This is a post targeted towards game designers and group owners who have just started off hiring people, and it is a basic go-to guide for rules and etiquette of how to hire people, what to watch out for and what to avoid based on employees, and how to make the most out of what money you have before you hire. This might become a series, with future ones on how to keep devs working with you and how to synergise with people you are with.
This post can also be used by people who want to get hired to know what sorts of things successful clients are looking for when they hire people.
Everything here comes from my personal experience of hiring the good, the bad, and the ugly for my projects for the past five years. I am not some rich company who hires people with thousands of USD annually, but I am just a Roblox dev who uses robux to get competent people to help out on his games. If you want insider Triple A knowledge, this is not the post for you.
This is not an exclusive list, and I will be adding on to it as time goes on. Everyone are welcomed to put in their own points in the comments to help us make a comprehensive list for anyone wanting to hire devs for their game.
What sorts of clients and jobs are devs looking for?
Of course to start any tutorial on hiring devs, you must know what sort of jobs devs most want to be hired for. That way, you can tailor your job as much as possible to meet that demographic to have as many job offers as you possibly can.
In general, roblox devs consider these three main things in order of propinquity: The effort, the money, the work environment.
Effort : How much time and effort do you expect the dev to give up to get their pay. Devs are lazy creatures, they want to get their money as soon as possible, and with least work possible. Therefore, the less work you have them do, the higher the chance you can get someone to want to work for you. This means, you should only have them do the job that you really need them to do, and see if you can do the rest yourself. This can be, making sure you get the UI done for a scripter to code it, rather than expecting them to do it themselves (unless if you are prepared to pay extra). However, if you are wanting the dev to put in a lot of effort, be prepared to compensate them on the money.
Money : How much money robux/usd/discord nitro/fame/ whatever you are willing to offer to the dev for their services. Generally, the more you offer, the more likely you will get devs wanting to work for you. Sometimes, if you cannot offer the easy work or good work environment, you will need to compensate your devs on paying them more. This is true vice versa also, if you do not want to pay your devs too much, complete the menial tasks first, and offer a good working condition to make them be happy to work at a lesser fee.
Work environment : This is all about how “fun” it is for a dev to work for you. How polite you are, how easy it is for them to stay around you, and how rewarding the team dynamic is at your game/group/ stuidio is. Having a good work environment would allow devs to suffer with more effort, and work with less pay because they enjoy working for you. Make sure you are always polite, and social towards your team members. However, you must know when to be pushy in order to get a project done, and learn how to be pushy without coming off as rude. Sometimes, if you have such a fun team, devs would even want to work for hours for absolutely free. If you are personally friends with them, it would make the work environment especially more enjoyable. That is why for someone starting off, having a small, tightly knit team can really save you money in the long run.
How to hire devs?
Now that you know what sorts of work devs are generally looking for, how are you going to hire devs? Below I’ve listed a few of the ways of getting devs from least effective to best.
Doing nothing : This is a pretty effective strategy if you are already famous, since you will have devs flocking to you to wanting to help left, right and centre. However, if you are not that great as of right now, this strategy will ensure you will never get anyone to help you out on your game. Not recommended unless you are rich and famous.
Going to dev hire platforms : Games like GRP, communities like Hidden developers, Rodevs, DevForum community, etc. are all good for getting mediocre devs who would work for a cheap price. However, scammers are many, and even more numerous are undedicated children who would abandon your project the moment they realise they need to do work. They would make up some excuse like “I have school” and then just never get back to you on your projects. Most devs on these platforms have just started off, therefore they are slow, inexperienced, and incompetent, and their prices are often inflated. There is the rarity where you can come across a good dev once every few months, but you’re in for a very long wait. Not very recommended unless if you are immortal and have over a thousand years to finish your game.
