Tag: Runescape

Jagex Hires Melissa Bachman-Wood As Aggressive Recruitment Continues


Way back in April Jagex announced an aggressive recruitment project that would see the company expanding by 25% over the course of the year. Today, Jagex has expanded on its recruitment by announcing multiple senior level hires starting with Melissa Bachman-Wood who is coming on as vice president of studio. Bachman-Wood brings over 20 years of industry experience to Jagex having started her career at Maxis, moving on to Electronic Arts to manage The Sims, and holding senior roles in Backbone Entertainment (360 ports of Genesis titles), KIXEYE (War Commander), and Jam City (Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery).

Melissa Bachman-Wood stated in the announcement:

“I’m thrilled to join the Jagex team and delighted for the chance to enable our teams to deliver even more great games to our players. I’m eager to help lead Studio strategy and execution to enable Jagex to excel in its ambition to be the home of living games, building out our world-class studio teams and processes.”

Jagex also took the time to announce the hiring of Malachy O’Neill (Nintendo Europe, EA, Zynga) to director of quality assurance, as well as James Burns (Playstation, Activision) as technical director of a currently unannounced action online role playing game, the return of Mark Faulkner as director of publishing platform, and the promotion of Ben Albon to IT director.

Source: Jagex Press Release

Lods of Emone: Jagex Posts Record Financial Success


RuneScape is doing just fine, thank you.

This week Jagex released their 2018 financials and boasted a 9.3% increase in revenue to £92.8 million. 2018 saw RuneScape reaching its highest membership total ever with Old School RuneScape launching on mobile and seeing over five million downloads.

CEO Phil Mansell noted:

“This lets us accelerate Jagex’s transformation; we have strengthened our leadership team and will continue to build on the company’s talent base, we are funding new game development, building out our third-party live game publishing, investing in massive publishing platform upgrades, whilst continuing to expand our live RuneScape games.”

The last year has seen Jagex increase its team by more than 100 people with investments in research and development boosted by 69%. 2018 also marked the launch of the Jagex Partners Initiative which aims to deliver operational services tailored toward third party studios.

Source: Jagex Press Release

RuneScape Brings In Easter


This week’s RuneScape update reminds us that Easter is quite late this year.

If you have ever wanted to know what it’s like to shove a tuna in a shark, well you now have the opportunity. RuneScape’s Easter update is here, and that can only mean more shenanigans with the Easter Bunny. Running through the end of the month, players can support the various guilds through side quests and tasks, with the ultimate goal being to win a mysterious egg found by the Easter Bunny. Donate Rune Coins to progress through the event faster and those coins will be converted into real-world donations to be paid to Jagex’s two chosen charities: The Prince’s Trust and CPSL Mind.

Over the course of the next couple of weeks, skilling in the game will reward chocolate shards which can be traded in for further rewards.

The Prince’s Trust is a charity in the UK that supports 11 to 30 year olds who are unemployed and struggling at school and at risk of exclusion. CPSL Mind offers a wide range of services to support those recovering from mental health challenges, promote positive mental health and tackle mental health-related stigma and discrimination within the community.

Source: RuneScape

[Hiring] Jagex Looks To Expand Studio By 25% In 2019


 

Jagex Ltd., developers of the popular MMO RuneScape, have announced a hiring drive that will see the Cambridge studio boost its staff by 25% over 2019. To kick off the hiring drive, Jagex has revealed two big-name developers joining the team. First is Dan Vargas serving as art director for an unnamed online role playing game. Vargas’ portfolio includes the Need for Speed: Underground franchise as well as Assassin’s Creed. Vargas is joined by Ian Thomas as technical director of the studio publishing platform.

CEO Phil Mansell stated:

“Jagex continues to attract and secure industry-respected expertise and Ian and Dan are key hires who will strengthen our creative and technical management teams. We recognise the importance of technical innovation and investing in exceptional talent, with almost 100 new hires targeted, and further modernising our technology, are key elements of our strategy through 2019 and beyond as we build on our portfolio of living games.”

Source: Jagex Press Release

Old School RuneScape Wins BAFTA Game Award


Old School RuneScape has been named EE Mobile Game of the Year at the 2019 BAFTA Games Awards. Since its launch on mobile in October 2018, Old School RuneScape has been downloaded and installed on 6.4 million devices. Jagex CEO Phil Mansell said:

“This is astounding recognition by our players of all the great work and effort invested in bringing Old School RuneScape to mobile and making it a great British success story, and we want to say thank you to everybody who voted for us – it is very, very humbling. Since we launched on mobile just a few months ago, we have seen players return to Old School in their droves, with nearly six and a half million installs, and a resurgence of membership over the Christmas and New Year period that broke all records for the franchise. We’re looking forward to bringing new adventures to Old School RuneScape over the coming years, as well launching RuneScape on mobile devices in the months ahead.”

