Issues with the Developer Exchange: Testimonies from the Roblox Dev Community

tyridge77 · May 21, 2019, 9:44pm

Testimony for tyridge77

I started playing roblox in 2008 and quickly fell in love with learning how to make games in 2009. I’m not nearly as successful financially yet as many other developers here submitting testimonies, but because of my 10 years of experience on the platform, and my love for creating games and the faith I put in Roblox and my abilities, I’ve made the decision to work full time on game development and hold off on college or other fields of work for the time being.

Now, entrepreneurship has always been a gamble. However, as several others here have pointed out , Roblox feels like even more of a gamble for creating a sustainable income off of - a lot more than it should be.

I’ll try to summarize how I feel about the situation without being verbose or going into details that others have already covered quite clearly.

In order to sustain yourself comfortably you need a pretty successful game. Front page developers don’t usually have as big of an issue, but even they will likely make less than the same game if it was on another platform(assuming everything else was the same).

Because the rates are too low, trying to stick around on Roblox climbing the ladder to success can be very difficult. You don’t need money to make your break, but sometimes you need time and motivation. Motivation can start to die as people find that they can’t treat Roblox like a job until their success has already happened.

Because the rates are low I think it also encourages people to go down the simulator route. Not that I have anything against stereotypical simulators or the people who make them, but a lot of people don’t want to spend several months of work creating their passion projects because even if they end up selling and have 1000 concurrent players, they’re still going to feel like they’re making absolutely nothing in comparison to some of the more simpler, “exploitative” quick bucks on the front page.

A lot of new developers are trying to go down the easy route not because they’re lazy people or just want to try to be exploitative, but because they’re worried that making what they actually want to make simply won’t be a viable option because of how low the low tiers are.

I don’t want to try to go down the simulator route myself, because I wouldn’t enjoy that and I want to enjoy my job, it’s all I do now. But feeling like I need to if I want to stop worrying about financial sustainability gets a bit saddening

Semaphorism · May 21, 2019, 11:02pm

Honestly, i feel the current devEx rate is fine,

I feel comparing it to Epic games store isn’t really a fair comparison. Epic games store provides no where near as many services as Roblox or steam as an example. Steam would be a more fair comparison, they offer steam workshop, which is like what we have with upload-able assets, obviously the game distribution itself is important, proton is a large project they’re working on to expand their platform further, and many other systems such as friends, groups, etc. Steam gives 70%, and still provides all those services. However, Roblox i would say provides more, they do all the server hosting for games, databases (unless you use http instead of DataStore of course), and uptime for all of it. They work on the engine itself, and are trying to expand it to more platforms, such as playstation (as they had job listings for PS development).

Now, considering how much Roblox offers, we have to consider the financial impact of increasing DevEx rate on roblox. Roblox is always hiring and trying to expand to other platforms as mentioned above. We don’t know their revenue/profits and can only speculate. This could affect them more than we know with what we know.

From rumors/info I’ve heard some top devs literally cashed out over a million a year. I don’t understand how they can’t hire people. Many game studios have started out small, like most on Roblox there are some successful ones as far as i’m aware.

I am in full support of increased devEx rate, as it’d help me financially for sure, I just am unsure if they could afford it or not. I personally feel the current rate is good and it should go toward improving the platform further.

Though i said whats above, It would definitely allow more successful teams to operate, and eventually expand to make more games, ultimately making Roblox more money. One thing it COULD do, though unsure on this, is basically allow devs to monetize less aggressively, making it easier on the players who ultimately pay our salaries.

Dekkonot · May 21, 2019, 11:59pm

While I am by no means a top developer and have never been, I feel like my testimony might be of value here because of how long I’ve been on the site (going on 10 years in all) and as someone who’s chosen to not pursue development on Roblox

I’ve been hesitant to pursue serious development on Roblox because of the difficulty with breaking into it. In order for it to be more than a hobby, you have to have at least a semi-successful game. Roblox seems to actively make that difficult to achieve with how the sort system rewards already established games. It’s a coin toss if you’ll ever go anywhere as a new game unless you have the money to pour into advertising, and while I’m all for spending money to make money, I have to weigh how much risk I’m willing to accept in my life.

In order to make a game and profit through DevEx, I have to purchase Outrageous Builder’s Club and gain 100,000 robux before I can even break even. The cost of OBC is on top of whatever money I might spend on ads, hiring outside people to help me along the way, and any money I might need to spend on uploading things, or creating a group (which I will need to pay people I hire…).

