What better city to host the 2018 Roblox Developer Conference (RDC) than Amsterdam? A mecca of creativity, technology, and culture, it was the perfect backdrop to an event that welcomed many skilled artists, storytellers, designers, and game developers from the Roblox community. Nearly 200 attendees from across the world convened for an unbelievably epic weekend that was worthwhile for any aspiring creator and developer.
Taking place on August 17-19 at the Amsterdam Marriott Hotel, RDC 2018 was all about bringing together our amazingly talented developer community to celebrate their success, share learnings, and discuss ways in which we can continue making Roblox the best place to play with friends and build any immersive experience you could possibly imagine. It was an honor and a huge inspiration meeting some of you over the weekend. Thanks to all the creators and developers who came out and helped make this event such a fun, special part of our community.
Event Highlights
We like to open every RDC with a bang, so we treated all attendees to an outstanding welcoming party on Friday. They got to hang out with fellow developers; snack on food, beverages, and desserts galore; jam out to requested songs spun by our very own DJ; and play games throughout the evening. We even developed an icebreaker game on Roblox where participants could learn more about each other, make friends, and complete a puzzle for a chance to earn awesome raffle prizes, like an Oculus Go or a drone. The icebreaker game was a massive hit, and it was a great way to meet others.
Plus, imagine our surprise when dozens of developers walked through the doors wearing masks resembling our emcee and top developer programs manager JParty! It was all in good fun, and we had a blast celebrating the start of RDC with everyone.
Is there a JParty in the house?
As soon as Saturday morning rolled around, we got right into the serious business of building on the Roblox platform. Although our CEO, David “Builderman” Baszucki, couldn’t be there in person, he still took the time to share welcoming words of encouragement and inspiration. He spoke about the success of games like Jailbreak and MeepCity, both of which topped a billion visits, and announced that the Roblox developer community is on track to earn over $70 million this year.
Roblox CEO David “Builderman” Baszucki
Grace Francisco, Roblox’s Vice President of Developer Relations, then took the stage to outline the myriad of milestones that have been achieved since our last RDC. A spike in player growth and engagement, greater support for creating immersive gameplay experiences, and a focus on international expansion were among the many newsworthy announcements Grace had to share in her keynote. She also discussed the various tools, documentation, and educational resources we’ve implemented throughout the year for developers and creators. We will continue to build these out to meet the needs of our growing developer ecosystem.
Grace Francisco, Vice President of Developer Relations
We also had Adam Miller, our Vice President of Engineering, Technology, give a keynote presentation on several exciting upcoming developer-focused features we can expect to see on Roblox. He took attendees on a tour of our amazing new lighting technology and even showed brief snippets on 200-player servers, an in-game CSG system, new physics, and many more impressive features.
Adam Miller, Vice President of Engineering, Technology
Rounding out the keynote presentations, Chris Misner, Roblox’s President of International, shared an update on our global expansion initiatives. Thanks to the efforts of our developer community, there are now over 1,000 games available in Spanish on Roblox. You can expect to see Roblox in more countries, with more languages and greater support for game localization to come. There’s never been a better time to start localizing your game and reach hundreds of millions more players worldwide.
Chris Misner, President of International
After the keynote presentations concluded, attendees broke off into groups to learn more about development, design, and business topics including advanced Studio tips, game localization, marketing, and more. At the end of the day, we also hosted a panel with Roblox engineers Adam Miller, Arseny Kapoulkine, Claus Moberg, and Matthew Dean, as well as a developer panel featuring BuildThomas, AlgyLacey, Wsly, and Ravenshield to address burning questions written by the community.
Game Jam
RDC wouldn’t be complete without our annual Game Jam. Held on Saturday evening and into late Sunday afternoon, the Game Jam is an exciting event where attendees of all skill levels get to team up and work together on a new project based on this event’s theme: reflections.
The Game Jam begins!
After a full night of building, scripting, testing, debugging, as well as food, beverages, and snacks as far as the eye can see, the competitors’ games were evaluated by Roblox staff members Adam Miller, Matthew Dean, Claus Moberg, Tami Bhaumik, and Arseny Kapoulkine (pictured here from left to right) on the following five criteria: Design, Audio/Sounds, Theme, Creativity, and Originality. We saw an impressive array of creative projects that were a delight to see on stage. Hopefully one day we’ll even see them on the front page!
Now, without further ado, let’s see which titles were deemed the most original, most creative, most innovative projects to come out of this year’s Game Jam. Congratulations to…
Third Place: Lucid Dream (created by wind_o, Flubberlutsch, Nawtz, hoshpup)
A gripping story-based game where players encounter different scenarios that will challenge their morality. Think carefully – your decisions will affect the outcome of the story.
Second Place: Lightseeker (created by Basekill, Director1406, Repotted, SteadyOn, jjwood1600, xXDJducklingXx)
Embark on a quest to save Builderman in this exciting side-scrolling adventure! You’ll need to reflect the light from your flashlight in clever ways to overcome puzzles and challenges.
First Place: Split! (created by Zomebody, Arch_Mage, Ravenshield, AlgyLacey, Wsly, buildthomas)
A unique co-op split-screen game about two heroes who live in two different worlds. Though you’re separated from one another, you’ll need to work together to solve the puzzles that stand in your way.
These six winning developers will have their usernames forever engraved on the RDC Game Jam trophy, which will stay on display in the main lobby of Roblox HQ to motivate other aspiring creators.
Behold, the RDC Game Jam trophy. Bask in all its glory!
We also saw two other amazing games that were worthy of an honorable mention. Check these out:
Arrival Corp (created by K_Seven and SupahLuke)
Trapped in a mysterious laboratory, your only options are to comply…or escape. Look around the environment carefully and manipulate the lasers to unlock the doors to freedom.
Feelz Simulator (created by Azicre, Nonaz_jr, Lightlimn, Velibor, DevKurka)
A lighthearted competitive game where you and an opponent battle it out to see who can reflect the most insults from bullies.
Be sure to play the rest of the Game Jam submissions below!
- Slapdragon! (created by Phini, Shyfoox, daireb, Neutre, Astrometrics)
- Mirror Ball (created by Crazyblox, NicholasDev, Manel_Navola, Space_Baa, En_oe, Zarkonan_Zenheart)
- Mirrors & Laser Puzzles (created by RubenKan)
- Mirror Headz (created by ChiefDays, NevermindProductions, edenojack, Mariofly5, Executive_Director, Craftero)
- REFLECTION | NOITCELFER (created by NaweRBLX, kenami, BuildIntoBlocks, Tor_Laws, DevAppeared, Jaklic)
- Equinox (created by Ejo2012, RismyRoblox, soulstyce)
- Twig it! (created by DutchDeveloper)
- Reflection Runner (created by Nitefal, Puckmonster, IntegerUnderflow, ShapeDemBricks)
- Sound Reflect (created by yrrebRBLX, alvinbloxx, Synchorus, MuricanDoge)
Once again, thanks to everyone who helped make RDC 2018 such a huge success—both in the United States and Europe. We look forward to seeing you again next year!
Couldn’t make it and want to see what it was like? Or perhaps you’d like to relive your favorite moments? We’ve got you covered. Check out the complete RDC EU 2018 photo album here.
In case you missed it, we also posted a recap of RDC 2018 from our time in Burlingame, CA. You can read all about it and get links to watch the presentations on our blog post here.