Beyond the Player: Developer Accounts

Feature Requests Website Features
#1

Introduction
UGC has been a core concept of Roblox since the beginning. What started as a few models, a few fun games, and some sandbox fun has advanced into complicated and planned out games. Roblox isn’t a small platform anymore where a few games are played by many, where Roblox Studio was used most of the time just to have fun. Roblox development for many has become a professional job and life. We have so many resources now such as the Developer Forum, the Developer Hub, and soon a marketplace and a new website to organize our games.

Developers have so many more priorities now than before. Freelancer and developers spend a lot of time focusing on professionalism, branding, and more. Everyone seems to want to appear professional, and that’s great. As Roblox advances as a game platform filled with unique experiences, developers should be professional.

How have developers tried to be professional?

  • By creating websites (for portfolios, studios, and other things related to branding)
  • Being active on social media
  • Maintaining a positive brand
  • Creating portfolios
  • Participating in the forum
  • Informing others about the Roblox platform

The point I am trying to make is… many top and passionate developers have shown the direction they want to go. For many, Roblox development is something that can be a job while also being a passion. I think Roblox should start considering how developers will interact with the Roblox platform in the long term.

Analyzing Roblox’s Goals
To figure out how Developers can interact with the platform now and in the future, we should analyze Roblox’s current goals. Obviously, Roblox has explained that they want to create this interactive social world of play. They want to give developers more tools to create more unique experiences. Roblox has also put effort into providing developers with more oppertunities and features.

Developer Accounts
I think that it would be beneficial in the long term for developers to register for a developer account (an account linked to their Roblox account, just like how the DevForum works). I think that this will create a more professional division between those who play Roblox or use studio for minor projects compared to those who clearly intend to use Roblox’s development tools with career goals. Developer Accounts have many benefits. It can help Roblox, specially DevRel, better interact with developers who have serious goals.

Analyzing the benefits

  1. Developer Support
    For a long time, developers have complained about moderation. In a platform such as this, moderation will be a problem. Roblox can’t remove moderation. One of the largest problems with moderation is the appeal services. Even when a user has been falsely moderated, they have the ability to appeal. However, the appeal services are not so great. However, between a player and a developer, a developer may depend on Roblox a lot more. A player who gets falsely moderated may be sad, however, a developer who depends on the platform may face much worse. There is a seperate DevEx support for those who DevEx, but they can’t do much for moderation. If Roblox added developer accounts, a seperate support email or support services could be set up for developers.
  2. Developer resources
    With developer accounts, Roblox can release features made for developers in an easier way without confusing players. Features and resources such as analytical tools, blog posts for developers, better connectivity and chat for developers, better marketing features, better security, and more.
  3. Developer connectivity
    We have had resources like the Developer Forum and the Developer Hub for a while now, but Roblox’s services for developers seem to feel disconnected. The Developer Hub needs to do more then just replace the old wiki, it needs to be a Developer Hub.
  4. Developer oppertunities
    Roblox could create more oppertunities like community showcases, event participation for games and developers, etc. in a more organized way, specifically targetting developers.

Benefits of more professional communication
Here on Roblox, developers don’t communicate too well at first. We commonly use Discord, talk a little, and do something. There isn’t really much professional interaction between players. I believe a reason for this is because of the way Roblox is currently structured. Roblox treats players and developers the same way, and as a result, we developers treat eachother as players. This unprofessional interaction between developers can overall result in an unprofessional developer community. This unprofessionalism can then leak out to the rest of the world giving Roblox a bad reputation. Developers may also be more disconnected to the developer world outside of Roblox.

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#2

I agree with most of the content in this post. Roblox is truly an amazing, unprecedented thing. Where else do you meet random people online who live in countries on the other side of the world and work together to bring in thousands of dollars on a game you used to play as a kid???

To address Developer acocunts - Roblox is already sort of endorsing this with the star program. Some devs get invited to join the Star program and get their avatar turned into a toy or whatever, but it shows that roblox recognizes certain members of the community are widely recognized and appreciated. I think to be able to get a special roblox badge (like the admin badge) or a tag for an existing Roblox Player account for developers and have it unlock the ability to publicize your social platforms or personal website or something could be extremely beneficial to Roblox in the long run since it helps developers taylor their user’s experience with their products more precisely. EVERY game developer on Steam or elsewhere has a website, so why shouldn’t roblox devs?

Of course this raises the question of whether it’s safe for children, etc. but if an account is listed as a developer account then it is assumed that that roblox user has something to lose on roblox if their public image is damaged. Roblox can use that leverage to encourage developers to only post child-friendly content on their brand websites.