Source: Jagex Press Release

Snapshots: The Fifteenth Scapeversary


Today, March 29, 2019, marks fifteen years to the day since the official launch of RuneScape 2. It’s incredible to think how much the game and Jagex as a company has changed and evolved over the last decade and a half, but if you want to take a walk down nostalgia road (or visit for the first time), I recommend checking out the following imgur galleries showcasing screenshots from the RuneScape 2 beta with comparisons between the two versions and snapshots from the early days.

RuneScape Dumps Bounty Hunter, Redistributes Rewards


The past few months has seen Jagex taking a look at old content and changing it for the better. January saw a massive overhaul to mining & smithing, while this month sees the overhaul of firemaking. Unfortunately, the developer was unable to fix everything.

This week marks the removal of Bounty Hunter, a PvP mini-game that has seen multiple overhauls since its introduction in 2007, but Jagex admits just hasn’t been successful in making fun. Mandrith, the NPC in charge of Bounty Hunter, is taking on a new job of handing out slayer tasks specifically for Wilderness hunting.

Also as part of the update, certain rewards that were specific to Bounty Hunter may now be earned through various other activities in-game. Some items can be crafted, while others must be purchased through various venders. A full list of the reward distribution is available at the link below.

Source: RuneScape

Jagex Celebrates International Women’s Day With Reddit AMA


Jagex is kicking off International Women’s Day with a Reddit Ask Me Anything.

“We’d love to inspire more women to join the games industry and we’re excited to talk about all the different and awesome skills that are needed to make video games! As such, we are from all sectors within the business from HR and Recruitment to Development and Marketing – you can see all of our roles below!”

  • JagexAethra – Project Manager
  • JagexDio – Systems Engineer
  • JagexET – Senior HR Business Partner
  • JagexGee – Old School RuneScaper Junior Character Artist
  • JagexGemini – Localisation Team Leader (Portuguese)
  • JagexIlly – Data Scientist (Helping out)
  • JagexJZ – Talent Acquisition Specialist
  • JagexJam – QA Analyst
  • JagexLottie – Senior Product Analyst
  • JagexLuna – Publishing Partner Manager
  • JagexMarie – Senior Systems Designer
  • JagexMathilda – Localisation Specialist (French)
  • JagexMaylea – RuneScape Content Developer
  • JagexMaz – RuneScape and Old School Training and Developer Lead
  • JagexMeadows – Community Management (I’m a guy, this was something I suggested and championed – so I’m here for moderation!)
  • JagexMohawk – Senior Technical Developer
  • Jagex_Noodles – Customer Support Specialist
  • JagexOsman – Head of Business Development
  • JagexRads – Campaign Executive

Source: Reddit

Jagex Releases Elite Dungeon Finale


Today marks the release of The Shadow Reef, the third and final Elite Dungeon in an ongoing trilogy. Set in the ancient sunken temple of Ulthven Kreath, players face a hostile environment full of aggressive enemies before a chilling encounter with The Ambassador, a malevolent creature that dwells in the deep.

“Last summer, we created Elite Dungeons to combine engaging storylines with raid-like dungeon experiences. The Shadow Reef brings that questline to an epic conclusion, as players uncover the secrets beneath the inky waters of Gielinor, and experience an unforgettable encounter with The Ambassador, which will push players to the limit, whether adventuring as a team or solo.”

As established by the previous two dungeons, The Shadow Reef includes a story mode for players who simply want to experience the story and aren’t so concerned with the rewards.

Source: Jagex Press Release

RuneScape Launches Another Twitch Prime Partnership


It’s Prime Time and that can only mean one thing: RuneScape and Twitch are back together for another giveaway.

Running through March 17, Twitch Prime members can get their hands on a RuneScape bundle including Runecoins, membership, and some goodies.

  • 14 days free membership
  • 200 Runecoins
  • 15 Treasure Hunter Keys
  • 2x Umbral Chests
  • 1x Chinchompa plushie
  • 1x purple trimmed Amare outfit

Just head over to twitch.tv/prime and connect your Twitch and RuneScape accounts and the items will be transferred over immediately.