Simply put, it isn’t worth the cost. Roblox developers don’t even get paid consistently with the current DevEx rates. It’s just not worth my time as anything except a hobby that I invest little to no money into.

I am and always will be a big advocate for Roblox. It’s potential is incredible, and it got me interested in programming, which has pushed me to my current career path. But something has to give, and with the current direction, it’s going to be developers.

I’ve had good friends of mine tell me that they’re exhausted due to Roblox development. Those same friends have complained about the DevEx system hurting them before by putting a tier just out of their reach, or by taking an unusually long time to process. If Roblox ever hopes to make their platform a place where developers and teams of all scales can prosper, it’s imperative that DevEx be adjusted so that it’s fair to everyone. As it stands, it’s just not fair that the producers of the main draw of the platform are so undercompensated for the work they put in.

Vorlias · May 22, 2019, 3:34am

Testimony from Vorlias - Aurora Australis // Heroes Legacy

I was the developer for a game called Heroes Legacy. It was a high quality passion project I developed from 2014 through to mid 2018. DevEx was one of the reasons I stuck around rather than leaving like a lot of the people I knew did, because I believed I could end up making a job out of it. I believed that Roblox and the DevEx were going in a direction in which you could make a high quality game and make a living off it.

Unfortunately I was wrong. While it felt like a job in the later years, it never paid out like one. The Robux I did earn from the game was not enough to live off of when cashed out. I could not afford to hire other developers to help me work on the game, I instead had to find volunteer community members who were passionate about the game to help out. Due to them being volunteers, it led to a lot of problems around free time and getting things done within a reasonable timeframe.

I am truthfully able to say that the lower rates aren’t that great. Those of us with smaller communities as well as smaller developers aren’t able to make enough money off of Roblox to turn it into a living. I think not only would this help out a lot of current Roblox developers, but it would also help attract more outside developers to the Roblox platform, as it would actually be viable to make a game on Roblox and still make a living even if you can’t make it big, rather than just being a game of luck.

Revlayz · May 22, 2019, 5:24am

Testimony for tankattack9 Studios (Iron Curtain)

I started playing Roblox back in 2008. I dont really remember how i got there; I was young.
In 2013 I started inviting friends to roblox and thats when I invited my friend roksi12121, and we play roblox to this day.

Over the years 2014-2017 I had several attempts at creating a game (4 major ones ) and none really worked out until the summer of 2017.

I created a group and a game revolving around a virtual world called Iron Curtain. The community was doing great from a start, we got members fast.

There were moments where the game had a huuge drops in income, but it managed to stay 2 years.

But, there were 3 moments when the game almost died. - The income of smaller games with core fanbases is not really good for roblox. (But I’m not that kind of developer to create a simulator either.)

1.5 years into the game development of Iron Curtain I created a studio with my name on it - tankattack9 Studio.

And thats when I noticed the struggles with devex. Roblox DevEx rates are 3.5$/1k, thats extremly low.

For comparison - Second Life at one point had 15$/1k of their currency for exchange.

It’s really hard to fund a studio when you’re not a front page game, and as of 2019 it’s really hard to get to the front page, and with time games with fewer and fewer players should be as sustainable.

Right now I go to highschool, but for the future i’ve been thinking about Roblox Game Development for a living, but even though I do earn some pennies, I wont be able to afford a living as a non-front page developer.

I will have to either switch platforms or quit the idea entirely.

Roblox is earning more and more, without the devex changing.

And did I mention the INSANE pricing devs have to put in order to be earning in the first place?

Ben_Est · May 22, 2019, 5:39pm

Testimony for Ben_Est

On a beautiful evening in June of 2008, I saw a sketchy banner ad for a site called “Roblox” while playing flash games. I had been dreaming of something like this for months prior! The moment I stepped foot into this great new world I knew it was something special, I was hooked. Fast-forward to 2016 when I graduated high school, I made the choice to take a gap year and pursue my dream of creating great experiences on this platform instead of just part-time. Within a year I got lucky enough to score an internship at the HQ for Spring 2018 and took advantage of that opportunity to create my first full game within a 3-month span. Given the time constraint and my level of experience; the game ended up being an “ok” release. I earned enough cash to create for another 6 months. With a 50/50 split that would have been a 1-year runway. After the game settled down I decided to take a great job to save enough cash to live for 2 years with no income and to learn to work with a team. I am currently working with a small team to create a simulator to accelerate my path back to Roblox full-time.

Fun fact: When searching for investment funding after creating a fairly successful game I was turned down / given an unacceptable deals due to the % of profit received from the games. I would not longer take investments but that does say quite a bit about the cut in general.

