The holiday commercials started airing weeks ago but, at ROBLOX, we’re so tasteful we waited until almost-December to kick off our holiday promotions. That can only mean one thing: it’s time for this year’s holiday extravaganza, Giftsplosion 2012. Throughout the month of December, we’ll be placing mystery gift boxes in the ROBLOX Catalog and awarding them to users who either meet certain criteria or have the wit to crack the riddle they contain. Eventually, they’ll open and reveal a new addition to your inventory of goods.

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Alice Rice is the Technology Coordinator for the OMI/Excelsior Beacon Center in San Francisco, California. The non-profit center works with various local educational entities to serve the San Francisco Community through a variety of programs and services for adults, youth, and families.  One of these services has come to be known as The Games Review Board–kids collectively review video games they’ve been playing and share the reviews through a podcast. Alice had noticed that mostly all of the recent reviews were from ROBLOX games, so she asked us to participate in one of their sessions. Founder and CEO David Baszucki, Senior Software Developer Robert Morgan and Studio Engineering Director Tim Brown took up the opportunity to interact with ROBLOX users in person and headed to the James Denman Middle School in San Francisco.

“The kids still can’t believe it happened,” says Alice. “They’re still talking about it even though it happened a week ago.”

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Every so often, we ask our users to let us know what they’d like to see in ROBLOX, then respond to some of the most insightful comments and pertinent questions. This time, John Shedletsky, ROBLOX’s Creative Director, elaborates on a variety of topics, including your ideas for single player servers, group vs. group battles, and ROBLOX Studio tools. The topics for this User Feedback session were submitted to us during our recent 2012 Player Survey. You can read previous entries here.

Muddy101: Single player servers. I would love to make a story-driven game, especially on a platform I already know really well. I can’t really do that while building with the fullest detail if I cannot isolate a player. Single player servers would solve this problem, I feel.

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Throughout the development process of ROBLOX for the iPad, many people across a wide variety of disciplines have focused their efforts on a single goal: build a world-class mobile ROBLOX product that matches (and in the sense of being a tight, unified app exceeds) the quality of its desktop counterpart. We’ve heard about fast-loading in-app web pages, smart optimization of memory and performance and touch-friendly controls. Today, in the last entry of the ongoing Engineering ROBLOX for the iPad series, the Content Team talks about the importance of a high-quality and cohesive user interface (UI).

Some of the UI changes we’ve been developing have already rolled out to users. Regardless of the platform on which you’re playing, you’ll see refreshed versions of a couple of ROBLOX’s key UI elements: the toolbar, backpack and chat (with an updated playerlist and scrollable chat coming soon). While these elements already have a new look, the Content Team is continuing to work toward its ultimate vision for ROBLOX’s UI. You can see one of the mock-ups of the team’s vision below.

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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: Black Friday deals, ROBLOX’s touch-screen control design, a Spotlight on super-builder Geico480, protecting your account, epic ship battles in Galleons, Thanksgiving in ROBLOX and more.

Seven-day Blog Recap

Still going strong: Black Friday deals

ROBLOX’s Black Friday Sale has been running since the crack of almost-midnight on Friday and, if you haven’t snatched up some low-priced gear, there’s still time. (That is, the rest of the day today.) You can check out our guide to Black Friday deals here on the blog for a detailed listing or consider some of these popular options:

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User Geico480‘s name is synonymous with the word “detail,” and for good reason. As a builder and decorated member of the Elite Builders of ROBLOX, Geico480 has created some of the most detailed models and environments ever on our platform–he was even nominated for Excellence in Construction at our ROBLOX Game Conference last year.

Geico480 discovered ROBLOX in 2010, after a life-long fascination with taking things apart to discover how they work internally. After familiarizing himself with the platform, he, like many other users, started creating games, though his focus shifted to something a little more unusual.

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ROBLOX’s Black Friday Sale starts now! A blend of new gear, users’ choices and some picks of our own, our weekend sale is a perfect opportunity to deck your character out and become one of the most stylish and envied ROBLOXians this side of the internet. If you’re in the market for great gear at reduced prices or want to pick up classic ROBLOX gear that’s only available on the rarest of occasions, use the below guide to our Black Friday Sale. This list is not exhaustive and we’ll be rolling out additional deals throughout the weekend, so keep your eye on the ROBLOX Catalog for more.

Available now: New gear and a new character body at discount prices

Rapid Launch Laser Blaster: Now 900 Robux (1,250 Robux starting 11/26)

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