Hello, I am the founder of Dreamers & Creator / solo-developer of Realm Rush: Tower Defense (RR for short). And frankly, after making Roblox est. $500K USD I’m close to quitting my game.
This post is premised on giving a quick biography, my personal opinions, and then I pass the question off to you. Considering how trigger happy mods are I won’t be surprised if this gets taken down.
I’ve made multiple posts throughout the years here on the forum to ask various developers their constructive criticism on how to make RR more appealing and retain players. How to make it more successful. It has more of nearly everything compared to my competing Tower Defense games. It has more content, more depth, higher quality in product quality and graphic quality.
It may not be perfect, but objectively it is beyond superior than any TD game I’ve seen on the platform in almost every category a game dev cares about. Except the most important one…
Player count. Back in 2020, as one of the first Roblox Tower Defense games, and when the game looked like a pile of hot garbage, it pulled 2.4k players on good days as its peak. No really, it was an amateur mess.
Now incredibly polished and improved I can barely scratch 300 players with ads and sponsors. Roblox used to feature my game on Top Rated, Featured, Most Engaging, etc. Now it often doesn’t even show up when you type in Tower Defense in the game search. Roblox doesn’t feature my game anymore. Ever. It’s like they shadow-blacklisted it.
What am I doing wrong? Throughout the years I’ve done nearly everything everyone has suggested:
- Overhauls
- Weekly updates
- MASSIVE updates
- Rebranding
- Content updates
- Daily login rewards
- Influencer programs
- Events, holiday themed updates
- Social media
- Custom chat, pins & titles, achievements, badges
- It’s orientated towards PC but it is compatible & plays well with all devices
- Custom made graphics options for weaker devices
- Multiple gamemodes, modifiers in those gamemodes
… and so much more I could write a trilogy about it. I’ve even had top developers of front page games offering advice & help as well.
Common critique sentiments. Everyone whom I’ve seen comment on the game has said that it’s underrated and should have way more players. I do not exaggerate, that comment has become so common it scorns my very soul. Some of these people are whom don’t even play the game or like the game personally (either they’re not into TD genres, or prefer modern aesthetics which is fine!). The compliment is nice, but I am stuck in this purgatory of being told it should be more popular and get better ratings, working super hard so it might, but it just never does.
I’ve worked super hard as a solo developer for 4 years on RRTD to make what I personally consider a Roblox masterpiece. And 200 daily CCU is my reward. Yet my competitors who quite literally slap together SmoothPlastic blocks and freemodel guns and copy/pasted games pull 1k, 5k, 15k, 25k CCU on an average SLOW day.
Disadvantages I know I had handicapped myself from the game design I chose during the beginning back in 2018. Handicaps like: RR doesn’t manipulate kids, it doesn’t target kids, it doesn’t use gambling tactics, and it doesn’t use mind-numbing bright ugly colors. And last of all, it’s a high quality graphic game on a game platform that is notorious for having an incredibly weak game engine.
But if Roblox were smart they would utilize & promote games like RR that target an older demographic and turn that niche-to-Roblox demographic into a broader audience. Most people with real money play on platforms like Steam, Epic, Origin, etc, all of which have a much older audience. My game makes crazy money, way more than top 25 games on ARPU charts- when it’s popular. These numbers were before a HUGE update with only ~1.5k players!
Every Roblox dev knows most teens, young adults, and adults won’t touch Roblox because all they know it to be are games like my competitors. Like 75% of most games on the platform: cheap knockoffs of successful Steam games, kid games with smooth blocks and bright colors, copy/paste simulators, and ridiculous engine performance restrictions. Roblox needs to actually promote games (like RR) that trendset and actually provide entertainment & interest for an older and much MUCH higher paying demographic.
Roblox has to be fully aware of the statistics that older demographics pay better, play longer & more often, and make up a much greater & more reliable majority of the total gaming industry. I can’t make RR popular or successful if Roblox refuses to promote games on the platform that interest that lucrative older demographic.
In conclusion: I am at my wits end. I’ve given this platform 12 years of my life, RRTD 4 years, and Roblox ~$500k USD. And as of today all I have seen in fruition is check-to-check income, 200 avg CCU, no communication or support from Roblox, and the shame of all of my hard work making negligible impact on RR’s overall success.
Should’ve just made a Simulator. How droll.