RUNESCAPE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

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History and development

A screenshot of DeviousMUD. The first version of the game, not released to the public.

A screenshot of RuneScape Classic

Version 1: The first version started out as a one man project. The developer (Andrew Gower), and his brother (Paul Gower) started working on the original game in 1998. This version was very different to the RuneScape of today. It had isometric graphics, and was originally titled 'DeviousMUD'. This version was never released to the public, and only a few people ever saw it.

Version 2: The developers scrapped version 1, and started work on a complete rewrite in 1999. Despite being a complete rewrite, this version was very similar to version 1, with the same graphics and name. This version was released as a public beta for only about 1 year, and then withdrawn again.

Version 3: The developers started yet again with a 3rd attempt on October, 1999. This time the isometric view was replaced, in favor of 3D graphics and 2D sprites. The game was renamed to RuneScape and released to the public on January 4, 2001. This version is still online today but only for RuneScape Members. It's currently called RuneScape Classic.

Jagex Ltd formed: In December of 2001 Jagex Limited was founded as a commercial operation to take over the running of RuneScape. Jagex acquired RuneScape and all related technologies, and continued to develop the game further. Andrew Gower joined Jagex as its lead developer.

Members launch: On February 27, 2002, Jagex launched a new optional 'members service'. This allows players to pay $5 USD a month to obtain access to new quests, an expanded world map, mini-games, skills, and more. Paying members had a far greater choice of things to do, but it was still possible to play the game for free, and the amount of free content was also increased. While not a new version as such (the game still ran on the same version 3D engine), this update did significantly change the focus of the game.

Version 4: Jagex went for yet another complete rewrite. Version 4 changed the graphics to full 3D and made many other significant improvements. While in development this version was called RuneScape 2, but when launched was just called RuneScape (version 3 would later be renamed RuneScape Classic). An incomplete beta of this version was available to members on December 1, 2003. The finished version was launched on March 17, 2004. This is the current version of the game being promoted by Jagex. This is the version most people think of when one says RuneScape.

The free version of RuneScape Classic was removed on August 3, 2005, due to the massive amount of rule breakers and an inability to punish them. Now, only subscribers that pay on a monthly basis can play RuneScape Classic.

On September 26, 2005, the RuneScape website was redeveloped and now uses a more logical format. The new format was mainly designed to improve navigation and to help make particular sections of the website more secure. However, the new "world select" pages were unpopular and were soon replaced with a real-time world capacity page.