Interview: RuneScape devs talk Reignited and the Road to Restoration

• RuneFest may be in the rear-view mirror, but the news is big enough we've still got stuff to cover
• Check out our interview with two key dev staff on RuneScape!
• We chatted about Reignited, top upcoming releases on the roadmap and more

Believe it or not, it's already been a week since I attended RuneFest 2026! And one subject I've been excited to touch on was my interview with RuneScape devs Mod Ryan and Mod Luma. We got into the weeds of Reignited, the content schedule for 2028 and much more, so read on and find out what I learnt from the storied dev team.

---

Throughout my time at RuneFest, I hear anecdotally that a surprising number of people actually use both mobile and PC to play RuneScape. Mainly for grinding skills. What do you think about that?

Mod Ryan: A lot of people do exactly what you said; they play on desktop and then if they're going somewhere, they're playing on their phone. We hadn’t really built it to be a mobile-only game. Of course, we built it as an option or way of playing, but we do have a portion of players who are mobile-only.

Mod Luma: Maybe you're at your PC, you go downstairs into the living room, but then you just want to do some mining on your phone... It makes it really easy to pick up from whenever, and wherever.

Great, and I think I speak for at least some people when I say how eye-opening it was to see RuneFest 2026 in person, as it made me really appreciate the size and enthusiasm of the community. For yourselves, does that feel vindicating for all the effort you put into development?

Mod Luma: It just keeps growing each year, but the energy kind of stays the same; you can't really replicate it. There’s nothing like turning up to an area, and everyone around you is also a RuneScape player, and they love the game, and they love what you do.

We're all over social media; players will message us on social media, and comment and make posts. But it's a very different experience being here, in person, having people come up to you and they're like, ‘ah, we're really excited for this update’.

Mod Ryan: I’ve been playing RuneScape for 22-23 years. I've worked at Jagex for 13 years of that, and been to almost all RuneFests in that time; I only missed one. And every single time I'm here, it always amazes me. I feel emotional around it, seeing all the players, the people that we've made the experiences for, and they come here to talk to us about that; it never gets old.

It's very humbling every single time to realise how much this game means to many people in the world. They come from all over the place. I talked to so many people from Australia and America.

Mod Luma: I've attended many RuneFests as a player, so I've been on the other end of like, ‘oh my god, I get to meet my favourite mods who worked on my favourite content’. And then now being on this side as well, where you've got people coming up to you, and they’re like, ‘oh my god, you worked on this, you've done this’. It's definitely the highlight of my year. 

With the announcement of RS4, how do you envision it working side-by-side with Old School and Regular RuneScape?

Mod Ryan: We have a family of games at the moment. Three games, as you mentioned: those are RuneScape, Old School and Dragonwilds. And what's so lovely here, and like fantastic about this world, is that people play RuneScape and Old School and Dragonwilds.

And essentially the 4th is to essentially just add to that bubble; another option, another game to enjoy. No negative effects on any of the existing games; just another one to add to a bundle of amazing games to play.

With the many announcements that were made throughout RuneFest, what’s the one you’re most excited about?

Mod Ryan: From the roadmap announcements, Reignited would be the big one to talk about as the culmination of a year’s worth of work. We started this year with the Road to Restoration promising to bring the heart back to RuneScape, removing the egregious features like Treasure Hunter, then remastering, cleaning up and rebalancing.

So by the end of the year on December 2nd, Reignited will grant that opportunity to open the doors again, and offer a path into RuneScape for new and returning players.

Mod Luma: I mean, Ryan already covered Reignited; it's really hard to pick because the next roadmap is just absolutely stacked, you know. A lot of people were excited for Dragon Slayer II, like the continuation of a very iconic storyline, and the agility rework, a neglected skill that we're overhauling.

A lot of people are excited for gnomes again, a grandmaster finale to a decades-long storyline. So it's really hard, to think of any one thing, and that’s not even mentioning the continuation of our Road to Restoration updates with long-requested features, like the grouping system rework and the other planned improvements as well.

Reignited is of course something you seem very eager about, but I did notice during some of the QNA sessions there was some scepticism amongst players about how Reignited characters would exist alongside the current player base. How would you ease those concerns?

