Jagex is a unique game developer in that they program all of their games in a custom Java-based language, called RuneScript. All of their games run right in a web browser, and all of the game's data is saved on their servers, allowing you to play and continue previously-started games from any computer.
History
Jagex Ltd was founded by brothers Andrew and Paul Gower and their friend Constant, in December of 2001. Their first objective was to take over running
RuneScape, and create premium content for members who were willing to pay a small monthly fee. On February 27, 2002, they launched the members-only version of the game. They have since expanded the player base from 1 million free players to over 10 million free players, and over 1 million paying members, making it the most popular free MMO, and the second most popular MMO overall.
Andrew Gower had created a few other small games as well, but they were never properly published. They were playable for a short while via
Jagex's official website, but were never updated. In February of 2008, Jagex launched their new game portal website, called
FunOrb. It was a collection of small browser-based games created by the developers at Jagex. Many of the games that were on the website at launch were games created by Andrew Gower several years ago, along with games created by other Jagex developers in their spare time. Since launch, the website's collection of games has expanded to over 40, and the FunOrb team has added several features to them, including full screen, achievements, additional content, and more.
Games
They currently work hard to maintain their very popular MMORPG RuneScape, as well as their new mini-game site, FunOrb. They are also working on a second MMORPG called
Stellar Dawn, which is set to release sometime in 2011. They recently purchased a browser-based, online, multiplayer strategy game, called
War of Legends, which they keep updated with regular content updates as well.
Jagex has recently experimented in the portable-gaming field, by porting some of their games from FunOrb onto the
iPhone,
iPod Touch, and
iPad. There are currently three games by Jagex available in the iTunes Store: Boucedown, StarCannon and Miner Disturbance. There is also an app available for free, which organizes and displays all of Jagex's news updates and developer blogs for all of their products. Due to the success of the first few games, they are planning to continue releasing games for these platforms in the future.
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