Spotlight: GollyGreg and the Importance of Choices

By Alan Fackler - January 15, 2013

User GollyGreg is known in ROBLOX as a camera wizard of sorts–evidenced by his direct involvement with one of our television commercials two years ago, and more recently in his game Choices. Choices is an interesting title for numerous reasons, and the name of the game certainly doesn’t mince words.

From the onset, you’re asked a series of questions–though your answers don’t really matter, as the game is programmed to do the opposite of your response. So here’s a hint before you jump in–if you’re a guy, say you’re a girl, unless you want to be rewarded with “good girl” every time you complete a task.

Spotlight: Nytraulics Demos Advanced Game Building and Innovation

By Alan Fackler - December 29, 2012

User Nytraulics is on a quest to change the way shooter games both look and play using our platform, as evidenced by Underscore, a recently submitted work in progress that looks unlike anything we’ve ever seen on ROBLOX. Though Underscore is more of a tech demo than an actual game (you can move around, utilize the camera system, fire your weapon, etc.), the possibilities that this sort of advanced system could bring about are endless. The user interface is polished–it looks like something from a triple-A console game. The weapons he’s created feel unique, a combined effect of custom animations and sounds coupled with detailed weapons constructed using individual parts. He’s also intentionally writing “engine” code, meaning he will be able to use it to power additional maps and game play styles in the future. We thought we’d catch up with Nytraulics to discuss how Underscore was created and where he hopes it’ll go.

The Tech

Nytraulics’ idea to create a game with an over-the-top perspective came from tower defense games, though his vision included another layer of complexity: he wanted the user to be able to move the camera, in real-time and on the go.

Spotlight: Ajedi32′s Revival of the ROBLOX Wikia

By Alan Fackler - November 30, 2012

User Ajedi32 stumbled upon our ROBLOX Wikia a few years ago to find that it was totally abandoned. There were barely any posts on the page, and traffic was low. He took it upon himself to do something about it. Thanks to his efforts, the ROBLOX Wikia now receives 250,000 unique page views a month, and continues to grow.

“I wanted to bring it back up and get it healthy, so I went to the Wikia help pages to figure out how to get things going again,” recalls Ajedi32. “I started out with some minor edits and basic articles. Once people realized that the Wikia page wasn’t completely inactive, they started to come and check it out. That’s when it totally took off.”To better understand the metrics, we talked with George Jones, Program Director at Wikia. According to Jones, people have contributed over 2,000 separate pages of content to the Wikia since it was reborn, and several gaming companies he’s worked with have cited the ROBLOX Wikia when trying to illustrate how they want their page to look.

Spotlight: Geico480′s Attention to Details

By Alan Fackler - November 22, 2012

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.

Spotlight: Uuvinu, the Web Developer Behind ROBLOXRanks

By Alan Fackler - November 6, 2012

When I spoke to user Uuvinu over the phone, he seemed distracted. So much so, that I asked him if something was wrong. I had simultaneously noticed that his website, ROBLOXranks.com, wasn’t loading. This was his response: “Sorry. Our servers in New York City were knocked out by the storm, and I’m working on migrating data to Dallas, Texas. Site should be live in an hour.”

It was back up in thirty minutes. He’s 15-years-old.

Spotlight: Larger Than Life Experiences With Diddleshot

By Alan Fackler - October 25, 2012

Ever since he was a kid, user Robert Wallbank (Diddleshot in ROBLOX) has been interested in how things work on a fundamental level. He developed a fascination with physics and design work, as well as graphics. Though math wasn’t his strongest subject, it was this passion that brought him stumbling to ROBLOX in 2008, after watching videos of ROBLOX on YouTube.

Robert decided that he wanted to make games, but wanted to shy away from simplicity. He wanted to make games that were total visual and audio spectacles–games that would put people in a state of awe. For Robert, immense scale was a must.

Spotlight: Exchange Statistics, Lasers and Robots with NXTBoy

By Alan Fackler - October 12, 2012

Since he was a kid, user NXTBoy has been interested in building. An award-winning robotics builder by the time he was a teenager, he’s also made some innovative games and services for ROBLOX, including an Exchange Statistics website that tracks the exchange rates of ROBLOX currency.

The website is essentially a chart that updates itself. NXTBoy originally launched it in 2008 as an excuse to re-learn SQL (Structured Query Language), a special-purpose programming language.“Basically, I created a cron-job that scrapes the currency exchange page every two hours,” recalls NXTBoy. “I used XPath selectors to extract info, and stored the data in my SQL database.”