Keep making great games–we’ll pay you for it!

We have really exciting news to share with you today. We at ROBLOX are putting much effort into enabling, encouraging, and rewarding our developers and creators — and we think you’ve only scratched the surface of what can be done. Today we’re launching Developer Central, a hub on ROBLOX.com for all things development-oriented.

You’ll find Developer Central on the Develop page, which has replaced Build in the main navigation bar. The Develop page is similar to the Build page, but will be home in the coming weeks and months to a variety of developer-centric features, such as metrics that provide insight into how your creations are performing (how many visits? how long do people play?), special forums, toolkits, tips about what successful games do well, and more.

One of the first pieces of Developer Central is our Developer Exchange, or DevEx. In an effort to give our community further incentive to create fantastic games, DevEx lets successful developers exchange the ROBUX they earn for real-world currency. DevEx can be accessed from a tab on the Develop page.

As you can see, there are a few requirements that need to be met in order to participate. First, you need to have earned at least 100,000 ROBUX. You can cash this amount out at $100.00 USD. The cap is set at 500,000 ROBUX (or $500.00 USD). We anticipate adding additional participation levels in the future. Second, you need to have a PayPal account, as this is how earnings will be paid out. You also need to have verified your e-mail address with ROBLOX.

Finally, you need to be an Outrageous Builders Club member. While we’re not ready to reveal many specific details just yet (we’re contemplating additional features such as special access to ROBLOX engineers through dedicated forums and chat, perhaps a developer program-only test environment, and more), OBC is going to be transitioning to a developer-centric membership program; DevEx is a key feature of that program. It’s entirely possible that successful developers could use the Developer Exchange to pay for their OBC membership and still have plenty of cash left. If you qualify, you can participate in DevEx once each calendar month.

Big picture, we think this will give our builders and developers incentive to not only create stellar games and places on ROBLOX but also help them see serious ROBLOX game development for what it really is: a job. If you’re producing some of the top content on ROBLOX, you deserve to be compensated for your work. That’s a core idea behind DevEx. We’ll be bringing you more news about Developer Central and our Developer Program as it, um, develops.

We’ll also make be sure to highlight Developer Exchange success stories whenever possible. Imagine a power-user cashes out and buys a car to get to and from college–all from developing a popular game on ROBLOX. This is the kind of story we can’t wait to tell.

We interviewed starmarine614 back in July, shortly after the introduction of Paid Access. We chatted with him because ROBLOX Point, which was still in beta at the time, was the first game to find significant success using the feature. We told him then to contact us when he was finished building his project, so I wasn’t surprised to get a message from him on ROBLOX a few days ago that read: “It’s finished, and it’s picture-ready.”

Calling ROBLOX Point “picture-ready” is a bit of an understatement, though not incorrect by any means. It’s beautiful. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a sprawling amusement park that features some of the most advanced roller coasters we’ve experienced on our platform. Like any good theme park, there are enough rides and attractions in ROBLOX Point to make a day of exploration an exciting prospect–though the rides are the primary selling point.

“I basically took a six-month break from ROBLOX, and when I decided to come back, I saw that rollercoasters were becoming popular. They were a lot smoother and more realistic,” recalls Starmarine614. “I got really inspired to go out and build the biggest theme park possible, with the coolest looking rides.”

We had to ask what the creative process is when building such massive and realistic rollercoasters. Before revealing a recently adopted method of building, Starmarine614 explains to me that before, building rollercoasters was an extremely time-consuming and tedious procedure.

“Basically you’d have to make a ‘guide brick’ for each rung on the coaster, then build the rails around that brick. Once the rails were connected, you could rotate both the rails and ‘guide brick’ to determine the direction of the coaster,” he says. “You would do this rung by rung, until the coaster was complete.”

Starmarine614 is a busy guy–between a full college load (he’s a freshman) and a full-time job, he knew he would have to come up with a method of building that would take less time, but still give him complete creative control. For this, he tapped members of the ROBLOX Coaster Corporation to create a “Coaster Converter”–a virtual toolbox that completely streamlines the process.

“With the Coaster Converter, you’re given all the tools you need right up front to just dress around the ‘guide bricks’–essentially automating the coaster track creation. Now, all you really have to do is create an outline of the coaster you want to build, then dress the outline using the Coaster Converter toolbox.”

“If only it was that simple back in 2009,” he adds with a laugh. “With these tools you can create an entire rollercoaster in under 30 minutes, though if you really want to make a complex creation you’ve got to spend some time on the outline.”

He tells me that every single rollercoaster in ROBLOX Point took at least a solid week to complete, and that getting them to truly feel real is a process of trial and error. He also names many members of his group, which is the biggest rollercoaster group on ROBLOX currently, as being integral parts of creating the Coaster Converter. You can find all the pieces of the Coaster Converter as a set right here.

We also asked Starmarine614 about the sheer scale of ROBLOX Point–at 40,000 parts, it’s heavy on computations and generally can’t run so well on dated hardware. According to Starmarine614, that was precisely the point.

“I didn’t spend any time focusing on optimizing this game for dated hardware,” he recalls. “I wanted to make the most realistic theme park to ever come out on ROBLOX, period. End of story. I know ROBLOX Point has gotten quite a few dislikes, not because users don’t like it, but because they don’t have the hardware needed to actually play the game. You also get a lot of dislikes just by making a game Paid Access.”

This is where our soon-to-be-released Streaming Parts feature could benefit not just Starmarine614, but players who are running slower hardware and want to experience ROBLOX Point. We’ve gone through the technical details of this feature in a previous article, and Starmarine614 tells us he can’t wait to see how this will affect his game.

“I was talking to [Shedletsky] today and he was telling me that my game will run twice as fast with this update, and that I’ll be able to make the park even bigger than it is now,” he says enthusiastically. “I’m in the process of working on a brand new park, and with this feature, I could probably just add it to my existing park!”