Ultimately I believe it’s on the developer to create an experience that people want to play in order to earn more money. I can see this from both perspectives. In the end, a larger cut for the developers would mean the people in my situation could make enough money to simply live until they hit the exponential curve to the front page. having enough to simply survive should not take a front page game. But I do believe there still needs to be enough financial pressure to continue to strive for a front page game.

I am EXTREMELY grateful for Roblox! I do hope we can find a middle ground that will satisfy both parties in this business relationship. All prepared boats should rise. Thanks for hearing the community out as usual.

Signature: Ben East

Alkan · May 22, 2019, 6:44pm

Testimony for BrokenBone
The Conquerors 3, Store Empire

I feel the developer exchange rate should increase partially because of a lot of cases like @Crazyman32’s. He is an old and very talented developer that could be doing crazy good games for Roblox, but he can’t afford to abandon his solid real life job to make that full investment on Roblox. He’s got something great going on in his real life job that is not at all something one could give up without more guarantee. Roblox is naturally just not a platform one can expect to earn reliably off of. Not much can be done about that in particular, that’s the nature of game development, but Roblox can(or should) raise the developer exchange rate to allow more leeway for mid-tier developers to thrive.

How it pertains to me: I’m a mid-tier developer who is making an alright living on Roblox, but I cant help but feel like I’d happily trade that in for the deal Crazyman32 has going on. A similar pay but with way more stability and lower taxes along with several other important benefits? The only reason I haven’t made a jump like that is because I haven’t found the opportunity yet. But if I did, I’d jump on it and Roblox would be out a developer that is earning them a fair bit of money.

There are a lot of developers that just haven’t yet made that great and successful game that you know they are capable of, at some point the money they are currently earning wont be enough for them to justify the effort they are putting in and they will have to move on in life and get another job off of Roblox. That’s a huge loss of potential, and something that has already been happening and will continue to happen. This should be mitigated as much as reasonably possible.

LoganCreates · May 21, 2019, 7:16pm

Testimony for LoganWallace25

I’ve been on this platform since 2012, and have grown up with Roblox. The rate of growth this platform has shot up with is astonishing. I spend 60-70+ Hours a week working with my teams on

Koala Cafe
Pizza Simulator
Battle Noobs (WIP)
Pizza Corporation (WIP)

I feel lost financially . Without my parents support, what I’m currently making now with Developer Exchange would have be struggling to the point where I wouldn’t be able to continue doing Roblox Development full-time with the current rates of the Dev-Ex Program.

The Roblox team has provided me and countless others with amazing opportunity to build a career, and I’m extremely thankful for that, but we need to have a higher revenue share to help sustain ourselves and our growing teams.

With the higher revenue split, Roblox becomes a more attractive environment to developers who happen to be currently developing on other competing platforms, it’s a win-win.

Happy Devs, Bigger Teams, Better Games.

Mariofly5 · May 23, 2019, 6:37pm

Testimony for Mariofly5

A bit of context on who I am before I start on my views on this. I’m 17 and I’m British. I do not have all of the sidetracks that some people in america have because by law, I’m granted free health care and education up to 18 years old. In short terms, I got really lucky to be born with parents that support me and the good people I surround myself with, and that’ll always be something I’ll care about. Roblox, especially takes a deep place in my heart, as it has followed me through many major events in my life.

I’ve been playing Roblox for more than half of my life now. 10 whole years! I’d never have thought that I’d be making games and financially benefiting from my hobby, but here I am now, making money while sitting in a chair, while other kids my age are starting to get jobs. It’s quite a strange and weird concept. But as I get older, this becomes less of the case. It has always been a dream for me to develop actual video games so that people will enjoy playing something I make, but the choices I have are getting narrow, and next year, after I’ve left my school, I’m likely going to be dropped into the deep end.

To put it bluntly, Roblox is one of the few things that has kept me happy all these years. As well as having a learning disability, and a anxiety disorder, I now have titanium stabilising my neck, following a rugby accident that happened a year ago. The injury basically restricts me from contact sports (due to the added risk), and it also means that my body is fragile. If I slip down the stairs or fall onto my head again, it can cause me to become paralysed, from both feeling and movement.

Now it should be noted that I am a lot better now, and part of that is thanks to Roblox. I broke my neck two weeks before exams, and I was freaking out inside, but after spending time on a project in my spare time (a death star to be exact), I was able to ignore all the stress and focus my energies on something creative. And at the end of it all, I’m now working on bigger and greater projects, and I’m now devexing more often than ever before. However, at the crossroads that I’m standing in, I’m still wondering whether I’ll be able to sustain myself with DevEx, or whether I’ll need to procure some form of job that’ll contribute towards diminishing my living costs.

