Give New Games A Fair Way To Be Featured

[MapleMarvel]

As a Roblox developer it is currently impossible to have a successful game unless it is featured on the Roblox games page. Without it being featured, a new game has very little chance of being discovered, and gaining the popularity required to make it successful.

My request is to add a fair and concrete way for developers to get their new game featured on the Roblox games page. The idea is that if you have a quality new game, it should get a guaranteed spot in the featured games section for a short time (eg 1 week).

Otherwise Developers Will Just Stop Developing For Roblox
Imagine a scenario in which a developer has just spent months building a quality Roblox game. The game is released and … nothing happens. Nobody is playing the game because nobody can discover it in the sea of thousands of other Roblox games. The developer tries sponsoring and ads, which result in a short-lived small gain in population. It quickly becomes apparent that the cost of sponsors/ads to build a large enough population is far too expensive to maintain. Even with a high approval rating, the game did not get noticed by the new Roblox sorting system, and thus struggles to gain a footing. So the developer spent months developing a quality new game, which is now getting no revenue because there is way for it to get featured in the system. The developer has almost no other alternative but to leave Roblox and develop games elsewhere.

Affects Small To Medium Sized Developers
I think this is a problem that mostly affects small to medium sized developers. For example, developers that have a limited marketing budget, and that are either new or relatively unknown. Without a huge following, or a lot of money to spend on advertising, getting a new game discovered and building enough population to become successful is extremely difficult.

The High Cost Of Sponsors / Ads
It has become extremely expensive to build a game population with sponsors and ads. It is so expensive now, that it is out of reach of many developers. Not only is it expensive, but the dynamics are completely different than when a game gets featured. With sponsors and ads, users trickle in slowly one at a time, with a very slow population growth. On the other hand, when being featured, hundreds of players come in at a time, and the population grows very fast.

The Awesome Power Of Being Featured
Even just a day or two of being featured on the games page can make a game successful - the Roblox game page is that powerful. A full week on the featured list may generate enough revenue to pay for the development of the game. Being on the featured game list plays a vital role in Roblox game development cycle. It makes or breaks games, and provides the revenue developers need to keep developing games on the Roblox platform.

Ideas
There have been many ideas and suggestions provided by developers in the links below. Here are just a few of those ideas:

• Bring back the old hand-picked featured sort system.
• Give developers a limited number of guaranteed featured spots per year.
• Employ staff curators who help discover and promote quality new games.
• Many more ideas in the links below.
• Please submit a post if you have additional ideas!

Links

Upcoming Changes To The Game Sorts & Submit New Sort Ideas!

The Games page is a centerpiece of attraction on the Roblox platform: every Robloxian visits this page in search of experiences that will connect them with millions of players across the globe. Roblox’s goal is to continue making it easier to discover great games. In order to achieve this goal, we will soon be testing a variety of algorithmic game sorts. After this test, we intend to roll the most effective sorts out to everybody, and test more new sorts over time, including ideas that come from…

Changes to the Featured Games Sort

As part of our ongoing efforts to surface quality content, you may have noticed some changes to the content within the featured sort. The initiative is designed to surface a greater variety of engaging content at a greater frequency. While we are currently rotating weekly, this is subject to change in the future. FAQ: What requirements change? The Featured sort will be rotating based on engagement hours and popularity. Developers no longer need to submit an application to have their games f…

Removal of Advertisements from the Games Page

Hey developers, We recently removed the space for Rectangle ads from the Games page and Game Search page. You will no longer see user advertisements or external advertisements on the page as a result. You will still see sponsored games within the sorts, and user ads are still shown on Home page, Game Details page, Catalog, and other places within Roblox. We want to provide the best player experience, including standardizing how Roblox works across all platforms. Removing advertisements from th…

https://devforum.roblox.com/t/vote-for-your-favorite-feature-requests-at-rdc-2019/303369

[Intended_Pun]

1000% support. I will quit serious development on Roblox if I can’t get my games seen. It’s just not worth it, and I’d argue it’s also not fair.

To quote my thread about this:

As a Roblox developer, getting my brand new game with no existing playerbase out there is extremely hard and complicated. With recent changes to the Featured sort effectively barring every unknown developer and game as well as the removal of user ads, there is only one actual option (sponsoring) for getting visibility on an up-and-coming game on this platform, and it is hardly viable.

There are other ways to get your game out there beyond the Roblox website, but most are operated around the assumption that you already have connections and/or a large following. I shouldn’t be working to build up my social media when I’m trying to develop a game and maintain other aspects of life anyway.