An early look at starmarine614′s new park.

As for this new park, Starmarine614 has grand plans that extend far beyond what you’ve seen in ROBLOX Point. He tells me you’ll hear wind and mechanical creaks and groans in each of the rides. And sound has clearly been on his mind–ROBLOX Point utilizes the Chat Voice system by as to let players express themselves more freely.

“When Chat Voice came out, I picked up the model and dropped it ROBLOX point, and people went completely nuts,” he recalls. “I made 60,000 ROBUX the day I added it.”

Speaking of ROBUX, Starmarine614 was one of our first builders to harness the DevEx program to earn real money–and the timing couldn’t have been better. He was recently in a major car accident that totaled his car (which was his only way to get to work and school). He’s using his monthly earnings to finance his new ride.

“I’m using the cash I earn to put a down payment on my next car. DevEx has changed my thinking entirely. I see it as my second job. I get home from work, take a short break, then work on making games. I love that I can get paid for doing the thing I love most.”

Though he’s satisfied with the overall aesthetic of ROBLOX Point, Starmarine614 still plans on making periodic updates, in addition to the work he’s doing on his brand-new park.

“I’m adding four new rides to ROBLOX Point, and I also plan on making it a more social experience,” he tells me. “I’m opening a shop and a Kestrel store, and you’ll be able to earn currency by riding different rollercoasters.”

He goes on to tell me that Team Rudimentality (the ever-evolving and boundary-pushing team behind Strobe and many other innovative titles) has expressed interest in building a team deathmatch game using his map, where teams would spawn on the opposite ends of the park and fight amongst the rides and attractions.

Starmarine614 took me to this secret location which contains the biggest rollercoaster he’s ever built. It goes throughout the entire map and is comprised of over 15,000 parts. It took a few tries (the lag kept shutting down the game) but the wait was totally worth it.

Per our usual Spotlight article, we couldn’t end the interview without asking Starmarine614 what advice he’d give to ROBLOX builders looking to replicate his success. We leave you with his thoughts:

Utilize every single feature that you possibly can. Fame disappears in the blink of an eye. Paid Access is what got me to the front page, and got me the publicity I have now. I understand that certain users don’t want to pay to play, but if you want to accomplish your goals, you can’t always do what the majority wants. You can’t please everyone. The best you can do is create something, then work as hard as you can on that creation. Hard work means more than fame, and leaves a longer lasting impression in the community.

A big thanks go out to many members of the ROBLOX Coaster Corporation: 1wolf1person, ErikWesley96, Exoguti093, Spacek531, EricThePianoGuy, Misitiero, Carthay, Asimo3089, Textmasterthe9th, and Matthew11996. Oh, and ROBLOX Point is free for the weekend. Enjoy!

Reaching out to top ROBLOX developers showed us that many of them are just like you: gamers, movie enthusiasts, and digital media consumers.

“I’m using each payment to save up for an Alienware PC,” says SONICTHEHEDGEHOGXX, Commander in Chief of F.E.A.R., one of ROBLOX’s largest groups.  “DevEx promotes creativity with my games, and really makes me want to put more time and effort into the places I create. Thank you for adding this feature.”

“I’m also going to be buying lifetime OBC,” he adds.

Developer Rukiryo has made several popular titles, including POKEMON REBORN and BLEACH, and is using DevEx to supplement his future. He’s using some of the cash he earned to pay the web hosting fees for a new site where he’ll be hosting games made by he and his friend.

“I’m also going to be using the monthly cash to afford the insane $300.00 a month insurance we have here in Canada. Long term, I’m hoping the money I earn will help me start a programming company business. My partners and I make games currently but we’d like to move onward and start developing things more technology-oriented,” he continues.

You probably know user StarMarine614 as builder of ROBLOX Point–he’s also been using DevEx to help rebuild in the wake of a automobile accident.

“So far, DevEx has been a very helpful feature that I’ve used to help me put a down payment on a new car. Now that I have it, I have no problem getting to and from work,” he says. “I’m a very busy person–I have two jobs and am attending college, and ROBLOX is my free-time hobby. Since DevEx released, I see ROBLOX game development as more of a job, and it inspires me to continue making new and original ROBLOX content.”

“I’ll be finishing my expansion of ROBLOX Point, and am currently developing a FPS game for everyone to enjoy,” he adds. “I’m working on getting a college degree, and look forward to using DevEx to pay for more college classes in the future.”

While each person we talked to has a vastly different use for the money they’ve earned, you can see the bigger picture: making great games on ROBLOX has a lot of upside. Not only is it possible to take home some cash and support other hobbies and life pursuits, but it’s an opportunity to learn the ropes of software development while having fun. We can’t wait to hear more stories about how our developers take advantage of DevEx. Even if it’s NERF.

Our Developer Exchange program has been available for two months now, and we’ve been keeping a close eye on the numbers to determine not only how developers are leveraging the new system, but which direction this should go in the future. As with any new feature, we’ve also been interacting with as many participants as possible–their stories continue to inspire us to find ways to reward the prolific and hard-working game developers who populate ROBLOX with fresh and exciting content every day.

Let’s have a look at some numbers, shall we?

• Total amount of cash earned since DevEx debut: $29,550

Let’s see how we arrived at that number:

• Total amount of cash earned in October: $16,500
• Number of individuals who used DevEx in October: 63
• Average amount of cash earned per individual in October: $262.70
• Total amount of cash earned in November: $13,050
• Number of individuals who used DevEx in November: 55
• Average amount of cash earned per individual in November: $237.27

We’ve begun internal discussions about the Developer Exchange. Should we raise the maximum amount our developers can earn? Would doing so change the quality of the games on ROBLOX? For better or worse? These are just some of the many questions we’ve been asking one another, though the bottom line is this: we want to reward those who treat ROBLOX game development as a serious, worthwhile endeavor rather than just a hobby. Speaking to that effect, we caught up with a couple more developers who have leveraged DevEx to supplement their real life expenses. Jojomen56, creator of ROBLOX Survivor (and the soon-to-come 2.0) spends the money he earns in an instant–as a young college student, there are many bills to be paid.

