddit that he retains full creative control over the game and Jagex does not want to make changes. They also do not intend to change the monetization of Melvor (via reddit).
Brendan Malcolm, the developer of Melvor, also emphasizes how happy he is to be working with Jagex: “Working directly with Jagex on this project is like a dream come true.”
How can you play Melvor Idle? Melvor follows a Buy2Play model. You need to purchase the game once to gain full functionality. If you want to try it out first, you can do so on Melvor Idle’s website and start playing directly in your browser (via melvoridle.com).
You gain access to the entire functionality of the game when you upgrade to premium via Steam. You do not lose any progress you may have already made in the browser. The game currently costs €8.19 and contains no microtransactions, which is not expected to change.
On Steam, Melvor Idle is still in Early Access but is set to fully release in November. After the release, the developer plans monthly updates with new content as well as larger expansions.
Not only exciting for RuneScape fans
What does the community say? The reddit thread regarding the publishing by Jagex has almost 400 upvotes, indicating a greater interest in the topic. The community is generally quite positive, which is reflected in the reviews on Steam (via Steam).
- User Borchen writes: “Although it’s the RuneScape feel that made me buy the game, it’s the unexpected depth that has kept me playing for months. Somehow, the developer manages to keep making the game better.”
- User Dome Fossil describes Melvor as: “It’s like playing RuneScape, just without playing RuneScape. 10/10”
- DarkTerminator describes it in detail after 1,360 hours in the game: “The developers have very successfully attempted to completely replicate the skills from RuneScape as an idle game. For me, having played RuneScape myself, it’s all the more fascinating to see how well this has been achieved. The complexity can sometimes be a lot, as you can combine different items when training various skills to become more efficient. […] At the moment, Melvor Idle is, in my opinion, probably the best idle game.”
What do you think of idle games? Are you a fan of them or do you consider them rather a waste of time? Have you played RuneScape yourself and therefore find Melvor Idle better? Feel free to write your thoughts in the comments here on MeinMMO.
This is not the first time that the RuneScape developer has collaborated with a fan. A player invested 2000 hours to develop a graphics mod for Old School RuneScape.
