Weekly ROBLOX Roundup: February 24, 2013

By Andrew Haak - February 24, 2013

Every week, we’re busy telling the stories behind our platform, our technology and our place in the gaming and technology industries. For those of you who catch up with ROBLOX over the weekend, the Weekly ROBLOX Roundup collects the best stuff to hit our various avenues of publication in the last week. This time: a significant boost in physics performance, behind the scenes with Customer Service, Gamehero’s MIDI player in ROBLOX, Behind the BLOX, an invitation to ROBLOX HQ, we respond to your questions and ideas, Ozzypig’s latest hit game Juggernaut, and other bits and pieces. Enjoy.

Seven-day Blog Recap

Speeding up ROBLOX’s physics by optimizing collisions

ROBLOX physics guru Kevin He has changed the way our physics engine models collisions between parts to boost its speed by 2-4x. What does this mean to you, the builder and player? More simultaneous moving parts without slowdown and, arguably more importantly, more epic explosions. You can read all about the shift from modeling collisions with “springs” to “impulses” — and see some telling video evidence of its benefits — by checking out Kevin’s in-depth article.

Weekly ROBLOX Roundup: February 17, 2013

By Andrew Haak - February 17, 2013

Every week, we’re busy telling the stories behind our platform, our technology and our place in the gaming and technology industries. For those of you who catch up with ROBLOX over the weekend, the Weekly ROBLOX Roundup collects the best stuff to hit our various avenues of publication in the last week. This time: remembering Erik Cassel, ROBLOX’s Presidents Day Sale, new RGC 2013 announcements, a spotlight on Agent767 and his awesome world-destruction script, some ROBLOX tower defense, and other bits and pieces.

Seven-day Blog Recap

In memory of Erik Cassel

Last week, ROBLOX Co-Founder Erik Cassel passed away after a three-year battle with cancer. We released a pair of ROBLOX items in commemoration of Erik – his trademark hat and an Erik t-shirt — on Friday, and will be donating a substantial portion of the proceeds to cancer research.

Weekly ROBLOX Roundup: February 10, 2013

By Andrew Haak - February 10, 2013

Every week, we’re busy telling the stories behind our platform, our technology and our place in the gaming and technology industries. For those of you who catch up with ROBLOX over the weekend, the Weekly ROBLOX Roundup collects the best stuff to hit our various avenues of publication in the last week. This time: the release of ROBLOX Studio 2013 (and subsequent bug fixes), a new, voxel-based prototype for dynamic lighting, the democratization of game development (with litozinnamon), the ROBLOX modeling scene, an RGC 2013 location announcement, Checkpoint Racing by Wingman8, and other bits and pieces. Enjoy.

Seven-day Blog Recap

ROBLOX Studio 2013: the launch and aftermath

Last week, we announced the arrival of ROBLOX Studio 2013, the much more stable and platform-independent version of our building tool. We’ve been soliciting and reading through your feedback, and we recognize we haven’t yet perfected the Studio 2013 experience; thus, we’ve been fixing bugs as quickly as possible and even made an old version of Studio available for download for a limited time.

RGC 2013: This Summer, We’re Coming to You!

By Andrew Haak - February 9, 2013

A couple weeks ago, we released a survey to find out where we should host ROBLOX Game Conference 2013. Since then, we’ve been leaking bits and pieces of information via the ROBLOX forums and Twitter, but not so much that we slowed the rumor mill. Will there be more than one? Where will they be held? Are there really going to be hobos? Today, we’re clearing the air – partially, at least.

There will, in fact, be three ROBLOX Game Conferences, in three separate locations. First up will be RGC Chicago on July 13th, 2013. The venue? The Museum of Science and Industry, right on the shore of Lake Michigan. We’re heading east from there. Waaay east. The second RGC will be in (drumroll… wait for it… the suspense!)… London! We’ll be there for a day of awesomeness on July 27th, 2013. It’ll be a proper good time, it will. Then we’ll be stateside again for the third RGC in August, but you’ll have to wait and see exactly where.

Taking the Democratization of Game Development to New Heights

By Andrew Haak - February 5, 2013

If you’re an aspiring or up-and-coming game designer, you have choices: you can develop in Game Maker or Flixel, Unity or Unreal Development Kit, XNA Game Studio or Torque, among many others. These are all easily accessible tools that individuals and development studios have used to create everything from simple games to feature-rich, pro-quality experiences across mobile, consoles and desktop computers. While there are already myriad choices, suiting an increasing breadth of expertise, ROBLOX is pushing the democratization of game development further than ever by merging a powerful development tool with something no one else has: an enthusiastic player base numbering in the tens of millions.

That’s not to imply it’s easy to reach ROBLOX’s audience. But with the right amount of ingenuity and determination, it’s possible – even for a single person.

Weekly ROBLOX Roundup: February 3, 2013

By Andrew Haak - February 3, 2013

Every week, we’re busy telling the stories behind our platform, our technology and our place in the gaming and technology industries. For those of you who catch up with ROBLOX over the weekend, the Weekly ROBLOX Roundup collects the best stuff to hit our various avenues of publication in the last week. This time: inside the brain of d4rk886, creator of Base Wars: The Land, the ROBLOX Studio splash screen contest results, earning Robux by selling Game Passes and promoting gear, users tell us what compels them to build, LEGO® Hero Factory: Brain Attack, Deadzone, and other bits and pieces.

Seven-day Blog Recap

Inside the brain of d4rk886

He’s created what is probably the most popular game of all time on ROBLOX (and definitely the most popular game of 2012), but he was a bit of a mystery to us blog writers. That said, we got in touch with him to find out how he built Base Wars: The Land, what he’s planning to do with it in the future, and what other games he’s working toward releasing. Get inside the brain of d4rk886, as well as a sneak peak of his upcoming RPG, The Mystic Land.

ROBLOXians Respond: Why Do You Build?

By Andrew Haak - January 30, 2013

Why do you build?

I can think of many reasons why someone might: to create a tangible representation of something that otherwise only exists in your imagination, to share and explore something with someone on the other side of the planet, to pass the time, to experiment with physics – and the list goes on. But that’s not the point of this article; the point is to relay the things that drive you, genuine ROBLOX builders, to create.