I would love to continue doing stuff on this platform, and an increase in the DevEx would be tremendous for a couple of reasons. I know that there are plenty of people who spend hours working on game features, hours that may not even be comparable to a normal job because they’re much higher. The amount of time and dedication that goes into making a final product pop is huge, if not daunting. Thus, I ask the question, if developers are working their butts off to get an update out on a popular game, surely they should earn something closely equivalent to the hours they spend on the platform, if not the same. Obviously, I understand that most revenue is based on the popularity of your game, and its playerbase, but the fact that even some of the most dedicated developers on the platform, who love the platform dearly, aren’t able to sustain themselves in real life due to what they earn, shocks me to the core.

However, when it does come down to the core, I believe in the good people in the admin team, and the people who are reading this message. I won’t accept that admins aren’t reading our messages because I know they are. I am in support of increasing the total DevEx rate, not just for me, but for all the hard working developers who make up this platform. It should never come to the point where we have to make potentially controversial choices (lootboxes, high priced gamepasses, etc) in order to make break-even. It should never come to the point, where we have to make a post like this so that developers can be heard (although I seriously do appreciate the response from DevRel on this). And surely, if we’re questioning why we are here, on this platform, then surely there is an area that Roblox needs to improve on.

I understand that this can be a huge headache for the financial side of Roblox, and the DevRel team. Dealing with loads of your talented developers calling you out is probably not a nice thing, and I still believe that you guys are human. I trust in the thought that you believe the same about us, I thank you for engaging in some conversation with us over it, and I hope that in the near future, we can find some form of middle ground where both sides reach a compromise!

Thank you for reading.

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TheRings0fSaturn · May 30, 2019, 1:58pm

That’s a core reason why DevEx’s rates are so poor.

I think maybe some sort of tier list could be implemented. I.e. pay for your own game’s servers and get a higher DevEx rate, perhaps around 90-95%, or you could have the “free” plan that’s what current DevEx is.

I still think Roblox would be more than capable of increasing the devex rates without changing anything else for the developer currently.

ScriptOn · May 30, 2019, 3:37pm

Large game companies spend 1-3% of their earnings on servers. That’s not really a good way to look at it & a lot of us are tired of hearing it.

colbert2677 · May 30, 2019, 5:20pm

OP wants to keep this thread containing developer testimonies about DevEx to ensure their visibility while scrolling through the thread and for excess replies/support to be posted in the linked thread.

All (or most - less than 5) non-testimonies were flagged or moved out into the signatory thread.

TheRings0fSaturn · May 30, 2019, 7:05pm

You have a point, but were also talking about servers that can serve an innumerable amount of games at once, compared to just maybe 5 or so games when talking about companies like EA and the likes.

There are other reasons why DevEx rates are poor outside of server costs.

Tomarty · June 6, 2019, 11:44am

Testimony for Tomarty
Independently developed Animation Lab and Shard Seekers

I have cashed out every month since DevEx was introduced in 2013. The cash out rate started low at first, 0.001 USD/Robux, which made sense considering how inflated Robux was at the time. I had been working on a custom animation system for fun while I was in high school, and the test place, “Animation Lab” quickly rose to #1 on top earning for quite a while by pioneering “animation packs” (back when 500k Robux/month would get you there.)

If not for increased DevEx rates I would have instead used Visual Studio to create a computer-vision-based botting API for grindy MMORPG’s (what I was doing for fun at the time), or I would have worked for my dad programming industrial label printers. Roblox isn’t my only option financially, but I’ve stuck with it because I’ve enjoyed the platform for over 10 years.

The DevEx rate has of course improved twice since then, first to 0.0025 and eventually to 0.0035 USD/Robux. At this point I had remastered Animation Lab and finished my summer internship at Roblox in San Mateo. Instead of pursuing academics, I took a risk and began working on my new game, “Shard Seekers”, full time using Roblox.

I love programming, and loved working 12+ hours per day, 7 days a week designing the technology that was going to run this new game, its environment, and its characters. The work hours are necessary considering I’m the only developer for Shard Seekers (an ambitious project), and a large portion of my time is spent improving the framework so the game can expand while lasting long into the future.

As Animation Lab’s revenue faded, I began to monetize Shard Seekers. The money through DevEx was still more than enough for an adult living with his parents, but my situation has changed a lot in 4 years.

