The RuneScape franchise turns 25 this yr. Previous Faculty RuneScape (OSRS), which launched in 2013 utilizing the 2007-era supply code from RuneScape, is on the peak of its reputation proper now, peaking at 240k concurrent gamers in 2025. Final yr, OSRS obtained its first-ever new ability within the type of crusing, which introduced waves of gamers (sorry not sorry for the pun) again to the sport. One way or the other, the crew at Jagex carried out water-based motion right into a sport with a 25-year outdated basis, the place characters stroll utilizing a grid-based system. And it has been a roaring success with gamers.
Later this yr, crusing will broaden even additional, with a number of quests, a Barracuda Trial, and actions across the Crimson Reef. At a latest press occasion to mark the large anniversary, I spoke to OSRS design director Kieren Charles concerning the ins and outs of crusing and the way new abilities and mechanics are launched. For Charles, including a brand new mechanic to a 25-year-old sport was a formidable problem, but in addition an attractive alternative.
“If the tech would not assist it at a elementary degree, it in all probability would not match the sport that nicely anyway,” Charles defined. “However with sufficient work, we are able to make most issues occur, it is only a matter of time, effort, and vitality to do it. Crusing feels very completely different on the primary degree since you’re on a ship and also you’re transferring a vessel reasonably than a participant. It felt proper that it wanted work, however on the similar time it got here out nonetheless feeling very old fashioned. You click on on a tile, your boat strikes in that course; it looks like a pure evolution of participant motion.”
Do not anticipate one other new ability anytime quickly, although. As one devoted participant famous on Reddit, “Loopy {that a} ability I keep in mind speaking about with my mates in center college practically 20 years in the past is lastly releasing.” That is as a result of whereas it wasn’t in improvement for anyplace close to that lengthy — it initially handed the group vote in August 2023 — it was a type of early-internet period discussion board rumors that unfold like wildfire. For longtime gamers, to see it lastly come to fruition in any case this time is unbelievable.
“We’re not chomping on the bit [to introduce another new skill], we’d like a break,” Charles mentioned. “We want a relaxation after what’s been a variety of effort, however I believe the gamers additionally want a relaxation from it. I do not assume gamers need a new ability tomorrow both, as a result of this course of has been so collaborative. We have gone by way of so many back-and-forths with gamers by way of the early design phases of [deciding] what ability it ought to be, crafting what crusing ought to be, after which by way of improvement with alphas, betas, and such. So we won’t dominate all the things by speaking a few new ability instantly as a result of we need to do the collaborative course of once more.”
Charles isn’t ruling out including one other new ability to OSRS in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later, however notes that the crew intends to concentrate on new additions and enhancements to different features of the sport within the close to time period.
“The sport is greater than a sum of its components. You have obtained all these completely different features: quests, abilities, bosses, raids… we have to spend time on all the above. A brand new ability in all probability will occur someday, however what it will be and when it will be? Who is aware of. It’s going to be pushed by when it is wanted and when gamers shout for it,” he defined. “Proper now I am eager about the 2026 additions: the raid, new quest, league, all these issues, and even past that, in 2027 and 2028, there in all probability will not be a brand new ability in that point span. Previous Faculty RuneScape has survived and thrived with out it, so it isn’t one thing we will shoehorn in. It’s going to be one thing we do as a result of it is truly going to resolve an issue or fill a niche and produce us ahead.”
Main updates like crusing might help entice new gamers to OSRS and retain present ones. However there’s no denying the MMO area is crowded: World of Warcraft, Last Fantasy XI and XIV, Elder Scrolls On-line, Black Desert On-line, Guild Wars 2… the listing goes on. And it is honest to say that every one of these video games look extra spectacular than OSRS. Based on Charles, listening to gamers and retaining them blissful is a significant factor behind the sport’s longevity, even amid stiff competitors.
“Our ideas of embracing and defending gamers’ development and achievements, and respecting folks’s time feels very a lot of that [earlier] period of video games. We stick by these issues, he explains. “We even have a deep understanding of what folks need, so we make sure that we try to nail it. The sport’s simply larger and higher as a result of the way in which we add content material is not to interchange stuff, it is to actually add new issues.
“So while on the floor it appears to be like related, I believe that is necessary as a result of it is acquainted and pays respect to the previous data folks have already got… however the sport’s simply basically higher now. To a brand new participant who joins at this time, it is a greater prospect than it was in 2007.”
And for a few of us, OSRS’s old-timey graphics aren’t a bug, they’re a function. Like many gamers, I drifted again to the sport throughout COVID. All these years later, I used to be standing atop Lumbridge Fortress once more, with a list filled with salmon and two million cash within the financial institution. (As soon as upon a time, that may’ve made me wealthy… today, not a lot). They are saying you’ll be able to’t go residence once more, however in OSRS, you sort of can. Charles says that’s an enormous a part of the sport’s enduring attraction.
“The graphics create that sense of familiarity; should you performed RuneScape previously, coming again, it is a right away heat feeling,” he defined. “Standing in entrance of Lumbridge Fortress, it appears to be like and feels the way in which you keep in mind it. That wants defending, however on the similar time, we preserve increasing it and it genuinely is best now.”
It’s clear the crew at Jagex has discovered honor RuneScape’s historical past whereas including fashionable comforts and improvements. However what does the longer term maintain for OSRS? Unsurprisingly, it’s difficult. However it boils right down to discovering the appropriate steadiness between including new content material that feels genuine to the expertise and sticking with the tried and true.
“Now we have lots of of quests, tens of bosses, we’re implementing our fourth raid. How do you evolve and make that new one particular and stand above the remaining? I believe that is one thing OSRS has carried out remarkably nicely at,” mentioned Charles. “The opposite temptation — and this has additionally been an enormous studying level — is simply to all the time go larger and higher. How do you beat the final raid or quest? Larger, higher, extra options, extra complexity. However that is a mistake. It is sticking to the easy guidelines, the identical issues that made all the unique content material widespread.”
Jagex’s robust relationship with the OSRS group may also play a essential position within the sport’s future. “We study loads from the gamers as a result of they inform us what they need. We speak to them usually, we survey them, they get so many alternatives to inform us the place the issues are and what they’re excited by. Then ideas like Leagues, Deadman, and Grid Grasp permit us to throw all warning to the wind, the place nothing issues anymore. We will basically experiment and check out one thing so wild that you’d by no means have the ability to do in the principle sport,” Charles says.