Hiring friends and family : This is one of the best options for someone starting off. If you have friends who are good at developing, you can oftentimes hire them for free to do something fun with you. This is also good for family/ friend bonding, and could be cathartic. However, if you are a typical roblox dev who’s way into their late teens/ early twenties, you are very rarely going to have friends/ family who cares about you or roblox. Because of this, this method might not work for everyone. It is also very rare for you to have friends who are good devs, and would often lead to you just making a mediocre game that won’t attract much revenue. Development is stressful, and it may strain your relationship with any friends/ family you hire, so be prepared to lose them if things go south. Recommended, but only if you have good dev friends.
Building good connections and reputation : This is by far the best way you are going to have in order to work your way up in the Roblox developing world. Each time you finish a commission for someone, leave a good mark on them so they might want more. Each time you have someone work for you, leave a good impression so they might want to work with you again. Make friends with everyone, and soon they will recommend their friends to you. Don’t be that stingy client who is difficult to work with, and don’t be that scammer who everyone knows about and avoids. The better connections you build, and the more you talk/ inquire to others about recommendations, the better position you will be. People only recommend people they trust themselves to their friends, so you can be sure that anyone who got recommended to you is reliable. They will often give a discount if you both have a mutual friend. A slight drawback is that building connections and a good reputation takes time. Many devs aren’t dedicated enough to do this. Despite this, this method is highly recommended and in my opinion, it is the best way to have good, competent, long term developers.
What sorts of people to hire?
Now that you have followed my methods of how to get people to want to work with you, you are flooded by dev applications. So what sorts of people are you going to pick? The below are a few points to consider from the least significant to the most significant.
Age : Sure the world will tell us not to discriminate on age. But having someone who is over 13 is probably good for you. I am not saying there aren’t good young devs out there, but the chance of you having someone capable and mature at such a young age is slim. You’re better off hiring someone who does not have safechat just for better quality of life eventually so you don’t need to always be speaking to each other in tags.
Communications : Does the person you are hiring have a mutual communication platform with you? Having roblox private messages just isn’t going to cut it. In order to have a good dev/ client relationship, communication is crucial. Do you both have discord/ facebook/ instagram/ or any other online messaging service to keep each other communicated? If not, I would recommend you steer away as it’ll lead to a lot of unnecessary problems in the future. Again, this is not politically correct, but it comes from my experience.
Synergy : Are you two able to be friends and discuss matters politely? If you cannot even hold a conversation with each other without an argument, you should probably not be hiring them. Development is stressful enough, having someone there who is constantly arguing with you is just going to make your life a thousand times worse. Don’t hire someone with anger issues, someone who is clearly incompatible, or someone who is just antisocial to the highest degree. Sure you should not discriminate, but if you two cannot synergise each other, you are not going to be doing your future self favours hiring them.
Competency How capable and professional does the dev you are hiring look? Make sure to ask them for any past works, check out their portfolio, and even try contacting their previous clients to see how good they are if it is going to be a high stakes commission. Sure people say to not judge people by appearances, but you should also take a look at their avatar.
A seriously “nooby” avatar is a sign of someone who hasn’t had many successful commissions in the past. If they were rich, they would be able to at least afford something to look professional.
An avatar with a ton of limiteds to make them look super rich should also be avoided. That is a sign that they are trying too hard to get hired, and are relying on their avatar to be hired than relying on their skills. Majority of the best devs on Roblox do not wear expensive limiteds. The ones that do are often new money or people with a real life job/ rich parents, and maybe even scammers a lot of the time.
I have said to avoid the two above types, but the exception proves the rule. I know some really good devs who choose to dress up like bacons, and I have friends who are great developers who do the faux pas of the “limited spam” on their avatars. But they do that more for jokes, and they are consciously breaking a rule they are already aware of. This is just like how in real life, you are not going to trust a suitcase of a million dollars to someone dressed like a hobo, nor someone blinged out like a rapper.
Again, the above are just from my own experience, and in no way a comprehensive list. I am open for opinions of others and any additional points they want to put forth. Please tell me if you do not agree on any of my points above and how they could be edited.
If you have any success or horror stories of hiring people, please post below.
