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livestream round-up (07/07/2020)

Did you miss the livestream on July 7th? You can catch up on everything you missed right here, or alternatively head to the bottom of the post to watch the entire thing!

This week, a few of the top team working on RuneScape appeared on the livestream to discuss some of the content that you can expect to launch in the coming months.

Desperate Measures

A brand new quest called Desperate Measures is nearly here! This is a follow-up to 2019's Desperate Times and will be rolling out on Monday July 27th:

  • The quest will see players exploring the secrets of the dragonkin on Anachronia.
  • Users must have completed 2019 quest Desperate Times in order to take part.
  • They will also have to have completed the tutorial at the Anachronia base camp, and have level 50 Agility, Level 50 Archaeology and Level 75 Combat.
  • Desperate Measures has been in development since March.

    • "You'll be working with an elite crack squad including people like Thok and Charos," Mod Raven said. "The quest ties into Archaeology, too. There's a good chunk of lore that's both historical and more recent."

    Development Update

    Executive Producer Mod Warden outlined the recent challenges for the team in the current develop-from-home world, with the team discussing their own personal challenges. In a variety of ways, both personal and team based, COVID has to an extent reduced production capacity.

    In order to address this, the team has switched to a new development model:

  • Archaeology level content isn't possible right now under the current conditions.
  • The goal is to focus on meaningful content that's smaller in scope - some releases will be bigger than others.

    • Scheduling

    Executive Producer Mod Warden said that he wants to start releasing content on a more regular basis:

  • The team wants to announce future content at the right time, rather than risk revealing something that then has to be delayed. However, they are working towards providing more development transparency and consistent communications.
  • This new strategy doesn't necessarily mean that new content will be launching every single month, but that is the goal being aimed for.
  • To support this, Mod Warden has made a number of hires including a new Lead Producer (who formerly worked at Remedy), an Art Director (previously employed by King) as well as a whole new Content Development team.

    • "I want to get us towards a minimum guarantee of content," Mod Warden added. "There will be a mixed of big and small content. The first few releases will be about practising working as a new team and launching content in a tighter release window. Then we'll start peppering in more medium and larger pieces of content in the coming year."

    Upcoming Content

    During the livestream, the developers shed some light on some of the new additions heading to RuneScape in the coming months:

  • New Alchemical content is on the way - expect details at a later date.
  • The team is also working on an update to celebrate the 12th anniversary of a certain mystery piece of content in September. Teases!
  • You can also expect more work on seasonal events, such as Halloween and Christmas. The Beach returns on July 20th, featuring new cosmetics and fun things to do.
  • The designers have been hard at work investigating new methods for training RuneScape's various skills.
  • A brand new Orthen dig site for the Archaeology skill is currently in development.

    • "We want to have that joy of uncovering things, of navigating the environment, uncovering lore and so on," Mod Osborne said. "Orthen is an Anachronia site with links to the dragonkin and the Elder Gods. It ties into so many core elements of our storyline. Archaeology has so far focused on the past, but this dig site looks more toward our upcoming story as well."

    Ninja Team

    The Ninja Team was reformed at the start of the year, and this sneaky group of developers has already made a number of quality of life updates to RuneScape in the last few months. Now they are thinking about what’s next:

  • A Lunar Spell Book could be on the cards, and the team wants to know what spells players would like to see included.
  • Clue Scrolls are also very much on the agenda.
  • If you want to share your thoughts on these, or any other themes that you feel these developers should address, head to the Ninja Dojo.

    • "I'm really happy with the quality of life updates that we've been doing," Mod Warden commented. "We've done Grand Exchange, Shattered Worlds and the Tier 92 armour changes, among others. That's given us a lot of short-term improvements to the game that players have been asking for."

    The RuneScape Team

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