Roblox 2019 Events: Updates, Calendar & More

Updates Announcements
#1

Hello Developers,

I’m pleased to announce the Roblox event calendar for 2019 and our new plan for Events 3.0.

As we mentioned in the Egg Hunt Announcement, 2019 Monthly Events are going to focus more on leveraging event visibility to enable developers to create and share their own content. We want to partner up with MORE developers and MORE games each month. We also want to give you more control over your content; thus mission designs will be entirely developer driven for the selected games in each event.

Events will still be centered around a theme each month, and there will be an open call for developer signups. With monthly events now giving developers greater control, we are also adjusting how we compensate developers for their participation. Moving forward, we will no longer be paying developers selected for a monthly event. While the amount was not large to begin with, the promotion for each game was the real benefit of participating. This also creates an incentive for developers focused on the monetary gain to build good conversion systems within their game as part of the event.

We want events 3.0 to get more developers involved in creating content on the platform. :grinning:

Once submitted, your game may be chosen for one of the two different opportunities:

  • Opportunity 1
    • Between 1-5 games that relate best to that month’s theme will be selected as the featured games
    • Each of these games will be able to come up with their mission to implement
    • Each of these games will have a unique catalog prize that hooks up to the mission
    • Each of these games will be on the event page
  • Opportunity 2
    • Between 1-5 games that apply will be selected as additional games
    • Each of these games will be able to come up with their mission to implement
    • These games will all share one unique catalog prize
    • Each of these games will be mentioned on the event page

Everyone will be able to submit for Opportunity 1, but some of the games may be selected as Opportunity 2.

A couple of times a year we will have a new game as part of the monthly event. The applications to be on the team to create the new game will be separate from the applications having your existing game as part of the event. The developers who make these new games will be paid for their work.

With all of this in mind, January’s theme is Toys! We are looking for games that have a Roblox toy associated with it.

Apply Now!
Deadline to apply is November 18th.

Looking forward to seeing what you create and check out the event calendar below!
Developer Relations Team

149 Likes
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#2

I wonder if the avatar and future is bright themes are related to update releases on those months

33 Likes
#3

Awesome! Great to know in advance what events to get ready for!

22 Likes
#4

Glad to see you guys on top of things!
Much better knowing we will be getting heads up before anything goes live and with these special events!

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#5

Hmm no Heroes event huh. Wonder why.

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#6

Little confused one the special feature “new game” part. Can I get a more in depth explanation?

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#7

Future is Bright for October. You know what would be nice? If we could have a GCC (Game Creation Competition) Round 2 then, for players to create something even spookier with the new tools Roblox has given us between 2014 and now. The 2014 GCC was very fun and while I ended up dropping my submission, I would definitely be up to participating in a new one and trying my waters. Sad it was a one-and-done thing.

13 Likes
#8

I believe these events require a game to be developed form the ground up. In other events you can modify existing games to match the event.

Also, are we getting a Fortnite sponsored event in November? That’d be neat.

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#9

Yeah, I remember my attempt at that. It was pretty bad but OMG I want to try again. The problem is that Roblox is platform aimed at kids so many parents probably wouldn’t approve of having a horror-themed event… :confused:

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#10

Looking forward to testing most of these out!

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#11

These are great opportunities for new developers looking to get their foot in the door!

One thing that strikes me as weird is the January event featuring games with existing toy sets. I imagine this could be spurred by Jazwares looking to sell more units - or rather a way that Roblox can get more sales for Jazwares.

If that is indeed the purpose, January strikes me as an odd month to chose since studies show that consumers shop the least in the months following the holidays (for obvious reasons).

Is January picked then because waiting a full three seasons for the 2019 holiday season is way too slow to move merchandise, and January feels like the “best place” to put it?

Or more likely I’m just missing a piece of the puzzle :stuck_out_tongue:

9 Likes
#13

Looks like I’m preparing for July. :wink:

Also, I swear if a game that simply involves cars, without the sole purpose of those cars to be racing, to be considered for Racing, I’m gonna have a hissy-fit & a half.

5 Likes
#14

Ok, I’m opening my mouth. You say you want more developers and more games to participate, yet your first month’s theme is “games that have a Roblox toy associated”. And as someone already brought up, January isn’t a good sales month as far as physical merch goes.

Some of these themes are…not entirely good themes in the first place either. What does it mean to have a game themed for the Bloxies? It’s a specific Roblox-driven event, not really something you build a game around to detract attention away from the winners. Pizza Party? The first thing every kid’s gunna think when they hear “Roblox” and “Pizza” is Work at a Pizza Place.

