Roblox 2019 Events: Updates, Calendar & More

Updates Announcements
#44

I just wish money wasnt everything for most developers,

yea I know some of you see roblox as a job - but I like to think of both perspectives of this scenario.

Looking at it, only 1 person/group is chosen per month, so why is everyone on edge? Its also as if you guys are saying you would rather not be featured at all if you don’t get paid.

This is probably going to come out awful - but I feel like popular developers take for granted on what they have already. Someone like me who is an upcoming developer always dreams of people seeing my work - and this is a great opportunity for just that! If - instead roblox said that this was just an opportunity to get your game featured, no one would bat an eye, however, since it was told that it was a non-paid event, everyone feels the need to go against it.

Who knows - It could be because I havent been paid from roblox before, it could be because I don’t see roblox as a job - but whatever the reason, I’d still be grateful for what I was given, and not something that I was not. Roblox to me is a fun way to get out of stress, I get to build and make neat things, and I do so without anyone telling me what to do. Roblox to me is fun, and it shouldn’t be ruined by payment.

I’ve said my peace, that is all from me.

9 Likes
#45

Yeah but for games with huge amounts of work pored into events this is a rough knock. It takes several weeks to fully build and code one Escape Room, as they are practically full game experiences in themselves.

1 Like
#46

I suppose, but a majority of the themed “Monthly Events” for 2019 are literally just “coming up with a mission.”

In some cases, these missions could take a lot of work. In other cases, not so much. I’d say Bloxy, Egg Hunt, & Fly Around the World (with their “New Game” tag) should pay for the people that are making that “New Game.”

In the case though of implementing a mission into your game, it’s not the same as making a whole game from scratch. And typically, your game should have decent monetization. If you’re monetizing your game well, the exposure should hopefully be enough to provide you with a decent income during the event, and if the game truly is a fun & well-built game, you should keep some of that event audience and continue monetizing off them.

2 Likes
#47

If that’s the case, you should be rethinking your gameplay and monetization models if revenue is your main concern.

If it isn’t and what you’re doing is a passion project then by all means do whatever you keep doing, but from a business standpoint, what you’re doing is inefficient.

But I say this from an outsider’s point of view based on on what you’ve said so far and I have no idea as to what it is you’re dealing with, what the game means to you, and how you want to change it for this specific market and platform.

3 Likes
#48

I am not a fan of the “exposure payment” as stated above as well. For the Battle Arena event for Ultimate Boxing, 60% of my revenue was the payment from Roblox. This involved about a month of work on my end. I can’t imagine this for a 3-5 month project that may not be relevant after the month it is up.

15 Likes
#49

Considering they even say that developers choose their own mission, I’m sure you could go about a way where not all of your work is binned at the end of the event.

1 Like
#50

Being able to choose missions isn’t new. We don’t total freedom since Roblox needs to approve it, and potentially sponsors if they get involve (and probably will for most of the events). I experienced this with my primary idea for the badge to use being rejected in favor of a much more difficult one.

2 Likes
#51

To add some more notes:

The new events are to highlight new and up-and-coming devs or devs who find value in these opportunities. There are no more sponsors for these monthly events. If we do have a chance to partner with a sponsor, they will be treated as a separate event and be paid.

We also encourage you to create events in your games, and many of you already do that in your games! We find that as a sign of growth of our amazing developer community. You all know what the community wants from your games, these are just more opportunities for devs to create. :slight_smile:

11 Likes
#52

Established games are being invited to apply. No one is looking for a team to develop an entire custom event like Egg Hunt for free.

We’re being asked to add a small mission to our existing games in exchange for guaranteed traffic and a virtual item designed by a professional team (more than likely customized to your game). In this business, this level of exposure directly translates to money if you know how to take advantage of the influx of players. Devs have dropped 450k in a day to run ads to get on the front page and a front page spot is basically being handed to you with this opportunity. (potentially) Your game will be in blogs, you’ll have the event tag, you’ll get to work with the people behind Roblox who have years of experience most of us don’t. And we get all that in exchange of adding a single mission to our game? And we should be handed a check for this?

I agree with Roblox on this one, the benefits still outweigh the pay.

23 Likes
#53

Aka. E3! :wink:

5 Likes
#55

I’ll be honest about monitization part during Roblox events. It’s good if game is all year round.

What about games that are seasonal?

Do you know anyone who buys pets or other things in an event game frequently? Gear items published by Roblox do not count.
Remember most of the fanbase is full of bacon and ramen haired people.
If official event place implements OP items that can be purchased, that will be Pay 2 Win.
We know there are YouTubers that might not like it and make some kind of riot / reign because “muh old roblox”.

The Witching Hour (2013?) game was a microtransaction failure. It had stuff like pet skins, map icons, colors etc. For how long it’s been? Month? Less? That’s like buying a Nintendo Switch with hard earned money, just to get it taken away day later because “a new console came out”.

The question is, if not monetization - then what else?
The bacon and ramen part of community consists of foreign kids like ErnestoBarbosa2018 that won’t even care who made the game. Not to mention artists, those kids WON’T BUY the art.
They will just care about getting free items.

tl;dr - Microtransactions during seasonal events are a joke (at least for developers that have worked hard). Their payout is not guaranteed to be big. If your game is all year fun, then feel free to do it.

