When @HDFrisk first started working in the gaming industry over a decade ago, he couldn’t have imagined producing Roblox experiences at a company he co-founded with his friends. In this spotlight, we’re chatting with HDFrisk, co-founder and producer at The Gang. The Gang is an award-winning game development studio based out of Sweden, known for popular Roblox experiences like Strongman Simulator, Sumo Wrestling Simulator, and IKEA: The Co-Worker. HDFrisk shares his journey on pivoting from manufacturing to game development, and how being a producer is like being an entrepreneur.
Starting The Gang 
Fun fact: HDFrisk didn’t start in gaming. He started his professional career as a mechanical engineer in robotics and manufacturing, then pivoted to developing AAA games. In 2019, HDFrisk and four friends he met in the Swedish gaming industry decided to start their own studio, The Gang, which now has over 200 employees.
They first encountered Roblox through a mutual friend in their shared office space, who introduced the team to two Swedish content creators. These creators wanted their own Roblox experience and hired The Gang. The team poked through Roblox Studio and hit the ground running.
Their first experience, Fireville, completely flopped. Nobody liked it and they couldn’t figure out why — The Gang understood gaming, but hadn’t yet understood Roblox. So the team took Fireville down, regrouped, and studied genres and trends on Roblox to truly understand the player base. For example, in their first version, a lot of information was frontloaded and the experience was more open-world. They realized that the Roblox audience gravitated towards more linear gameplay with information presented in smaller batches.
Creating Strongman Simulator 
One of The Gang’s co-founders was bouncing ideas off his son, who loved the idea of exploring what a strongman does. The team built a prototype for a simulator about pulling heavy items and becoming stronger — and it was really fun. Within a month of building and playtesting, three of The Gang’s employees launched Strongman Simulator in 2021. One week post-launch, HDFrisk saw lots of positive feedback from the community and organic growth. They had figured out how to build a Roblox experience.
Since launch, Strongman Simulator has reached 1.5B total visits. HDFrisk and his team have relied heavily on community feedback to understand their pain points and desires for the experience. As HDFrisk puts it, “Let the players speak the truth.” They’re vocal about their ideas and at the end of the day, they’re the final judge. For example in Strongman Simulator, ideas for certain themes for some areas, such as Space Area and Dino Area, were provided by their community. When they see their ideas implemented, they feel they get credit and take partial ownership of the experience.
Producer = Entrepreneur 
As a lead producer, every day looks a bit different for HDFrisk. With over 40 live experiences and over 40 branded experiences, there’s a lot to maintain. Strongman Simulator and Sumo Simulator require the most attention for updates, requests, and bug fixes. When he’s not juggling live experiences, HDFrisk spends the rest of his time researching and innovating. He sources feedback from the community, tries out new gameplay mechanics, and works on balancing game economics.
To HDFrisk, being a good producer requires having an entrepreneurial mindset. While project managing the day-to-day tasks of a team is a core part of a job, producers need to proactively solve complex problems from a holistic point of view. “Dig where digging needs to be done,” says HDFrisk.
Keeping multiple roles on track, from programmers to artists to game designers, can be challenging as a producer. HDFrisk and his founding team have good insight on how each role functions which helps with setting up scope, time estimations, and sprint planning. It’s also important to communicate with each team member in the details of their work, rather than keeping conversations high level. A lot of HDFrisk’s work involves making sure his team isn’t overwhelmed and can deliver high-quality work within a given timeframe — should the team deliver 10 small features in 2 weeks or launch 1 feature and hold 1 event that makes a bigger impact? It’s a balancing act that takes practice.
Of course with big wins come losses as well. For HDFrisk, “failure” is sometimes necessary to get it right. Sometimes, he and his team will have to completely discard projects they’ve already begun if it doesn’t meet The Gang’s standards. It can feel extremely disappointing, but HDFrisk and the team know they have to find their experiences fun and enjoyable to really believe in them.
Tools and Tips for Producers 
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Stay on top of the Roblox user community. Trends change rapidly, so it’s crucial to stay up-to-date. HDFrisk plays 5-10 new experiences every day to understand what’s trending.
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Organize your sprints with a mix of tools. HDFrisk is a big fan of spreadsheets (his favorite tool), but other favorites include Trello and Jira for agile production management and Miro for whiteboard. In his humble opinion, however, a tool is just a tool. It takes an organized, proactive producer to put these tools to use.
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Tailor your communication style based on the team and project size. Big teams require more communication in a more structured way, while smaller teams and smaller projects are less heavy in communication. Startup or milestone meetings should be in video/voice format where participants can screenshare and discuss the different features, while follow up and ongoing communications can be in a text-based format. HDFrisk recommends daily check-ins and bi-weekly production meetings to get projects done in a timely manner.
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Find a mentor. Sometimes you just need a nudge in the right direction. Mentorship can help you discover your strengths, weaknesses, and future goals.
Thank you so much @HDFrisk for sharing your story with us and the Roblox community! Stay tuned for a potential Strongman Simulator 2 in the near future 
— but in the meantime, be sure to follow HDFrisk on Roblox and The Gang on X!
