Jagex announces partnership to publish Melvor Idle

Jagex’s publishing arm Jagex Partners will support the continued development and publishing of the wildly popular Melvor Idle – to be released in November

Melvor Idle is a feature-rich idle game, created by solo developer Brendan Malcolm and inspired by Jagex’s billion-dollar RuneScape franchise

Cambridge, UK – Thursday, October 21st 2021, 11am BST – Leading British video game publisher and developer Jagex, creator of the iconic living game RuneScape franchise, today announced that it will be working with indie developer Brendan Malcolm to publish Melvor Idle under the Jagex Partners banner. Currently in Early Access, Melvor Idle is a game heavily inspired by Jagex’s renowned RuneScape franchise and has already been downloaded more than 600,000 times across Steam, App Store and Google Play.

The brainchild of Australian solo developer Brendan Malcolm, a player of RuneScape since his youth, Melvor Idle was devised as a means of reimagining the core components of the RuneScape franchise in a way that they could be enjoyed casually, fitting around the busy schedule of his adult life. Taking inspiration from the setting, skills, combat and mechanics of RuneScape, he distilled the core components down into an idle game in the same vein as games such as Clicker Heroes and Egg Inc.

Jagex first became aware of Melvor Idle in early 2020, and was hugely impressed with the game, realising there was a significant opportunity to help support the game’s future development, and to reward a fan-made passion project and bring it to the attention of RuneScape players around the world. The game will come out of Early Access and release officially this November.

Chris Pfeiffer, Director of Product Management for Jagex Partners, said: “We are incredibly excited to be publishing Melvor Idle. Every once in a while, we come across a game and a developer that is so well aligned with our core values that it seems a natural fit for Jagex Partners. With so many of our staff being fans of the game, and seeing what Brendan has been able to achieve as a solo developer inspired by the games we have been developing for 20 years is truly magical. We very much look forward to using the skills and experience we have at Jagex Partners to support the future development of Melvor Idle, leveraging our marketing, communications and localisation resources to make sure the game reaches the widest possible audience and its full potential.”

Brendan Malcolm, Games by Malcs founder and the creator of Melvor Idle, said: “Being able to work with Jagex directly on this has been a dream come true. I never would have imagined when I started development on Melvor Idle back in 2018 that I would eventually receive the support of the very studio that inspired me in the first place. The support this partnership has provided me will not only enable me to reach even more players with Melvor Idle, but will help me really establish Games by Malcs as an up-and-coming studio with an office in Perth, Australia. I can’t wait to work with Jagex on making Melvor Idle an even bigger success than I had hoped for.”

Melvor Idle is currently in Early Access on Steam (with 93% positive reviews) and will be launched in November priced at $9.99 / £7.19 / €8.19. The game is also free to try on iOS (4.9/5 review score) and Android (4.8/5 review score*) with in-app purchase for the full version.

Visit Melvor Idle on Steam for all the latest information about the game. Join the Melvor Idle conversation on Twitter, Discord and Reddit.

Melvor Idle is the second game announced by Jagex Partners, with Space Punks, developed by Flying Wild Hog, currently in Early Access on Epic Games Store.

Jeff Pabst, Vice-President of Third-Party & Partnerships, said: “Jagex Partners continues its focus on becoming the go-to publisher for living games developers around the world. However, great community-led games like Melvor Idle have inspired us to broaden our search for development partners to include games that represent the community-first ethos Jagex has always followed. We look forward to more announcements as we close out the year and push onwards to 2022 and beyond.”

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Review scores correct as of October 20th 2021

About Jagex: A leader in creating deep and engaging live games on PC and mobile, Jagex’s flagship MMORPG, RuneScape, has welcomed almost 300million player accounts to its world and is a $1billion lifetime revenue franchise. Today the RuneScape franchise exists beyond running games in live operations; our titles are living games that connect and inspire millions of players, with content and experiences both inside and outside of inexhaustible game worlds. Both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, on PC and mobile, offer ever-evolving, highly active worlds and our community-focused development ethos empowers players to have a real say in how each game is shaped. Now we’re expanding and extending our portfolio via Jagex Partners with fresh franchise titles and new IP to bring life to the living games of the future. Jagex employs more than 450 people at its Cambridge headquarters. For more information about Jagex go to www.jagex.com/

About Games by Malcs Officially established in 2020, Games by Malcs is an indie studio built on passion and dedication to provide a unique gaming experience, enhanced by a strong community-driven approach on development. We create games that are accessible to everyone, on all platforms and at any time. The strong community-driven approach we have on development ensures everyone can always feel involved with the growth and impact our games have. Our first game, Melvor Idle, is currently in Early Access and has reached more than 1million unique players across all platforms.. Initially released to Early Access in September 2019, it has provided an ever-changing experience to those who have tried it, and has been developed based on community feedback and interactions. With its planned full release in November 2021, we are dedicated to providing a unique playing experience, and very much look forward to expanding the world of Melvor far into the future. www.melvoridle.com