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#3

This seems like multiple vague feature requests in one. I don’t think having “developer accounts” would automatically mean the benefits you list – Roblox would still need to build those benefits as separate features as well.

For the record Roblox is already working on a separate developer site that will host developer-relevant features and settings: create.roblox.com

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#4

@Crxzycar I agree, it is definitely unique. It is also part of the problem. We play on Roblox as kids, and when we make that transition into the world of development, it’s bumpy. First, many start off making little projects for our games or groups, and for some of us, Roblox starts to look like a job opportunity. With so many levels of transition, I think Roblox should add something more official once you get to that point where you say, "I want to take Roblox development seriously and make an income off the platform.

The star program is exactly that, the star program. Not every developer is or may not even want to be a star creator. Take something like Epic Games for example. Epic Games accounts are used for both playing and developing. However, there is a clear division between the developer side and the player side. Once you go to the developer side, it feels like your crossing into another world, and features are better targetted towards developers. Also, I think this idea of developers having the goal of becoming a star creator is hurting the platform. In Roblox, one of the most major ways of making a profit is to make a game. This isn’t the best thing. In other game platforms, developers can make a living selling models, assets, plugins, and more.

The Star Program also doesn’t provide many benefits besides getting a toy. There are so many more professional features that need to be added. I agree with you about the separate website. I think a badge would also be helpful, but as you said, Developers should have more features that will help them create better experiences for users. Developer accounts can help Roblox better add these features without confusing players.

Just like with the Developer Forum, Roblox can limit Developer Accounts to those who are 13 years or older.

@buildthomas I agree. Developer accounts alone won’t have a huge impact. Those benefits I listed won’t automatically come in. But that’s not the point. Roblox of course still has to support developer accounts even after (if) they released. However, while Developer accounts do not directly mean those benefits will be available, it will lay a foundation. A foundation that can be used by Roblox to organize the features. In my opinion, Roblox has a history of implementing features without the proper foundation. As I mentioned in my original post, Roblox is clearly trying to give developers more features. If they keep throwing them on the platform without any proper division, the already unorganized website and platform will become more unorganized.

A feature does not have to be majorly impactful to be beneficial. A foundation should be considered, and I am saying Developer accounts are that foundation. Also, I am aware of the create.roblox.com website, and I think that this is a big step in improving the platform for developers. However, one major feature being added shouldn’t be a reason why another beneficial feature should not.

If Roblox is adding a separate website for developers, why not go the full way and create a developer account along with a developer profile. We already do it here on the Developer Forum (in a more minor way). However, what we have here on the Developer Forum is minor and disconnected. It is a piece of a feature. Roblox can go the full step by adding Developer Accounts and create a more synchronous experience for developers throughout the platform. Roblox can also remove the Developer Forum accounts and combine with the Developer Accounts, once again, creating a more connected experience.

I would also like to mention that features like this may be more familiar to developers outside of the Roblox platform. Developers coming in may find a universal developer account to be a lot more understandable and beneficial to developers.

Also, with the addition of developer accounts, Roblox could also improve connections with Social Media platforms for developers. The built-in communications I talked about in my original post for Developer Accounts can also lead to better developer connections on Social Media. Roblox could possibly also add a connection to LinkedIn, improving both Roblox’s and the developer’s professionalism in the industry.

#5

Because there’s no actual benefit to having a “different account”. You can have multiple sites backed by the same account system that serve different purposes. There’s literally no benefit to actually having separate accounts – you can have all the features you describe either way if Roblox builds them (and again most of what you’re asking for is very vague).

That’s because this forum runs on Discourse which enforces its own authentication system. It has nothing to do with product vision, it’s just a technical side effect. Your Roblox account is still very much linked to your Discourse account here, you can’t re-log into Discourse if you lose access to your Roblox account.

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#6

I think you are misunderstanding what I am requesting. By “Developer Account”, I don’t literally mean 2 separate accounts. I simply mean “Developer Account” as an addition to your current Roblox account. It’s just something additional you can sign up for within the same account you already have.

It’s just a way for Roblox’s systems to know that you identify as a professional developer. Then they can, as I keep saying over and over again, better target features made for developers towards developers without confusing Roblox players.

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#7

I like the features you are suggesting that would come with a developer account, but I disagree that the account should be a separate entity that just happens to be tied to your player account.

I think instead your player account should have the capability to be promoted to have the developer privileges you are talking about.

I don’t literally mean 2 separate accounts. I simply mean “Developer Account” as an addition to your current Roblox account

Correct me if I’m wrong but I think this sentence you said kind of makes it sound like you want the same thing, but worded it in a different way.

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