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As the creator of a front page game that a lot of people seem to enjoy (Galactic Domination, for those of you that don't know), I get a lot of messages asking "Hey robo, how did you make such an awsome game?" It's something that it seems everyone on roblox wants to know, so here's how I made my game, and how I think it got on the front page:
(A little disclaimer: I can't guarantee your game will get on the front page (so sorry!). Roblox is a competitive community, so give your game everything you've got. Popularity can't be cultivated. It just sort of happens to you. Following these 5 steps won't get you popular, but it will help your chances of achieving that goal.)
Step 1: Come up with a good idea
Every epic game starts with an epic idea... or at least, semi-epic. I got the idea for my game from playing Solar Conquest by cocoawarrior. It's a building/RP space game that I used to spend a lot of time playing. It had command posts on planets you could take over, but it didn't have any significance in gameplay (You couldn't spawn at them, you didn't get anything for controlling planets). I thought it would be nice if solar conquest was based more on conquest (after all, it IS the game's name), and less on building, so BOOM! There's the source of the idea for my game. It's easy to come up with an idea for a game. Just think of something that you would have fun playing that hasn't already been done, and there you go.
Step 2: Learn how to script... like a baws
I know how to script just about anything I want, because of the complexity of my game. If you're going to make a good game, you will need to learn how to script it. Roblox has a huge wiki that tells you everything you need to know in order to create your game. The important thing to remember here is just to take this part of the process one step at a time. Learn how to script one component of the game before moving on to the next, and oh yeah.... be persistent. Scripting takes a while to learn (not as long as professional programming, but a while, nevertheless), so you'll need to work at it and work at it until you get the results you want.
Step 3: Build, script, de-bug, and de-bug some more
Ask any programmer, scripts rarely work EXACTLY the way you want them to the first time, so let's start with the fun stuff. Whenever I'm making a game on roblox, I always build first. If you're going to make a model (and really, a game is just a bunch of models that work together well), it only makes sense to get the parts the script will be using into the workspace before you start scripting. Otherwise, you don't know what you're dealing with, and you get frustrated and possibly wind up quitting. Once you build the model, script it so it does what you want, and test it. Depending on what you're making, this can take a couple of minutes or several hours. The space ships in my game took several weeks to de-bug, so you get the idea of how long and tedious de-bugging can be. I'm not trying to discourage you, but you better believe when you're scripting you'll have at least one program that will troll you. It will sit there and do exactly what you don't want it to do and start laughing as you repeatedly edit and test it to try to make it behave. Just remember.... be persistent! Finally, once you've got your game done, get together with some friends and play it rigorously to make sure all of the bugs are gone. Sometimes, the game will go "cool story, bro, tell it again! >:->" and give you more problems in multiplayer mode that you didn't see in roblox studio. These tend to be the most annoying bugs of them all, so I'm going to tell you one more time: BE PERSISTENT. Keep in mind the fun your game will be with no bugs, and keep working until they're all gone.
Step 4: Get rich
Lolwut? You say you thought getting the front page game makes one rich? Not quite.... or at least, that's not the way it happened for me. I made 20k robux from working the currency exchange before my game hit popularity (Do some reading on that currency exchange! If you know what you're doing, it can really get you a lot of robux). You see, if you want your game to get some publicity, you'll need quite a bit of cash to spend on ads. The day my game hit the front page, I spent 40,000 tickets on an ad that got 2% CTR. Now, don't misunderstand me. You don't HAVE to get 20k robux before your game can hit the front page. I know a lot of users that had to do little, if any, advertising to get their game popular, but if you have a game that's great but never played, this is a sure-fire way to change that.
Step 5: Advertise
This is the final step of the process. I try to come up with ads that look decent and are funny. (btw, GIMP is a great program for doing this if you don't want to buy photoshop) Don't get upset if your ad only gets 2% CTR. In fact, if you get that, you're doing GREAT! Ads never get very high click rates, so you're doing really well if your ad gets 1-2% CTR. The main idea here is to spend big (not too big, though: if you're working the exchange, the more money you have, the more you earn. Use your own judgement). Make sure that ad stalks every user on roblox until they click it. When they click it, they'll see your beast of a game, try it out, and next thing you know, your game's popular! :D
There! A ridiculously complex answer to a ridiculously simple question. If you have any questions about this post, or if you've got a better method for making a popular game, please reply! Now, go make your game happen, and have fun! |