3 ms·

A video game you've never heard of has turned three teens into multimillionaires

45 points by DLay 9y ago

sokoloff 9y ago
To quench some of the clickbait headline curiosity: The game is "Jailbreak"; the game platform is Roblox (https://www.roblox.com/ https://www.roblox.com/)
- joezydeco 9y ago
  To quench some of the typical HN curiosity: Roblox is a cross-platform MMORPG that provides free creation tools and Lua scripting capability. It includes monetization without the need for external servers.
vyrotek 9y ago
> Nowadays, Roblox boasts 56 million monthly players. That actually puts it ahead of Minecraft. Earlier this year, Microsoft said about 55 million people play its hit game every month. Meanwhile, by some measurements, more people search for Roblox's website than for Lego, company officials boast. Congrats to the Roblox team for creating a fun platform. My kids are absolutely addicted. I really had no idea how huge this game was until recently though. I should have known something was up when I noticed they weren't playing Minecraft as much.
- taheca 9y ago
  Exactly. My kids rarely play Minecraft, but love that they can play Roblox together (on different computers) without me having to set up a server for them to share.
georgeecollins 9y ago
My 10 year old loved jailbreak, among other Roblox games. I think they really deserve credit for creating a platform where you can implement weird concepts.
- joezydeco 9y ago
  The platform allows for very loose roleplaying (e.g. Run a {pizza parlor, airline, prison, Dunkin Donuts}), which is an experience I don't see a lot of Minecraft players getting but a lot of younger players LOVE to do. I have seen Minecraft turned into a crude FPS, but it looks awful. My son plays Bed Wars from time to time and it makes my retinas twitch.
mlloyd 9y ago
My son loves jailbreak.
49531 9y ago
Roblox is a really interesting game. My kids all love it from the 3y/o to the teenagers. The games are mostly very amateurish and buggy (from what I've experienced) but the whole thing is like a web browser for games. Has a very early web feel of being built by people rather than by companies.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
robloxthrowaway 9y ago
(I work at Roblox) I think of Roblox as the tool I wanted when I was 12 and wanted to automate my my Legos and Construx. We're hiring. https://angel.co/roblox/jobs https://angel.co/roblox/jobs
methodover 9y ago
I wonder if this is a small glimpse into the future. Instead of 99% of the revenue in entertainment going to the very top 1% of content creators, it's more dispersed. More content creators -- game developers, artists, storytellers -- are able to create specialized works for just their small fan base and make a decent living doing so. The internet and it's wide, cheap distribution model, plus applications like Unity (and, apparently, Roblox) can help make that possible.

45 points by DLay 9y ago

To quench some of the clickbait headline curiosity: The game is "Jailbreak"; the game platform is Roblox (https://www.roblox.com/ https://www.roblox.com/)

joezydeco 9y ago
To quench some of the typical HN curiosity: Roblox is a cross-platform MMORPG that provides free creation tools and Lua scripting capability. It includes monetization without the need for external servers.

vyrotek 9y ago

> Nowadays, Roblox boasts 56 million monthly players. That actually puts it ahead of Minecraft. Earlier this year, Microsoft said about 55 million people play its hit game every month. Meanwhile, by some measurements, more people search for Roblox's website than for Lego, company officials boast. Congrats to the Roblox team for creating a fun platform. My kids are absolutely addicted. I really had no idea how huge this game was until recently though. I should have known something was up when I noticed they weren't playing Minecraft as much.

taheca 9y ago
Exactly. My kids rarely play Minecraft, but love that they can play Roblox together (on different computers) without me having to set up a server for them to share.

georgeecollins 9y ago

My 10 year old loved jailbreak, among other Roblox games. I think they really deserve credit for creating a platform where you can implement weird concepts.

joezydeco 9y ago
The platform allows for very loose roleplaying (e.g. Run a {pizza parlor, airline, prison, Dunkin Donuts}), which is an experience I don't see a lot of Minecraft players getting but a lot of younger players LOVE to do. I have seen Minecraft turned into a crude FPS, but it looks awful. My son plays Bed Wars from time to time and it makes my retinas twitch.

mlloyd 9y ago

My son loves jailbreak.

49531 9y ago

Roblox is a really interesting game. My kids all love it from the 3y/o to the teenagers. The games are mostly very amateurish and buggy (from what I've experienced) but the whole thing is like a web browser for games. Has a very early web feel of being built by people rather than by companies.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

robloxthrowaway 9y ago

(I work at Roblox) I think of Roblox as the tool I wanted when I was 12 and wanted to automate my my Legos and Construx. We're hiring. https://angel.co/roblox/jobs https://angel.co/roblox/jobs

methodover 9y ago

I wonder if this is a small glimpse into the future. Instead of 99% of the revenue in entertainment going to the very top 1% of content creators, it's more dispersed. More content creators -- game developers, artists, storytellers -- are able to create specialized works for just their small fan base and make a decent living doing so. The internet and it's wide, cheap distribution model, plus applications like Unity (and, apparently, Roblox) can help make that possible.