Dungeon Delver is somewhat of an anomaly within the context of ROBLOX. While it’s a re-imagining of the brand of RPG made popular by Diablo, Everquest and the like, it features things we don’t often see: a fixed camera system, a click-to-walk interface, and different classes with different abilities that can be upgraded and enhanced. I got the chance to talk to the developers of the title, Gl0in and Gl0in2 to get the inside scoop on creating a game of such magnitude.

Dungeon Delver is still in its Alpha testing stage, but it’s stable and open to the public. Already, this unfinished title has amassed over 100,000 visits, thanks in part to its striking visual aesthetic. It first manifests itself in the character creation system, which uses a nifty graphic user interface to customize your look and abilities. Once you look the way you like, you find yourself in a lifelike tavern surrounded by wizards with long staffs and warriors with steel swords. Here, you can mingle with other players, purchase items and generally find reprieve from the dungeons you’re otherwise exploring.

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Hey guys, Gusmanak here to talk about our most successful update yet, Apocalypse Rising v.5.0.0. ZolarKeth and I have been hard at work for the past 11 months, developing improvements for Apoc (sorry, I call it that in short) since its release in July, 2012. When I launched the game, I never thought I’d end up spending so much time on one ROBLOX project. I’m fascinated at Apoc’s popularity–why has this game maintained popularity for such a lengthy period of time? What are the most important factors in development of gameplay? What makes Apocalypse Rising special? With this Developer’s Journal article, I’ll answer these questions.

A Solid Foundation

ZolarKeth and I stood by one rule when developing this title: never add weight to something that can’t stand on its own. If we plan on releasing a big feature that will change the game, we will not expand on that feature until it’s solid, functioning, and stable. You’d be surprised how often developers fall into this trap. They become excited about ideas, and worry less about implementation. These half-baked ideas find their way into games, making for half-finished, unstable features. When developing a game on ROBLOX, problems will arise—the average developer hates troubleshooting these problems. When you’re caught in this cycle, the most exciting part of your day is fixing breaks, which isn’t very gratifying. More often than not, developers never fully finish these fixes, resulting in a broken game that causes frustration among players. Even worse, developers often find that in order to solve problems in their game, the game must be radically altered.

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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 our second outing, we interviewed Clonetrooper1019 and Ozzypig to compare and contrast design decisions made in their very similar games: The Stalker and Juggernaut, respectively. Both games are asymmetric–meaning they require players to work in teams to take down one super-powered individual.

Thanks for doing this guys. Let’s start with the very basics. I was gathering stats, and both Juggernaut and Stalker have over 600,000 visits. What’d you do to make your game take off? 

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Creativity and sharing are two qualities that fuel ROBLOX, and it’s in that spirit that we introduce Crossfire, a new series where we chat with ROBLOX game developers about their design choices and other ROBLOX topics. For our very first segment, we talked with developers Gusmanak and DeadzoneZackZak, both of whom have created go-to games for ROBLOX zombie survivalists–Apocalypse Rising and Deadzone. Combined, the two uber-popular titles have been played nearly 10 million times. The games have stood the test of time because they are constantly being enhanced and upgraded by their creators.

ROBLOX: Apocalypse Rising seems to be the more open game. You can wander around for quite some time without seeing anybody. In Deadzone it’s much easier to find people. Was this a conscious decision on your end?

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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.

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Game creation and game play are two cornerstones of the ROBLOX platform. While they’re usually exclusive activities in separate environments, the ROBLOX Content Team’s newest project, Build and Battle, blends the two to create a team-based game where victory demands strategy and a fierce, competitive spirit.

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