The talks progressed with OSRS Gold the development of the game. Melvor Idle was soon signed to Jagex Partners, the RuneScape company's publishing arm. Jagex offered Malcolm guidance on development and assisted by reviving the brand, as well as assisting with the management of communities and localisation, transforming an original game created by one individual into something available in 13 local languages (so that far).

It debuted earlier this month with the Early Access version proved this formula is popular with RPG gamers, having been downloaded more than 600,000 times in Steam as well as the two main online mobile apps stores. This is far more than Malcom's first expectations as he started out. Naturally, he believed that his strategy would succeed but the game didn't have an "endgame goal in mind.

"Luckily the joy that I felt in those first months was with me for the course of development. Being in a position to collaborate in conjunction with Jagex direct on this project is an absolute dream come true," he says. "I never imagined that I would ever receive support from the same studio which inspired me in first place..

Making the jump from a hobby to a fan project was obviously terrifying However, when you look at where I've ended up and the assistance I've received for establishing Games by Malcs as an up-and-coming studio, it has surely worked out for the most successful."

Despite the tight connection with Melvor Idle and RuneScape, and the direct involvement of Jagex in the game, the publisher chose to maintain the game as an original IP instead of to make it an official RuneScape spin-off. Partly, this was an acknowledgement of the fact that Malcolm had succeeded in a place that Jagex itself had failed.

"We have actually thought about creating some kind of idle RuneScape game several years ago, with RuneScape: Idle Adventures," Pfeiffer shares. "In Alpha, we stopped development and focused attention on main RS Gold.