As stated in last week’s Engineering ROBLOX for the iPad article, a significant fraction of ROBLOX developers are currently entrenched in porting the platform to iPad. Among the myriad engineering projects involved in completing this technical feat is one that’s unique to user-generated content platforms: making sure the games users have already poured hours into developing play well on a tablet.

ROBLOX Creative Director John Shedletsky is currently working with a number of game developers to help them implement iPad-friendly design changes — like relocating graphic user interface (GUI) elements to more accessible parts of the screen and fine-tuning touch controls so they’re intuitive and don’t put mobile players at a huge disadvantage. We’ve put together a video demonstrating some of those games running on an iPad, along with an inside look at our progress toward finishing a high-quality ROBLOX app and submitting it to the App Store.

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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 first iPad development progress report, group items and funds, what happens in the ROBLOX cloud when you change your character appearance, the deep end of the ROBLOX Currency Exchange, Add Gear to Game statistics and more.

The news you’ve been waiting for: ROBLOX for iPad is under way

It’s not much of a secret that we’re working on ROBLOX for the iPad, but this article represents the first time we’re explaining just what’s happening. In this “progress report,” we uncover some initial engineering challenges we’ve encountered and tasks we’ve completed. Need I say more? Check it out, and get excited.

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ROBLOX isn’t your typical video game company. We’re unique in a lot of ways, one of which is our openness about what we’re working on and our plans for the future. Today, we’re happy to stop teasing and start going in-depth on our progress toward releasing ROBLOX for iPad.

ROBLOX for iPad will launch in a couple phases. First, we’ll update the existing ROBLOX Mobile app, which has been available in the App Store since 2011. The update will improve the visual style of the app and is optimized for use on iPad. It will allow us to test all non-game components of the ROBLOX app.

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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: Add Gear to Game feature, connecting with ROBLOX, Spotlight on NXTBoy, developers’ picks, GDC Online and more.

Add gear to your game, make money off sales

Last week, we launched a feature that’s beneficial to all ROBLOX game developers who want to allow gear in their games. Here’s how it works: you decide what gear you’d like to allow in your game — even if it’s just one weapon. That gear is then available for sale on your game’s page and anyone who purchases it can use it in your game. If they use the “Buy” button on your page, you get 10% of the sale. Not only do you have more control over what gear is allowed in your game, you stand to turn a profit. Read this post for more information on adding gear to your game.

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Game Developers Conference (GDC) Online, the self-proclaimed premier professionals-only event for online, social and cloud gaming, wraps up today in Austin, Texas. ROBLOX CEO and Founder David Baszucki was there on Tuesday to take part in the event’s day-long Game Dev Start-Up Summit, which featured panelists from around the industry and covered topics ranging from how to start a game company to how to exit the business. Here’s a short report from the event.

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ROBLOX uses a number of channels to give you a voice, listen to your feedback and help you network with other users. While the ROBLOX forums are (and will continue to be) a particularly popular and active place for ROBLOX users to chat, we also maintain a presence on three of the big social networks: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We can’t respond to all of the feedback we receive via those media, but rest assured that we – and other connected users – are reading your thoughts.

All of our social media accounts have been growing since their inception. Since new users sign up for ROBLOX every day, we invite those of you who are new to the platform to join us around the web.

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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: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtle Trouble, impressive game conversions and re-imaginations on ROBLOX, how ROBLOX renders shadows, our moderation program and more.

‘Twas the week of the Turtle

On Monday, we announced our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtle Trouble game. On Saturday, we went in-depth on the making of said game. Indeed, it was the week of the Turtle (and ninja-rat). While you may have already played Turtle Trouble, we recommend you read our making-of article, then revisit the game. We think you’ll see it through a different lens, having consumed our breakdown of why things are the way they are and how they got there.

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