I’m now 22, renting a house, and my wife had a baby boy 3 months ago:

I’m still working 14 hour days on the same Roblox game, but now I pay rent/utilities, my son needs health insurance, and I need to save up enough to buy a house someday. What seemed like more than I could spend, is now just enough to get by.

Shard Seekers is currently doing pretty well, and based on my DevEx cash out amount alone I should have more than enough to support my family, but I still need to factor in the huge proportion I feed back into the game by buying 3d assets, audio assets, contractors, computers, devices for testing, Roblox advertising, etc.

This is my passion and I still love working all day all week, but I need to allocate time for my family. I stress about the long-term stability of my job every time I spend a weekend with them. The game’s playerbase has been very supportive. Some players buy shards just to help support my family, although we only receive a fraction of what they spent.

It’s up to DevEx to help fund this guy’s college education someday (if that’s what he’s interested in):

Edit (2021-06):
New baby!

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bigcrazycarboy · June 9, 2019, 12:05am

I love the idea of DevEx, but I don’t think there is enough money going towards the people that push the platform forward. Roblox is extremely unique in that it supplies so much to developers, but all that won’t be utilized fully if there’s no true incentive. I’d be happy to sign

skasine · August 11, 2019, 4:49pm

This can be a view of what Roblox could achieve by increasing DevEx rates, and losing key creators which could change the corporation for the better.

I’ve been on this platform since 2012, at the age of 7, grew up with this platform for the prevalent amount of time of my childhood, and has shaped the career which I aspire to venture into. Daily, I work for other people’s projects for my own gain, and for my own earned cash. I’m on the edge where I’m going to be deciding my career *very soon and I will not be seeking for support from my family, as I expect the very platform I work for to be sufficient enough to fund vital expenses such as college and university; I want to go into further education, indulging in Computer Science and Software Engineering.

Now I may not be as renowned as other developers, and bigger developers may rely on DevEx more than others, but there are countless like myself which do not see themselves making this into a career, but end up creating a hobby into a job; and those who do rely upon the Developer Exchange program can agree that this leads to demotivation and in some cases, leaving the platform altogether for a more sustainable living.

The DevEx rates nevertheless, are too low, and that’s looking upon a general demographic of people who drive Roblox to be what it is today.

Increasing DevEx rates will give major incentives to make better and higher quality content, and will entice developers to become full time contributors to the platform, as many of those with the skills to change the trend of games, leave the platform once they are bombarded with responsibilities which DevEx alone will not cover, which leaves this platform unsustainable for many, and the environment in which people freelance will be left very one sided and unmotivated, leading to a decline in new creations and ways that Roblox can market their platform.

As I only get older, I see more and more benefits of this, and so does Roblox, however they should majorly consider a slight cut in their profit margins for the possibilities which could arise, and it is surely worth the wait; and it’ll bring smaller and upcoming to-be developers a stimulus to create on this platform, and shape their careers and ideas like it shaped mine.

RuizuKun_Dev · May 31, 2020, 6:56pm

I’d like to sign this as well.

It’s closed

We work so hard but get so little, do we not deserve more of what we make?

Roblox only gives us a fraction of what our game actually makes which is unfair for the fact that we drive player spendings.

It’s been a year is there any new information on this.

colbert2677 · May 31, 2020, 7:19pm

Please post here for signatures. OP’s trying to keep the main thread for testimonies only.

Regarding a quote from the post above

@RuizuKun_Dev Not too sure why my post was quoted nearly a year later to mention the signing thread is closed. This post was meant to, at the time, when the signing thread was open, redirect signatures there rather than on the replies of this post. No real relevance in mentioning it now.

iluzyan · November 11, 2022, 10:52pm

I see its another thing until today that nothing has been done and I only saw promises in the RDC that did not become real, besides just developer funds, but intended only for very few games or already great developers, after these changes made during these 2 years that have passed, I’m more saddened by the way in which the Staff is doing what is supposed to be a long-term job becomes increasingly difficult and frustrating…

buildthomas · January 2, 2023, 4:49pm

This is not correct, we got a formal response from Roblox (though, it has since been wiped, but you can use wayback machine to see the original): In response to Developer’s Feedback on Developer Exchange

This feature request was one of the main drivers for starting up the whole concept of Premium Payouts, AFAIK. Additionally they also started posting more accurate breakdowns of where money is being spent somewhere after this feature request.

It’s probably best to start up a new feature request if you have any grievances about the way that monetization works at Roblox since this thread is a bit old and likely considered “addressed” depending on who you ask.