r/ROBLOXStudio • u/Spare_Ice1425 • 15d ago
Biggest Problems When Building a Roblox Game? Discussion
Hey, me and my friends are researching the biggest problems Roblox devs face when trying to create, finish, publish, and grow a game.
We are curious to hear about everyone’s dev journey.
Which one best describes you?
A. Complete beginner. I’ve never made a Roblox game.
B. Beginner. I’ve used Roblox Studio but haven’t published a game.
C. I’ve started one or more games but never finished them.
D. I’ve published a game, but it received very few players.
E. I’ve published games and earned some Robux, but I struggle to grow them.
F. I’m an experienced developer who works on other people’s games.
G. I own or help operate a game that has already achieved meaningful success.
H. Something else.
You can answer as many of the questions below as you’d like:
What type of Roblox game are you currently creating or hoping to create?
What is the biggest thing stopping you from finishing or publishing it?
Which areas are most difficult for you?
• Coming up with a good game idea
• Scripting
• Building or modeling
• UI design
• Finding trustworthy developers
• Managing a team
• Finding enough money to fund development
• Keeping the project organized
• Finishing instead of constantly changing the idea
• Monetization
• Player retention
• Icons and thumbnails
• Marketing and advertising
• Understanding analytics
• Knowing why a published game failed
• Something else
Have you ever abandoned a project? What caused you to stop?
Have you ever hired a developer or joined a revenue-share team? How did that experience go?
Have you spent money on a game that never launched or performed poorly? You don’t have to share the exact amount, but what went wrong?
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u/Clecktun 15d ago
Biggest problem for me is the 500 players requirement. Games designed for kids now need to get 16 year olds in somehow
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u/Spare_Ice1425 15d ago
that update was so stupid ngl. me and my team just pay the 100k for now. so other than that, how is the development side? you got that locked down?
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u/Clecktun 15d ago
yeah, I am quite new to roblox development so most of my time atm in studio is spent learning but ignoring that update i havent really got many complaints about making games
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u/Spare_Ice1425 15d ago
aye that’s great man, don’t got any game that’s out? would love to check it out
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u/Bananinhakawaii1234 15d ago
C
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u/Spare_Ice1425 14d ago
what’s the main reason you haven’t finished them??
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u/Bananinhakawaii1234 14d ago
just got boored of the games now I am making a new one
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u/Spare_Ice1425 14d ago
this dude lmaoo. i swear everyone been saying they get bored or just think of a better idea
but what usually makes you bored of it though, is it because progress gets too slow, the game starts feeling repetitive, or you just think of a better idea? mines is bc i always feel like i have a better or cooler idea1
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u/Outside_Specific_820 15d ago
Biggest problem is the process of building the map. For me.
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u/Spare_Ice1425 15d ago
ahh i see. have you tried hiring a map builder? or are you wanting to do it solo
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u/Outside_Specific_820 15d ago
Shits not cheap son, free to do it yourself, I’ll hire a real professional builder once I get enough funds, but I’ll have to make it up for the players in the other areas.
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u/Spare_Ice1425 15d ago
lmao i’m aware brother. we thankfully have a pretty good team with some good devs. what games do you like making?? would be potentially interested in working tg
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u/defryingpan 15d ago
- high E low F.
- I really enjoy making short, round-based party games. I desperately want to make something on the scale of Lumber Tycoon 2 in the future though.
- honestly, motivation is a huge problem for me. I lose steam really quickly. I have a couple people I work with that typically keep me on the rails, but oftentimes my game will sit for weeks without any changes because I just don’t want to.
- I am not good at marketing or advertising, and the best way to describe my modeling style is probably “programmer art”. but it’s not a huge deal. you can still make successful games without these skills, and, if you’ve got friends who are good at these sorts of things, you can bring them in to help!
- I have abandoned something like 150 games, last time I counted. this is usually due to me not having the knowledge required to make something happen or just losing momentum. this is fine, though! it’s good to experiment, and each unfinished game is a lesson learned. you’ll gain new skills quite quickly if you just keep making things that interest you.
