From the world of long-running MMORPG RuneScape comes RuneScape: Dragonwilds, an open-world cooperative survival game with RPG elements. The continent of Ashenfall is infused with wild magic and inhabited by dangerous dragons led by the powerful Dragon Queen. Alone or with friends, RuneScape: Dragonwilds players will be challenged to survive in this magical new land by leveling up skills, facing down enemies, and discovering the secrets of the lost continent and its draconic inhabitants.

Game Rant spoke to RuneScape: Dragonwilds executive producer Jesse America about the game, which will be launching into Early Access in Q1 2025. He discussed how the survival sandbox genre pairs well with the setting of RunScape, how existing RuneScape mechanics were incorporated into RuneScape: Dragonwilds‘ open world, and the role both magic and dragons play on the continent of Ashenfall. He also talked about how the Jagex team plans to seek extensive feedback from the community during the Early Access period and develop a robust roadmap of monthly, quarterly, and annual updates. This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.

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The Survival Genre Was A Natural Fit For RuneScape’s World

Q: Where did the idea for Dragonwilds first come from? Was it always going to be its own game, or did it start out as part of RuneScape?

A: If I dig back into the history of what I know, because I’ve been with Jagex for about five and a half years, I know that there has always been interest in the survival genre. It goes back a long, long time. There have actually been attempts, I believe, in either RuneScape or Old School RuneScape, to work in projects of doing something like a survival game mode. But, to actually answer the question, no. Once we decided to develop what became Dragonwilds — because it had a different code name originally — it was clear that we were going to do this in Unreal 5, and that it would not have a connection to the existing games.

Q: What was it like translating survival game mechanics into the world of RuneScape?

A: They fit very well together. There is, of course, the skilling that you do in RuneScape, and the associated feeling of “I’m out in the wilderness, chopping trees and making fire.” That translates very well. The RuneScape games, especially Old School, are not games that hold the player’s hand, necessarily. That is also something that connects with survival, that sort of freedom.

When we do surveys amongst our player base, some of that stuff, like “What makes RuneScape?” “What is RuneScape for you?” The fact is, for a lot of people, it’s very chill. And they’re looking for specific things in RuneScape — the lore, the characters, the gear, skills, etc. What ranks very highly for RuneScape players is freedom. Freedom to decide on “What am I going to do with my session in the game?”

A survival game, a sandbox game basically, is all about that. About freedom. So in that sense, for us, the combination was sort of the “RuneScape-iness.” What makes RuneScape tick, and what works in the world of Gielinor? Survival was the prime candidate for that.

The survival genre, especially if you take a wider view of all the ways open world, sandbox, and crafting games have been developed – all the way from games like V Rising, Conan Exiles to V Rising, Valheim, Ark, and Rust, the entire plethora of survival-type games – we call the genre “MMO adjacent.” The survival genre will keep developing further and further, and Dragonwilds is at the start of its journey, right? So we will keep developing further and further. And the lines between what makes an MMO and what makes a survival game, especially the takes on it in the future, if you look at stuff that’s going to be published quite soon elsewhere, are going to be blurry. So we call it “MMO adjacent,” and we think it’s a really great fit for what we have and what we do elsewhere in the company.

Q: Are there any mechanics from RuneScape or Old School RuneScape that we’ll be seeing in Dragonwilds, or will it all be completely new?

A: Well, one of the most important things in RuneScape is skilling. Leveling your skills to Level 99. That is going to make its transition into Dragonwilds as well. It’s at the core of our gameplay.

Q: Like in RuneScape, will there be a mix of combat-focused skills and non-combat skills, like cooking or chopping down trees?

A: Yes, absolutely. We have a woodcutting skill. We have a cooking skill. Cooking is a key part of survival out in the wilderness. Finding the fun little combinations and leveling that skill up, together with other skills that you’re going to be leveling up, that’s key to the core gameplay loop of Dragonwilds.

That’s awesome. I loved the cooking in RuneScape.

A: Yes, and you gotta imagine that there are people working on the core system of the game who looked at “how authentic can we make the skills in the game?” They are RuneScape players and RuneScape fans, and, in some cases, even ex-RuneScape team members, so that authenticity is being well-served by the team.

Q: So the story of RuneScape is not linear. It’s many different quests that you can do in any order. Is Dragonwilds’ story similar, or is it more linear?

