The new Jagex credits are out. While the most noticeable change is the CEO, another notable difference is the size of the Quality Assurance team. The team has grown from 22 in June 2008 to 25 in December 2008 and is now up to 30 members (plus 4 unit leaders). Some. such as Mod Poppy, are from other areas of Jagex as opposed to new staff. Does this indicate that they are getting lots of people to test MechScape or is it just a general bolstering of QA all around the board?

Back in June 2008 I suspected that the four development teams were split something like:
7 for RuneScape [an even split of remaining employees after MechScape and FunOrb employees are taken out of the equation]
7 for Software (Technology) [an even split of remaining employees after MechScape and FunOrb employees are taken out of the equation]
4 for MechScape [The MechScape QA Team Leader ad from June 2008 said they'd be in charge of a team of 4, but "We expect this team to grow significantly in size as the product approaches and passes its launch date."]
4 for FunOrb [the FunOrb QA Unit Leader ad from June 2008 talked about "Leading a team of 3 (may expand) QA game testers"]



How do you think Jagex are splitting the 30 staff (edit: now 36, + 4 unit leaders)?

Nice find!
Hope this is big

7 for RuneScape Content
8 for Software (Technology)
5 for MechScape Content
2 for FunOrb

That adds up to 22. Jagex now have 30 QA and 4 QA unit leaders.

That's awesome :D

~ Stan

I based myself on your calculation...

7+7 = 14
14+ 4 = 18
18+4 = 22

you only used 22 people yourself



edit: I'm sorry, I forgot your was based on june 2008 :)

So I guess this is it now:

9 for RuneScape Content
10 for Software (Technology)
7 for MechScape Content
4 for FunOrb

Interesting find Ren. I'm thinking that the teams are mainly evened out except for FunOrb since that doesn't require as much work.

I think they would, or at least they should have the most for MechScape... Think about it, it's a game in development, you have to keep on working. Whilst RuneScape and Funorb are already released, which would require less staff to look after.

I would say the opposite is true, there are an awful lot of people out there to exploit RS whereas MS is still in development.

We don't know how far through they are, they might not need many testers yet.

10 for RuneScape Content
6 for Software
10 for MechScape
4 for FunOrb.


Thats how i think it working out, yet a good find Ren.

Interesting find, I do hope it's for MechScape.

I think it would be something like this

9 for RuneScape

9 for Software

6 for MechScape

6 for FunOrb

Jagex is probably using the most on Technology. Obviously they are spending the least on FunOrb, since the smallest number of people play the arcade games then Runescape. Runescape probably has a little bit higher then Mechscape, but not many considering the beta could start any day now for Mechscape.

Technology - 10
Runescape - 9
Mechscape - 7
Funorb - 4

Total - 30.

9 for RuneScape
8 for Software (Technology)
7 for MechScape
6 for FunOrb

split 30 between them :)

We will live and we will see ;)

Has anyone noticed that there has been NO announcement for the March updates?

Now on topic -
10 for RuneScape
10 for MechScape
and 5 each for FunOrb and Software.

Who knows how big MechScape could be, so there may be quite a lot of staff running around the game poking everything with a stick making sure it doesn't combust in to flames.

You've got a sharp eye Ren - Keep up this fantastical work and here's a cookie. :)

They aren't doing the announcements like that anymore, they are doing diaries now.

Oh yeah, I forgot.

Well I hope they release a diary soon because I am itching for some news.

30 on MechScape. Or atleast that would be nice. :)

I couldn't tell you the exact numbers, but FunOrb would have the fewest, followed by Mechscape, and Runescape would have the most considering its been out the longest.

~Jibby

I think MechScape will have more attention put on then FunOrb due to the fact that it's their 2nd MMO, and FunOrb is merely some Arcade Games in my opinion.

RuneScape - 9
MechScape - 9
Software - 10
Fun Orb - 2

Well that's my guess

10 for mechscape. 5 for funorb. 10 for runescape. 5 for software.

8 for runescape
9 for software
8 for mechscape
5 for funorb

Credits updated again. They lost two people in QA but gained 5, giving us a net increase of 3 people to the team. This means that the Jagex QA team now has 33 members and 4 unit leaders.

Yea, under this new leadership good things are happening.

it could also mean that they arent to sure how mechscape is going to react with its players.

maybe, maybe not

very cool :) sounds like Jagex is still kicking butt if they can keep hiring people.

Credits updated again. New people in QA bring us to 36 plus 4 Unit Leaders across all Jagex projects.

I think this time it is a combination of testing MechScape and expanding in general.

8 on runescape
10 security
5 Funorb
7 mechscape

Total=30

I think this is fair because mechscape isnt out yet and funorb doesnt have that many problems. runescape is right now the main thing about jagex aswell as security so thats fair. when mechscape comes out, the people keep there goal but new members may join, you never know

1. Where did "security" come from? Signs point to it being software (technology).
2. Why only 30 when they now have 36 on QA?

i remember jagex said they have 12 people in QA for runescape, trying to find it now

You're right, they did say that fairly recently (source):
"We have a team of 12 dedicated QAers, but it’s a hard thing to ensure every piece of content is bulletproof given the way we produce and release content. The more content we add the more we need to check, and releasing content weekly means that we can’t do the things that boxed games QAers can do, which is test the whole game before a release.

We don’t always get it right , but remember that on release day every piece of content will we played through hundreds of times more in the first few hours of release than our QAers have had time to do and players will always find more ingenious and obscure ways to break content than a team of QAers could ever do."

Not sure if that includes the RS QA Unit Leader. For an insight into the RuneScape QA team check out this dev diary from 2007. In relation to MechScape QA Jagex said in June 2008 that "We expect this team to grow significantly in size as the product approaches and passes its launch date" (at the time it had 4 testers and was looking for a unit leader).