In my opinion, the only compelling themes on this list are “Fly around the World” and “Mystery”, i.e., these are the only ones on the list that strike me as invoking developer creativity for new content.

And, most importantly…you’re also not paying the amount you say was “not much” to begin with. Did you really just for exposure Roblox developers? Roblox is a environment/community where developers haven’t another option to get their work known.

I’m either missing something or there’s seems to be some directional issues with this approach.

63 Likes
#15

I do feel as though they over paid event workers, not only did their game get featured, but its traffic income probably tripled. with the amount of robux someone gets from an event game, they could devex quite a bit, so for me at least, it’s understandable that they arn’t going to pay the full amount anymore.

I’ve never gotten featured, but I know people who have. It takes a pretty penny out of roblox’s wallet, and I feel like it is a better move

1 Like
#16

They clearly didn’t over-pay if they’re saying the amount “was not large to begin with” (in their own words!) Let’s also not forget Roblox already profits more when the game profits.

Exposure isn’t payment. The word “advertisement” comes to mind. Attention on the Roblox platform is limited by what appears on the games page and what we bid on ads against each other.

21 Likes
#17

even if they didnt over pay, I think their goal here is to broaden the developer spectrum instead of having the same old users getting the events (Trust me, it is VERY repetitive and unfair to others)

So to do this, they are going to be adding monthly events and choosing different themes, and yes, I do agree that some - if not most are crap, but what detours developers from one thing will draw others even closer.

The payment is going to be lower ( probably quite a bit lower) due to how often they are going to be hiring these developers, some of which may even be in a team (like me, someone who doesn’t know how to code for events)

they are “Exposing” more developers to an opportunity, at least that’s how I see it.

I could be getting this all wrong but yea - that’s my side of it >.<

7 Likes
#18

I’m sorry but in my honest opinion, I dislike this a lot.

From what felt like a foolproof way of handling events, has now turned into a glorified way of ‘devents’, something that we’ve seen since 2015. I don’t see anything new in this, and yes I understand the reasons why this was done. One of the reasons I presume, is because of stress, which I can understand as working on the Egg Hunt was extremely stressful, but this could be handled differently.

Money was never a primary factor in these events, but completely removing income (excluding in-game monetisation) just feels like a slap in the face to future developers.

Opportunity 2 states that

For people putting months upon months of work, for sharing a virtual prize in their game and no more than a ‘shoutout’. Does this virtual prize mean that you can earn it in any of the 5 games? Opportunity 2 sounds like a big case of developer rivalries, where developers will try and make the easiest game event possible, in order to get more activity to their game, rather than the others.

The themes don’t sound at all appealing either, heroes has been completely wiped off, as well as Bloxtober and Winter Games.

Overall, this new method is really not catering towards developers, and is more like a game of roulette, where, after months and months of work, all they can do is ‘hope for the best’, that their monetisation strategies work in their event game and will give them enough money.

Regardless, I wish the best of luck in the hope that this event does work out well for both developers and Roblox.

48 Likes
#19

I think you are getting it wrong slightly. The compensation for having created a game consistent with the theme is:

  • Whatever you were already planning on selling in your game anyway (which is not unique to events in the slightest)
  • The traffic garnered from Roblox featuring the work, aka the “exposure”

None of these necessarily reward the developer for having participated in the event; just the same way any other non-event game would get rewarded. Roblox ought to feature games that are good because they are good and compensate developers for going out of their way to adhere to a theme. Which, you know, is what makes the entire thing fun.

While typing this @Younite chimed in with his above post, and I agree 100%: it does feel like a leap of good faith in their own work for a specific purpose - all something non-unique to events, so why take the risk? (For that exposure, silly!)

Edit for clarification: I’m not saying it won’t be a good thing for an otherwise ignored game to garne to more attention because it is part of an event. I’m say that for someone to accept a development risk (wondering if they’ll even be picked), they ought to receive monetary compensation in some way. This is crowdsourced event games where the ones picked aren’t being paid.

20 Likes
#20

I do agree to this, 100%, however, my biggest concerns are the following ( and thus the pros of this event):

  • These new features give a chance to other developers instead of roblox just using the same people over and over again to create their games to suit a theme

  • This event gives developers a spotlight in which they probably never could have gotten due to the awful competition there is with advertising

and finally,

  • This event branches out so that it can fortify a multitude of different building styles instead of say - building a halloween themed lobby.

I see what you are getting at with monitization though, and I do feel as thought this is a slap in the face to upcoming developers.

4 Likes
#21

Actually, events aren’t being paid anymore? Ok, I feel like not many people will feel as coerced to want to participate now. How will exposure pay for things like rent or college?

35 Likes