A: It’s a sandbox-y story. It’s roomy, and it’s large enough that we can fit any narrative inside it. Essentially, the building blocks are that there is a big threat, a big menace, and a large, mythical, epic backstory to what has happened on Ashenfall. Why certain events took place, and why it is the shape that it is now. That story, that narrative, is so big, so spacious, that it will allow for years and years of development to be filled in with further storylines and seasonal storylines, yearly quests, you name it. So it’s been set up in that way.

The Continent of Ashenfall: A Land Of Wild Anima Magic, Strange Beasts, And Powerful Dragons

Q: One thing that intrigues me about the continent of Ashenfall is that you have this wild magic that’s kind of everywhere, imbuing the world. How is that going to affect the gameplay experience for players?

A: So, creatures in this world have been affected by anima pouring out of the ground. As early as the early game, you make use of it by fueling various parts of your magical abilities. But creatures have been transformed by the magical energy coming out of the ground. And that is something that you will see throughout the game. It’s something that we call the “anima twist,” where, for instance, a regular animal in the starting area will look more like you would expect. And then, later on, as you encounter it deeper into Ashenfall, it will look and behave quite differently because of that “anima twist.”

It’s not a body horror-type thing that we’re talking about, because we are keeping it RuneScape, keeping it lighthearted and a bit humorous here and there. Also pretty to look at. It’s that, together with the stuff you do with your magic, that is influenced by the anima that comes out of the ground.

Q: With the focus on magic, will there still be options in Dragonwild for players who want to play a more physical game, who want to focus on weapons like swords or bows?

A: Absolutely. We separate it within the game. We separate combat magic into its own space because it is also a skill that you level. But it’s all about those moments that you would expect. It’s where you cast fire spells, or air spells, or those moments where you want to do quick damage. If you don’t want to interface with that at all, it’s as simple as never equipping a staff and never equipping wizard’s gear, and always simply keeping heavy armor on with a sword and a shield. You never have to do anything with it. You can leave it to your friends to do that. So it’s completely up to you.

Regarding survival skills magic, like I explained, you’ve got the typical RuneScape skills in the game: woodcutting, cooking, construction, all of those things. As you level up, you also unlock magic spells, but they are utilitarian in nature, so they are more spells that help you on your survival journey. Even those you can ignore if you want, though they do make your life a lot easier.

You’ve seen, probably, in the teasers. It’s the astral projection where, instead of standing there chopping trees, you do it with magic. I can say that chopping trees in our game is very satisfying. So there are people in the studio that do nothing else except start up new games and then deforest the entirety of the starting zone. It’s very cathartic, you know, just music and chopping down trees.

I you’re not into that, there are a couple of those spells where you just whirl down a couple of those trees and then convert them into wood with another spell. It’s just the ease of life that we provide, and which, for us, separates us a little bit from the pack.

Q: With a title like Dragonwilds, of course dragons will be a big part of the game. Can you talk more about what role dragons and players fighting dragons will play?

A: So, dragons, and the force behind the dragons, the force that controls the dragons, is that big story that I told you about in the beginning. The theater where all of this, the saga of Ashenfall, will take place. Also, dragons are there from the beginning of your play experience. They are present in the world, and they will harass you as well. By the time you are powerful enough to start thinking about doing something about it, you will be sick to death of these dragons flying overhead and harassing you.

They will play a very involved role in your experience, and, of course, you will take them down with your friends. At the moment, we have a robust roadmap of content and features stretching out before us. We will be talking about those in our livestream on the 15th of April, and we are going to be putting more dragons, dragon-like creatures, and dragon-associated gear in the game. So that will be its own game loop with its own rewards, and it’s basically end-game activity, right?

It is something that is there for the most courageous of us, but we also saw in alpha that people could endlessly spend time in the sandbox and build their houses and tend to their own little homestead, and enjoy the game in that way. So it’s got something for everybody.

Q: The leader of the dragons of Ashenfall is the Dragon Queen. What can you tell us about her – is she a challenge that players will face, or more of a threat lurking in the background?

A: It will take time to face her, and that is something that we will be introducing into the game at a later date. So, not immediately. It’s a matter of wanting that conflict to be drawn out across a long time span. Naturally, you wouldn’t fight her at first. Some games do that, but since we want this game to be around for a long time, and to provide content for players for a long time, it is something we will be putting on the horizon with a long journey before that for the players to go through before they can take down the Dragon Queen.

Q: Some of my fondest moments of RuneScape are the humorous ones. One Easter, they gave us a ring that turns you into an egg, and I went around the map taking pictures of myself as an egg in different places. Are we going to see some of that same humor in Dragonwilds?

