Team Lava Escape is now officially 2 years old (first released December 8th 2023, 7pm GMT). A game made by Windback Games (Formerly Empowering Games) that was about escaping tower parkour levels in different environments all while the lava is raising with the key aspect of needing to avoid the lava at all costs.
It’s now been 2 year’s since it was originally released and so today we’ll be diving into some top secrets behind development, unreleased media and taking a look at how the game evolved. It is also worth mentioning that for the most part, the game has been discontinued but a similar game is in the works for a release date soon…
Pre-Release Production Chaos
Going all the way back starting in May 2023 when production first started, or atleast that’s what the whole development team all thought. Coming up with just the idea of the game was the most difficult process of making the game. While the core aspect of tower parkour and lava was always in the original plan’s, most of the game isn’t what was planned to be. Let’s just look at the achieved game plan changes made as the game actually changed it’s ideation 6 times during development.
Game Plans History:
Game Plan 1 - The game will work like simulators where a player can play a level to unlock a new level. Once a player has unlocked all levels they can advance to a new world. World one will be forest themed and the player can collect coins for beating each level to unlock pets.
Game Plan 2 - The game will still work in levels and worlds idea but will be medieval themed. The lobby will also be redesigned to fit in with the medieval theme. Flake was hired to make the levels system
Game Plan 3 - The lobby will be redesigned to be like a science experiments in a facility and the game will work in a rounds system. Flake was rehired again to make the system into a rounds system. Because of the mistake in game plan 2 and making that decision to early it X1.5 the overall cost of making the game.
Game Plan 4 - The lobby will be resigned to be a round open area with a big building containing diffrent servers, pets, trails and more.
Game Plan 5 - The idea of pets is being scrapped temporarily because of to many game release delays.
Game Plan 6 - Lobby to be redesigned to add scenery and make the lobby overall more likable.
Here’s a never before scene image of what the lobby for the game was originally going to look like in game plan 1 and 2:
The game as of the end of 2025 is completely different but this constent change in how to tackle development even left a mark. If you played the game when it first released, as bad as it was to begin with, you may have noticed that all 3 levels in the game at the time was medieval themed and this was simply because of how much the game ideation changed during development and funds were used on it. Good news is that these levels survived and has been in the game from start to finish.
We can’t just end production chaos there right? It is named chaos after all. Here is some never before scene footage of the original lava system working before it was remade again into the rounds system rather than by party selection.
The game as it released
The very first release of Team Lava Escape was… interesting. Because of all the production chaos, the game only released with 3 levels all medieval themed, a dome shaped, empty lobby and practice parkour. Very diffrent compared to what the game has transformed into! Let’s just have a little look at how it actually looked.
Game Evolution
Just like any game, Team Lava Escape evolved from what was a tiny simple game into something much bigger, just like this section, and I’m going to take us down memory lane now.
The most important update was most probably correcting the problems with the game. Most people would join the game, see no one and so be unable to play and leave which is why solo levels had to be introduced to keep players retained until there was enough players to unlock the rest of the game.
As the game was exiting BETA, a huge change happened! The lobby got it’s much deserved redesign by @BySumit transforming it from a dome I made in a few days to something that actually looked good.
When the game exited beta, that was the true turning point of the game and was also when we started to see players enjoy playing and actually say that they would keep playing for a little longer following advertisement’s. The game’s whole purpose was to bring level designers from lower experience into a game where they could showcase their true creativity and from beginning until the end that never changed. Let’s just rewind past some release gameplay over the years (or updates).
The release of the most popular map made by @Onlydishwasher called Volcanic Escape: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1cwRy3f-iho
Map production ramped up in Update 5 with a ton of new and wide range difficulty levels: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vMlc1XGgiEY
Another fan favorite map loved by players consistently ranked 2nd in number of times played by @terminator_ya: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tC9CzwIXfU0
The game’s 3 month long stand still
Because of exams season, Team Lava Escape took a 3 month long break from updates and development for all developer’s sake to pass education. This standstill happened from mid April until mid June and made the game feel very dry for as long as it lasted.
