Automated Web Testing: Where Quality and Efficiency Meet

By Andrew Haak - February 27, 2013

In this article, web engineers Antoni Choudhuri and Brandon Chothia discuss ROBLOX’s commitment to quality via automated web testing, and what the future holds for our testing infrastructure.

ROBLOX is a growing company – just look at our Jobs page to see the variety of positions we’re looking to fill – and our expansion is enabling us to develop and release features faster than ever before. While we’re producing a greater quantity of features, we’re just as importantly placing a greater emphasis on the quality of everything we do. One of the ways that has manifested itself is the expansion and improvement of our testing infrastructure for Roblox.com.

ROBLOX Named One of TIME’s 50 Best Websites of 2012

By David Baszucki - September 18, 2012

ROBLOX is proud to have been named one of TIME Magazine’s 50 Best Websites of 2012. The annual list recognizes websites in a variety of categories, including web tools, games, education, news and information, shopping, productivity, social and more.

The 50 best websites are those that TIME editors “find to be useful, entertaining, innovative or just plain addictive — and, in some cases, all of the above,” according to the article. We think we’re all of the above.

This recognition is a testament to the day-in, day-out effort and passion the ROBLOX team puts into building ROBLOX, and inspires us to continue to improve the quality of our product for our users.

ROBLOX Introduces Game Passes

By Rosemary Ehlers - September 17, 2012

ROBLOX game developers have the ability to create VIP shirts, which give players special perks and abilities in games. These added abilities can be anything, from super strength or speed, to a special item—the benefits are up to the game creator.

Originally an ingenious ROBLOX user idea, we’re simplifying the VIP t-shirt process with a new feature: Game Passes. A Game Pass essentially does the same thing a VIP shirt does–if you purchase a Game Pass for any particular game, you’ll have access to perks and abilities that others don’t.

Website Navigation Refreshed

By David Ma - August 29, 2012

The ROBLOX website is a constant work in progress, as evidenced in the last week alone by launches of a mobile site (at m.roblox.com) and a new and improved ROBLOX Catalog. Despite reaching those major milestones, we continue to work toward a cleaner, leaner, easier-to-use web experience, and today unveiled a refreshed navigation menu.

The key goals of the redesign were reducing the amount of real estate used by the navigation and implementing stylistic changes that gel better with the rest of the website.

The Revamped ROBLOX Catalog Arrives

By aleverns - August 27, 2012

Our Catalog has undergone many changes over the years, and we continue to develop it so it’s easier to use, navigate and ultimately find the gear you need for your ROBLOXian. Today, an overhaul of the Catalog launched on Roblox.com, bringing new functionality and a better user experience to shopping on ROBLOX.

New Search Engine and Filters

Powered by Solr, an open-source search platform, our new Catalog’s search engine is more robust than ever before. We took advantage of wide-table search, a touted feature of Solr, and included new search filters, including extra pricing options, genres, gear categories and creators. The new gear category filter allows users to to search gear by type (i.e., “melee weapons” or “explosives”), and the new creator filter allows users to see what kind of models and items ROBLOX users are creating.

Build Page to Fuel Game Development and Content Creation

By Toby Teel - August 7, 2012

Game development and user-generated content fuel ROBLOX, and one of our goals is to make sure all users — not just paid members — know that they can build their own games and create original content. To that end, we recently introduced version one of the Build page, now accessible from the main navigation menu at Roblox.com.

The Build page centralizes all the content you’ve created: games, shirts, t-shirts, pants and models. While it currently serves as the easiest way to view and manage all your creations, separate from your inventory, our vision is for it to become a launch point for game development.