This week I was able to interview one of our top developers who also happens to be one of the best dance and gymnastics-oriented developers of the entire community. Mimi_Dev has been around since 2010; you might recognize her as the owner of the group Focus Dance and Gymnastics and the developer of a huge game called [THEMES] Dance Your Blox Off, which has been visited more than 60 million times since it was created back in 2016. This extraordinary developer answered all our questions and I am sure that the entire community will enjoy this interview.
Reasons to become a Roblox developer
What intrigued me the most about Mimi_Dev’s career as a Roblox developer was the reason why she decided to start developing in Roblox. I wanted to know what drives her motivation and pushes her to continue developing games in Roblox. Here is her response: “I’ve been creative since I was young, and I’ve always enjoyed playing video games; so, I’ve spent most of my life wanting to be able to make my own games. The real push to get started developing on Roblox, came with the creation of the DevEx program. I realized I could make a career out of this, so I went for it. This coincided with my dad and co-developer @DarthChadius starting to fully grasp the ins and outs of programming in Lua; we had reached a point where we had the skills necessary to make an attempt. The result was Dance Your Blox Off, which has become our most successful game. Through this game we have learned from mistakes and created a more robust framework which we are now applying to future projects.”
How has Roblox impacted your life?
“Roblox has become a huge part of my life. I can’t image a day when I’m not making games on the platform. Roblox has given me the opportunity to be creative in a way that is almost limitless, and I can make a career out of this creativity. It’s so rewarding to be able to wake up every day to a job I love to do and even more so when I’m able to make the players happy. Last December I did something that I don’t think has ever been done online before, at least not at this scale: I adapted a full-length ballet, The Nutcracker, to Roblox using the animations from my games (Dance Your Blox Off and the community Focus Dance and Gymnastics) with real life players (some continents apart) performing each role. Several dozen players, more or less in sync with each other (with no scripting to keep them so), from around the globe- some of which had never had the chance to take a ballet lesson before- all performed together on the same virtual stage. For all the success my games have had, this was the single most rewarding experience. I’m always amazed at what can be achieved on the Roblox platform.”
Has any developer on Roblox helped mentor you through the early development days? Who has been a major inspiration for you?
“My co-developer and Dad, DarthChadius has been my mentor and support. When I was really young, he introduced me to HTML programming and sparked my interest in computer science. We have a really unique dynamic, being a father daughter team, and I’m really grateful to have him working with me. I’d also like to make a shout out to Roblox developer and good friend, @BonnabelleRose, who gave me my first break asking me to design clothes for her. I was able to build up a fanbase because of this, which really spearheaded my initial projects.”
We asked Mimi_Dev about her new projects- I was extremely curious about the new games that she may be developing. The good news is that she is indeed working on a brand-new game that she hopes will attract more people and will result appealing to a larger group of players. The bad news is that the game is still in an early stage and she could not share much information about it. We can only wait to see her new creation, which I am sure will be amazing.
In what ways do you hope to see your development career grow on Roblox?
I want to create more games; unique games that challenge the limits of player creativity on the platform. I’d like to branch out and try new things and explore genres I’ve never attempted before and collaborate with other developers to create larger scale projects. Someday, I would also like to start promoting Roblox development and teaching workshops and classes to kids in the schools in my local area. I’d like to not only be a Roblox developer, but a Roblox mentor and a good role model for future devs.
What would your advice be to other Roblox developers who are new to creating, or to players who are considering becoming developers?
My advice is to be true to yourself and create a game that you really like to play. Don’t just follow trends to make whatever has already worked in the past unless you really care about the game you are making. It is really hard to be truly committed to a project when it’s something you don’t find fun yourself, and chances are, if you don’t enjoy the game you are creating, others won’t either. Create a game around a topic that inspires you, or a gameplay rule you’ve always wished existed in your favorite game. The longer creating your game can entertain you, the longer playing it will entertain your audience.
One of the most interesting questions that we asked developers is to define themselves as developers in just one sentence. This allows us, the readers, to get to know them a little bit better and understand the way they think. Mimi_Dev’s answer to this question was: “I am a jack of all trades; I like to be active participating in all aspects of game development from building, to scripting, to clothing design, to modeling and even to music composition; I challenge myself to learn new skills every day.”
Mimi_Dev also told us that she enjoys developing in Roblox because “There are no limits to what I can achieve”. She said that one of the things that she really values is the freedom to develop any game that comes to her mind and not been bound to anyone’s expectations. As for the developer community, she believes it is an excellent source of information. According to Mimi, “being able to ask fellow developers for their advice or read past questions on the dev forum makes developing much easier”.
If you want to know more about @Mimi_Dev latest projects, you can follow her on Twitter, YouTube and Roblox! Also, feel free to check her Roblox Ballet Production!
