Fly’s handbook for creations
#01 Games - Making games on Roblox
In this episode of Fly’s development articles/topics, I will be discussing the creation of games; precisely, why and how should you make one?
1. Why should I make a game?
There are two ways you can think about this. The first is, making a game for fun, knowledge or experience; the second is cash and work experience. Don’t get me wrong, creating games is the 10th art and it should always be made with passion, inspiration and dedication. But, why not profiting over something you like?
Are you broke and hopeless; with absolutely no life perspectives and on the weather forecast all you can hear is 70% probability of a foggy future? Well, then you should get into Roblox Game Design.
First of all, Roblox offers you an amazing opportunity that no other platform gives you. The rates are fair, even though you may take some time to cash out.
A few of the current Exchange Rates, as of May 1st are:
100K Robux for $350 USD
1M Robux for $3,500 USD
10M Robux for $32,000 USD
150M Robux for $525,000 USD
So let's make a simulation:
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Suppose you have a game with five gamepasses and each one costs 100R$. Let’s say you have 10,000 monthly players or an average of 350 players/day. If 5% of these buy your gamepasses, you will have 500 paid-players; which can be distributed as 100 paid-players per gamepass.
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So, to calculate your monthly income you have this:
[Avg. Price] x [0.3 (exchange rate for Builders Club users)] x [number of gamepasses] x [0,05 * Player count]. -
Mathematically, you have: 100 * 0,7 * 5 * 100 = 35000R$
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With a SMALL game and CHEAP gamepasses (*1), in one month and with 350 players per day, you will make 350 USD in three months.
Ah, what a dream… Imagine if I had extra $350USD/month to pay for the rent and feed the pets?
(*1) gamepasses - Usually the average gamepass price is around R$300-500.
2. Amazing! How do I start a game then?
Before everything, it’s important to understand every step necessary to the creation of a game. You should be able to understand the different software, professionals, skills and other areas; only then you will create a stable player base.
As a player and aspiring game designer, you are mostly used to this sector but it’s interesting to recapitulate the origin and process of game creation. So, let’s get started:
List of Game Styles; know your competition and get used to deception.
You need to understand that if you have an idea, it’s very likely that someone already thought about it. Whether it fails or is successful, you must understand why it happened. However, you should never give up just because someone is already executing your idea.
There are a few game styles, and before making a game, you should decide what you want to go for.
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Platform: the player runs across a scenery, avoiding traps and obstacles, obtaining objects or game points. I believe the best example is the Mario Bros franchise, by Nintendo.
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Fight: this has a wide scope, but generally speaking any game whose goal solely player combat, the classic example is Street Fighter, by Capcom; and Mortal Kombat by Midway.
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Action/Adventure: these games gather together elements from many other genre, usually placing the player in a big history/quest. There are a few subcategories worth being here:
a) First Person Action Adventure
b) Third Person Action Adventure
c) Open World
d) Isometric
e) Stealth
f) Survival Horror -
Casual: casual games are the “miscellaneous” category of game design. Everything ranging from Pokémon, by The Pokémon Company; to Pac Man, by Namco and Midway games.
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Construction/Simulators: The objective is to administrate a city, business or a civilization. Example here is Itty Bitty City, by Naco88; and Theme Park Tycoon by Den_S.
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Racing: Race-to-the-finish-line-and-win-a-prize games, would be in Sports section, but it’s such an important area that it gains its own section. I’ll dare to put Vehicle Simulator by Simbuilder here since it has similar features and generally revolves around vehicles…
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Educational: usually requested by companies to train their staff or educate people.
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Enigma: main objective is to find a solution to a problem or puzzle.
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Sports: has divergences within the gaming community but generally enjoyed by the teen-population. We can have SHRED by MasterOfTheElements here.
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Strategy: games such as The Conquerors by BrokenBone or Eclipsis by F.F.T.L, where the main objective is achieving victory through strategy.
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Musical: this is a very stable sector, lately has been boosted by Karaoke in Japan.
Image A - Swordburst is currently the biggest game in the Roblox MMORPG genre. As of May 1st, it has been favorited 772,920 times, with over 72M visits.
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Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO): biggest examples are Swordburst and the recently published Vesteria, by berezaa. The thing about this is that it doesn’t need particularly good graphics, but good mechanics and a vast world.
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Role Playing Game (RPG): After The Flash by ChadTheCreator and Electric State. In Roblox particularly, many groups have hangout places for their members and it is worth mentioning Downtown RP, by Gavineo.
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Virtual Life: Meep city, by alexnewtron; and Jailbreak, by badimo, are games in where the final goal is to foster interpersonal relations between players.
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Shooter: Obviously, there are different types of shooter games, but as a prime example we have Phantom Forces.
