GAME ART | BETA
fight your way up in the new Dominion tower, it is hard to believe that it is the same RuneScape as it was a year ago. It is more epic, more vibrant, better animated, and it is certainly even harder to believe that the game runs on a web-browser engine.
There’s still lots more work to do
and it will be a constant and evolving process.
Pascal Blanche, Jagex
And what are your plan’s for RuneScape’s future in terms of its graphical direction? There are two main axes. My focus is still to get a better experience from the player’s point of view. So on one side it is about the small things; like the player character redesign and animation, and overall the smaller eye candy pieces. Then on the other side there are the larger improvements like the environments and NPCs, to achieve a better sense of immersion and epic-ness; a place full of promise and challenges. There’s still lots more work to do and it will
be a constant and evolving process, but the game continues to amaze me and I look forward to each and every improvement to amaze our players.
Pascal Blanche’s artwork for Runescape helps visualise concepts for developers faced with a constantly evolving game world
DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET
What challenges currently face the graphics and art disciplines in game design? The challenges are everywhere and that’s what makes the job so interesting. I think
that the main ones are as we revamp, improve and update the Runescape franchise to attract more players, we need to stay true to its core. The other challenges we face are brought
about by newcomer competitors coming to the market, some of which have heavier engines. They are not constrained by maybe some of the tech issues we are, but with a proprietary system these are at least within our control. Even with our restrictions I believe
RuneScape continues to offer a phenomenal game experience to our players that is fully accessible, and now with the constant updates to the visuals as well as newly released content we remain a game to be reckoned with. I can confirm that Jagex is going to continue to surprise.
With regard to your discipline, how has Jagex impressed you as a studio? Although RuneScape is my first massively mulitplayer online production and I am not sure how things work in other companies, I must admit that I was and still am impressed by the talent and the passion of the team here at Jagex. After all an art director is only as good as
the team he is working with and with the team I have come into all I feel I have to do is to give them some pointers and a little push and the magic happens. It is always good to get some fresh perspective on a project, and I hope that is what I am bringing. I have no doubt though that RuneScape will continue to grow and develop and I am certainly delighted to be working on this game at this point. It is so exciting.
www.jagex.com
DECEMBER 2011 / JANUARY 2012 | 33
Updating and expanding Runescape has required a huge volume of concept art
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