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  • Writer's pictureaka ms

WHAT IS ROBLOX?


Roblox is an online platform and storefront where users go to play games. Roblox is not a game, it is a place where people play games made by other developers. In this sense, it is more similar to PC platform Steam than it is to any online children’s game.


What makes Roblox different from anything else in the games industry — including a storefront like Steam — is that all the games are made by its users. On Roblox, the fun doesn’t just come from playing games, it also comes from making games. These games are not formally developed by Roblox Corporation, but by users of the platform. Currently, the official website boasts that its users have published over 20 million games on the platform.





WHY IS EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT ROBLOX RIGHT NOW?


Because anyone, including kids, can make a ton of money on the platform. Some developers can earn as much as $1 million in a single year by monetizing their games. Although Roblox and all its games are freely available, many kids buy and spend a virtual currency called Robux on aesthetic items in Roblox games. Roblox developers get to keep a portion of these transactions in the form of Robux. Once a developer makes enough money in Robux, they can use a program called the Developer Exchange (also called DevEx) to convert Robux to real money.


HOW POPULAR ARE ROBLOX GAMES?


Incredibly popular, in some cases. Adopt Me!, a pet simulation game where kids buy and take care of animals, broke over 1.6 million concurrent players in April 2020, its developers said, and has been visited by players over 20.4 billion times. (Numbers for unique logins have not been publicly disclosed by the developer.) Another game called Brookhaven currently has the most concurrent users, with over 420,000 people playing it at the time of publication.


WHO MAKES ROBLOX GAMES?


Anyone can make games on Roblox. The platform gives young people a way to bring their own game ideas to life. It does this by providing a suite of game development tools that almost anyone can learn to use, including kids. If a game takes off, it’s possible for these developers to scale, since Roblox also makes it easy to turn your creation into an online multiplayer game.

The games use a scripting language called Lua, which is easier to learn than most other programming languages. The company provides developer forums where makers can troubleshoot, as well as learn new skills. With Roblox, developers don’t need to worry about logistics like how to set up servers; they just make the game, and then players can play their game through online multiplayer. How deep you get into game creation is up to each developer.


WHAT DOES THE AVERAGE ROBLOX GAME LOOK LIKE?


The most straightforward answer to this is that there is no “average Roblox game.” Roblox is a platform where people can make whatever they want. There is a wide variety of games, from single-player platformers to first-person shooters. That being said, the most popular games tend to be simulators in which people can role-play different scenarios, like going to school or visiting a pizza shop.


IS ROBLOX FREE?


The platform and the games on it are free to download. However, Roblox games can offer in-game purchases of cosmetic items, skins, or other upgrades. For example, in Adopt Me!, players adopt and care for pets, a child can buy an egg that will hatch a pet. Each game is unique, so in-game purchases will vary.


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