Roblox Developer Conference, better known as RDC, is celebrating it’s fourth anniversary this year, and we can’t wait!
The conference started back in 2014 and has been growing ever since. Last year, Roblox welcomed more than 200 creators into a hotel in San Francisco, and an additional 100 creators in a space in the United Kingdom. The mission for the weekend was simple: give creators a chance to meet each other, learn more about developing on Roblox, and inspire some new creations.
Over the course of 3 days, developers watched presentations, took part in the annual Game Jam, and met tens, if not hundreds, of developers from around the world. During these presentations, viewers are given insight into what some of the internal Roblox teams are working on, and have an opportunity to learn new ways to leverage the Roblox platform. Developers can also give direct feedback to the internal teams and ask questions about the projects being presented. Last year, attendees were able to watch the following presentation topics, which are now available on Youtube!
These presentations can be viewed on the YouTube stream here:
- Highlights from 2017
- Roblox: The Developer’s Platform
- Roblox Game Engine
- Developer Relations and You
- Game Design 101
- Avatar/R15
- Marketing and Social Media 101
- Cross-Platform Optimization
- Making Kid-Friendly Games
- Merchandising & Licensing
- Accelerator, Incubator, and Intern Programs
- Monetization & Retention
The Competitions: Building Competitions, Game Jam and more (US and EU):
At RDC 2017, we hosted an afternoon Game Jam, as well as a few other competitions; developers were able to choose to join a building competition, or the classic Game Jam. Developers from around the world joined fellow developers to make creator teams, and have hours to focus on a game experience, model, or showcase. Three teams were awarded prizes at the end of the Game Jam, based on the four categories: Execution, Originality, Design and, of course, Fun!
In third place, we had Lumber Tycoon 2, with a team of five behind the development of the game: badcc, Defaultio, Quenty, and Crykee. Second place went to FearMeIAmLag, Woot3, Zomebody and MasterOfTheElements for their work on Mine Madness. zKevin, Phenite, Mah_Bucket, PressurizedSphere, Iwishforpie1 took first place for FAXSTORY. We also sent the following builders home with awards for their work:
- Machine RDC US Building Competition, by EndorsedModel
- RDC 2017 – Building Competition, by Melinux
- RDC Building Competition, by Lagoman29
- RDC 2017 Showcase, by Angrybirds94
- Rube Golberg Thing, by Porkface09
- RDC 17 Game Jam Showcase, by Proxemety
Don’t worry, the EU got in on the competitive fun too!
Across the pond in London, developers were able to take part in three different competitions: a Game Jam, a building competition, and a Roblox tournament, where developers played hand-picked Roblox games!
In the Roblox tournament, MasterOfTheElements took second place, while ROBLOX_Clothing took home first place! During the building competition, Sorcerer and Sorcerer 2 won Animula_MusicDev an award, and LightLimm was awarded for their work, Magic.
Game Jam in the EU was just as intense, and Roblox sent three teams home with awards again. Crazyblox, Younite, Ysko and Simoon68 were sent home with Honorable mentions for their work on The Mystery of Bazooka, along with FierceByte, Neutre, and Chichine for Magic Learn. Taking home third place was Broom Broom, which was developed by Craftero, Zyleak, Daireb and Webmotion. In second place, we had Elemental Baguettes, by Ravenshield, Asleum and Sofloann. First place was awarded to the team behind Ice, Wind and Fire, which was developed by MasterOfTheElements, jjwood1600, Zomebody, Bluay and Arch_Mage.
Looking Ahead to RDC 2018:
As we approach RDC US this year- and shortly after, RDC EU- we are gearing up to welcome an even bigger number of developers into our conference! We’ll have our annual Game Jam and some new topics from some amazing internal employees! There will be three different tracks at RDC US; Design, Running Your Business, and Developer. Topics this year will include:
- Designing for Performance
- Making Your Game More Social
- Know Your Skills; Find More Robux
- Better Understanding Moderation for Game Development
- Effective Combat Design and Mechanics
- Developing Feature Rich Plugins for Roblox Studio
- And many more topics!
Are you missing RDC 2018 this year? Don’t worry, it’ll all be recorded and posted on YouTube! Be sure to check back for the stream (we’ll also let you know when it’s live).
Have always wanted to go to a Roblox event.
