‘Old School RuneScape’ devs talk record-breaking Leagues launch and embracing “Sq’irkin”

nme.com:

NME, developers on Old School RuneScape have broken down the online multiplayer game’s busiest month since launch – from the birth of dubiously-named community activity Sq’irkin, to the return of its much-hyped Leagues game mode.Last week (November 15), an Old School RuneScape (OSRS) update added the Trailblazer Reloaded League – a temporary game mode that’s separate from the rest of OSRS.In the current League, players start from scratch and can only play within one region in Gielinor.

Other areas must be unlocked by completing tasks, while powerful perks and exp bonuses make the game mode something of a power fantasy in comparison to standard OSRS.Just like prior League modes, Trailblazer Reloaded has been hugely popular.

On Sunday (November 19), there were over 200,000 concurrent players online – the highest since its launch in 2013.“Based on where the [past] record was, we thought there was a chance we could eclipse that – though it would depend,” associate design director Kieren Charles told NME. “But it’s blown our expectations out of the water.”“The whole thing has gone down so well,” agreed lead community manager Ben Cowley. “For the most part, it’s the smoothest launch we’ve had.”As for the game mode’s popularity, Charles and Cowley feel that Leagues are fan-favourites because they offer new ways to play a game that some fans have been playing for decades.“You get to try out the most broken and absurd power-ups that should not exist, but the fact they do is incredible,” explained Cowley. “It’s definitely the whole power disparity between [the] main game for sure.”“But it’s also just being able to experience something new with everyone at the same time, it goes back to that traditional community sense,” Cowley.