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Eight Years at Roblox
- abdulhaq 6y agoRoblox to me, aged 56: It's a fairly new game, for kids Roblox to most HNers: Yeah, I played it when I was young, now I run a startup Me: Where's my mug of cocoa, it's 9pm and it's bedtime
- sanedigital 6y agoMy 4-year old son just recently go into Roblox and I've been super interested in the platform since. The sheer quantity of games present on there—and the zeitgeist around some of them—is insane. Thank you Arseny for giving us an inside look at the platform.
- hobby-coder-guy 6y agoZeitgeist?
- kotojo 6y agoTangent: 4?! My son is 2 and a half and we have just gotten to the point where he will even pay attention to a tv for more than 10 minutes (and only for peppa pig of all things). I'm really thought it was further away than that for any sort of gaming or real computer use, but I have no gauge from growing up in a house without anything but a tv till I was almost in middle school.
- davidandgoliath 6y agoAll kids are different, but our youngest (of four) started playing roblox at 2.5 — we have no idea how/why. Interactive stuff seems to keep them attentive longer, and most importantly: Engaged & thinking. Now the house sounds like a perpetual LAN party.
- sanedigital 6y agoThey grow up quick! And one of the super fun things about Roblox is most of the games are very simple and there are a practically infinite number of them. It doesn't take much more attention than your 2.5 year old has for a kid to drop into a game, walk around for a bit, get bored, and drop into something new.
- klondike_klive 6y agoAs a 46 year old with what I suspect is undiagnosed ADHD, this is exactly what I tend to do with PICO-8
- ses1984 6y agoIt depends on their role models. When I was a toddler I saw my older family members playing games and I wanted to do what they did. I learned how to load commodore games from the command line at age 5, maybe 4. My kids had only a casual interest in games until age 6 when the older one discovered minecraft.
- telesilla 6y agoWasn't that part of the intrigue when computers and games had cables and cartridges and you needed to crawl behind the TV to connect it when you wanted to play? The romanticism is lost. I wonder for me, getting involved back then was hardware related. Thankfully Lego remains.
- soulofmischief 6y agoI had a few Super Nintendo games under my belt by age 4. I think the best thing you can do is surround your toddler with potential interests and hobbies and let them naturally gravitate toward what interests them.
- sliken 6y agoWhen my kid was 2 ish I introduced them to TuxPaint. Turns the speakers on, pick a stamp of whatever their favorite is (dinosaurs? butterfly? fish?) Put your hand over their hand and select the stamp and then select where to put it. Once that gets boring show them pick color, pick stamp, place it. After that show them pick size, then color, then stam, and then place it. Kept my kid busy, she loved being creative, and it's way better than watching some video. After an hour she looked at me, looked at her hand, and said "ow". I got her a smaller mouse ;-).
- boogies 6y agoI’ve taught a 3 year old his first letters with “bambam” and “gamine”. I don’t know that’s it’s as healthy as off-screen play though.
- salemh 6y agoAs a counter point, why give them screens so young at all? I am someone without children, so my point is much less valuable then the others already below. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/23/screen-time-v-play-time-what-tech-leaders-wont-let-their-own-kids-do https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/23/screen-ti... https://www.businessinsider.com/screen-time-limits-bill-gates-steve-jobs-red-flag-2017-10#bill-gates-one-of-the-most-influential-tech-leaders-in-the-world-limited-how-much-technology-his-children-could-use-at-home-1 https://www.businessinsider.com/screen-time-limits-bill-gate...
- mac_was 6y agoAs someone without children you don't understand that parents need to rest after couple years of constant taking care of children :) I was the smartest about raising kids when I didn't have them yet :)
- schwartzworld 6y agoThe only way to really keep your child away from screens is to keep them out of the house entirely. They are going to see your computer and your phone and want it. 4 year olds understand a lot about the world, so it's not like you can just pretend you don't have these awesome toys.
- schwartzworld 6y agoMy 4 year old can unlock our phones, open the Roku app and put on a few different shows. She also has learned how to use Google transcription to send text messages to her cousins, although Google still hasn't figured out how to transcribe Armenian, so they are usually a little jumbled.
- three_legs 6y agoRoblox seems too socially advanced and inappropriate for a 4 year old. I just saw an ad recently for Lil Nas doing a performance in the game, who is not someone I would ever want any of my children, especially at four years old, being around.
