Who They Are and How they Got There: The Featured Games Developers (July 2018)

In case you missed it, we have a new list of Featured Games available to play! These games were posted on June 23rd, and we’ve loved playing them all so far!

When you see the Featured Games posted, you might be asking yourself “how do I get my game on the Featured Games list? What do devs with Featured Games do to their games to get them selected?” We wonder the same, and decided to ask the devs behind the June 23 sort!

Inspiration:

Every developer has to start somewhere, and we were curious where our Featured Games developers decided to start their development on the game available in the Featured sort today. Inspiration came from multiple different sources, and each developer had a different story to tell.

Some developers, such as MapelMarvel, Defaultio, MasterOfTheElements and WhoToTrus, find inspiration from games, movies, or conversations around them. MapleMarvel found inspiration through some SciFi movies he was watching, and decided to make a jetpack game; Defaultio drew inspiration from a conversation with a college roommate two years ago. WhoToTrus mentioned finding inspiration for his game from other games, such as Sims 3, where he found his creativity was limited. This restriction is what he took to his development partners, UnderMyWheel and KeysOfFate, who then worked together to create a limitless game. MasterOfTheElements was struck by a snowboarding game trailer that he saw two years back.

Other developers, such as ScriptOn and TriggerThirst found inspiration from other games and genres already on the Roblox website.

Added Roblox Features:

Developers all over Roblox deploy different tools and effects to bring their games to life. The Featured Games developers are no different; this crew used multiple tools to make their games what you play today. Tools and features mentioned included ammo, power ups, badges, and sound effects, but the one most commonly referenced was Roblox’s terrain tools. ScriptOn references Roblox’s Terrain water specifically, and believes it helped differentiate his game, Pocket Pirates. MasterOfTheElements leveraged the Roblox terrain tool to create a dynamic map design as he built out the ski resort that his game is set in.

How Do You Get Featured?

We couldn’t let the opportunity pass to get advice on how to get featured. While there’s no guidebook to getting your game featured, the Featured Games developers gave lots of feedback across different points of development. Here’s what they said:

“Just keep making stuff that you’re interested in making. When you’re starting out, don’t worry about if your games are any good or even if they’re finished. Your first games are all going to be bad, and it’s perfectly normal to have fifty or a hundred or more unfinished project files that nobody is ever going to see. What’s important is that you’re working on something. It doesn’t matter what it is, just keep making stuff.” - Defaultio

“First, try to make your game as approachable for all age ranges as possible. Second, use FilteringEnabled. Third, Use Roblox’s filter everywhere, for safety/privacy reasons.”- ScriptOn

“Make something unique! Roblox wants to showcase the things that stand out, to show what us developers truly are capable of doing, and by making something truly different, you’re going to impress a lot of people!” - MasterOfTheElements

“The best thing you can do before submitting your game to be featured is testing it thoroughly so you can assure that it is ready to be featured when Roblox employees review the game.” - UnderMyWheel, WhoToTrus, KeysOfFate

That’s it from this Featured Game sort developers! Check out the Featured Games sort and play their games, or Tweet at them using the links below! The next Featured Games sort will be posted on July 10th, be sure to check back for some words of wisdom from those developers.

Interested in Getting Featured?

Our team sees a lot of different games submitted to be featured. While we wish we could feature all of the games on Roblox, only a handful of games can be featured each month. In order to get your game to the top of the list, there are a few other considerations you should make (aside from those provided by our Featured Games devs!).

Anyone hoping to get their game featured should consider the following questions, and have answered all of them for your game:

  1. Does your game have the following?

    • Gameplay Loop
    • Progression Loop
    • Social Loop
  2. What features can be implemented into your game to boost player retention?

  3. Do you have a balanced monetization strategy in place?

  4. What is your target audience and how will you market your game with this knowledge?

  5. Take advantage of your analytical data to see which areas you can improve on.

  6. Does your game have an international audience to help boost player count/retention?

  7. What platforms does your game run on?

    • Have you already tested your game on these platforms (to the best of your ability)?
  8. How does the future development timeline for your game look like after answering the questions above?

Want to check out the Featured Game developers elsewhere? Follow them on Twitter or check their Roblox profile:

@anon89973268 Twitter | Roblox Profile
@TriggerThirst Twitter | Roblox Profile
@Defaultio Twitter | Roblox Profile
@MasterOfTheElements Twitter | Roblox Profile
@WhoToTrus Twitter | Roblox Profile
@UnderMyWheel Twitter | Roblox Profile
@KeysOfFate Twitter | Roblox Profile
@MapleMarvel Roblox Profile
@Chaotic_Cody Twitter | Roblox Profile
@Widgeon Twitter | Roblox Profile
@Otuomi Twitter | Roblox Profile
@ScriptOn Twitter | Roblox Profile
@Sethalonian Twitter | Roblox Profile

39 Likes

I’m hoping I can use this as inspiration and fuel to get myself somewhere someday. Great developer stories, looking forward to seeing more from the developers.

4 Likes

Some cool games this time around. Nice choices!

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It would be pretty cool to get my work up here.

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It’s really nice to see the feature sort getting a lot of love recently!
Being part of one of the earliest cycles, it has been fun.

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Radical! Thanks for the opportunity!

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This was the same for me, but the game was Rollercoaster Tycoon :grinning:

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:grinning:

This is very helpful advise for both veteran and new developers on Roblox! For anyone that sees this comment, and to add on to what Defaultio said in his quote, no matter how long it takes for you to figure something out, just keep on trying; you’ll never know when you might use what you figured out in projects you do later on down the road.

4 Likes

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