Game jams are events that bring developers together to design and create a game, typically within a ridiculously short amount of time (somewhere between a day and a weekend). We recently held one of our own at ROBLOX HQ – both as a fun evening event for our crew and to experience the product we’re creating just as our community does. We gave it our own unique spin: two or three people per team, three hours only. Turns out, even with such a severe resource constraint, ROBLOX remains a really good platform to create something substantial.

ROBLOX lets individuals and small teams turn ideas into working prototypes fast, in no small part because multiplayer networking, physics, hosting, and other such engine-level features are built in. While not every team in our game jam finished a working game, we thought it would be cool to show you what some of the groups accomplished in the mere three hours they were allotted.

Multiplayer Pac-Man

Facing off against the artificial intelligence in Pac-Man is fun and challenging and all, but when you add real, human players into the mix, it takes on a new life. This game lets you experience the classic arcade game with the added challenge of human opponents. Once there are a few players in the server with you, it gets really fun and social.

Super SkyRail Mega Ring Adventure

Not only does it win “best name of the game jam,” Super SkyRail Mega Ring Adventure is inventive and challenging. You spawn into space (because why not?) on a floating island, jump into a “SkyRail” car, and use the arrow keys to generate a path for your car to collect as many floating rings as possible. The project demonstrates ROBLOX’s physics, and rewards players for improving their skill.

Control tips: use the green and red buttons to move your car forward and backward, respectively, and use the arrow keys on your keyboard to create a rail to follow.

In Super SkyRail Mega Ring Adventure, you need to build a your path at least as fast as your car moves! Also, don’t look down.

Pinball (Sort of)

This project is some kind of hybrid of Plinko and pinball, but with the addition of harmless explosions. There’s not much of a game to this one quite yet, but it is a fun showcase of ROBLOX physics.

We recommend you try a couple of these games. They are all experimental prototypes, and they’re not perfect. What you will see is that you can create a prototype of a game in a very short amount of time, get it on the market, and see how people play and respond. Your first cut may seem rough, but great games take time to build – and they all start from the same place: an idea.

If you’re working on an experimental project or game prototype, feel free to share what it is and a link in the comments!