Kickstarter Like Game Idea - Is This Type Of Game Allowed & or Plausable To Execute?

Help and Feedback Game Design Support
#1

So, recently I and a few very close friends have been rasing money for my personal projects to varying degrees of sucsess, sometimes via real life jobs, building commisions, asking my brother for help etc. I see many developers struggling to make games due to a lack of funding. I wanted to help out those people with a game idea I just thought of. I have this very well thought out so if this isnt allowed ill be pretty sad but I guess ill ask anyway even with the possibility of my dreams being crushed violently before my eyes because of robloxs TOS (If its a violation, I checked, dosent seem to be so since it isnt buying or selling robux and donation gamepasses exist which is the basis of this entire idea.)

The Idea
Please dont steal this idea, Im being serious, I may use this idea. If I abandon the idea and you want to use it please DM me first asking for permission.

I want to make a Kickstarter/GoFund me type game where users can submit there game ideas and what it is about on our game and people may donate to them. Ill list the features below:

DISCLAIMER, THESE SECTIONS WILL BE EXTREMELY LONG AND BORING TO READ THROUGH, PLEASE SKIP TO THE TLDR SECTION IF YOU DONT WISH TO READ THE WHOLE THING

Functionality

Players will join the game with the option to browse pages, create pages and edit their existing pages. (This game will be UI based). Players may only have 2 posts up at any given time and to get rid of one, there will be a “Close Page” button. Each page will follow the same format:

  • Name Of Game Idea: {Self Explanitory}
  • Description: {Self Explanitory}
  • Description Of How Game Budget will be spent: {Self Explanitory}
  • Fundrasing Goal: {Self Explanitory}

There will be 5 types of donations, 5 robux donations, 25 robux donations, 100 robux donations and Other amount donations. For this to work, every time a page is created, an automated system will create a developer product labeled the name of the Game and the amount being donated → Say they want to donate 20, it would give {Game Name} 20 Donation. It would also create the 5,25 and 100 donation developer products in the same way {GAME NAME} 5, 25, 100 Donation.

Each pages coulor scheme can be fully customized and people may upload icons as roblox decals for there pages. They may also put and GFX as a roblox decal in given slots. Pages will have 4 formats, Basic, Coulorful, Investment and Premuim. There will be certian features for each type of template:

Basic

  • One Icon Slot
  • 2 GFX Slots
  • Basic Format
  • Maximum of 20k Robux Fundrasing Goal
  • Max Donation Limit (Per Donation) is 500.
  • Basic Coulor Customization

Coulorful

  • One Icon Slot
  • 1 GFX Slot
  • Basic Format
  • Max 20k Robux Fundrasing Goal
  • Max Donation Limit (Per Donation) is 400
  • Advanced Coulor Customization

Premuim {Will Cost 50 Robux To Buy This Template

  • 5 Icon Slots
  • 10 GFX Slots
  • Basic Format + 1000 Char Increase in Char Limit
  • Max 100k Robux Fundrasing Roal
  • Max Donation Limit (Per Donation) is 5000.
  • Advanced Coulor Customization
  • Promoted On “Premuim Pages” section in the “Browse Pages” section.

Investment

  • 1 Icon Slot
  • 1 GFX Slot
  • Investor Format:
  • Max Investment Limit is 40k.
  • Advanced Coulor Customization
  • Promoted On “Investment” section in the “Browse Pages” section.

{FORMAT FOR INVESTMENT PAGES:}
Game Name:
Desription: {Self Explanitory}
Asking Investment: {How much you want}
Return Agreement: {What you offer in return}
(In this post, there will be one button, an “Invest” button. This will donate the robux. This button may only be pressed ONCE out of forever and the investor will be instructed to get a Moderator and the Post Owner + Him in a Discord, Roblox or DevForum group chat to discuss.

All donated robux will be transfered into a group and a bot will automatically distribute robux to the owner of the page when robux is earned from that page. It will work as such:

  • {GAME NAME} page is owned by TwentyCharacterLimit
  • TwentyCharacterLimit clicks the “Claim” button next to Fundrasing Goal.
  • Robux earned from page is calculated by analyzing dev product names and sales
  • Total Robux amount is distributed to TwentyCharacterLimit
  • TwentyCharacterLimit recives his robux

To prevent scamming, all claimed robux will still count as added in the fundrasing goal so people dont think there is less robux donated then there actually is. Robux may only be claimed on 3 day intervals. To further prevent scamming, there will be a user verification where users must type in there name to confirm the purchase then they must solve a Captcha to confirm again. There will also be a like button to promote the post in an algorithim to put it on our “Popular” section. This allows the post to be visible to new people, of course, there will also be a “New” section for new pages to instantly get promoted on the “Front Page” of the browse page.