8 Likes
#56

This thread isn’t about custom event games.

Custom event games: Egg Hunt, Hallow’s Eve, Bloxy’s, etc…

Monthly events: existing games with a small bit of added content related to the monthly event.

2 Likes
#57

That’s what I am talking about. Custom events.

2 Likes
#58

The guy you are replying to is not, so your post isn’t on-point.

1 Like
#59

I like to talk about things overall, my bad. But still, my point kind of stands.
We know games can get much more, it’s possible - but we are pretty much restricted.

1 Like
#60

I am stuck between the good and bad here.

There is a ton of misconception on this post, and I can see why, as in the title, you’ve generalized the update as all events and you have stated in the main paragraph that all events are being unpaid for, while putting a small bullet point at the bottom of the post, saying that 3 events are paid work. While this isn’t entirely relevant, this should have been made clear when you said “We will no longer be paying developers selected for an event”. Usually I over-analyse all the details but I actually missed the bullet point below, and it wasn’t clear enough as the replies are a mixture of misinterpretation and notes that are exceedingly relevant to this post, but aren’t put in the thread starter itself.

Personally, I do have an opinion on the fact people aren’t being paid for normal events anymore. I can definitely see the advantages of this, and the disadvantages of this. , however, it is a lot more confusing that I’m having to search the entirety of this thread to get a clear idea of what changes have been made. At first, my opinion of the change was to be honest, general annoyance, but as I started to look into it, I’ve found things that have drastically changed that. It’s basically gone from no pay at all, to “you’ll receive payment if its a sponsored event”, to "you’ll receive pay if its a paid contract, or a sponsored event. Which in my eyes, (i’m not sure about anyone else), definitely reduces my fears about this issue. While this doesn’t change the fact that the changes being made by Roblox are potentially cutting a source of finance from already existing developers, and discouraging future ones, the way that the start of the thread portrays this new update, (and this could just be me being silly), blows it way out of proportion, as it lacks important facts that I think would desperately need understanding before reading other peoples responses. It is set out in a way that developers would probably miss or read over parts of the update. While an attempt has been made, (kudos to 2blox2quit and his extra notes), I think time should be taken to inform developers entirely of what this update brings to prevent misconception that Roblox are completely cutting developer’s payment (as this is not the case).

As for my opinion, I don’t agree with it but given the decision involves a reduction of money, I think this would be a business decision over one made for the well beings of the developers. The compensation should really be a reward that we are able to use, not something that is completely out of their control, and is self reliant on the promotion that is provided by the event.

(that being said, my intention isn’t to target roblox employees so sorry if anyone feels like that. it really isn’t. i just want the communication in general to improve! :smiley: )

10 Likes
#61

I personally believe removing the little payment event developers receive for working on these things is not a good idea.
Exposure is okay, but it isn’t remuneration, and it is not the only motivation the developers for these things need.
Event development is a HUGE effort! I know this firsthand, translating the 2018 egg hunt voluntarily (no payment), which took me an entire month and some all-nighters prior to release. It helped me gain opportunities with other developers, but it does not count as remuneration.
Game profits from monetization should not be considered as payment for the event’s development.
I strongly disagree with removing payment to developers.

14 Likes
#62

Some statistics i’m willing to share from a few years back. I was in charge of rendering the thumbnails for the Summer Camp 2016 event, and owned 25% of the event game’s profits. Each of the four team members earned 10K robux in sales revenue, and there was no noticable increase of followers on any of our Twitter accounts. We were paid to make the game of course, and i’m glad it stays that way for those events.

Here’s my two cents. People should get a flat pay if it’s what they’re most comfortable with. The events had always been assurance that no matter how your game went, Roblox would compensate you for your hard work. In some cases, people made a crazy amount of money during the event. In other cases it didn’t and their game dies right after the event is over.

There is a lot of risk and chance involved in the proposed strategy, and it’s especially concerning for low-income devs with lesser popular games. If you have to work shifts at the bologna factory to pay rent, you wouldn’t pause that to work on an event if you cannot be guaranteed compensation for your time. This results in less developers applying and less effort being put in the events.

25 Likes
#63

Did I not realize this? So… “New games” are the ones payed for? I see the sense in this, I mean, developers adding their games to an event would be for expsure, since you dont require them to build a whole game from scratch, yet those games that need time, energy, and teamwork really do pay their developers, since it basically turns into a sort term job. I see the sense perfectly in this!

3 Likes
#64

I totally agree people won’t even bother to make event games at this rate. It’d be better to make their own games.

If developers aren’t ensured something then it’s a big risk, no one wants to take a risk when spending months on a project. I think it was the wrong move to remove the payments for the developers, they already tax us 30% if they’re going to remove the payments, then they should remove tax from roblox event games. I feel like the tax is too high for developers.

I certainly wouldn’t want to take the risk and waste time doing something that could possibly do terrible with nothing to ensure that my time isn’t wasted on a project. You’ve also got team members to pay as well which will be spread out to many other people meaning the profits will be quiet low.

5 Likes