“To be honest, the money is gone each and every month,” he tells me. “It helps me pay for my car and my college fees. What’s awesome is that when I receive DevEx money, I ask my boss for less hours, meaning I can spend more time developing ROBLOX games.”

ROBLOX Survivor has been visited nearly two million times, and has earned Jojomen56 millions of ROBUX through clever implementations of Game Passes and Paid Access.

“I basically try to make beneficial Game Passes that aren’t necessarily required to enjoy my game, but make a big difference in how my game is played. I’m also working on ROBLOX Survivor 2.0, and I’ve made the beta Paid Access,” he tells me. “That way I can get feedback and earn some ROBUX. I grant privileges to those who purchase Paid Access when the game actually comes out.”

The second developer we talked to has a name you may not recognize, though we definitely encourage you to remedy that by checking out The Chair by Vert6. The puzzler has been played over 100,000 times, and Vert6 was able to earn over a million ROBUX selling VIP shirts that allow players to obtain the rare items sprinkled throughout the labyrinth.

I always manage to screw up the cool parts.

“I got the idea to create two rooms with fun gear you can use, but only if you have the ‘The Chair’ t-shirt. After setting some reasonable prices, hundreds of people began buying the shirts so they could have access to all the gadgets in the map,” he explains.

Vert6 is an interesting case for the DevEx books; he shows there are indeed ways to make serious money without creating an uber-popular title with millions of plays. If you’ve got a solid title it’s important to develop monetization strategies that give players incentive to purchase supplemental items or gear. As for where the money is going?

“I’ve made $750 so far, and I put the majority of that cash towards my tuition. I’m going to a two-year technical college to become a web-based computer programmer,” he tells me. “I’m using the rest of the money to buy my girlfriend a nice Christmas present.”

Stay classy, Vert6. Stay classy.

Another month has passed, and our intrepid developers continue to earn real-life cash via our Developer Exchange program. We’ve cashed out over $46,000.00 since we introduced the Developer Exchange in early October. We promised then that we’d be keeping a close eye on what ROBLOX developers are doing with the money they earn, as well as how they managed to earn it. Before we get to personal anecdotes, let’s look at the latest statistics.

Statistics

• Total cash earned since October: $46,550.00
• 63 developers earned a total of $14,850.00 in November
• Average November earnings: $235.71
• 65 developers earned a total of $15,150.00 in December
• Average December earnings: $233.07

Creative Director John Shedletsky, who works closely with our game-development community, chimed in with his thoughts on DevEx thus far.

The ROBLOX Developer Exchange is one of the most exciting experiments that we have ever run at ROBLOX, and one that we are watching closely. In the three months that DevEx has been live, ROBLOX game creators (i.e., famous names you would recognize from the Games page) have made more than $46,000 USD total. Needless to say, this has been a very popular feature for some people, and there is a lot of demand for us to expand the program.  

The great news for developers trying to earn money on ROBLOX is that here in R&D, we’re looking at a continuous stream of developer-oriented features that are going to come out in the first quarter of this year. So from where I sit, on ROBLOX at least, 2014 is shaping up to be the “year of the developer.” 

Stories from the community

We got the chance to talk with some of the developers who have earned cash this past month to see what they’ve been working on, and where the money is going. Our first interview was with EncryptX, developer of the popular ROBLOX title, The Bermuda.

ROBLOX: Seems like you’re making a real killing selling Game Passes and gear for your place.

EncryptX: Game Passes are huge for me, and have been very successful. The two that sell the most are the VIP and Pilot’s License. They add both abilities and functionality. The VIP Game Pass helps you complete quests, while the Pilot’s License adds more to the fun factor of the game. It allows you to explore the map more efficiently and in a different way.

ROBLOX: Do you have any plans in particular for the money you’re earning?

EncryptX: I plan on getting a nice pair of western boots, and plan on paying my dad back for my umpiring gear. After that I’ll start keeping some of the money aside to save up to get a car.

ROBLOX: Any advice you care to share with people looking to replicate your success?

EncryptX: Keep working at whatever you do and make. Success doesn’t happen overnight, it takes genuine dedication. I spend a lot of time making nice in-game structures, and graphics for badges, thumbnails and decals. Put in the work.

I also had the chance to have a brief chat with BRIANO10, leader of The Real U.S.S.F, one of ROBLOX’s largest military groups. This was his DevEx story:

I put a lot of hard work into my games and people really seem to enjoy it. The compliments and mass amount of friend requests were always enough of a reward for me, but now I can make real money from all the hard work I put in. My friends and family would see what I was doing on ROBLOX and say, “that’s cool, but it’d be even cooler if you were able to make real money.” Now I actually am making real money.

I’m going to save some money to get my first car, and use some of it to maintain my super computer. I’m thinking about getting a nice big GTX 780 GPU in a few months. I still have a lot of ROBUX to cash in and a lot more games to make.

As always, we’ll continue to track the numbers and share our findings with the community. We’re also still in constant talks about various ways to improve DevEx to reward our prolific builders — it’s your hard work and perseverance that make ROBLOX what it is, after all. Stay tuned.

With the launch of new features like Developer Products and our new game universe framework, we’re giving ROBLOX developers more tools than ever before to make high-quality games that can earn massive amounts of ROBUX, which can now be exchanged for real-world currency using our Developer Exchange program. In our last DevEx article, we mentioned that the monthly limit on how much cash you could earn had risen to $2,000. We’ve adopted a new philosophy this month that we’d like to share with you: Limits? Nah.

