Jagex plays with FunOrb

Cambridge-based developer Jagex is to launch a casual games portal, FunOrb, next month.

The RuneScape developer, which employs almost 400 staff, will populate the portal exclusively with its own titles, aiming for one new game every fortnight.

Although the games will be browser-based, they are developed with being more ‘in-depth’ than most casual games. FunOrb head Mark Faulkner tells Next-Gen that some games will have 15-20 hours worth of gameplay, saying that "These games will be easy to pick up and play, but if [gamers] do want to invest a lot of time, we want to make sure there’s enough gameplay there for them to enjoy."

Regular visitors to the site will be able to access a handful of the titles, but FunOrb will only provide the full line-up to subscribers who pay $4 a month. Players wil also be exposed to in-game advertising regardless of their tier.

All of the technology has been developed in-house, with Faulkner saying: "We have very clever people, we have very clever technology allowing us to do this. If we were uncomfortable with our rate of development, we wouldn’t try to do a game every two weeks. We think we’ll maintain the quality accordingly.”

“The rate of development will remain the same as long as FunOrb is profitable, which we expect will be a very long time. It’s also possible that we might increase the headcount at FunOrb.”