It debuted earlier this month in the month of April. Even the Early Access version proved this formula was popular with RPG gamers, having been downloaded more than 600,000 times in RS Gold Steam and both major mobile app stores. This far exceeded his initial hopes when Malcolm launched his game. Naturally, he hoped his game would be successful but there was no 'endgame for his game in mind.

"Luckily the enjoyment that fueled the early years is still with me during the last few years of development, and being able to work with Jagex directly on this is an amazing opportunity," he says. "I did not think I'd get the support of the very studio that inspired me in beginning.

Making the transition from hobbyist to fan project was obviously a daunting task however, looking back at where I've ended up and the support I've received in establishing Games by Malcs as an emerging studio, it's certainly been for the most successful."

Despite the connection in Melvor Idle and RuneScape, and the involvement direct of Jagex, the publisher opted to keep the game as an original IP instead of make it an official RuneScape spin-off. It was a acknowledgment that Malcolm had succeeded in a place that Jagex was unable to do so.

"We were actually looking at the idea of creating the idle RuneScape game a few years ago when we launched RuneScape: Idle Adventures," Pfeiffer elaborates. "In Alpha, we stopped development in order to cheapest osrs gold concentrate effort on core RuneScape games.