Starting today we will cash out developers for up to $10,000 a month. That’s not a typo. Read it again if you must. This change is in an effort to reward those who spend the time and put forth the effort it takes to be serious ROBLOX game developers. Why $10,000? Does that seem like a ridiculously high number? Sure, which is exactly what we were going for. Nobody on ROBLOX makes enough ROBUX to cash out for that amount just yet — we’re hoping this new cap changes your perspective. With all the new features unveiled recently, we want our developers to start wondering how to earn the greatest amount of cash possible making ROBLOX games. We want you to begin leverage the features and updates we’ve worked hard to launch. We want you to be the first ROBLOXian to earn $10,000 a month making games on ROBLOX.

Now that the cap is set at $10,000, there is absolutely no question about it: you can make a living developing ROBLOX games. Create the game you’ve always dreamed of creating, get it out there, and earn yourself some cash. Take advantage of Developer Products, Game Passes, and the new development features we’ve launched to make massive and ambitious games. Monetize your games in ways that were previously impossible. Our wallet is open. Show us the next level of ROBLOX games.

Fueled by ROBLOX. It’s the foundation behind all of the updates you’ve undoubtedly noticed in the past few weeks and months. Developer Products, massive games composed of multiple places, Data Persistence, the Developer Exchange program — these are all features we’ve enabled to ensure that you  have not only all the tools you need to build anything you can imagine, but share it in a way that earns you recognition, massive profits, real currency, and credibility as a game developer.

That said, we understand that many of you have questions about what these changes mean, both for now and for the future. That’s why we decided to answer some popular inquiries in this blog article. It’s been awhile — so we tapped Creative Director John Shedletsky to respond to some feedback!

[Editor’s note: Though we have sometimes used the term “universes” in the past, now that this capability has been introduced we’re referring to these simply as games. Every game has a “lobby” or starting place through which players enter the game (though of course a game can also have multiple other places within it). Going forward, you’ll see us talk only about Games and Place — we hope that you do the same!]

Janthran: How does the accounting for “Active Player Count” within a game work for the purposes of a game showing up on the “Popular” sort on the Games page?

Shedletsky: Here’s how it works. All running places in a game contribute to the “Active Player Count.” This is the number you see on the Games page. However, only the lobby of your game appears with the aggregated count — places that exist inside the game you create are invisible on the Games page.

Follow up from Janthran: Do game owners get a ticket for each visit to each place in a game?

Shedletsky: No. The traffic bonus is only awarded for visits to the lobby (starting place) of any given game. No bonus is given for intra-game teleports. Also, I’m sure some clever ROBLOXians will try to make an infinite amount of tickets by teleporting people back and forth to their start places. But like all other traffic awards, we throttle these cases based on visit-frequency.

Like we did with our Ski Lodge during the Winter Games, create a starting point that interconnects all of your games around one centralized location.

DrViridium: Do game visits count towards your total visit count on your profile?

Shedletsky: The “Total Visits” counter on your profile only includes visits to active places. We believe it is probably correct to count intra-game visits on this page. Are we right? What do you guys think?

Arceuslnator: Why is selling cross-game Developer Products disabled?

Shedletsky: OK. Say I sell a Developer Product for your game. People pay me for it. Then they go to your game, and it doesn’t work. They become angry — is that really what you want?

Follow up from Arceuslnator: Are there any plans to allow game owners to create Developer Products with a script? Similar to the way places are created?

Shedletsky: Interesting suggestion! This is something we may implement in the future. It would be easy to add technically — though it would place much more responsibility on the game creator to keep up with their books.

TylerMcBride: Badges from a game should be awardable anywhere in a game.

Shedletsky: I agree. All badges for a game (and all Game Passes for that matter) should appear in the start place for that game. This is a design oversight that will be corrected soon.

Pyrolysis: How about adding the ability to show a custom message during a teleport?

Shedletsky: Ha! Sorcus and the Games Team would love that. We’re thinking about putting up a transition image while a teleport is occurring — as it stands now, the screen flashes in a rather unaesthetic way.

Money128: My friend and I are creating a game together, and want to share in the potential profit we earn. Wouldn’t it be better if we could have a teleportation system so that those who want to use PvP mode (online) would be teleported to either of our places? We haven’t discussed who would get what, but it’d be cool to form “alliances” between you and your friends.

Shedletsky: Let me try and address these comments one issue at a time.

1. Collaborative building of games is a huge and popular request — many of our top builders want improvements to ROBLOX Studio to better support teams of developers working on the same game. There’s a lot to do in this regard — it would make more sense to talk about this in a separate blog post.

More Studio updates are coming.

2. Sharing profits is another popular request — the best way to do this would be to create special Groups seen as “companies” or “corporations” or “studios.” The studio would own all the stuff you’re working on, and you and your friends would own “stock” in your endeavors. You could then create fractional ownership on whatever you’re working on, and profit from your studio’s activities. In a really slick implementation, the stock would even be tradeable.

3. Your comment on “alliances” is interesting. Most games made by multiple people would have to share a common code — so that when players teleported from one level (place) to another, their stats would be saved. This would mean that whoever owns the game code would be in complete power within the game. Within this type of framework, I could imagine a situation where people would have to apply to be included in your game. Whew.

AetherKnight: All we need now is the ability to spin up new instances with scripting. That would mean RTS games could have lobbies and no one would have to wait for a new game to start!

Shedletsky: The last obvious remaining piece of functionality for us to add before players can build their own matchmaking systems is the ability to programmatically create new instances of your games. We’ve actually laid the groundwork for most of this — we just need to wrap it all up. We’re unsure, however, whether this is a feature that people actually want — let us know in the comments if this is a feature you would find useful! 