A: One of our writers is a RuneScape dev, a former content designer on RuneScape, and he is really good at transferring that humor into our quests and our lore. So you will find that in our game as well. Something like what you described sounds like what we would be developing as the game develops further. That humor, that wit, that tone, all of that is in our game.

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Q: Another thing RuneScape is known for is seasonal events, celebrating holidays, or having big, limited-time celebrations. Do you anticipate featuring similar events in Dragonwilds?

A: Yes, we have updates scheduled for every season. Our roadmap sort of looks at the entire year, and then we have monthly updates and quarterly updates. And every quarterly update will be meaty enough that we can call it the spring update, summer update, fall update, and winter update. And we have stuff scheduled for every quarter when it comes to festivities and stuff we would like to hit.

That’s just to start, right? Depending on where the discussion is with the community about what the future of this game should be, or what people would like to see, we might introduce specific requests for specific times. We love events ourselves. We are MMO players. So it’s a given that events will find their way into the game.

Q: Dragonwilds’ timeline has been very quick — you’ve done alpha testing, announced the game about a week ago, and are shooting for a Q1 2025 release in Early Access. What has it been like for your team, with everything going so quickly?

A: Alpha testing, for us, was a magical time. We had a pretty sizable group of players playing our alpha. We had about four or five alpha rounds, and they scaled up in size. At the end, more than 12,000 people were playing. Quite big. And we got really good feedback from that alpha.

There were a couple of people who were saying, “You should really consider going into Early Access sooner rather than later, because we want to start giving you feedback as well, on what the game can be and can become.” That has always been a part of our thinking around the game as well. You know that Jagex listens to its players when it comes to what needs to be developed for the game. Highs or lows, we always listen to the community. We pivot, we implement, we build new stuff. That is no different for Dragonwilds.

Even two years back, when we were still in the prototyping stage, I always had the mantra: let’s go out early. Let’s not do a thing where we use early access to do a marketing campaign on the final product, because that’s not who we are as Jagex. That’s not in our DNA. And I’d rather go out early – in a polished state, but early – and then take further notes from the community about where we should be going next and what they would like to see. We build out massive feature sets that some players might not enjoy, or that they would want us to go somewhere else.

Yes, we move at a fair clip, but that is because the entire team is super excited. And that’s not marketing speak or something. The team is simply just very excited to get the game into the hands of the players, and then talk with the community about where we’re headed next.

Q: What does the Early Access release and the period after that look like for your team? Will you be collecting a lot of feedback and doing a lot of updates?

A: It’s going to be collecting feedback through our Discord server, through our community people, so Mod Doom and a couple of other people who have joined us since are going to take quick notes. It depends on how things go. I think there will be, potentially, touchpoints where members of the development team will also go onto streams or chat with the community, and we will be taking notes.

We might even put online clear lists of features, how we see priorities, and then discuss with the community what they think. Like, if you were to vote, what would be a higher priority for you? Is something missing? And we would want to do that regularly. Like I said, we want to update the game at least every month. Of course, sometimes life gets in the way, or technical realities get in the way, but we want to update the game every month. At the very least, quality of life fixes and quick updates. And then we want to have a content train that delivers, every quarter, an update that is meaningful to the players. With a theme. And then, yearly, we want to do a really big update that changes the game significantly. So that is the way we’re going to be supporting the game.

What we don’t want to be is a survival game that comes out, and then you don’t hear about it anymore, or you have no idea, “Are they going to do something else with this game?” We are not an MMO, but we want the sort of regularity of an MMO in our schedule somehow, so that people have a feeling that more is coming and that they can count on us delivering.

Q: How can Game Rant’s readers get involved with the Dragonwilds community and with sharing feedback once the game launches in Early Access?

A: That would be as easy as joining our Discord. That is the straight way to talk to Mod Doom, me, and members of the development team. In alpha, all of us were present there, and also, more people from Jagex just joined the Discord and started conversations with us.

Q: Do you have any tips for players who will be starting Dragonwilds in Early Access? It’s a big sandbox game that doesn’t hold players’ hands, so what are some tips for players who are just starting out?

A: I would say talk to the NPCs. See what they’ve got to say. We are not an RPG in the sense that we hold your hand all of the time. But, you know, listen to the NPCs, follow their directions, and discover and have fun. That’s what I would say.

Q: Anything else you’d like to tell Game Rant’s readers about RuneScape: Dragonwilds?

A: On the 15th of April, we’d love everybody to come join us for the live stream. We’ll be showing off more of the game. We will be diving more into the artistry of building the game as well. So art, music, and game design. So come join us then, because it’s going to be really awesome.