Game does not show up in game's page or search?

Bug Reports Website Bugs
#1

My game Tower Battles has a reasonable amount of people playing it at the moment ~4,000 players, and ~360million total visits, however it does not show up in the popular section or if you search for the game on the website.

Here is the link to my game: Tower Battles - Roblox
Despite having about 4,000 players the game does not show up anywhere within the first couple hundred games in the popular section:

image
image1854×1065 2.34 MB

(There is one result for search - it’s a related game to mine, but not mine)

Also, if you try to search for the game manually in the search bar on the website, it is also nowhere to be found:

image
image1841×900 1.57 MB

Many games appear however, that relate to the game, or are even knock-offs of the game. Just not the game itself…

I noticed this issue only today when trying to show my game to somebody I know, and they told me they couldn’t find my game anywhere on the website unless they manually went to my profile, and clicked on the game.

Does anybody know why that might be happening to my game specifically? It was made in 2011, would that perhaps have anything to do with it? I’m even surprised that as many people are playing currently with it being this difficult to find on the website…

12 Likes
Adopt Me is missing from popular sort
PSA: Best Practices for Game Metadata
Improvements to Game Search Ranking
#2

This is due to Roblox’s new search algorithm, which changes how games are recomended.

A game I used to develop (yes not as well known), Branchline Classic, was badly hit by this. Previously, if you searched branchline, it would appear as the second result. Now it appears at like page 7?

5 Likes
#3

Oh okay. Hard to see this as an improvement… i’ll leave a response there too, thanks.

3 Likes
#4

Perhaps it’s only on your end of things? or the algorithm had just added your game. As when I searched your game up, it appeared quite highly in both categories. But in the case of the popular page, player count seems to play less of a role as there are games with ~2,000 players above games with ~8,000 players in rankings.

image

image
image658×696 522 KB

3 Likes
#5

Something i noticed is that the search function works normally when I’m logged into my own account, but if viewing from my friend’s account (who does not have premium) or in a non-logged in browser, it doesn’t appear. I tested it on multiple devices and it works the same way too…

Also yes I noticed that about the popular page, but Tower Battles doesn’t appear in the first couple of hundred games? To the point where it reaches below 100 concurrent players (again not from my account)

If you log out of your account, and try again, I don’t think it’ll appear the same, it’s really weird.

3 Likes
#6

I decided to search the game in incognito mode, but had the same issue as you. The game wouldn’t appear.
image

I tried searching for your game logged into mobile and tablet, it did appear normally. Though logged out, it wouldn’t appear.

I’m assuming that perhaps there may be an issue with certain devices crashing/disconnecting due to lack of VRAM or a bad connection and performance filtering removes your game due to certain devices crashing often. So the game will only appear when Roblox can confirm the player can meet the graphical demands or something.

CccqT93
Though I’m not entirely sure what performance filtering even means as the dev wiki link is dead and brings you to the home page.

1 Like
#7

It’s showing up on mobile when logged in just fine

Search: Tower battles

Screenshot_20200726-100736_Roblox
Screenshot_20200726-100736_Roblox2560×1600 1.32 MB

Search: Tower

Screenshot_20200726-100748_Roblox
Screenshot_20200726-100748_Roblox2560×1600 1.38 MB

I also got the same placement on the website using the same queries when logged in. However like others were saying, It didn’t show up at all when I wasn’t logged in. Im really confused why this is the case.

I love tower battles so it’s sad it’s not showing up for some people :sad:

Tower battles update mobile issues:

Also Planet3arth I love the update but there are some problems with the new mobile interface that I could show you

1 Like
#9

It does not show up on web, just mobile.

#10

Really? For me it does.
Pictures:

Screenshot_20200726-105823_Chrome
Screenshot_20200726-105823_Chrome2559×1288 1.18 MB
Screenshot_20200726-105846_Chrome
Screenshot_20200726-105846_Chrome2559×1288 1.13 MB

1 Like
#11

Are you on mobile? It seems to show up on mobile. Also, I can confirm this is happening, here is my post if you want to quote it @Planet3arth.

#12

I’m not on mobile, I’m on pc.
All I know is that a new player (my friend signed up for a roblox account just to play my game) can NOT see my game at all unless they manually go to my profile page and click on the game from my creations tab. I tested it multiple times and it works the same, but yes again it DOES work normally when logged into my own account, or apparently from other premium accounts…??? Just very very strange…

2 Likes
#13

No, I meant the other guy, he said it showed up, but I think he’s on mobile. It’s a bug, I hope admins and engineers might resolve it when the head back to work.

#14

Man, how long will that be do you think? .-.

1 Like
#15

Hopefully they return to work tomorrow, because this is almost considered a roblox-critical, honestly. It could severely effect playercounts, the update should have finally fixed my game, and brought it to the front of the specified query, but instead it outright removed it. I cannot get a single organic visit.

2 Likes
#16

I cleared all my (Roblox) cookies, logged out of DevForum and Roblox, then created a fresh account, searched up Tower Battles, and the first result was your game.

image
image1701×519 755 KB

Not sure what’s happening here.

The account did not have Premium.

Logged out of the new account, cleared my Cookies again, and tried searching without an account. Sure enough, your game didn’t appear.

image
image1821×764 1.2 MB

Both were via PC…

Edit: I believe the problem is the description of the game. Some parts of the description are filtered for the original Tower Battles, while the knock-offs/spin-offs don’t. Roblox is probably playing it safe and choosing not to prioritize games with filtered descriptions.

4 Likes
#17

I don’t think that’s the issue, it’s a bug from the latest update, I am having the same problem, read above.

#18

I also don’t see where the description is filtered…

image
image3840×2160 974 KB

Is this a mistake?

#19

The description is only filtered when you pass it through GetNonChatStringForBroadcastAsync, and the player sending is an <13 player. It also tags if you attempt to chat part of the description as an <13 player, however, I initially tested it with GetNonChatStringForBroadcastAsync.

#20

Hm… interesting. Could you check if the description of my game is also tagged? This might have to do with it…

#21

Yup, it seems the description is tagged as well.

image
image1027×93 38.1 KB

Here’s the code I used if you’re interested:

wait(5) -- Yes it'd be better to actually detect when a player joins, but this was a quick and messy script.
local TS = game:GetService("TextService")
local TM = [[Need aesthetic clothes? We got you! We have lots of different aesthetic styles!

Join our group c h a i n $ for more clothes!

_________________________________________________________
GFX by: iiRosie1
Clothes by: Iostrxses, SimplyLeilani, Diorviolet
Building by: AbePlayzYT
_________________________________________________________
C h a i n $ Aesthetic Homestore ]]

local Filter = TS:FilterStringAsync(TM, InsertInGameUnder13UserID)
local Result = Filter:GetNonChatStringForBroadcastAsync()


	print(Result)
2 Likes