Enter the BLOXcon Poster Contest Today

By Andrew Haak - May 24, 2013

We’re already running a contest to collect submissions for the ROBLOX International Film Festival, but we thought it only fair to give the graphic designers of ROBLOXia an equal opportunity to make their mark on our upcoming BLOXcon events. To that end, we’ve launched a poster contest, where you have a chance to design a BLOXcon poster and win fantastic prizes!

Here’s how it works: starting immediately, you can design and submit a BLOXcon poster for BLOXcon Chicago, BLOXcon London or BLOXcon New York City. We’ll be collecting submissions through June 2nd at 11:59 p.m. PT, and will select winners during the following week.

Condense and Compress: Our Custom Binary File Format

By Arseny Kapoulkine - May 23, 2013

Think about the performance improvements and rendering features we’ve brought to ROBLOX in the last year. Among them are featherweight parts, fast clusters, efficient collision detection and dynamic lighting. These improvements have crushed the limits – on part count, physics simulation and aesthetic flexibility – builders once encountered and opened doors to a world of possibilities. They’ve also exposed new limits as builders have pushed the boundaries further than ever. In this article, we’ll explain how we’ve achieved an approximately 100x reduction in the file size of ROBLOX places and a 5-10x reduction in load/save time.

Sneak Peek: Memorial Day Sale

By Christina McGrath - May 22, 2013

Happy (upcoming) Memorial Day! We’ll be having a massive sale to celebrate the holiday weekend, and each and every item were voted into the sale by users! We’re going to go over some of the discounted items in this article, but not all of them. There will be several surprise deals that you’ll only be able to find during the sale itself, so make and sure to keep checking out our catalog throughout the upcoming week. The Memorial Day sale officially begins Friday, May 24th, and runs all the way through Wednesday, May 29th.

Aperson1890 Proves Building is Constructive at Maker Faire

By Andrew Haak - May 21, 2013

Looking back, there are a lot of Maker Faire stories to tell. I talked with independent game developers about the potential of distributing a game on ROBLOX. I talked with parents who were looking to guide the play habits of their children down productive paths. I talked with former ROBLOX builders who, after witnessing dynamic lighting and other modern features, headed home to revive their dormant accounts. I saw a maker wearing a 3D-printer backpack buy a ROBLOX fedora before striking a pose for me (I was photographing the booth). But probably the most memorable story was that of aperson1890, a longtime ROBLOX builder, 2012 RGC 2012 Hackathon winner, and up-and-coming programmer who was in the booth all weekend.

Developer’s Journal: Stylized and Efficient Level Design

By MahPizzaIsHere - May 20, 2013

Last month, we gave builders an opportunity to write for the ROBLOX blog. We received a wealth of thoughtful submissions and quickly started working with potential authors on articles that leverage their unique experience and expertise. MahPizzaIsHere has established himself as a premiere builder and level designer, and today discusses his techniques for designing stylized, but efficient first-person-shooter levels.

Hello, I’m MahPizzaIsHere, and I’m a member of StudioMM. I’ve been tasked with designing and building all the maps for Borderline, a highly anticipated first-person shooter that’s been in development for some time now.

Weekly ROBLOX Roundup: May 19th, 2013

By Andrew Haak - May 19, 2013

Every week, we’re busy telling the stories behind our platform, our technology and our place in the gaming and technology industries. For those of you who catch up with ROBLOX over the weekend, the Weekly ROBLOX Roundup collects the best stuff to hit our various avenues of publication in the last week. This time: how to make your dynamic lighting and shadows look amazing, renting plots of land in KlamKnights City, our weekend at Maker Faire Bay Area, tips for submitting to the ROBLOX Film Fest, Team Zombie Defence Tycoon, and other bits and pieces. Enjoy.

Photo Gallery: Live from Maker Faire Bay Area 2013

By Andrew Haak - May 18, 2013

Update, 10 p.m.: Hello from Maker Faire 2013! This is Alan with updates straight from ROBLOX’s booth. Andrew did a great job capturing our booth and the interactions between our staff and builders earlier in the day, so I decided, as the sun began to set on day one of Maker Faire, to take a step outside and shoot some of the amazing creations and props scattered throughout the grounds. Check out what I saw below!

This giraffe was straight out of steampunk lore.