Interview: Jagex’s Henrique Olifiers Discusses the Past, Present and Future of RuneScape

The MMO Gamer: Is there an overall design philosophy, an overriding theory of game design that you work under at Jagex?

Henrique Olifiers: Yes. Jagex has a production approach which is unique to the company. No other game development company I know of takes this approach. We have a person, a figure in the development process called the content developer, who makes the book of RuneScape content creation.

That guy is a role-player by nature, usually comes from a pen and paper background. He’s a good writer. We recruit him, and teach him how to code. What we’re looking for is creative minds. People who are able to create good storylines, good play elements, and then we teach them how to use the tools.

We can teach those guys how to use the tools, we cannot teach someone proficient in coding how to be creative, how to be brilliant. That we cannot do.

We take another approach: We pick the best people we can, and train them. These guys almost act like small producers. They come up with their own quests, they come up with their own skills, and they assemble around them a team of artists, musicians, their own QA dedicated to bug-hunting and fine-tuning the gameplay, and they go do their own projects, which end up being this update that we do every two weeks.

These updates can take anywhere from two months to a year in development. A skill, for instance, is usually the highest impact to the game. If you’re introducing a new skill to the game that has to be very, very carefully planned, because it can break the whole balance of the game. It can’t be overpowered, or understated, and has to go along with all the content, all the legacy content and the other skills in the game.

It’s a massive job.

So, those kind of updates are usually the most labor-heavy ones.

The MMO Gamer: Let’s say that someone is reading this right now that had never even previously heard of RuneScape before now. What would you say to invite them to play the game?

Henrique Olifiers: If you’re looking for a game that will really give you a great adventure, and will give you great storylines to follow, not just grinding—because RuneScape is far more than that, we have a very strong storyline—a live universe with smart NPCs, and deep NPCs, that’s what RuneScape is.

You’ll be able to develop your character and experience the world of Gielinor with far more depth to the characters and the storylines that you engage to than most MMOs out there, which focus more on character advancement and grinding, only.

Personally, as an MMO player—and I’ve been around since Meridian 59 and Ultima Online—I say that RuneScape is a very solid game. And I, as an MMO player, enjoy playing the game. So I don’t see why other MMO players wouldn’t enjoy it.

The MMO Gamer: What does the future hold for the game? Do you think that your positive subscription numbers will continue on the uptrend?

And what development plans do you have in the future? Is the game going to continue to be purely digital distribution?

Henrique Olifiers: If we are to see a boxed version of RuneScape at some time it would just be to gain space on the shelves, and to reach a new market we haven’t reached before. Digital distribution is the way to go for us.

Regarding the future of RuneScape, we don’t know how long RuneScape will live. As far as I can tell it’s going to live forever, because every other successful MMO I’ve played before is still going on and going strong.

If you look at Ultima Online, it’s still out there.

The RuneScape growth trend has been around a 35% increase every year in userbase. We have seen that over and over again. We have not experienced a dip in new users since 2001. As far as I can tell, RuneScape will continue to grow, and grow strongly. We have long plans for RuneScape. So, if you are a RuneScape player, or intending to join the game, you can be sure that it’s going to last for a long time.

The MMO Gamer: I like to end my interviews on a somewhat more philosophical note, as opposed to “How many exclusives are you going to give me?”

So, why do you make games? What made you get into the industry? What compels you to go to work at Jagex every day?

Henrique Olifiers: I love games. I want to create worlds, I want to create realities. And, I want to know that people are having a laugh, having a great time, playing something that I created for them.

I’ve been creating games since the mid-80s, on the Spectrum using Assembly. It always gave me a buzz to see a whole universe, a whole new mechanic—especially a gameplay mechanic, I love being a game designer—or telling a story, through that new form of media.

I think that if you have never tried making a game before, even if it’s a small mini-game, and showing it to your friends, and seeing that spark in their eyes, experiencing something different that you’ve created, you have to do it. It’s a unique experience, and it rewards you every day.

I wouldn’t wish anything else.

The MMO Gamer: Thank you very much for joining us. We appreciate it, and we hope we can do it again some time.

Henrique Olifiers: Thank you very much for the interview, Steve. Great fun.

You may find more information about Jagex at their corporate website: http://www.jagex.com. RuneScape is a free-to-play web-based title and may be found at http://www.runescape.com.

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