- morelikeborelax 6y agoI don’t really understand why Roblox is so successful - you can invent all sorts of reasons in retrospect but it’s hard to validate them, and if you came to anybody back in 2012 and asked for an investment to build a platform where all games are user generated and run on a custom engine with a custom toolset and all users participate in a giant virtual economy and …, I think you’d have gotten a blank stare. Interesting that he writes this. I don't believe you'd have got a blank stare at all. Minecraft servers with custom games had already sprung up, Second Life had existed and people were playing around with these concepts. The idea is sound, just needed execution and luck.
- strombofulous 6y agoAlso very interesting because I used to play roblox in 2012 and it was very alive back then. Probably not as much as it is now but definitely enough to get investments
- chabad360 6y agoIt should be noted that they just filed for an S-1 and the numbers they reported there show that the platform is far more alive than in was in 2012.
- DarkWiiPlayer 6y agoGoing by the amount of roblox-related questions we get in the Lua communtiy, it seems to be doing pretty fine I'd say.
- Jorge1o1 6y agoI never expected this sudden resurgence in users and I hope they continue to do well. I owe Garry’s Mod and Roblox a debt for getting me excited about Lua scripting, which is some of the earliest programming I did. I hope these games or similar games stick around and continue to get kids excited about slinging bits and the miracle of being able to create something using just your computer.
- 6y ago
- pgrote 6y agoWhat a remarkable walkthrough. I think many people can related to: "But the interesting part is that it looks like in 2017 I’ve done very little work that actually shipped to production in a meaningful way. This is because of a few things coinciding. One, I’ve started doing way more technical direction. Helping teams with the roadmaps, helping design solutions to some hard problems, doing code reviews, etc. etc." It is always the pull away that is tough. It is needed, but when you look back and wonder.
- jokethrowaway 6y agoIs Roblox a kind of Minecraft + modding with better meshes and physics? Honestly I'd find a "realistic looking by default" Roblox with good animations and lighting much more appealing. Unreal engine is already almost there, gamify the UI, invest a few millions in creating good quality assets and you have it.
- landtuna 6y agoIt's a massively, massively popular platform of games for the elementary school crowd. You can buy gift cards for it in grocery stores. Each game is different, but the look, feel, and controls are mostly the same. Most games are multiplayer.
- webwanderings 6y agoRoblox is bigger than Minecraft. Just ask any 9 year old. Any!
- slightwinder 6y agoIts 126 Million (minecraft) vs 150 Million (roblox) users at the moment. Though it seems roblox outgrew minecraft just this year, for obvious reasons. They were competing for a longer time now, but so far minecraft had the upper hand. I guess minecraft is more popular with older people who grew up with it and there is some limit reached which slows down minecrafts success at the moment. It seems minecraft was also rather silent in the last year. Animal Crossing and now Among Us are the hottest games everywhere, but aroung minecraft it was rather silent, even though it should have been more succesful with people staying at home the whole time, giving people more reason to do stuff in Minecraft.
- dagw 6y agoMy daughter has almost completely switched from Minecraft to Roblox (and she was heavily into Minecraft) simply because Roblox makes it really easy to play with her friends and Minecraft doesn't.
- zemo 6y ago
- jatsign 6y agoAs a parent with two kids who like minecraft - is Roblox safe for kids? I've heard yes and no.
- DanBC 6y agoRoblox covers several different things which is why the messaging is mixed. Also, parents have varying attitudes to risk. The PC version is not safe for children. The console platform versions are safer for children because they have controls over messaging. The quality control of the games is minimal. Parents need to be aware that Roblox stuffs in-app payments everywhere and these can be excessive and in-your-face. My child played Roblox on Xbox One but never found it a particularly enjoyable experience.
- jatsign 6y agoThanks. My kids would probably play it on their iPads (we don't even have a PC). Most of their iPad games offer in-app purchases already or force them to watch commercials. It's the messaging that concerns me most.
- Thlom 6y agoMy kid play on her tablet or iPhone (mostly). I notice there is a chat window, but don't think she pays much attention to it. She and her friends use facetime for in-game communication.
- da_big_ghey 6y ago> The PC version is not safe for children. I'm curious what you mean by this. What makes something safe for children or not? (This is an honest question from someone who doesn't have children and so doesn't really know.) It's interesting that a game would be "safe" on one platform but not another.
- fullstop 6y agoIt's much more difficult to chat with other players on Xbox.