Pages may be used for funds to update an already existing game and pages can contain only roblox game links. To prevent spread of NSFW content or otherwise harmful pages from going up, all pages will undergo a moderation process where the page is reviewed by our HUMAN moderation team. This will also include me. Due to the fact that there may be multiple pages being created at one time, servers will include up to 100-200 players with around 5-10 human mods per server or all pages will be sent to a discord webhook where the mods will use a bot command to approve a post and then the post will become active in game about 1-10 miniutes later (Random Time Selected) to prevent lots of pages going out at the same time.

We will add report buttons incase anyone gets past our moderation and we will add a “Missing Robux” report incase robux wasnt distributed into your account. This shouldnt be an issue however as the only people who will have access to the group payouts feature will be me and the Payout Bot.

Page Legitimacy will be ensured in where page users will need to sign an agreement in game before they start making a post that states “We have the right to report your account and refund all robux if your post is used to scam people by using the funds for personal stuff and not for game development”

Any additional functionality will be accounted for when thought of, for now, this is where this section ends.

Benifits

The benifits this will have for developers are as follows:

  • Able to advertise their game before it becomes public
  • Able to advertise their already public game (Where Applicable)
  • Able to raise funds for their projects and fufil their dreams
  • They can create more high quality games with funds raised from the game.
  • They may be able to start sucsesful carrers in roblox developing with funds rasied from the game.
  • It just helps people in general and will be free to use (with additional paid content that is unessecary to use our service to its maximum use for your fundrasing)
  • I think it will help improve the general quality of roblox if people are able to contribute to eachothers development and create amazing games
  • Investors were removed from the dev forum so asking on Discord or this idea is the next best thing.

Best of all, our service is FREE. To get a page for yourself, there is 0 cost forever! We will never add a cost to our services. Also, we will give you 100% of all profits made from people donating to you! The only way we will make money is selling Premuim templates and (Optional) offering daily page promotions in exchange for 5% of all donation profit, this is optional so you can always be a free to play and use our service free of charge.

The cost to run these services will probably be slightly high which is the only reason why we would sell a premuim template and offer paid ads in game. If the cost is low, we may make everything free with no pay options other than donating to people!

If service costs become EXTREMELY high, we may add a donation button to the game to directly donate to us to help keep the game running.

Execution Of Idea
  • Developers are hired to script the games functionality
  • Person is hired to create a bot as described in “Functionality”.
  • 25-50 Member Moderation Team is hired.
  • Discord Webhooks are set up {May be a feature}
  • Game is tested
  • Game is put into a group
  • Game is advertised on the DevForum and via Roblox Ads
  • Let the players make pages and Moderation do their job.

After this last one, the only other activites will be regularly fix bugs {If there are any} and regularly check if payment is distributed properly {Moderations job which I will assist in}.

TL;DR

These are very basic descriptions, reading these will most likely not awnser your questions about this idea, for that, I suggest you read the WHOLE post before asking a question

Functionality

  • Game is UI based
  • Game used Service Bots and automated systems
  • Game has anti scam features and a moderation team

Benifits

  • Allows people to raise funds
  • Helps people make better games with the robux
  • Allows people to support one another to build a better roblox game library

Excecution

  • Devs are hired
  • Bots are made
  • Game is released
  • Game is advertised

Conclusion

Id like you to answer in this poll and give your reasons in the comments below on your opinion about this idea.

  • This is a bad idea and it would not work
  • This is a good idea but it would not work
  • This is a good idea and it would work
  • This is a bad idea but it would work
  • This is not allowed
  • This could be allowed
  • My opinion is not on this list, ill comment
  • I dont wish to state my opinion but I do have an opinion

0 voters

NEW INFO

I have learned how to properly screen a project for when someone would want to post on something like this that can mostly ensure that projects are valid. I would also put an agreement that any robux lost is not our fault however you may contact to get refunded any donations under 1k robux. You will only get 3 refund tickets.

Due to heavy critisism (Thanks for yall feedback) I am less sure about turning this into a roblox game but instead a Website. It would probably be more effective as a Website but im yet to decide.

