@BelowNatural began his journey on the platform 13 years ago, at the age of 8. Now, he’s the founder of Paradoxum Games with three experiences under his belt!
How did he accomplish all of this so quickly? Let’s dive in.
Roll back the clock! 
Intrigued by the “Build anything, create anything” ad he saw in 2011, BelowNatural joined Roblox initially to just play games. However, after discovering an old feature called Build Mode, which merged elements of a studio and engine in-game, game development sparked his curiosity. Despite not knowing anything about programming, BelowNatural did what any other kid would do at his age — he started dissecting scripts. His passion for game development evolved, and at the age of 13, he embarked on a journey by watching YouTube tutorials on building obbys. This inspired BelowNatural to create his first experience, Ninja Simulator, which achieved remarkable success, reaching 3k concurrent users in 24 hours and approximately 15k concurrent users in 2 weeks — a feat at the time.
Then, BelowNatural stumbled on Reasons 2 Die, a 2014 experience created by PlaceRebuilder. The game had been discontinued, but BelowNatural took it upon himself to revive it with the approval of the original developers. At just 15 years old, he successfully recreated the game and attracted a significant number of players, reaching around 3-4k concurrent users. His success sparked the original developer to hire BelowNatural as a map designer for the game’s official sequel, which helped him improve his map and game design skills.
This achievement, along with his work on Ninja Simulator, helped him establish a reputation within the Roblox community. In the spring of 2019, BelowNatural pursued a development passion project for school. Ever heard of a game called…Tower Defense Simulator? 
While BelowNatural has made great strides in making games, he also faced significant challenges, particularly during the pandemic. One of the biggest obstacles was his parents losing their jobs, which was a major source of demotivation. But despite this, he worked hard on Tower Defense Simulator (TDS) and was able to provide for his family, including tuition for both his brother and sister and a new office space for his father to kick off the next step in his journey!
Starting a studio
“Who knew Killscripts and build mode would turn into something big?” BelowNatural reflects.
Once TDS was released, it was picked up by multiple content creators, which helped scale the experience from 3k CCUs to up to 30k players.
“This is when I knew I had something special with Roblox,” shares BelowNatural.
In 2019, BelowNatural created Paradoxum Games as a Roblox group. In its early stages, he hired fellow Roblox developer friends — a scrappy team of six: one programmer, two modelers, one music producer, and one render artist. Over the next four years, he scaled up the team by bringing on talent from the community. In 2022, Paradoxum Games became an official company and opened up a physical headquarters space. They currently operate out of this office today.
As the founder of a studio, BelowNatural has learned different parts of game development so that he thoroughly understands all functions. Outside of programming, he’s tried his hand at 3D Modeling, Texturing, Graphic Design.
Steering the hype 
One thing BelowNatural and his team are extremely passionate about are their trailers. You’ve probably seen one — they’re cinematically unique, usually recognized by their close up angles , booming sound effects, and dramatic lighting. At Paradoxum Games, a team of individuals come together to achieve one key goal: craft trailers that captivate and fascinate players worldwide.
BelowNatural’s personal favorite Tower Defense Simulator trailer
BelowNatural and his team first started creating hand-animated trailers in Blender.
“We chose to go for a realistic but stylized look, where the characters look and move toy-like but the environments are realistic.”
In the past two years, the studio has been experimenting with motion capture, utilizing artificial intelligence and multiple phones to record body movements from various angles.
Behind-the-scenes pre-render shots of a trailer
Full trailer
But the process doesn’t end there. It takes weeks of storyboarding on their trustworthy 72-inch whiteboard to envision their cinematic trailers. Through creating the music and sound effects in-house, they ensure that every aspect of the trailers resonates with audiences, creating an immersive experience to pull players back to the game.
Timing is everything in the world of trailers. BelowNatural has tried different methods, from launching a trailer a month in advance to as close as 2-3 days, but his ultimate advice is to promote one week before an update to build enough hype around it. If a release is too close, people might miss it, but if it’s too far in advance, players may forget. Keeping trailers to 30 seconds or less (so it can be used for Roblox thumbnails) and highlighting the most exciting part is another formula the team follows that’s proven successful.
In addition to creating excitement for your experience, the process of building the final product involves a variety of other factors.
A peek behind the curtain
Paradoxum Games has found the perfect rhythm for managing project timelines through teamwork across a 30-person studio, made up of 19 employees in the Art department (3D artists, concept artists, SFX/music producers, and marketing), 10 in the Engineering and Design department (content engineers, gameplay engineers, and game designers), and BelowNatural. For each project, they start with a detailed design document that’s shared across departments. Engineers then create the prototype code, while the art team polishes assets.
This strategy ensures each aspect is thoroughly developed and deadlines are met. Team members approach projects in small groups to tackle features and releases, promoting both technical and artistic development.
Conflicting visions are inevitable in a creative environment, so to overcome differences, the team at Paradoxum Games encourages open communication and polls the community to help guide their decisions. For example, TDS held an April Fools event that introduced limited skins. When the event ended, the studio’s developers were unsure if they should keep the skins available as evergreen. They asked their community through a poll on X that resulted in Paradoxum Games keeping select skins for the next update.
And to keep the team motivated and fresh, Paradoxum Games breaks their work into manageable two-week sprints and encourages company-wide breaks to avoid burnout. These pauses are crucial for recharging creative batteries and ensuring that everyone stays passionate about their work.
Tips for creators and aspiring studio leads
BelowNatural provided us with some pointers for how to grow from being a solo creator to a studio lead:
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On finding good talent: Grow your network by connecting with the Roblox community through social media (especially X) and in person at industry events.
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On recovering from mistakes: For any launch or update, conduct retrospectives to fully understand what went well, what went wrong, and what can be improved.
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On creating intentional culture: Encourage open communication and a safe space for feedback.
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On maintaining success: Stay persistent and follow through on your projects. Continue to think outside of the box and experiment with new ideas.
What’s next?
After an insightful conversation with BelowNatural, he teased what could be next for him and the team at Paradoxum Games. Rest assured they are hard at work on a new experience, different from any previous project, that is currently in pre-production. Follow Paradoxum Games to stay updated.
Big shoutout to @BelowNatural for giving us a glimpse into his life and the team at Paradoxum Games! Be sure to connect with him on Roblox and on X.