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Roblox has the ugliest design I've ever seen for an online game yet it's amazingly successful. What's their secret?

ehsankia 3y ago
Same with Minecraft. It's a perfect example of how gameplay > visuals. The "secret" for both those cases is likely that they were lazy and just used some low effort placeholder at first, then the game blew up and the style became too intertwined with the popularity to change.
- pphysch 3y ago
  Maybe it's just a generational thing, but Minecraft doesn't look that "ugly", it just has low resolution textures / meshes. Roblox looks actually ugly because it uses higher resolution assets without a common/appealing style to make them cohesive.
  - atleastoptimal 3y ago
    Yeah Minecraft has genius level design imo. Roblox looks weird, like a first generation prototype of an online game that never went through iteration cycles. Maybe that was their intention anyway.
    - hipadev23 3y ago
      I feel like you don't understand what Roblox is. It's not a game. It's a platform. Think of web browsers in 1996. Most websites indeed looked very similar in 1996, but that was because of the currently accepted design aesthetics of the time, and had little to do with the browser itself.
      - ethbr1 3y ago
        Oh, memories of when the coolest thing you could do was make your website look like Doom with animated Imp gifs and a brick tiled background. RIP gifsthatdontsuck.com
  - outworlder 3y ago
    Minecraft is kinda cute, honestly. And it works well because of that, the huge blocks are actually a good thing, gameplay-wise.
  - rogerclark 3y ago
    It is a generational thing. If you grew up with Minecraft, you won't be able to see its flaws. Growing up with pixel art from NES and SNES games, the Minecraft aesthetic was obviously low quality programmer art rather than something meticulously crafted for its medium by an artist with real skills. However, ugly or not, most people don't care, and the gameplay itself was so interesting to its audience that it didn't really matter. Lots of things are more approachable and relatable specifically because they're ugly, and I think that applies to both Minecraft and Roblox. It's easier to imagine yourself making or participating in something that doesn't look like it took a genius to do. They made zillions of dollars and lots of people have fun with their games. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.
Salgat 3y ago
The extremely simplistic design allows for rapid development of games, along with a very visually simple interface for young children to use. There's a reason Roblox looks like Duplo blocks.
- extraduder_ire 3y ago
  IIRC, you can make it look however you want, if you put enough time into development. I think the reason people stick with the default character look is so that people can use their purchased ingame assets in the thing you made. Plus, that's what people are used to.
radicalbyte 3y ago
It's YouTube x MineCraft x Super Mario Maker x LittleBigPlanet; only it's also free to play and available on many platforms. Being an open platform with user-generated-content it has content covering basically anything kids are interested in and can react very quickly to incorporate "content" from whatever is currently trending. They've taken the Facebook / PHP "it sucks but we move fast and have a very low barrier to entry" ethos and applied it to gaming, aimed at a very young audience (my kids of 7 & 10 and all of their friends play it) and - with their horrific monetization - are killing it.
firecall 3y ago
To add to the other comments: Free exploration, community and YouTube. The way developers iterate on gaming concepts and allow players to be part of the evolution seems to be appealing. Tower Defence games are one example, where there are many implementations. The games evolve and change, sometimes rapidly, and the players and community come along for the ride. Then another new Tower Defence game comes along, a YouTuber showcases it, and they all go try out that one. Then the old game gets a big update, and they go back and try the old one again. The games are often very similar to each other, or knock-offs of commercial games. They often use irreverent meme culture visuals and sound effects, which makes the games seem fun and disposable. None of it is taken very seriously, on the surface at least. The key here is the community - all these games and their friends are on Roblox. They don't lose their friends if they switch games, and games are free to play, so their friends can easily join them without having to ask their Parents to buy the game for them! When you look back at the early Roblox games, it's remarkable how primitive they are. However when you view todays games, it's equally remarkable for sophisticated and impressive the graphics are!
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
corysama 3y ago
Over the years I’ve seen many examples and articles about how ugly design encourages users to create without anxiety about being judged on quality. Examples include Minecraft, Craigslist and rage comics.