Mod Ryan: So Reignited is a new opportunity to get into the game; whether you're a new, returning, or even a current player, you can start up a Reignited character if you want to. So it’s still one RuneScape community. It's about putting RuneScape back on the map, you know. There are plenty of people in this world who have maybe never even heard about RuneScape, and this is a perfect moment to hear about it and come and play.

Few companies in the industry get the chance to say, ‘here is a 25-year-old game full of content, come and play as if it released today’. Like the idea of ‘re-releasing’ a new MMO, with 25 years of content, I know it's not new MO, but the concept there, if you've never heard about [RuneScape], is great.

It's a moment in time; I think that's one of the most important things. The amount of discussion about RuneScape, that cultural zeitgeist of, ‘did you hear about [what was being added], want to come play RuneScape?’ As I said on stage, invite your friends, call your mom; it’s a great opportunity to [get into RuneScape].

I admit I was surprised by the scepticism, although I can see why people can have those concerns. I mean, unlike something like, say, WoW: Forever, this is not a siloed-off version but basically modern RuneScape as it exists now. Speaking as someone who’s in a similar situation to the new players you seem to be looking to court, I found the idea really appealing of being able to sort of ‘find your way in’ to a game that can otherwise be a bit daunting.

Yes, it all happens inside the same game, so to the point of, like, you can play alongside veteran players. As a Reignited character, you're part of a fresh economy and fresh set of high scores. So like I say, it's as if starting the game from zero because [there’s demand but] there's no supply. If you need air rings, people gotta make air rings; that's essentially the difference.

But, in terms of the content that gets added to RuneScape, both Reignited and veteran players get the exact same content [and] schedule.

Of course, one of the major points of contention was the fact that Reignited will have its own separate economy from the rest of RuneScape. Are there plans to bring that in?

Mod Ryan: So at the moment we're very focused on the release itself and what that means in the moment. What should we tweak, if anything? Should we change anything?

We have no specific plans right now to merge the economies, but as we said, we work with our players all the time, we adapt, and we evolve.

And speaking of players, let's chat about the Road to Restoration. This was a major project to regain player confidence in RuneScape. Have you noticed an uptick in positivity after all of the work that’s gone into the roadmap?

Mod Luma: I mean, I think it's a night-and-day difference, where the game was even last RuneFest compared to today, [when people were talking about] ‘don't play RuneScape for XYZ reasons’. We've seen that conversation change and become, ‘well, they fixed XYX, so you should absolutely play RuneScape now.'

Looking beyond 2027, is there anything you can reveal about what you’ve got planned?

Mod Ryan: Unfortunately, we're not in a place to talk about 2028 at this stage, but we're always looking towards where we can take the game to new heights and thinking around where we want to take the game strategically in terms of content beats.

We've still got some stuff from 2027 that we want to reveal, but we're holding off until later in the year for that.

With all the big announcements, what do you think got the loudest reaction from the crowd this RuneFest?

Mod Ryan: I think agility rework actually got the loudest roar. Because it's just never changed since its inception 25 years ago. If you go by raw, then I think agility rework was at the top.

Mod Luma: Dragon Slayer II was up there as well.

It obviously shows you have players who aren’t just committed to the next big, shiny thing, but also consistently having a great experience.

Mod Ryan: I mean, it's a really good example of why we've committed to the road to restoration, committed to fixing and improving old content while we're releasing new content as well.

And, to sum things up, what would you guys want to say to fans of RuneScape who, whether they attended RuneFest or not, have been sticking with the game for so long?

Mod Luma: Thank you for being here with us throughout the past year and the Road to Restoration. We hope you've enjoyed all the past updates we've put out. We hope you're looking forward to the continuation of Road to Restoration next year and all the other exciting updates to come.

Mod Ryan: I’d also like to say thank you for the last year and all the work we did together, because the Road to Restoration was a journey with them. This is our game, mine and yours. We built RuneScape together, and we will build the next 25 years together.

---

And that's that! We've got some other topics to touch on with RuneScape, and potentially another interview featuring none other than the team at Old School RuneScape. So stay tuned!