This interview is by Sim55, who asked RobloSam for an interview! Sam agreed and now we will learn all the wacky facts about him… well, MANY wacky facts!

Sim55 asked Sam 10 questions but he only had time to answer 8. We may never know the answer to the two lost questions! But here are the answers to 8 awesome questions, so you can learn more about RobloSam! You can talk more about this interview on our Forums!

-ReeseMcBlox

What is your favorite thing about working for ROBLOX?

The intellectual environment here. The Roblox engineers are the smartest people I’ve ever worked with, and we work together to solve difficult problems in computing, many of which are specific to Roblox. So we are blazing new trails in many facets of software engineering. Each person here has their own unique personality and area of specialization, and we all enjoy teaching and learning from each other.

Also the community of users. Robloxians are incredibly dedicated to helping us make Roblox reach its full potential as the best virtual world and building game out there. I am continually impressed by the time you all take to help us track down glitches and give helpful suggestions – without you it would take FOREVER to build new features and know that they work properly.

What was your biggest contribution while working for ROBLOX?

We all help out with all of the features, but here are the ones that I have done the majority of the development on:

– Best Friends

– Status Updates

– The Feed

– Expanding and fixing up the "My Roblox" part of the site.

– Facebook sharing

– Limited Edition / Numbered Items.

– User to user sales of hats, gear, etc. ("Hat Trading")

I’ve also spent a lot of time fixing up the website along with Vibhu, and we’re going to be continuing to do that over the coming months.

What is your favorite part of ROBLOX?

Building With Friends … It turns building into a fun and social experience, which I think is exactly what ROBLOX is all about. I’m also really into the new building tools we’re giving out.

I’ll tell you guys a little secret… I’m TERRIBLE at video games and find most games very hard to use, so anything that makes it easier / more fun to do stuff in the game is something I’ll most likely find useful.

Did you work for any other games before ROBLOX?

No. Before I came to Roblox, I was working for a social networking site in Canada where amateur musicians (usually high school kids) could post their music and connect with their fans. Before that, I wrote interactive cell phone apps and text messaging services.

Oh, and I was a full-time politician in 2004.

What is your specialty, and what is it all about?

I specialize in building interactive web applications. This is the part of the website that you don’t see and makes it possible for the user to do stuff. Things that seem simple to the person using the website actually involve a lot of complicated steps. Like when you click the button to buy a hat, a lot of stuff needs to happen: first, the code checks if you have the money. If it is a limited edition hat, we also make sure its not sold out. Then, if everything is good to go, we take the Robux / Tix out of your account, put it into the seller’s account, and add the item to your inventory. Of course, if anything goes wrong in the middle (like a server going down), the code has to be smart enough to refund the sale by itself. 

 

Why did you become a ROBLOX admin and why choose ROBLOX?

My interests lie in social networking and online collaboration, and this was an opportunity to become a part of a vibrant, online community. I was also attracted to the culture here at ROBLOX where we all work together and help each other out … some of the big corporate dot-coms can be pretty lonely places where you sit in a cubicle all day and don’t learn anything new.

Did you know about ROBLOX when you were studying?

No. I wish I had, though – might have ended up here a few years ago!

On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you love working for ROBLOX?

11 🙂