It is extremely unfair that in order to get people onto your game on this platform, you already need to be successful. I can work hard on a game and commissions, finally have money for sponsorship, and still get outbid by some dude with millions of Robux advertising ungodly amounts on his simulator game. This needs to stop.

Roblox needs to add more ways for us unknown game developers to get visible. This can be done through new sorts, new advertising mediums, or some other promotion opportunity. I don’t care. I just want my games to be noticed.

I hope this issue can be addressed. Everyone has to start somewhere.

Help new games gain visibility

As a Roblox developer, getting my brand new game with no existing playerbase out there is extremely hard and complicated. With recent changes to the Featured sort effectively barring every unknown developer and game as well as the removal of user ads, there is only one actual option (sponsoring) for getting visibility on an up-and-coming game on this platform, and it is hardly viable. There are other ways to get your game out there beyond the Roblox website, but most are operated around the ass…

[EchoReaper]

This is the #1 new developer mistake.

When I interned at Roblox as an incubator last year, I watched Soybeen (also in the program) make Booga Booga from start to finish. Soybeen didn’t advertise the game, but it got a few players and snowballed to the front page from there. Eventually it overtook Jailbreak for #1 on Popular sort for some time. Highlighting is not what your game needs. If your game is decent, it will take off without the Featured sort.

You’ll notice that games that took advantage of the Featured program did not stay popular for very long, and games that are on Popular are not there from being featured. Getting featured is not what makes or breaks a game’s popularity – it’s the game itself. If your game isn’t getting traction, then you need to take ownership of that, find out why (e.g. bad retention or not very fun game loop), and fix it.

[JukeRblx]

I’ve never been on the front page and I still think 90% of the games on the front pages deserve to be there (and a good chunk of them are actually there from previously “no-name” developers). Sure, more established developers have a following and can more easily pull in a quick pool of players, but I’ve seen many established developers release games that flop within a couple days of releasing.

And there are lots of established developers that actually help smaller games (obviously ones that the like or find interesting) reach their own followings. For example Beeism on Twitter often retweets lots of “unknown” developer work and that helps a lot of them gain more traction in the Roblox community.

[PhoenixSigns]

I COMPLETELY disagree with this post. A game’s popularity is based on its gameplay, not on whether or not it’s featured.

If you advertise your game and the player base decreases after instead of increasing, that suggests your game has poor retention (usually stemming from unenjoyable gameplay or low replayability). High quality does not always translate into good gameplay unfortunately.

Strucid was able to make its way to the front page with less than 30K spent in sponsors and extremely poor ratings (due to free weekends/paid access cycle). There are also many other arguably more effective and free ways to advertise your game such as through Twitter and Youtubers.

Try altering your gameplay and creating polls to see what players really enjoy and make changes that will appeal to the majority of players. Good luck!

[TheHyb (Isaac)]

^ This

The post is also basically structured over one central point, that getting featured “can make or break a game.” My largest issue here is that statement isn’t true. The vast majority of games that get featured when dead keep the playercount only during the featured period, losing them all right afterwards. It is a nice platform to stand on but it absolutely does not make or break a game.

[FamedChris (Stefan)]

Being featured definitely helps smaller developers out, but it definitely doesn’t make its success. There are ways to gain revenue and slowly get more players. What you seem to be saying is that without sponsors or ads, devs can’t hit front page. This simply isn’t true. Good games will slowly gain momentum as you do things like advertise on twitter and have Youtubers try out your game. If you play your cards right, you should be able to advertise your game with this revenue and slowly gain more Robux as you advertise more and more.

Roblox is a platform where any game can grow from an easy beginning. I also do agree that being featured helps a lot, but you aren’t really posting any sort of suggestion here other than make it easier to be featured.

[Alvin_Blox]

I disagree - featuring games delivers traffic fast, but once you’re off, that’s it. Most likely back to zero playing. You need organic traffic and good player retention, which can be found by spending a couple thousand R$ on adverts to experiment with at the start and perfecting player experience. It will naturally take off from there. If it’s not working, you need to fix your game mechanics.

[MapleMarvel]

Quality Games
I am talking about well designed, quality games that have a place in Roblox and can be successful, but are having a hard time getting discovered due to the system.

It Is Not That Simple
Realistically it as not that simple as building a quality game, adding a hundred players, and letting it snowball from there. Each game has a different audience and growth dynamic. One game may require 500 concurrent players in order to reach that tipping point to snowball, while another game may require 2500+ concurrent players to hit that tipping point.