To close this article, I took a look back at some stats from the last month to see how much money Developer Products has earned some of our top developers. I don’t want to give away any personal information, so let me just put it this way. In the last 30 days, our top 20 developers have earned well over 6 million ROBUX collectively — the games on this list are definitely familiar. Murder Mystery, Darkness 2, Catching Fire: The Hunger Games Sequel, Wheel of ROBLOX — these are just a few of the games that are earning massive amounts of ROBUX utilizing Developer Products in unique ways.

Skybound is killing it right now, earning Imaginerium cash to develop more titles on ROBLOX

Our Developer Exchange program rewards (handsomely) our top developers for creating awesome games and places that are fueled by ROBLOX. We recently raised the monthly DevEx limit, and now we’re pleased to announce that we have collectively paid ROBLOX developers more than $100,000 and are thrilled to have done so. That’s because those dollars ensure that our platform is constantly being populated with quality ROBLOX titles that push their respective genres to their limits. And with recently added features — our brand-new multi-place game framework, data persistence, and consumable in-game items — we’re giving you more tools than ever to start a career in game development.

This cycle is never-ending, and we can’t wait to be surprised by the clever and dynamic ways our developers will utilize these new features. In fact, developers are already embracing their new capabilities. The possibilities inherent in these new (and upcoming) features are massive; and as always seems to be the case with new ROBLOX features (dynamic lighting, anyone?) we will soon see more new games that amaze and inspire. There have been some questions about the Developer Exchange program since it launched, so I’d like to take this opportunity to fully explain our vision. The program exists as one early (but important) piece of a very large picture — we want ROBLOX to be the place for game developers who are looking to make original, innovative games for a vast audience that appreciates their creativity and skill.

As any ROBLOX developer will tell you, our platform can teach you and empower you to make video games. For many, ROBLOX is the beginning of a career in the gaming industry (though we’re starting to see more seasoned developers get on board as well — more on this soon!). Because our platform is dependent on the content our community creates, we want to reward those who have found ways to leverage the tools and features we are constantly adding to their game-making arsenal. If you’re making games that are being played by millions of players leveraging our platform, then you’re a game developer and should be rewarded for your work.

Murder Mystery is fueled by ROBLOX

The big picture revolves around the idea of being fueled by ROBLOX. If you’re fueled by ROBLOX, you have all the tools you need to build anything you can imagine. Your creation has the potential to reach millions — all on servers that we’re happy to manage. To complete the picture, we want some of our most prolific users to earn a living from developing on our platform. We’ve already heard such awesome and amazing stories that serve as a constant reminder that the Developer Exchange is working — DevEx is helping people pay college tuition, put down payments on cars, buy better equipment to build (and play!) better games, and generally live their lives by developing on ROBLOX.

See the bigger picture? We want all developers, from all walks of life, to develop killer ROBLOX games, and get rewarded for doing so. We’re ecstatic that we’ve reached this milestone — and it’s just the first of many. That’s what being fueled by ROBLOX is all about.

Twisted Plastic 2 is one of the top-earning games on ROBLOX right now.

Since the launch of our Developer Exchange late last year, both the number of creators participating and the payouts have been increasing every month. More important, we’ve seen (as was our hope) a real increase in the number and quality of our top games.

Now DevEx is evolving to be an even greater success. Effective this month, we are doubling the exchange rate — 100,000 ROBUX now converts to $200, 200,000 ROBUX converts to $400, and so on, up to a maximum of 5 million ROBUX (which amounts to the much-sought-after $10,000 payout)! We’ve already seen the Developer Exchange inspire quality, creativity, and compelling gameplay; we have no doubt that increasing the amount of money developers can earn will push all of us further — and faster — in that direction.

You could earn up to $120,000 a year by being a successful ROBLOX developer. If the idea of supporting yourself by doing something you love intrigues you — and it should! — check out these recent resources to see what’s possible:

• Prototyping, polishing and releasing a game at scale
• Earning ROBUX with Developer Products (i.e., in-game transactions)
• Making a large-scale game

You can also read about a few people who are already earning serious money off their game-development hobby.

• Nikilis’ “Murder Mystery”
• NearmissTFW’s “Le Bote”
• Loleris and Mad Studio’s library of games

Now that you’re feeling sufficiently inspired, happy developing!

We’re proud to make two exciting announcements today regarding our Developer Exchange program that launched in October. First, we’ve paid out a grand total to date of $175,000 to our builders. We’re happy to report that many of those receiving an income from creating ROBLOX games were motivated by DevEx to start new games, as well as revisit and update older projects they had in development. We also reached another key milestone — TheGamer101 has become the first ROBLOX user(s) ever to cash out for $10,000 in a single month.The co-owned account (shared by twin brothers from Limerick, Ireland) has earned a total to date of $19,000 from developing games on ROBLOX — games that have been played collectively more than 25 million times. This news has been reverberating across the gaming community, and has nabbed headlines on several gaming and tech websites. Don’t take my word for it — pop over to our Press page when you have a moment and check it out.

“The Developer Exchange Program has made ROBLOX more than just a hobby for us,” said TheGamer101. “We used to just do it for fun, but the Developer Exchange Program means that all the time we have spent working on our games on ROBLOX will actually help us pay for our education. We are grateful for the opportunity to make ROBLOX a real job and are looking forward to creating more games on the platform in the future.”

DevEx shows that creating games on ROBLOX can be more than just a hobby — it can be a job (and a really enjoyable one at that). We’re looking forward — as we have since we launched the program — to seeing just how far our developer community can go in creating games that are both popular, and rewarding.

Anecdotes from the community

From loleris, developer of Darkness 2, Intense Sword Fighting, Mad Murderer

Developer Exchange has completely changed how I see game development on ROBLOX. I used to focus on making games that I personally loved to play, and managed to make games that others like to play as well. Today, I analyze my players, and prioritize what will keep them coming back. I strive to make games that people can play for hours, and this mentality shift will be extremely useful when applied to making more games in the future.

Whew.

