Builders’ Tips for Beautiful Uses of Dynamic Lighting

By Andrew Haak - May 15, 2013

Dynamic lighting has been available on ROBLOX for almost one week, meaning intrepid builders have had time to explore the depth of the feature and devise tips, tricks and techniques for harnessing its beauty. In this article, a pair of winners of our dynamic lighting video contest and a pair of builders who have demonstrated an understanding of dynamic lighting describe what they’ve learned in week one. If you’re an up-and-coming dynamic lighting aficionado, you shouldn’t miss these 100% builder-provided techniques.

We recommend you read our introduction to dynamic lighting to learn how to manipulate basic dynamic lighting variables before going deeper into this article. Here, we’ll gradually move from beginner techniques to more advanced practices. Ravenshield, one of the winners of our dynamic lighting video contest, kicks things off with a foundational consideration: the overall level of brightness in your place.

Build and Battle with the ROBLOX Team This Weekend at Maker Faire

By Andrew Haak - May 14, 2013

The time is nigh! This weekend – the 18th and 19th of May, to be exact – the entire ROBLOX team will be descending upon the San Mateo County Event Center for one of the Bay Area’s biggest events of the year: Maker Faire Bay Area. The Maker Faire figures to draw more than 100,000 attendees and hundreds of Makers — ROBLOX builders included. We will be showcasing the digital side of Maker culture right in the center of the Expo Hall and we’d love for you to join us at Booth 338.

Spotlight: KlamKnights City, by Aaronstone4real & Klamman

By Alan Fackler - May 13, 2013

Klamman and aaronstone4real brought me to a place that was unlike anything I’d ever seen on ROBLOX before. KlamKnights City is filled to the brim with creativity, and looks like a whacky, gigantic theme park from afar. This is not an insult–to the contrary. The reason each section of the city looks different is because each of the sections were built by different users. Klamman and aaronestone4real are selling digital “plots” of land, and encouraging buyers to build big. I got the chance to chat with the two of them about the creation and the future of their massive virtual world.

This “land plot” system is what initially piqued my interest–but I grew more intrigued after I paid the place a visit and looked at all the marvelous and unique creations. I was equally startled by the sheer size of the place. I’d try to explain the scope of it all, but sometimes pictures speak more concisely than words.

Weekly ROBLOX Roundup: May 12th, 2013

By Andrew Haak - May 12, 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 whole bunch of dynamic lighting coverage, a day in the life of the Content Team, the development of Strobe (one of ROBLOX’s hippest games), a game-design showdown between competing FPS developers litozinnamon and Spookyfox, free gear bundled with ROBLOX cards for May, The Old Town by Aonux, and other bits and pieces. Enjoy.

Seven-day Blog Recap

Dynamic lighting has arrived (and is quickly changing the look of ROBLOX)!

This week’s top story, by a long shot, was the official release of dynamic lighting. That’s not a surprise; dynamic lighting is a feature you’ve been requesting for years and we’ve been prototyping and developing for several months. Our announcement provides a detailed guide to enabling and implementing dynamic lighting in your ROBLOX place, so it’s worth taking a few minutes to learn the steps. The payoff is huge — in just the first 24 hours of dynamic lighting’s official existence, many cunning ROBLOX builders harnessed the feature to breathe new life, style and dynamics into their games and places. Keep up the great work and don’t hesitate to share your dynamic lighting creation with us and others — here or via ROBLOX on Twitter.

Crossfire: Litozinnamon and Spookyfox Talk FPS Development

By Alan Fackler - May 11, 2013

Creativity and sharing are two qualities that fuel ROBLOX, and it’s in that spirit that we created Crossfire, a series where we chat with ROBLOX game developers about their game design choices. For this outing, we interviewed users litozinnamon and Spookyfox to compare and contrast design decisions made in their games: Call of ROBLOXia 5: ROBLOX at War, and Authority, respectively. Both are massively popular first person shooters on ROBLOX, so we jumped at the chance to discuss game design, dynamic lighting, and more with the two developers.

ROBLOX: Thank you guys for doing this. We were digging around and noticed that Authority has a version of the game that includes dynamic lighting. Is Call of ROBLOXia planning on utilizing our new lighting system?

A Journey Through Day One of Dynamic Lighting

By Alan Fackler - May 10, 2013

This morning, I woke up, ate breakfast, then stepped into a ROBLOX that was different than it was yesterday. Alas, the release of dynamic lighting lead to a sudden surge of creative thoughts and ideas all throughout ROBLOX–and within less than 24 hours of the release, no less! Lights and shadows are everywhere. It’s like seeing ROBLOX through a new set of eyes. I decided to take a look around our dynamically lit platform and document my journey. Check out some of the places and things I saw.

Lights On: Dynamic Lighting and Shadows are Here

By Arseny Kapoulkine - May 9, 2013

No more previews, contests, or prototype videos. Today, we officially flipped the switch on dynamic lighting–and we can’t wait to see what our builders do with it. Dynamic lighting is a smart voxel solution that not only lets builders control the ambient light and resulting shadows in the worlds they create, but place customizable light sources for aesthetic and gameplay purposes. Torches, flashlights, lamps–the future is a bright one.