Skies of Steam by Rukiryo. Fueled by ROBLOX.

If you’ve spent time on ROBLOX, Rukiryo is a name you’ve probably seen before. He’s the mastermind behind several very different games that have each attracted a following — and well over 6.5 million cumulative play sessions. He’s an interesting developer known for creating massively popular ROBLOX games, then moving straight to a new project. That’s because his process is different than your average game developer. The results of his constant experimentation mean that he has to manage multiple popular projects simultaneously, and is always looking to the horizon to figure out new ways to innovate.

Pokemon Reborn RPG. Attack on Titan. Sword Art Online: Fantasy. BLEACH RPG. Yu-Gi-Oh GX World. You’ve surely heard of at least one of these games, all created by Rukiryo and all fueled by ROBLOX. The 17-year-old Canadian developer has been making games on ROBLOX since 2009 — with an initial interest in simply creating 3D worlds with rules. He explains:

“When I joined I wanted to create different types of worlds, each with a different set of rules that players would have to learn to abide by. I like being able to decide what’s possible in any given world and what isn’t.”

One of the many game worlds (Wizardopia III) Rukiryo has created over the years.

This need to constantly create new worlds has kept Rukiryo busy the last five years. His profile page reflects this. He’s dabbled in everything: RPGs, mechs, scripted cars (a bit more on this later), games about crafting. His ROBLOX endeavors are all over the map. His creative process is constantly interrupted by a never-ending stream of thoughts and ideas.

“That’s honestly the biggest challenge I have to face,” he says with a laugh. “I create a game, but during the creation process, I get 10 other ideas that I think would be really cool. This can become frustrating for my players. Once I finish a game, I’m done. I go on to make a new game, while users expect me to update the places they’re playing.”

Scripting the complex mechanics of cars is just all in a day’s work for Rukiryo. Until his mind moves on to something else, that is.

The never-ending quest for most ROBLOX developers is to create a game with an established player base, then update that game based on feedback from the community. The opposite is the case with Rukiryo, who at this point garners plays from the community simply because his name is attached to the titles he puts out there. But Rukiryo isn’t out to monetize one singular mega game, or at least hasn’t been until now. To the contrary, he just wants to keep pushing our platform to see what kinds of creations he can put together. His popularity now provides test subjects — he tells me the fact that people follow him everywhere he goes on ROBLOX is a good thing, as he always wants feedback and suggestions on new projects.

“It’s hard for me to say that I ever truly even finished one of my games. I mean, I’ll always make my games fully playable. But the second I get a new idea, I start working on that. That’s why I have so many playable places. I’ve got at least 300 .rblx files that I simply  never finished or released to the public.”

I ask him if the smattering of developer-features released in the last year has changed his mentality (fully expecting a resounding yes). I was surprised by his answer.

“Whenever I try to create a game with ROBUX in mind, it doesn’t end well. All I want to do is create epic things on ROBLOX — things I enjoy using myself. I don’t create games for other people, I create games for me.”

It’s worth mentioning that Rukiryo is one of the many developers who is making real money with the Developer Exchange program by virtue of having developed so many compelling titles with legs.

Once you learn how to play, grappling onto, then chopping your way through titans of various sizes becomes thoroughly addicting. Rukiryo has recently added “crawler” titans as well, for even more foes to duel in Attack on Titan.

He goes on to talk about his latest effort — a game featuring a layered race track and custom-scripted cars that have manual gearboxes. Scripting realistic vehicles is something Rukiryo has always wanted to attempt on ROBLOX — a recent visit to a ROBLOX auto show gave him the encouragement he needed to build his own car system. Now, all car groups on ROBLOX are clamoring behind him, wanting to use his models in their various games and shows.

“The car game I’m working on actually had extremely expensive cars — I realized quickly that having to buy them makes the game less fun. So I made most of the cars free, and the more exclusive and complex cars less than 50 ROBUX.”

I’ve never driven a manual transmission on ROBLOX before. It’s really, really fun.

Numerous times throughout the interview, Rukiryo mentioned that all this is part of a grand design to try and “crack the code.” We finally got to a point where I had to know what he was alluding to. His ROBLOX masterpiece is in development, and the scale of it is enormous.

“Like I mentioned earlier, I like making worlds with laws. Basically, ROBLOX game development is all about immersion — creating a world where people feel like they’re really there,” he tells me. “The idea behind my new game is that every player in the world is different. I don’t want to go the ‘class selection’ route, because I don’t want players to be locked into a decision without even knowing how to play the game. Every player in this game will be different based on what they do and the skills they choose to pursue.”

Almost but not quite: Rukiryo has a vault full of levels he’s developed but didn’t end up publishing.

“This game will adapt to the style in which you play it,” he continues. “Your abilities will be determined by how you play.”

Rukiryo is in the process of working with members of the ROBLOX team to modify our animation system to work better with humanoid legs. He believes that the animation system shows a lot of promise, but needs some fine-tuning so he can achieve the sorts of movements he wants to create in his forthcoming title. He’s also been considering other feature releases that will integrate well with his development pipeline.

“With game ‘universes,’ I love the idea of packing a lot of people into different sections of one singular game,” he tells me. “The new game I’m working on is a really diverse mixture of a lot my ROBLOX titles, all packed into one epic game. I’m hoping this game will satisfy all my fans who want updates on my existing titles.”