I’ve used the cash I’ve earned to purchase a new greenhouse in our garden. I was also able to give my mom some spare cash for a trip she took to Spain — I was happy to do it!

From nearmissTFW, developer of Le Bote

I made games solely how I wanted them to be before. Though a lot of players liked my games, many other would give me feedback about things they hoped could be different. DevEx inspired me to try new things. I decided to let other players contribute their own models to my game, and I split the profit from the Game Pass with them to make even more ROBUX. That’s a win-win for the builder, and myself. There’s a lot of talent on ROBLOX, particularly when it comes to building. But a lot of talented builders don’t know how to make actual games. I think DevEx gives them an even bigger incentive to learn how to work together and produce solid titles.

From Rukiryo, developer of Attack on Titan, BLEACH RPG

It’s definitely an incentive to make you listen to fan feedback and add what they want, but overall I don’t think it changes my views on games and I still want to create games that are as fun as possible without being “pay to win.” It encourages me to keep high-quality projects rolling out at a steady pace. DevEx has changed my life, and keeps me on ROBLOX.

From Daxter33, developer of Paintball!

DevEx has made me more motivated to develop because I’m given the opportunity to earn money each and every month. I’m constantly updating and developing my games to continue to earn profits. DevEx has made me much more involved — not only with ROBLOX, but with fans of my game as well. I need to know what’s going on the community. It’s also important for me to keep track of ROBLOX updates — there have been so many features released in the couple of months, so you have to adapt.

It’s been about 10 months since we unveiled our Developer Exchange program and in that time game developers have earned a total of more than $300,000. As the total amount of money earned grows each month, so too does the number of new DevEx participants. TheGamer101 remains the only ROBLOX dev who has earned $10,000 in a single month — something the development duo has actually done twice — though several developers (Floppa98, loleris, and Nikilis, to name a few) have earned over $10,000 total since the Developer Exchange debuted in October. We spoke with three of the top earning developers from June about their achievements and plans for the future.

Gusmanak, co-creator of Apocalypse Rising/Games

Apocalypse Rising has been a mainstay on the front of the games page for years at this point — its long-standing popularity stems from the nature of its gameplay. It’s a deep dive in terms of ROBLOX games, as you can easily spend hours traversing the massive world hunting for loot, avoiding zombies, and forming uneasy alliances with other survivors. Having such a successful title on ROBLOX means keeping the game fresh and continually updating, as Gusmanak told us during his interview:

DevEx has changed our (the game is scripted by Zolarketh) mentality and priorities while developing. We only spend time on the highest priorities — the most important bug fixes, and the most anticipated features have our full attention. ROBLOX has become much more than a hobby now. This is our job, and it’s important for us to make the most of our time.

Both of us are saving DevEx money for college expenses — Zolarketh is currently attending MIT and has a hefty loan to pay off. Since we’re both in school, we treat ROBLOX as a part-time job. We even have an official work schedule set up — Wednesdays and Sundays are our only days off. Since the game is officially under my account, whenever I get paid, I immediately transfer half of the earnings to zolarketh.

SmoothBlockModel, creator of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Don’t Blink!

SmoothBlockModel is a name that is familiar to many ROBLOX gamers — he’s created several smash hits and is continually making new and innovative titles. His success stems from an early passion for building and a self-taught foundation of coding, which he explains in this interview:

When I first joined ROBLOX I was 12. I got into building obbies and simple things, but I became impatient because I would have to rely on other people to do coding for me. I finally decided I had waited long enough, and decided to teach myself how to code, and now here I am!

When I first started earning money off of game development I was using it for clothes and going out. Now that I’m making such a large profit from my games I’ve been putting away a percentage to save for college and am trying to save to get more productive things, like a new computer, and hopefully a new car soon.

Having these popular games taught me a lot about economics. Figuring out how much to sell something for, how much to spend on advertising — it really showed me how to distribute my money. I’ve also learned a ton of advanced math for coding purposes that makes my math classes in high school a breeze.

Imaginaerum, creator of Skybound

Some developers, like Imaginaerum, are excited to use DevEx to not only continue building in ROBLOX, but build outside ROBLOX as well. If you’re wondering what that means, check out what Imaginaerum is doing with his DevEx earnings:

I’ve been using my earnings on lots of different things — from buying video games, to recently paying for a hotel room when I visited San Francisco. I’ve also been buying parts for an awesome desktop PC I’m planning on building. Looking ahead, I’ll be saving portions of the money I earn to put towards a car and higher education.

Ideally I’d like to one day get a job at ROBLOX or Disney as a software developer, though for the time being, developing games on ROBLOX and earning an income through DevEx is a pretty awesome job in and of itself.

These are only three of the hundreds of stories out there. We can now confidently say that DevEx is supplementing the lives of many young developers and encouraging innovation and creativity. We’re proud to be transparent with the numbers the Developer Exchange program is generating — and we’ll continue sharing stories from different developers in the coming months. For now, get out there and create that game that’s been kicking around inside your head — it could pay for your upcoming college semester!

Guest Defense has been one of the top earning games of the summer.

Effective this Friday, August 1st, the exchange rate of our Developer Exchange program is increasing from 20% to 25%. This means that, after converting ROBUX to real-world currency, developers will keep an additional 5% of their game’s earnings. The minimum exchange will be 100,000 ROBUX for $250, and the maximum will be 5 million ROBUX for $12,500 per month.

We launched the Developer Exchange program in October, 2013, and have since paid developers around the world a total of more than $400,000. We’ve seen the program inspire quality, creativity, and exciting gameplay, and are continuing to expand the program to give developers even more incentive to contribute great stuff to the ROBLOX ecosystem.

On a related note, we want to let our Outrageous Builders Club members know that we will soon be changing the name of this membership tier. OBC is a requirement for using the Developer Exchange program, and we want the name to reflect the close ties between the membership and serious game development. If you’re already an OBC member, don’t worry; the features available to you will not change.