Project Guidelines
  • Projects must create something to share with others such as a roblox game, showcase or open source project
  • Projects must be honest, no photoshoped imagrey and they must not be misleading
  • Projects cant fundraise for charity
  • Projects cant involve innappropriate content violating roblox’s TOS
  • Projects must be detailed and have grammer
  • Projects must not be copied to ensure you cant spam create the same post

Our moderation team will always compare posts and analyze every detail to make sure its okay. Only around 10 posts may be accepted each day if we feel someone may be trying to abuse the system. If you spot something fishy about a post, you can report it.

3 Likes
#2

Note, If you did not read the post, which im assuming everyone who voted didnt because they voted in like 3 seconds, please back up your opinion in the comments or just dont vote. (Not to be mean or anything, I just want feedback)

Thanks! :smile:

1 Like
#3

I think an idea like this already exists. I’m not really sure if a crowdfunding thing is a good idea or not for game development. It sounds good on paper, but usually crowdfunding is for more serious issues and fundraisers for the needy, you know? I’m not saying that it isn’t used for financial support or business ventures, but then why would we need a platform on Roblox for that? How do we know who really needs support vs. people who are trying to game the system? There’s a lot of legal issues that come with starting a project like this.

2 Likes
#4

Checked and that is for advertising, not funding but I see where you are coming from.

As for this, there will be proof of concept needed also users will need to sign an agreement as stated:

Thanks for your concern and I understand your arguments and I have some answers but Ill look further into it! :smile:

1 Like
#5

How can you implement that last part? How do you intend to get people to “sign”? How do you know who is signing? How do you even force a Robux refund? What rights are you talking about? If something like this is going to happen, Roblox has to put their own time into it. This should be a Roblox initiative if it should exist, not a developer startup.

#6

You will need to click an " I agree" button or you will not be allowed to post.

We will be able to report you to roblox and request a refund that may come out of our pocket or from the account if the account is banned. As I said, the costs to run this may be extremely high since roblox may not want to agree and force refunds.

Roblox wouldnt need to as It could just come out of our pocket and we may limit the maximum donations if this is the case.

I also said Id look into the legal aspect of it.

Keep sending questions if you have them! :smile:

#7

If Roblox bans an account because you gave them money and they misused it… I’m pretty sure you are going across TOS territory - so I’m glad you are going to look into the legal portion. The issue is that you are relying on this too much.

If it is extremely high-cost, why would anyone support it? I feel like it would cost more to run it than the payout developers are getting from investments. If that’s the case, please look at the financial aspect too. We live in a capitalist society, someone can easily make a bunch of alt accounts to try and take down your system. You could have an age of account restriction, but even then I don’t see how you could run something like this if you guys are flooded with scammers. At this point it sounds more like an online Roblox bank than it does a developer support system.

#8

I will need to ask around and find a way around it with probably a online contract type agreement restricting it to people 18+ or with parental consent so that only people that agree can use the system. If that is out of my reach I may implement an account age system. Also, our moderation team may check accounts. I may also require you to be a devforum memeber and provide proof of concept.

Technically we didnt give them the money and they asked for it (also signing an agreement) and if they missuse it its basically banning someone for scamming investors or developers etc. I dont think it would be to much out of TOS territory. Ill look into the financial aspect and decide from their.

I honestly love how you put up amazing, detailed arguments for me to review as it has helped me think more in depth about ideas.

1 Like
#9

I made a post about this less than a week ago… It seems your idea may already be out there??

https://devforum.roblox.com/t/the-hub-crowdfund-advertising-for-your-game/482641

#10

I DM’ed you and I already brought this up.

Thanks for replying anyways! :smile:

1 Like
#11

My apologies, I misunderstood the concept :slight_smile:

1 Like
#12

I may have a solution to the scamming problem, you would have to be running an active project with proof of concept and funding will not be given untill needed by page owner. This may not be enough so ill look into pay protection for donations.

EDIT: Im looking into how companys like Kickstarter screen projects to ensure safety.