3. How does a game work?
Now that we have talked about the different game styles, you might be excited to start. But, hold on a second: before that, we must understand how a game works.
Magic...? Divine blessing?? Genius and prodigies?! Government interference??!??!
Nope, it’s not Magic or Aliens that make games; it’s context.
Just like writing a book, creating games requires a story to be told. Every story has a beginning, a development and an end, and so should your game. Telling stories is the best way to captivate players
and also a great opportunity to plan it.
I believe @ChadTheCreator did an incredible job with After The Flash. This game revolves completely around a previously written lore; and at the same time it constantly has new additions, making this never ending story super exciting. It’s building style is simplistic, but the roleplay makes everything so vivid, so bright - or dark.
Image B - Last year they had a competition to hire and award new developers: the train above was my entry. Even though I failed, it was the first time I built while simultaneously thinking about a story, a lore for my building; and this was an amazing experience.
4. Conceptual art
The conceptual art is a painting, drawing or showcase that resumes the game’s ideas, context, style and art direction. It’s very useful in many stages throughout the development of a game.
Click me, senpai!
Image C - It doesn’t have to be something specifically created for your game; you can have an idea while browsing social media or going for a walk. Whenever you have ideas, put them down on paper so you don’t forget them (believe me, as a writer, it’s absolutely disgraceful when you have an amazing idea but can’t remember it).
5. Getting started
Now that you have pretty much understood what types of games there are, it’s time to get your other developers aboard your project. I would recommend trying to talk to your friends first, and if you don’t have colleagues in this sector you can join communities that foster this kind of relations between developers.
Friends! :)
Hyper Softworks is a group of friends, in which each one of us specializes in a different area of development. This way, we can help each other, avoiding unnecessary discussions.
Image D - District 45 is a result of our cooperation: in less than one month our group got over 2000 members, nearly 1000 place visits with 85% overall rating (and we only released 10% of the map to public).
You found an Easter Egg! Hi, thank you for reading this, have this gift.
6. Be dauntless.
This next section was written in 2020, one year after I wrote the rest of this tutorial.
I was reading it again when I realized I had forgotten to say one important thing, which now I consider to be the most important part of game development.
Do it.
Quite honestly, this phrase sounds pretty cliche and silly, but it can teach us a million things. For years my friends and I were stuck in the development stage of our games; we had amazing ideas (at least they seemed amazing to us) but we were never able to actually launch a game.
We just couldn’t get it out of production or even out of planning, we never got even one player or feedback.
Until we did. Until we launched the game, in a very early stage, in a very poor state, barely playable, but players still enjoyed it. Most importantly, they told us how we could improve it even more and subconsciously pushed us to constantly update the game until it was stable.
And that’s when it clicked for me.
Players criticize, test, break features and play the game. Their opinions sometimes feel like punches to our faces, and their suggestions sound overconfident and arrogant (the game is ours after all!).
However, seeing people play your game pushes and pressures you. It makes you feel responsible for bringing updates, it gives you motivation.
In essence, you will only feel motivated if you have enough support from a community. But to get a player base, first you need to publish your game, even if it isn’t complete, even if it sucks. Players will help you improve and grow. Be dauntless, do not fear criticism, do not be afraid of having a “bad” game.
Most projects fail because they don’t get started. The best idea is worthless if it is not put to action.
So, just do it.
7. I don’t have enough creativity…
What!? Yes, you do!
Creativity isn’t about having new ideas, but rather good ones. Let me explain: everyone complains about clichés, similarities and whatsoever; when truly what matters is to present an old idea/concept in a new way. The entertainment industry is full of examples: both Star Wars and Harry Potter tell us about the story of an orphan that eventually got supported by a master and discovered how to use their power. Just google for something called “the hero’s journey” or “stock characters”, for example.
We say we aren’t creative, but we have new ideas all the time: the problem is we don’t believe in our ideas. Whenever you think about something amazing, you hear a little voice inside your head saying “but this already exists”, “this won’t work”, “no one will like this”, and we believe it.
You have creativity, but you don’t believe you are capable of executing it properly. Now that you read this far, I suppose you either: a) really like me or b) you want to make a game. Since liking me is nearly impossible, I’d say you are motivated enough to make a game - so if you have an idea, time and support, go for it. If you lack any of these, continue trying; you have motivation and creativity.
8. Conclusion.
If you have questions, you can find me on discord (fly#8523). This took a few days to write, so please be sure to leave a 
so I can write more of these.
Be sure to follow my Fly’s handbook for creations threads:
- New or Expert to building, ever wondered why everyone’s constructions are so amazing, while you just can’t get it right? A general guide on how to build guides you through the mastering of building harmonically.