The Mad Murderer is one of ROBLOX’s top earning games.

We’re thrilled with the effect our Developer Exchange program — which lets game developers convert their virtual earnings to real-world cash — is having on ROBLOX’s creative ecosystem. Not only are we seeing an increasing enthusiasm for and volume of high-quality games, but a level of business savvy we never anticipated. We’ve already paid developers hundreds of thousands of dollars, and now we’re gearing up to reward them even more. The maximum monthly payout is set to increase once again, this time to a maximum of $20,000 per month, on September 1st.

The Developer Exchange (DevEx) works like this: once a developer accrues at least 100,000 ROBUX, he or she is eligible to convert the virtual currency to real-world cash. While the minimum exchange remains 100,000 ROBUX for $250 per month, the maximum will now be 8 million ROBUX for $20,000 per month. There are various tiers between the minimum and maximum.

To date, we’ve paid hundreds developers a combined total of almost $500,000. Congratulations to those of you who have supported your hobbies and lives with DevEx so far. We hope to see many more of your names in the future!

For more information on ROBLOX game development, check out these recent developer-focused articles:

• The Top Games of the Summer
• Solid Modeling Is Here: A New Way to Build
• Make Smarter NPCs Using New Pathfinding Script Functions
• Game Creation Gets Bigger, Faster, and More Lucrative in 2014

Also, make sure to check out our corporate site for more on the tech that fuels ROBLOX developers’ success.

DevEx not only rewards creators, but encourages high-quality games — like Lumber Inc.

At the end of August, ROBLOX’s Developer Exchange (DevEx) reached an important milestone: $500,000 paid to developers. In less than one year, the program, which allows game developers to exchange their games’ virtual earnings for real-world cash, has grown from its humble beginnings into something that is sparking game development careers — and more. Many ROBLOX developers are using their earnings to support their education, hobbies, and lives in general, all while having fun creating high-quality games using ROBLOX’s robust tools and tech.

Fast Company published an article today featuring our CEO, David Baszucki, about the growth of DevEx and its effects — both on game developers and ROBLOX’s content ecosystem. David described the fast growth of the Developer Exchange as such:

“When we started, we were paying out $500 a month, then $1,000, then $5,000, then $10,000,” founder and CEO David Baszucki told Fast Company. “Some of our developers are starting to make $20,000 a month, which is really significant. … We’re getting developers who are 14 and 20 years of age making more money than their parents, starting to make a professional career of developing games on ROBLOX.”

To date, we’ve fulfilled over 424 DevEx requests to budding developers and game enthusiasts around the world. This includes two requests — from loleris and berezaa — for the previous maximum monthly payout of $12,500, which has increased to $20,000 starting in the month of September.

Berezaa has earned most of his money off his popular game, Two Player Gun Factory Tycoon.

Game developers harness ROBLOX’s integrated game development kit, ROBLOX Studio, as well as game monetization features to create games and earn money. DevEx is meant to not only reward successful game creators, but encourage higher-quality content on ROBLOX. For more information on recent developer features, check out this previous blog post.

Congratulations to all the developers who have helped us reach this milestone!

If you’ve been on ROBLOX any time in the last six months, chances are you’ve heard of Twisted Murderer. Not only has it remained one of the most consistently popular games, accumulating more than 14.5 million total visits since its launch last fall, it’s also been the top earning game. This killer combination has all but guaranteed Twisted Murderer a prime spot at or near the top of the ROBLOX Games charts — and kickstarted Taymaster’s game development career.

Defying the usual lifespan of a video game, Twisted Murder’s barreling momentum continues to this day. In fact, the game has done so well so far this year that Taymaster just achieved yet another huge milestone: he’s become the first person to earn $50,000 in a single month through the ROBLOX Developer Exchange.

“It feels amazing to think millions of awesome people around the world take time out of their own daily lives to play and support the games I make,” Taymaster says. “Never in a million years could I ever imagine receiving a $50K pay check at the end of the month. To me this feels like an unreal dream.”

He’s awake. It’s real. Twisted Murderer is a special game, one that receives a tremendous amount of community support and is driven by a developer who has a good understanding of what players find entertaining.

For starters, Twisted Murderer’s gameplay is unpredictable by nature and the title receives regular content updates, keeping players coming back to experience more bizarre murder antics in new environments. But it also features a layer of extra depth in its in-game shop. You can grab anything from flashy weapons to a boombox that lets you control the soundtrack to accessories inspired by popular memes, all of which work as symbols of experience and self-expression for lots of fans. Twisted Murderer is tied right into the culture of ROBLOX and the internet at large — that’s a big part of why it works so well.

Twisted Murderer is tied right into the culture of ROBLOX and the internet at large — that’s a big part of why it works so well.

Taymaster says he’s been on ROBLOX for roughly eight years. Only in the last year, though, has he started to gain notoriety in the community.

Why does that matter? Because reaching this level of success – getting that seemingly impossible $50,000 payout – doesn’t come easy. It requires an excellent core game, an understanding of your audience, and a lot of dedication.

“Never give up,” Taymaster says. “The first few games I made weren’t exactly ‘popular hits,’ but I didn’t let this get me down to the point where I felt the need to give up. So if you put your mind to anything and strive to meet your goals, eventually you can find success.”

Taymaster is using his earnings to pay for living expenses, a fancy game dev rig, traveling, and “lots of pizza,” while putting what’s left in the bank for the day he’s ready to purchase a house. Let’s reflect on that for a moment: Taymaster is saving his ROBLOX earnings for a future house. He’s also got a few game ideas floating around, with one yet-to-be-revealed title in development right now. Follow Taymaster on his ROBLOX profile and watch out for him to start leaking teasers soon!

