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Player Points in Beta: How They’re Being Used Thus Far

May 08, 2014

by JacksSmirkingRevenge


Archive

Points Icon 700pxYou’ve undoubtedly noticed the inclusion of points (both player points and clan points) on ROBLOX in the last couple of weeks — we’ve released them in beta form to do some intensive testing before releasing them as a full-blown feature on our platform. And though they’re only in beta, we’ve already seen several developers experiment with the player points system in several popular games. We decided to highlight some of these games to encourage more developers to experiment with points to get a better understanding of how they’ll work when they release. Check out what we’ve seen so far.

Base Wars: The Land – d4rk886

In d4rk886’s smash hit FPS, he’s made it so that player can earn player points by achieving kill streaks. Every five consecutive kills (meaning, of course, you can’t die) earns you a single player point. This is a great example of using player points to award not just gamers who play your game a ton, but actually get really good at it.

Shoot down enough planes with enough machine guns (in a row) and you'll start earning some points.

Shoot down enough planes with enough machine guns (in a row) and you’ll start earning some points.

Catching Fire: The Hunger Games – SmoothBlockModel

Similar to Basewars, player points in Catching Fire are awarded based on player skill. You get two points for actually winning a match, which is no small task in this particular game. Each game has a maximum of 24 players, so statistically the odds aren’t really in your favor (sorry, had to). Winning a round is an exercise in planning and patience. Again, great to a see a developer that makes points something you earn by becoming good at the game you’re playing.

Catching-Fire

ROBLOX Battle – Games Team

Testing wouldn’t be testing unless we experimented here at HQ as well! Our Games team has implemented a point-reward system that grants you a point every time you bank 20 coins in the lobby of the game. As you probably already know, you can earn coins by competing in the various challenges the game has to offer. Rack up on kills, capture the enemy flag, broom enemies off the map (we like the absurdity of that last statement) and earn yourselves coins that you can save using the bank in-game. In addition to earning you points, if you save enough coins you can purchase some sweet armor in the shop.

The ongoing battle between the brooms and swords rages on!

The ongoing battle between the brooms and swords rages on!

Simon Says – RobRedEyes2

This game awards player points based on wins, but they can only be earned if you purchase the VIP Game Pass for 30 ROBUX. This is an interesting method that incentivizes purchases, while simultaneously encouraging you to become great at the game itself. It’s cool to see games that have been around for a long time continue to update and use new features we introduce.

Ascension – BlueDoom

This bizarre battling game keeps a nifty counter at the top of the screen, which tells you how many points are available at any given time. The amount of available points determines the amount of points that can be given out for achieving kill streaks. At the time of this writing, BlueDoom was awarding four points for four-in-a-row kill streaks. We like the idea of keeping track and keeping players aware of what’s available to earn.

Ascension

Ascension features some pretty gnarly special moves

Fencing Redux – Whimzee

We actually got the chance to chat with Whimzee about his unique points system, and how he’s implemented it. Here’s what he had to say:

I have an area where you can fight each other 2v2 in a controlled environment. If you are on the winning team you receive one point, given that there is enough in the budget. For that reason I added a motivator message in the 2v2 area about the player points, with a counter that tracks how many are left.

I originally planned to add some sort of tournament-pass using developer products that you buy for one-time access. If you win the points that were added to the budget were transferred to you.

SFRedux

I found that would be way too expensive for most people, so I decided to drop it and just award points if I have enough in the budget. I found that adding the message really worked. I nearly doubled my daily incomes by informing the players!

We’re thrilled to see and hear about so many developers cultivating a rising interest in our player points system, and want to see more. Keep experimenting with this system while we test and refine it (an important reminder: as part of the development process, we will be resetting points regularly and without warning). Stay tuned for the actual release soon.