As sad as this was, not every developer went on break…
The summer update that changed everything!
The 2024 summer update was what got players back in. Not every developer has exams to go on an exams break for and those developers played a huge contribution in re-shaping the game again to be more modernised and up to speed with player demand and as developers were coming off of exams break, development went quick!
Let’s not fast forward to much and just appreciate the hyping up for this! We began by giving the lobby a volcanic eruption where players entered the mysterious tunnel that was in the lobby from the start. To be honest, us developers had no idea why we wanted that tunnel anyways but it played a very good role. Take a look!
Than, we started giving out teaser’s for the huge content being added. We knew that players didn’t think that the lobby was all that well fitting which is why @BySumit revisited this idea again to bring a brand new lobby. Fun Fact, The lobby is actually recycled from an abandoned game idea few years before.
3 new maps were introduced including new level designers while keeping the idea of hiring great potential peopele with little experience for the role, map voting was the most requested feature and so I had to deliver and revamp the game’s round systems to allow for map voting and just from the teaser alone the game finally got a revamped UI which has stayed ever since.
The summer update released and it was perfect. This is exactly what players were telling us developers to add from the start and we delivered as well as we could. Just take a look at this!
Fun Facts you never knew:
- When the game was finally discontinued from development, over $350 was spent on developing the game with no external source of income and the game not generating much revenue
- The game was made specifically to showcase the skills of developers that don’t have much professional experience and well I think it may have worked
- Hard difficulty wasn’t good enough so I told @BySumit to make their hardest and biggest level yet. It was so big that it caused it’s own development delays and because of it’s size, lack of navigation and wide spead tactics the new INSANE difficulty was born. It was just meant to be hard(er)
- In 2024 alone, for both developers and QA testers, over 450 applicants applied to job openings with the highest decline reason being due to plagiarism with around 40% of map designer applicant’s being declined for that reason
How is the game now?
Despite it being discontinued from development, it did recieve a few extra updates out of boredom. The most recent one was the Blast to the Past update which once again redesigned the lobby with a mix of all 3 previous lobbys (an inner circle, beach side with islands and the bunker) designed to look like after the recovery of the volcanic eruption.
What’s to come?
Team Lava Escape doesn’t have any more updates planned… But that’s became a new game is on the horizon being inspired by Team Lava Escape, learning from the game critical mistakes and aiming to be a lot better then the current game just on release. Want a sneek peak?
The end
Well, that’s the end of this huge 2 year anniversary rant about how the game has progressed. If there’s any games developers out that or people that are aspiring to be games developer’s than please use this to your advantage. I’ve talked a lot about how we made it through production and I did that not just because it’s the game’s anniversary but also to help developer’s of all types understand what we did well and what we failed to do so that future game’s will be better. Even if you’re not developing on Roblox, this still applies!
Thank you to all players that played the game up to this point, all the developers behind the every aspect of the game which I will credit below and thanks to you all for reading this. Can’t wait for this new game, it will have you racing to understand…
TEAM LAVA ESCAPE CREDITS:
Main Development Team:
@TaylorDev_RBLX - Lead Developer, Creative Director and Programmer
@Lobezno413 - UI Designer
@chapilp - Music Composer
@BySumit - Level Designer
@Yakine0707 - Level Designer
@kornelatos - Level Designer
@panawowwow - Badges and Gamepasses Icon Designer
Special Guests and Colleberations:
@Onlydishwasher - Special Guest Level Designer (For Volcanic Escape)
@rev2505 - Team Lava Escape X Burn Out game collab (2024) (PLAY HERE)
@DJstudio0 - Team Lava Escape X Cyber Jump (PLAY HERE)
Feel free to check out the update logs for more in-depth understanding of how updates changed the game: Team Lava Escape Update Logs