INTERVIEW: Jagex

To learn more, CasualGaming.biz sat down with Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard, head of games development Henrique Olifiers, and head of public relations Adam Tuckwell, to talk to a company not typically associated with the casual sector can offer new generations of gamer young and old.

CG.biz: For our readers who aren’t familiar with the emergence of Runescape and Mechscape, can you tell us a little about the games’ history?

Mark Gerhard: With Runescape we just created a game we wanted to play. It was a fantastic success and it grew as players consumed content. A few years in we felt that, as we know how to make an MMO, and it has been so successful, wouldn’t it be great if we could rewrite the rulebook? Runescape already had so much critical mass, and players obviously enjoyed that certain type of game play – that’s kind of where Mechscape was born.

Henrique Olifiers: We started this with the mindset that we should create a game which wasn’t just Runescape in space. We wanted to create a brand new game, but learning from the experience we got from running Runescape, we understood the players, and the game mechanics for MMOs. We started to move on and create something completely new, and Mechscape is the result of this mindset.

We have created this unique universe, and a massive back-story to the whole thing. We did that for years, and then we started assembling the game. So there’s four different playable species, and a whole new set of game mechanics has gone into the game. We’ve tried to create a MMO which sits above the other MMOs, with the kind of engagement it has with the user, and the underlying game mechanics.

MG: It’s something new, even within our own demographic, I think it’s fair to say.

HO: Yes. People evolve over time, players evolve over time, and they have lifecycles throughout MMOs. They can play Runescape for a number of years and then maybe want to move into something deeper and more engaging, so we will offer them this game to move onto. Mechscape, which isn’t the final name, is a game project we have created for someone who is slightly older than Runescape players, and who is looking for more engaging gameplay, more storyline. Somebody who wants more results from their actions within the game universe. So the game universe is very fluid; it changes based on how you react with other players and NPCS. It’s very different from that perspective. Just to give you a hint, his game doesn’t have XP {Experience points]. It is so different from everything else.

CG.biz: You’ve talked about Mechscape being something deeper than Runescape, but you’ve also talked about a lack of XP. Is this a game for die-hard MMO fans, or does it have something to offer newcomers?

HO: Definitely, if you look at the space we’re trying to get into, the sci-fi space, back in the day especially when we started the project there were no a single sci-fi game that was successful. We have Star Wars Galaxy, which struggled a bit, and we had Eve, which is a fantastic project, but very hardcore. At that time there wasn’t a title that really broke in the sci-fi genre, like Runescape did with the fantasy genre. That was our first stepping-stone.

The second one was realising why, at that point, sci-fi didn’t work with MMOs, because it worked with every other game but not with MMOs. We identified a few things that MMOs in the sci-fi space were getting wrong. They were dressing fantasy mechanics as sci-fi, but there was no difference in handling a sword or handling a Light Sabre or handling a Blaster. It was the same mechanic; you have to shoot the blaster several times to grind XP.

If you look at single player sci-fi games like Masters of Orion and Starcraft, you must look at how they engage with the players – its all technology driven. It’s not about the players and it’s not about the characters. It’s about what they can make and what they can use, so gadgets and technology and that sought of stuff. It’s not about grinding; it’s about research. Its not about accumulating stuff but about building stuff in the way that you want them to be built, so you can develop your on strategy in combat in interaction, and in socialising with other players

CG.biz: So can you tell us anything about the release date yet? Fans are incredibly eager to know more.

HO: We are getting there. We are polishing the game now. Most of the job is done but we don’t want to compromise with the date, because we perform play test all the time, and we want to have the freedom to change as much as we want. We want to release the product when we say ‘this is finished and this is brilliant’, and not be pressured by commitment that we have made to the community.

MG: Ultimately we’re only going to launch it when we’re happy with it. Call it internal quality control if you will. That’s why we haven’t committed to a date.

Our reason for creating games is that we want to make games that we can play and enjoy. It’s not about the right time to launch, a PR opportunity or a commercial opportunity. It’s really just about ‘when is this game ready to go out so it will be fun?’ That approach is really us going back to our roots if you will. That approach was always in the DNA at first.

I think we dabbled for a year or so with the ‘hack, ship, hack, ship, hack, ship,’ model, being more corporate or commercial or what ever the right term is; that just wasn’t us.

CG.biz: Traditionally there’s been a chasm between casual and hardcore gaming, but it does seem that it’s closing. Casual games companies are expanding across that gap. Is that something you think Jagex is doing from ‘the other side’?

MG: I would think we are. It’s not a deliberate play if you will; it’s just what we do and what we’re good at. I think we’ve really helped that industry to get to where it is in that regard.

HO: Yes. Also, it would be safe to say if you are developing an MMO right now, whatever kind of MMO it is, you could develop it in a browser. You could achieve the same quality that you achieve on a stand-alone client. Now, you would go with the browser. It’s easy to reach the player, it’s more consistent in the way that it supports the hardware, and you don’t have to fiddle with drivers, or anything like that

MG: It’s a no brainer. Players get instant access.

HO: So it’s just a question of knowing how to do it and being capable of doing it, and that’s getting easier. I think we will see far more people moving to this space.

MG: That said, it’s not a completely easy space to be in. After nine years we’re still learning, and we’ve done a ton of development and pioneering, which never stops. In many ways it’s a hard gap to close. We know, if we think of our friends like Blizzard and EA, this is the space they want to be in, and they’ve said as much, but they don’t have the tech to be able to do it today. But, no doubt, they are investing heavily to catch up. In some respects it’s a bit like an arms race, making sure we’re staying ahead of the curve.

Adam Tuckwell: When people talk about casual, we maybe see it as something different from how others understand it – to what your readers think. We treat ‘casual’ in a couple of ways. We talk about casual in terms of accessibility, and there we are extremely successful, as anybody can access our games and enjoy them.

But we also see casual being about how people interact with the games, so FunOrb in particular is designed with that in mind. It’s something for time-pressed gamers – even people like us – who love playing games, but don’t have the time. For that reason we try and make all of our games available in a ‘casual way’. That means that you get a full gaming experience, even if you’ve only got half-an-hour. I think we are bridging the gap you mentioned, but we’re also defining a new gap that we’re filling. We’re defining a new band of casual, which we’re doing with the FunOrb games at one end of the spectrum, Runescape at another level, and Mechscape above that.

CG.biz: On the subject of your free-to-play games portal FunOrb, you recently employed Jon Hare, who designed the likes of Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder. Will we see any of his classic IP returning on the website?

MG: I think we will, whether it’s Jon’s or other people’s, we will bring in some classic IP. We will be the destination, so if you want to play Bubble Bobble, for example, it would be on FunOrb. So there will be some of that, but the bit that gets us excited is the inventing and creating, and trying something new. We’re not always sure it’s going to be a success but that doesn’t matter, because we don’t go ‘what is the business case?’ Instead we ask ‘will this be fun?’, and if it is we build it.

We will bring back some classic IP, we will do some spiritual successes, and if you look at the site today you will see some spiritual successes of various great games. But it’s also creating all new types of games and gameplay, which is the best bit. I think we’re probably a few months away from one or two of those projects materialising. Right now it’s mostly spiritual successes, and we will be bringing back some old IP as well. As I say a year from now we will be able to say that we have the right blend of classics and originals, for people like us, and we’ll have a really good destination for gamers of all kinds.