Our congratulations go out to Taymaster for his huge achievement. Of course, hundreds of other game developers have used ROBLOX and DevEx to earn money (to the tune of more than $1.75 million) off their creations, and this represents the broader trend at work. Game development is for everyone. People of all ages are creating the future of games using ROBLOX.

We can’t wait to see more and more people take advantage of ROBLOX to not only get into game creation, but launch their careers.

One of the critical components to ROBLOX becoming the future of entertainment is allowing all ROBLOXians to access games at any time, on any device. In the second blog installment showcasing ROBLOX on Xbox One, we follow one developer’s journey converting his game and show data from his 1st month on console.

As many of you know, ROBLOX on Xbox launched on January 27th, 2016 with 15 popular games created by the ROBLOX community. One of the inaugural games was Giant Survival by 15 year old Texas native, BuildIntoGames. Giant Survival has a simple mission: work together to kill the giant, before the giant gets you. This popular game has over 8M visits, and before launching on Xbox One, Giant Survival was available on PC, mobile and tablet, receiving 175k, 25k and 50k monthly visits, respectively.  

“Obviously [developing for Xbox One was] a bit stressful at first,” says BuildIntoGames, “but it wasn’t too hard to change some keybinds and UI elements specifically for Xbox One. The hardest part for me was having to look back over the old and outdated code I wrote, which motivated me to rewrite most of it.”

BuildIntoGames started out on ROBLOX over 5 years ago experimenting with editing uncopylocked games and models before making his own creations. However, he admits that it wasn’t until the announcement of DevEx that he began to take development seriously.

“I wanted to take a more professional approach so people would take me a bit more seriously” he stated, noting that the extra cash flow from monetization helps him now purchase his audio and assets, unless he makes them himself.

For ROBLOX on Xbox One, Giant Survival kept its classic monetization components: users can upgrade their weaponry, gear items and buy more ingame currency (that has a 12.5:1R$ ratio). On an average month BuildIntoGames can expect PC traffic to pull in 400k ROBUX, and tablet/ mobile to generate 60k ROBUX, not bad for a game that’s been on the ROBLOX platform since October 2014! However, this already successful game was about to get a boost.

Reflecting on the night before launch BuildIntoGames told us: “I was a bit worried honestly. I couldn’t really compare it to most big-budget games or popular indie titles, so I spent a lot of time improving on outdated code and polishing some aspects.”

The extra work paid off and by Feb 27th the ROBLOX on Xbox’s version of Giant Survival received 2M visits in the first month, earning 3M ROBUX. That’s 1.5 ROBUX per visit.

As discussed in our previous blog article, ROBLOX on Xbox One is exposing a new audience to ROBLOX for the 1st time, creating a surge of in-game purchases to get all of the coolest gadgets. BuildIntoGames also added a few limited to Xbox items to the catalog for existing fans.

As for what BuildIntoGames is going to use his extra $7,500 cash out for: he’s currently saving up to get a nice car, and will use the leftover cash to pay for other things to help with game development.

NICE!

Think you have a game that should be featured on the ROBLOX on Xbox app? Check the submissions guide for details on how to get your game ready for Xbox One!.

You can also join the conversation by commenting below or using #ROBLOXforXbox on Twitter.

By popular demand, we are expanding our Developer Exchange (DevEx) program to include even more ways to cash out. Starting today, select developers will be invited to participate in a beta test of our new DevEx portal. Get all the details here…

In an effort to further improve the DevEx experience, ROBLOX is implementing a variety of new, alternative payment methods (on top of PayPal). We understand that PayPal is not always going to be the preferred choice for some developers, especially if they have had difficulty cashing out with PayPal in the past. As a result, we are happy to give you the ability to select the payment method that works best for you.

Many of our newly added payment options – which range from wire transfers to paper checks – have their own transaction fees. Generally speaking, however, many of these new payment methods are cheaper than PayPal, and they’re all designed to accommodate every developer’s needs.

To support these alternative payment methods, ROBLOX is partnering with Tipalti, a third-party payment automation platform, to implement a new DevEx portal. We are currently conducting a beta test of this portal with a handful of developers from the community. Following the completion of the beta test, we will then launch the portal to all developers within the next couple of weeks. Look forward to an announcement of the full rollout soon on our Twitter @ROBLOX.  

The process to cash out your ROBUX remains the same. You will still be required to submit your DevEx requests through ROBLOX. After your request is vetted and approved, all users who have not yet created an account on our new DevEx portal will receive an email invitation to do so. Upon registering your account, you will be asked to enter your banking information (unless you specify PayPal as your preferred payment method) and your personal information. Tipalti is a trusted third-party provider that uses advanced encryption algorithms and rigorous security measures to ensure that all of your personal and banking information is completely safe. If this is your first time cashing out through the new DevEx portal, you will also be required to complete tax documents as well (see the Frequently Asked Questions guide below for more information).

Our goal is to make the cashing out process safer, more convenient, and more streamlined than ever before. We hope you enjoy the added freedom that these new payment options provide.

More information about ROBLOX’s DevEx program can be found here.

FAQ

Q: What payment methods will be available?

A: Some payment methods’ availability depend on your country. Once you’ve signed up for a DevEx portal account, you will see all payment methods available to you, along with respective fees.

Q: Is there a risk of my funds freezing?

A: Developers will never get their funds frozen (unless the developer chooses PayPal as a payment method). Transactions MAY get flagged for review, but any cleared transactions are in developers’ control.

Q: Can I cash out in a currency other than USD?

A: Yes. Developers can be paid in a foreign currency (for a fee) if they do not wish to receive funds in USD.

Q: This is my first time cashing out. What is the tax form submission process like?

A: Submitting tax documents will now be a lot easier for new developers. The tax form submission process is fully digital and dynamic (non-relevant fields are removed from the tax forms depending on users’ prior entries). The new DevEx portal also provides a comprehensive step-by-step “help” function to help developers determine which tax form they need to submit.