- wpietri 6y agoWow, this is great. I'm bookmarking it as an answer to the question, "Why does development take so long/cost so much?" As an outsider to games, it's easy for me to naively think, "After decades, getting stuff on screens should be a solved problem, right?" It isn't, of course. But there are so many good examples here of why. Visual improvements. Tooling improvements. Cleaning up old messes. And of course a bunch of "we're switching from thing X to thing Y" and "we have to keep up with the ever-shifting platforms we're building on top of". So you end up with an obviously great engineer spending 8 years on things that neither the audience nor your investors would necessarily notice. But those things clearly matter, and a mere 14 years later contribute to a $1b IPO.
- dexwiz 6y agoGraphics programming is coupled much tighter to hardware. Both CPU intensive calculations in tight loops and interacting with a proprietary GPU make graphics programming less abstracted than other forms.
- manub22 6y agoHow Roblox makes money?
- ffpip 6y agoIn-app purchases thrown into children's faces. Children buy 'robux' (their currency) to buy stuff on the platform.
- simonebrunozzi 6y ago> I don’t really understand why Roblox is so successful - you can invent all sorts of reasons in retrospect but it’s hard to validate them, and if you came to anybody back in 2012 Nah. You could point out to Second Life, which had a huge spike in 2007 and 2008 and then slowly faded away, and explain why Roblox will be different. p.s. I got hired by Amazon Web Services in 2008, thanks to Second Life! [0] [0]: https://medium.com/@simon/2008-how-i-got-hired-by-amazon-com-314ee8634da9 https://medium.com/@simon/2008-how-i-got-hired-by-amazon-com...
- jpindar 6y agoBTW, Second Life recently moved their servers to AWS.
- simonebrunozzi 6y agoAh, I didn't know that. Back then they were using colo, if I'm not mistaken.
- Animats 6y agoYes, all servers that represent land were on AWS as of yesterday. Second Life isn't gone. At peak, it had about average concurrent users, and today it has about 40,000-50,000. That's about where GTA V Online is.
- MikeKusold 6y agoI'm not really interested in game development, but what stood out in this article is that this is essentially the author's brag document. It would be very easy for him to continue to update this article and send his manager a link any time performance reviews come around.
- jakearmitage 6y agoRoblox has all this money, and they never contributed anything significant back to the OGRE project?
- ineedasername 6y agoRoblox is one of the screen-based things I really don't mind my kids spending a lot of time in. While they're not (yet) building their own world/games, they play lots of games where you build & customize something. One of my kids will spend hours designing clothes, or decorating a house, truly creative activities that simply happen to be mediated by a screen. What I absolutely hate about Roblox are the micro-transactions, which frequently are not very micro at all. It's not at all uncommon to see mini "empire building" games where you make money, expand your base to make more money, and that's the play loop as you design your <whatever>. But there'll be intrusive micro transaction popups just for walking over a tile, that will ask for $5 worth of Robux for an amount of in-game $$$ you could earn by playing for 5 minutes. It took months of gentle denials to my kids & constant explanations about the relative value of spending their week's allowance on something that will save them 10 minutes to finally convince them these things aren't worth it.
- musicale 6y ago> $5 worth of Robux for an amount of in-game $$$ you could earn by playing for 5 minutes Probably not a good trade-off for kids who make less than $60/hour. Then there's the issue of game developers who make their game (or essential parts of it) so unpleasant that people are tempted to pay real money to avoid playing it. "Robux" sounds like a system that is ripe for misuse. > It took months of gentle denials to my kids & constant explanations about the relative value of spending their week's allowance on something that will save them 10 minutes to finally convince them these things aren't worth it. A lesson many adults should learn as well!
- gitweb 6y agoI'd love to see Roblox supported on Linux. I think it would help add developer interest and get some unique perspectives and talents.
- troquerre 6y agoHow did Roblox solve the chicken and egg problem of getting developers to build games on their platform and getting kids to play them — did they launch with their own games first?
- toyg 6y agoIt pays to consider that Roblox has been around for more than a decade. Afaik they exploded 2-3 years ago, but they had a lot of time to get there. Over that timeframe, it’s relatively easy to build up a decent library. Some of their game-modes are effectively prebuilt, like the “obby” which is just a linear platformer.
- justanothersys 6y agoRoblox is really culturally interesting for kids. So much of my TikTok audience plays Roblox and I tried making some games in there but the tooling and UX has a lot of friction. I loved reading this post though and feel happy that things will improve in the future. Roblox is huge!