Same with Minecraft. It's a perfect example of how gameplay > visuals. The "secret" for both those cases is likely that they were lazy and just used some low effort placeholder at first, then the game blew up and the style became too intertwined with the popularity to change.

pphysch 3y ago
Maybe it's just a generational thing, but Minecraft doesn't look that "ugly", it just has low resolution textures / meshes. Roblox looks actually ugly because it uses higher resolution assets without a common/appealing style to make them cohesive.
- atleastoptimal 3y ago
  Yeah Minecraft has genius level design imo. Roblox looks weird, like a first generation prototype of an online game that never went through iteration cycles. Maybe that was their intention anyway.
  - hipadev23 3y ago
    I feel like you don't understand what Roblox is. It's not a game. It's a platform. Think of web browsers in 1996. Most websites indeed looked very similar in 1996, but that was because of the currently accepted design aesthetics of the time, and had little to do with the browser itself.
    - ethbr1 3y ago
      Oh, memories of when the coolest thing you could do was make your website look like Doom with animated Imp gifs and a brick tiled background. RIP gifsthatdontsuck.com
- outworlder 3y ago
  Minecraft is kinda cute, honestly. And it works well because of that, the huge blocks are actually a good thing, gameplay-wise.
- rogerclark 3y ago
  It is a generational thing. If you grew up with Minecraft, you won't be able to see its flaws. Growing up with pixel art from NES and SNES games, the Minecraft aesthetic was obviously low quality programmer art rather than something meticulously crafted for its medium by an artist with real skills. However, ugly or not, most people don't care, and the gameplay itself was so interesting to its audience that it didn't really matter. Lots of things are more approachable and relatable specifically because they're ugly, and I think that applies to both Minecraft and Roblox. It's easier to imagine yourself making or participating in something that doesn't look like it took a genius to do. They made zillions of dollars and lots of people have fun with their games. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Salgat 3y ago

The extremely simplistic design allows for rapid development of games, along with a very visually simple interface for young children to use. There's a reason Roblox looks like Duplo blocks.

extraduder_ire 3y ago
IIRC, you can make it look however you want, if you put enough time into development. I think the reason people stick with the default character look is so that people can use their purchased ingame assets in the thing you made. Plus, that's what people are used to.

radicalbyte 3y ago

It's YouTube x MineCraft x Super Mario Maker x LittleBigPlanet; only it's also free to play and available on many platforms. Being an open platform with user-generated-content it has content covering basically anything kids are interested in and can react very quickly to incorporate "content" from whatever is currently trending. They've taken the Facebook / PHP "it sucks but we move fast and have a very low barrier to entry" ethos and applied it to gaming, aimed at a very young audience (my kids of 7 & 10 and all of their friends play it) and - with their horrific monetization - are killing it.

firecall 3y ago

To add to the other comments: Free exploration, community and YouTube. The way developers iterate on gaming concepts and allow players to be part of the evolution seems to be appealing. Tower Defence games are one example, where there are many implementations. The games evolve and change, sometimes rapidly, and the players and community come along for the ride. Then another new Tower Defence game comes along, a YouTuber showcases it, and they all go try out that one. Then the old game gets a big update, and they go back and try the old one again. The games are often very similar to each other, or knock-offs of commercial games. They often use irreverent meme culture visuals and sound effects, which makes the games seem fun and disposable. None of it is taken very seriously, on the surface at least. The key here is the community - all these games and their friends are on Roblox. They don't lose their friends if they switch games, and games are free to play, so their friends can easily join them without having to ask their Parents to buy the game for them! When you look back at the early Roblox games, it's remarkable how primitive they are. However when you view todays games, it's equally remarkable for sophisticated and impressive the graphics are!

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

corysama 3y ago

Over the years I’ve seen many examples and articles about how ugly design encourages users to create without anxiety about being judged on quality. Examples include Minecraft, Craigslist and rage comics.