#13

Ive also looked into this and since our moderation will screen every post, posts that are duplicated will be deleted along with the original. I also added a new section! :smile:

#14

I really like this idea. But, I think there should be some changes. Firstly, I don’t think that bots can be used for anything, without breaking the TOS. Can someone tell me if they can be used without breaking TOS. So you would need to have humans make dev products. But, I think that having just several dev products for everything should be good. Instead use datastores/message service, or HTTP service. I think HTTP service is better for many reasons and you should use that instead of making a ton of dev products or datastores. The idea would be you send a post request of claiming your robux to a server, that server notifies a volunteer to send the robux to you/a group representative. For donating, you just buy a dev product, and send a post request to a server, which puts it into a database.
I’m not a web developer, so I am probably missing some stuff.

1 Like
#15

Bots can be used to carry out tasks because people use them to store reports, make group posts etc so it wouldnt be against the rules, also, the dev products would be needed to oganize where all the robux is coming from but isnt nessecary becuase we could already see the amount needed via in game funding goal amount reached.

1 Like
#16

The average users for your games, are, well, players.
It is hard to appreciate as a developer how much even like 10k is to your average player, which is worth ~100$ to them.

Under the assumption that every paying roblox player on average gets 1,500 :robux: a year and spends 1,400 :robux: on adopt me or something, that leaves them with 100 :robux: in their account most the time.

Now I ask you, as a roblox player who has 100 :robux: am I likely to give that away as a donation or alternatively, buy some new clothes for my avatar? or if I do donate it, am I not more likely to give it to a friend?

2 Likes
#17

From the perspective of an average player this seem’s quite unnecessary and a waste of money.

1 Like
#18

Roblox doesn’t interfere with developer related issues.

That’s not an official contract format, lawyers resort to using complex vocabulary which is the only way it’ll be enforced legally. While you could challenge this in court regardless of the contract’s legitimacy you still wouldn’t win.

Would you be covering the costs of programmer(s), or would all payments be handled by the developers themselves? How can you guarantee the programmer(s) will remain productive for an underpaid position?

How much are you willing to invest into advertising the service, how will you manage to convince players to actively engage with the service? What’ll be done to discourage players from clicking away after there’s 0 mechanics included to keep the targeted demographic interested to remain in the server.

This is a prime example of practicing what you preach, easier to state whereas it’s difficult to lead by example. If you want to have any guideline enforced or taken serious than you cannot misspell simplified vocabulary terms such as inappropriate. Here’s a tip, if a red line appears than it’s an error meaning it isn’t the proper way to spell that particular word. I personally use google or auto correct to correct any mistakes made throughout my rough drafts.

Personally I don’t enforce any grammar restrictions because It would be a hypocritical to enforce this policy while acknowledging my familiarity with grammar is below average.

Why first impressions matter

I strongly urge you to familiarize yourself with your strengths and weaknesses before making any further corrections to the rough draft. Don’t always rely on your memories as not everyone is intellectually gifted to have a photographic memory. Don’t rush the post either, proofread it until you’re 100% confident in the final draft.

One lesson you shouldn’t ever forget in life is how you’re judged on every step, move you take. All it takes is one minor slip up to be considered unfit as a leader. Grammatical errors is only the tip of the ice berg my friend, there’s many flaws that someone can nitpick subconsciously without ever informing you.

#19

I didnt state roblox would get involved, it would just send us a report to ban the users page and the Missing Robux button is incase you do get scammed even with the verification and our moderation.

If you read the thread I stated that I would look into the legal aspect and find ways to better enforce this legally.

Who said it was unpaid? Id cover all costs of development.

I would be willing to invest around 10-20k in ads and another 10k in sponsorships. Well, this isnt really a game so nothing can be done to keep them from coming back but think of it like group recruiting plaza, you advertise your group (in this case make a page) and keep checking back on it/advertising your group till you feel its enough.

I am sorry I mispelled one word. My computer dosent have autocorrect and I was typing really fast.
Also the long paragraph on grammar was unessecary.

I already know my strengths and weaknesses, Im good at Math, Robotics, Language and Problem Solving. Im also very creative. I understand you are trying to help but dont keep 50% of your post dedecated to arguing about my one grammar mistake.

#20

I agree with all points stated. However, I have seen many people contribute to things they want to see and added an “Investment” template since asking here is no longer allowed. Also, 1.5k robux a year? I think there are 3 types of people on roblox, those who are free to play, those who spend the odd 3k robux over the course of a couple months and those who buy every limited and spend hundreds upon hundreds of dollars a year, or they have a popular game and make money that way. Not trying to brag but I get around 50k robux a year and I my family is low income + I get no allowance, I just save up.