Gatekeeping game psychology behind secrets or a $ sign is dumb.
More fun games you make = more fun games for me to play and vice versa, so here is some shit I've noted that I feel is muy importanto while hard core diving into Roblox gameplay study imo the best and only way - kinesthetically.
If you're a passionate creative looking for ideas and words to help perhaps shape your own direction from that of a possibly insane, over cooked fellow creative, I would love for you to read further.
If you represent a soul-sucking corporation looking to feed off of the blood of the creative and experienced, please fuck all the way off until the end of time.💙
Immediate hype-fueled discovery serotonin addiction that has refreshable replay value through updated event cycles is key to success among all of the Roblox games that end up exploding. If it's not immediately easy to understand and rewarding, what's the point? Why would anyone stick around to have to do work to learn to play? I'm very bullish about anything I make needing to be understandable immediately by the vast majority of players who enter. Those who don't naturally find their way need a tutorial that will guide them effortlessly, rewardingly through to understanding. Further, the rewards and end result of said tutorial are ideally different for every player or at least varied, so that friends who are playing together in real time or even not have different experiences they can share with one another.
There must always be something to discover or achieve, though there is something to be said for too many 'quests' being available or seemingly demanded at a time. That's why I think I'll start with guided 'blank' pages with silhouettes of collectibles to fill in. This gives players a gentle nudge toward what it is without revealing the fun secrets they must unravel to find their prize, the discovery. The discovery should be shiny, loud, celebrated and rewarded with additional progress toward a bigger prize for finding all the things.
There must always be something familiar to the players as well and that something could be.. anything really. In particular, I'm referring to the recent phenomena of 'brain rot' taking over the Roblox platform. Steal a Brainrot succeeded, imo, for a couple particular reasons; both are related to familiarity.
Steal a Brainrot was literally the stupidest fucking thing I've ever played but damn if I didn't get sucked in and play it - and why? Because it was funny. It was immediately relatable not just with the 'brainrots' being pulled straight from the internet we're all constantly plugged into, but now also with the AI voice that would loudly announce whichever brainrot you bought to bring back to your (I hesitate to call it this but) brainrot prison. You slap 'em in there and there they are - your brainrot trophies that not only have you valiantly paid (or stolen like an asshole lol) for but they're actively producing things for you, too (another point I will touch on in this... dissertation). Between the dumbass AI voice and all the brainrots, there's plenty there, along with the art 'direction' of playing directly into what Roblox kids love most.
Art style. Subject matter. Sound.
Altogether, familiarity that is irresistible and immediately alchemizes the game into serotonin delivery.
I now want to blather about the 'production' or, more appropriately 'industry', aspect that makes Roblox so fascinating.
Roblox games produce kids and later adults who are absolutely ridiculously industrious. Why is that?
Because almost every game on the platform is absolutely ridiculously industrious, at least imo.
Steal a Brainrot, Grow a Garden, Prospecting, Pet Simulator 99, Crypto Farm - the list could go on and on but ultimately it is ALWAYS your goal to not only survive but thrive and typically you do this by making hand over fist ungodly amounts of cash. Big numbers and I do mean the bigger the better. You start out humble with $10 and then somehow in a week you're counting into the sextillions. Man, that's fucking capitalism porn, isn't it? It's all just mind porn. Very satisfying.
Frankly, while the majority of what I'm referencing here in study is directly from time spent on Roblox, my time in Second Life wasn't all that different. Take breedable pets for example. Back in the 2010's that was all the rage. Everyone had meeroos, bunnies, dogs, horses and it was all about the resale. Whole giant communities, multiple regions run by a single person to support the resale demand and community of each and every breedable pet out there. It was crazy. I tried to get in on that world, too, with my own signature... but when you work with the wrong people you end up burnt crispy, bullied, made to do things you know are wrong in the deepest part of your heart but you're overruled because someone else has their hand on the controls. Pick your partners wisely and always at least try to stand for and negotiate for what you feel is imperative for success.
One last note I'll make here specifically about Roblox is limited UGC. I think it's a vastly underutilized tool but it's also easy to see why - that shit is insanely expensive like oh my god what the fuck? Completely priced out of regular people's and new developer's grasp. I get it but at the same time, Roblox purports to be a platform that lets -anyone- create their dreams but their dreams die if they can't game the algorithm or they don't have thousands of dollars lying around to invest into their game's promotion. They want their platform to flourish but have gated success behind already having money. Like the world. Why is humanity like this? So many geniuses could make the world a better, more fun place... if only being able to do so wasn't locked behind elitist $ shaped keyholes.
So hey, I'll probably write more like this in time. I'm always taking notes mentally and physically and I'm sure my friends and family are annoyed with me using their Discords as a notepad.
If you found any of this insightful, I'm grateful to have been of service. If not, maybe next time.
Still can't wait until I'm to a point where I can share more of what exactly it is I'm working on.💙
