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Introducing the 2014 ROBLOX Summer Interns

May 28, 2014

by JacksSmirkingRevenge


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From left to right: Flotsamthespork, stravant, merely, and seranok all hung out and talked game development on the set of TNL.

From left to right: flotsamthespork, stravant, Merely, and Seranok all hung out and talked game development on our video set. Oh, and the B.A. chimed in a few times, but it was mostly about take-over-the-world stuff. We’ve all learned to ignore him.

Hanging out with this year’s four summer interns yesterday was an interesting experience, in that a big part of my job here is not just to communicate with our readers, but to listen to the communication that happens among those who work here. Within minutes of meeting this year’s squad, we had tumbled down the rabbit hole, kicking around big ideas and giving feedback to help one another out. That wasn’t especially surprising — when you put a team of four ROBLOX experts with years of experience using our platform in a room together, the ideas start flying like bullets. I had to interrupt in order to learn a bit about each of these personalities. I proudly present to you the 2014 ROBLOX summer interns.

StravantINTERN

2014 is stravant’s second year as a ROBLOX intern, and he’s currently hard at work on a new game that will soon be revealed by the Games team. We can’t say much here, other than the game will be optimized for mobile devices and will be unlike anything the Games team has ever developed.

“This summer I really want to focus on ROBLOX Mobile, and work to create games that are great experiences on mobile devices. I want to make some games that have really smooth controls that are on par with some of the big-name mobile titles you see out there these days.”

In addition, stravant is currently in the process of developing a movement API that will allow scripters to precisely move a collection of parts from one place to another, without the use of physics.

FlotsamthesporkINTERN

Flotsamthespork is an interesting case — while attending his second year of college in Canada, he decided to apply for the intern position to expand his knowledge base. As a programmer, the name ROBLOX was definitely something he had heard of, so he applied to see what we’re all about.

“I wanted to gain experience in a completely different type of work environment. A new programming environment means a new set of available tools. You have to learn how to get up to speed, and fast,” he tells me. “I think that getting hired for many companies means you need to iterate on this process over and over. The more times you can do that, the better programmer you can eventually become.”

Like stravant, flotsamthespork will be focusing primarily on developing ROBLOX for mobile platforms (yes, that’s “platforms” with an “s”).
SeranokINTERN
Seranok, or Matthew Dean, made Catalog Heaven. Heard of it? If ever there was an item or piece of gear that you simply wanted to try outSeranok gives you the place to do it. He’s also been assisting our Web team for years by finding exploits and bugs to either fix entirely or work around. He’s back for his second internship, where he’ll be working primarily on Studio improvements and website bugs.

“I will fix or patch anything I find in the time I’m here,” he tells me, after noting his exhaustion having just finishing a sophomore course load in college and then flying straight here for full-time summer employment. “The Web team gives me a lot of freedom as far as what I can do with my time, but I keep really busy when I’m here at HQ.”

MerelyINTERNTwin brother Merely, or Nathan Dean, is one of the most prolific ROBLOX economists out there, owning pretty much any rare or limited item you can imagine. He’s become a ROBLOX tycoon after years of trading virtual items — he even created a place to do it called Trade Hangout. Returning for his second year as a ROBLOX intern, his enthusiasm for ambitious projects continues to shine through.

“With the new OBJ Exporter, I’m trying to figure out a way to make 3D thumbnails on the website. Imagine if you could go to an item page and completely pan around the object before you purchased it. This is possible with the recent OBJ groundwork that’s been laid. I think it’ll be pretty easy to do.”

We hope this goes to show that if you want to work here at HQ, the best way to achieve that goal is to keep participating in ROBLOX activities. Keep building, scripting, collaborating, and finding new and creative ways to leverage our platform. We notice, and it could end up earning you gig here.