This change feels like an admission of defeat. Part of the reason why so many players flock to shopping games is because of the difficulty navigating through Roblox’s own Marketplace.
Seeing this post, I wanted to know how hard it’d be for a new customer to find more of my items on Roblox’s Android app. Simple enough, right? Browse the Marketplace, and there’s a cute set of Comfy Example Earmuffs! Maybe they’ve also made a Warm Example Scarf to match!
- Open the Details panel of the item
- Tap the Creator link, loading to their UGC Group
- Tap the Store tab
- Tap See All
I’m at the Marketplace home page.
I’m not at the Comfy Example Earmuffs. I’m at the Home page, the page I was on before visiting the Marketplace.
- Tap the bottom right menu
- Tap the Marketplace button
- Search “Earmuffs”
- Scroll past dozens of items named “Earmuffs” until I find the Comfy Example Earmuffs
- Open the Details panel again
Back at the Comfy Example Earmuffs, there’s a direct link in the description to the group’s store page!
- Tap the link
- Tap the link
- Tap… Tap the link?
It’s not a hyperlink. It won’t do anything. Links in item descriptions don’t work in the Android app.
- Tap the Creator to open their UGC Group again
- Hold a tap to select and copy their Group name, DoctorExampleNameHere
- Exit out of the Group view
- Exit out of the Details panel
- Open the Filters panel
- Paste their group’s name under the Creator field
- Apply
We’re finally here! We’re at their store! We’re at… Their old store. Classic clothing, maybe a few old hats from before creators could upload UGC to groups. If the group name is the same as someone’s username, the Creator Filter will only show uploads from the user…
…Unless you put a space directly after the group name, and then, at long last, there it is. Comfy Example Earmuffs, and oh, oh! Look, Knit Example Cap! And it only took over a dozen steps and a counterintuitive workaround to get here!
With how heavily Roblox is pushing for shopping experiences, it’s a little ironic that the one which consistently pulls thousands of players, the one which has hundreds of UGC creators setting up stores in-game, the one which was given this year’s Innovation Award for Best Use of Fashion, is Catalog Avatar Creator. At its heart an overhauled version of the catalog we have today.
If you find an item you like, you can open the details panel, and tap the creator’s name to see more of their work.