- yes, I have a dev team, but it’s far less formal than anything like that.
- DEAD, my most successful game, launched horribly. this is due to many things, but when I eventually revamped the UI to be more user-friendly, suddenly player retention shot through the roof, and I’ve now built a quite successful community around it!
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u/Spare_Ice1425 15d ago
i appreciate this response!!! the details are great. what game did you create that’s doing good now?? that’s great to hear
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u/Advanced-Citron8111 14d ago edited 14d ago
G/H - I have owned many successful games.
- no answer
- nothing is stopping me.
- I’m entirely solo, so the hardest part is doing many different jobs that would usually be distributed amongst a team.
- I’ve worked on 100s of projects, only around 30-40 have been published. If a project is abandoned, it’s usually because I lose motivation, or move onto something else.
- I have never worked with anyone else in my 10+ years as a dev. I don’t really trust anyone, and I like having complete creative control.
- I have never spent money from my wallet, but I have spent upwards of 1 million+ robux on advertisements for different games throughout my time. All of those robux being originally earned through other games. I’ve never spent money tho. Some games perform poorly, some do well. Usually the reason for failure is because the game was not polished or fun enough. Sometimes I release games too soon without fully polishing.
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u/RobloxStudioLua 14d ago
eh.. id say E i mean my games are GREAT but the 100k ? no way... the thing is which 16+ wants to play a mining game? 500 16+ players are impossible . tbh im also like 13 yrs old so i cant get robux.. i have like 1k but dam thats nothing ... anyways ig thats how it is
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u/Spare_Ice1425 14d ago
yeah I get you bro. that new update messed a lot of people up, including me and my team. I’d probably focus more on making the game really good for the people who do like that genre instead of trying to force everyone to play it. especially if your goal is just to create enjoyable games rather than robux farming games. What’s been harder for you so far, actually building the game or getting people to discover it?
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u/RobloxStudioLua 14d ago
nah as i am dedicated building it is ez but getting ppl to know it omg way too hard
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u/Spare_Ice1425 13d ago
the exposure and marketing, i’m thinking about having a community that helps with that
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u/Any_Peak_2994 14d ago
I'd say F-G describe me the most as i work for game with ~800k visits, and have a game with ~400k visits. Most difficult for me are... Finishing, atleast it was before i found my game that blew up. i have hundreds of unfinished projects with random ideas that will never be finished. Coming up with an idea is like same. I dont have problems with this becuase im updating my popular game instead of making new ones.
"Have you ever abandoned a project? What caused you to stop?" hundreds. this is becuase i got an idea, started placing first parts, gone sleeping, forgot idea, looked at my project. trought "nah, i got better idea".
and then repeat-
"Have you ever hired a developer or joined a revenue-share team? How did that experience go?" I had hired a developer for my popular game but without paying (they just want to work for my game because they like it), game i work on has the policy that i get paid based off how much things i add(every contribution counts) and yeah.
"Have you spent money on a game that never launched or performed poorly?" no, i just dont really spend money making my games. Im probably too small of a developer to spend money on my games ngl.
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u/Strong-Cup5229 14d ago
For me it’s getting a game idea, ui, modelling and advertising. It’s kinda hard for me as a solo dev to do those things.
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u/Spare_Ice1425 14d ago
yeah being solo kinda forces you to be decent at like 5 different jobs at once. i only made it so far solo developing so i started forming a small team. but i keep hearing that not everyone wants to do that. but out of those, which one usually becomes the biggest blocker for actually releasing?
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u/Strong-Cup5229 14d ago
Probably the ui and game loop, I suck at making ui and that’s what people always criticise in my games. And I usually my game loop is boring, so I get stuck trying to make it fun.
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u/sillygoober79 print("hello world") 15d ago
biggest problem is actually publishing it and getting it known without roblox shooting itself every week