The Vote Is On! Choose Your Favorite Dynamic Lighting Video

By Andrew Haak - April 27, 2013

Last week, we enabled dynamic lighting on GameTest1, a testing environment for new releases of ROBLOX gameplay and ROBLOX Studio. In conjunction with the beta test, we launched a dynamic lighting video contest to see how builders leverage the much-anticipated feature – for both aesthetic and interactive purposes. We collected roughly 200 submissions, all of which are now on display on the contest website and waiting for you to show some love with your votes.

You can cast a vote for up to five entries. The voting period lasts through Monday, April 29th at 4:00 pm PT, so watch as many as you can and choose your favorites wisely. Don’t forget to leave comments of support, too.

A Day in the Life of the ROBLOX Web Team

By Andrew Haak - April 23, 2013

ROBLOX is about 70 people strong, with teams specializing in everything from web and client development to customer service and marketing. While each team executes starkly contrasting projects, we’re united by our shared values and the ultimate goal of making ROBLOX the best digital-creation experience. We’re going behind the scenes with teams across ROBLOX to provide some insight into the tasks and challenges associated with achieving that goal, starting with the Web Team.

You can think about a day in the life of a ROBLOX web developer as having three distinct areas of focus: planning, developing and releasing. Depending on the day, one might weigh heavier than another.

Weekly ROBLOX Roundup: April 21st, 2013

By Andrew Haak - April 21, 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: an opportunity for you to write for the ROBLOX blog, a dynamic lighting video contest, own and trade multiple copies of the same limited item, our latest Crossfire article (featuring Ozzypig and CloneTrooper1019), a showcase of excellent ROBLOX building, a New York apartment penthouse to explore, and other bits and pieces. Enjoy.

Seven-day Blog Recap

Get published on the ROBLOX blog!

Last week, we announced an opportunity for you to have your writing published front and center on the ROBLOX blog. We’re not accepting just anything, though; right now, we’re keeping a keen eye out for technical articles about specific aspects of ROBLOX building in which the author has demonstrated expertise. We’ve received more than 400 pitches, so far, and we’ll be reviewing every last one of them in the coming week. While we haven’t started reaching out to anyone yet, I can say there are a number of great ideas and I’m very excited about the quality and robustness of articles we could be publishing in conjunction with you, the ROBLOX community. Thanks to everyone who has submitted ideas!

Lights On! Win a Contest While You Test Dynamic Lighting

By Andrew Haak - April 19, 2013

For the last five or so days, we’ve had dynamic lighting enabled on a small test environment. Today, we moved the feature over to the more robust GameTest1 environment so more builders can experiment with it simultaneously. While it’s news enough that you can play with dynamic lighting today, we’ve also launched a dynamic lighting video contest to let you future masters of light and darkness show your prowess!

The contest

You have until Thursday, April 25th at 11:59 p.m. PT to create something incredible using dynamic lighting, capture 30 to 60 seconds of footage of it, and submit your video. You can either build something brand new for the express purpose of showing off the beauty of dynamic lighting, or modify one of your existing places/games to illustrate the before-and-after results. Regardless of the avenue you pursue, the content you submit must be your own. You can submit your entry and see the complete instructions/timeline here.

Weekly ROBLOX Roundup: April 14th, 2013

By Andrew Haak - April 14, 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: our weekend tax holiday, the upcoming ROBLOX Film Festival, our conversation with talented builder asimo3089, a look at the games and places that are making money effectively, exclusive hats with ROBLOX cards, Strobe, and other bits and pieces. Enjoy.

Seven-day Blog Recap

Take advantage of the tax holiday while it lasts

This weekend, in celebration of Tax Day — you know, the deadline for Americans to file their 2012 taxes, which is not something most people celebrate — we’re holding a “tax holiday” on ROBLOX. What’s that mean? If you’re a wheeler and dealer, this weekend is an optimal time to sell and/or trade items. Limited items are typically quite costly, so this could save you some big time Robux. The cut also applies to group store sales, game pass sales, and sales of all types of clothing. (Currency transactions, as always, are not subject to a marketplace fee.) Point is, if you’re looking to sell and/or trade, now is the time. Take advantage of it before the holiday ends!

Win a Prestigious BLOXY at the ROBLOX Film Festival

By Andrew Haak - April 13, 2013

Forget the Oscars, the Emmys, the Tonys and the Grammys. In the summer of 2013, the most prized award will be a BLOXY– and you could be among the few and proud ROBLOXians to take one home.

This year, we want to see you, the builders and players of the ROBLOX community, share more and more of your creativity and ROBLOXian experience using video. Sure, we’ve already held video contests and made a point of awarding users for their ingenious ideas at last year’s ROBLOX Game Conference, but now we’re thinking bigger, grander and more glorious. We’re thinking worldwide ROBLOX Film Festival, where the winners not only receive BLOXY Awards, but have their films premiered at each BLOXcon in front of a live audience.

Weekly ROBLOX Roundup: April 7th, 2013

By Andrew Haak - April 7, 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 making of the 2013 Egg Hunt, the benefits of saying “goodbye” to bevels, ROBLOX’s browser/native-client hybrid, a discussion between zombie-survival game designers, ROBLOX at Maker Faire 2013, Compound by samaxis, visitors from around the world, and other bits and pieces. Enjoy.

Seven-day Blog Recap

With the 2013 Egg Hunt in the books, read about how it was created

The ROBLOX Egg Hunt 2013 was a smash hit. The final tally of play sessions broke the 3 million mark and the peak concurrent player count was more than 19,000 (shattering the previous single-game mark of around 6,000). In celebration of the event, we published some additional egg-hunting statistics and sat down with the creators of the Egg Hunt to learn about the process of building and launching the game. If you haven’t already given it a read, it’s worth it — even if the event has wrapped up.