Problem Of Scale
It is a problem of scale. How can you get enough population in a game to reach that tipping point of snowballing. A new developer without a following has to rely on sponsors/ads to get players in the game. It takes a lot of money to get your player counts to reach those levels. It is especially difficult since sponsors/ads brings in players very slowly in ones and twos. And not all developers can afford the high cost of advertising.

YouTube, Etc
This is not a reliable way to grow your game. I have found it very difficult to get the attention of social media influencers.

[Semaphorism (standalone_ecu)]

I am talking about well designed, quality games that have a place in Roblox and can be successful, but are having a hard time getting discovered due to the system.

If you can give some example games that are not getting any attention, that’d be helpful. I agree with EchoReaper in this case. Games may have a ton of time put into them, having really well made models, scripts, ui, etc. However, this doesn’t mean games will succeed, there may be flaws with the game that keeps people from staying. I have first hand experience with that on my game, my controls were really good to me, models also nice, however the game was confusing for new players. I took the time over about a month getting feedback and improved it based on the feedback. This payed off, the player retention went up, my player base began growing and is still growing.

A new developer without a following has to rely on sponsors/ads to get players in the game. It takes a lot of money to get your player counts to reach those levels.

I disagree with this point, phantom forces is a good example, it has never advertised. Although it had a following from the previous game (call of robloxia), the following was definitely no where near as big as the games population as it is now. it still grew really well over the years without paying for advertising at all. You can’t expect games to instantly take off, you do need to build a player base over time, and perhaps that’s a good thing, you can iron out all the issues in gameplay and then the game will grow by word of mouth, streamers, recommendations, etc. Having good player retention will help it grow faster for sure. So, focus on fixing issues that keep players from staying.

[Intended_Pun]

@Semaphorism @Alvin_Blox @FamedChris @TheHyb @PhoenixSigns @JukeRblx @EchoReaper

I also 100% agree that quality games will grow on their own. The problem is that Roblox is actively making it harder for those games to get known.

• Roblox removed genre sorts and replaced them with sorts showcasing games that are already popular, making it harder/impossible to find small games naturally through the games page.
• Roblox (basically) removed user ads which were a good way to get players interested in your game without needing a fancy icon. Also that presumably brought up the price needed to sponsor games.
• Roblox removed the featured sort (what OP is talking about) which helped small games get known for free.
• Roblox added live ops but only established games are eligible.

While I enjoyed the Featured sort, I don’t think we necessarily need it back (As I said in my original thread). I think we really just need a sort that notices if a game is gaining traction and then showcases it while people are playing. It will only take into account games that went from 0 players to like 50 or something, and that have good ratings. There’s a new “Up-And-Coming” sort that seems like it would do just this, but it doesn’t. It seems to just show random games that already have established playerbases.

I don’t think we should give developers free space, but Roblox should at least show some small games on the games page.

[EchoReaper]

I think we really just need a sort that notices if a game is gaining traction and then showcases it while people are playing

That’s what the new featured sort is. It randomly shuffles trending games up to the front page that aren’t quite popular enough for the Popular sort.

Roblox (basically) removed user ads which were a good way to get players interested in your game without needing a fancy icon. Also that presumably brought up the price needed to sponsor games.

Traditional ads are not very effective. Users use adblock, are trained to ignore them (since most ads are irrelevant to them), and only show up on PC (less than half of the player base). User ads also have to compete with non-Roblox ads for NBC players. Sponsored games have superseded ads and are a lot more effective since they’re cross-platform, aren’t disabled by adblock, and aren’t psychologically glossed over like traditional ads.

[Intended_Pun]

That’s what the new featured sort is. It randomly shuffles trending games up to the front page that aren’t quite popular enough for the Popular sort.

Is it? I distinctly remember Roblox saying it was now reserved for the top 250 games only. And right now a game with 48K+ players is on it. Doesn’t seem like it’s working as intended if that is truly what the new featured sort is.

Traditional ads are not very effective. Users use adblock, are trained to ignore them (since most ads are irrelevant to them), and only show up on PC (less than half of the player base). User ads also have to compete with non-Roblox ads for NBC players. Sponsored games have superseded ads and are a lot more effective since they’re cross-platform, aren’t disabled by adblock, and aren’t psychologically glossed over like traditional ads.

I agree. I’m not complaining about the removal of ads, I’m just using that as an example of another medium for small developers to gain traction being removed. I feel like there should be more ways for our games to get visible besides sponsorships— paid or not.