<\/p>\n
User-generated content (UGC) in the gaming space is a buzzy topic, with platforms like Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft and even GTA Online serving as a platform for thousands of creators to build their own games and in some cases their own fortunes \u2013 but it’s not a new one.<\/p>\n
Twenty years ago, web game portals like Newgrounds and later Kongregate provided a platform for a number of Flash-based hits that went on to enjoy huge success in the early days of the iPhone. By only requiring mastery of the relatively simple and widely-avaliable Macromedia Flash (later aquired by Adobe) it served as a powerful democratising force for simple game development.<\/p>\n
Jim Greer | Image credit: Roblox<\/span><\/p>\n Now Jim Greer, who co-founded Kongregate, works as Senior Director of Game Solutions at Roblox, which he feels serves the same purpose as a platform for game creators \u2013 in some cases, the same creators.<\/p>\n “The first thing is that there are top Roblox creators who grew up playing on Kongregate and then, in some cases, released a flash game on the platform,” he observes.<\/p>\n “But I think it’s similar in terms of the creator community. Between Kongregate and Newgrounds and so forth, there was a really lovely community of indie creators who made their own places in Newgrounds, and then Kongregate was an evolution of that.<\/p>\n Flash games like You Have To Burn The Rope were an early step into game development for their creators. | Image credit: Kian Bashiri<\/span><\/p>\n “We started to have deeper role-playing games, collectable card games, and then we saw our super casual audience expand into an older audience that would spend more.”<\/p>\n Greer notes that Roblox is expanding as a user-generated platform by introducing new genres and targeting older users, much like Kongregate did for a previous generation. Roblox is now applying this model on a much larger scale.<\/p>\n “What I really love is helping turn players into creators, and helping creators find their audience,” says Greer. “We have this amazing core group of Roblox native developers who are doing fantastic stuff on the platform, and they’re what’s driven our growth.”<\/p>\n “We also want to capture a new generation of users with the goal of growing to 10% of the game industry by revenue. And so that entails getting to older users.”<\/p>\n Roblox’s latest financials report that 26% of verified users are over 18 \u2013 a demographic Greer says is “growing significantly faster” than others in the Roblox ecosystem and “monetises 40% better than regular users.”<\/p>\n Average daily active users and hours played in the US for the 18-34 cohort also rose 50% during the firm’s first quarter, surpassing all other groups.<\/p>\n “What that means is both helping our native Roblox developers take a bigger step to more ambitious games and also helping folks from the rest of the industry who are looking at Roblox \u2013 which is growing ten times faster than the rest of the industry right now \u2013 but don’t always necessarily quite understand it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “They say, ‘This looks very different from the games I’m used to making’ \u2013 we want to meet you in the middle. Bring your vision, bring your art style, bring your deeper gameplay mechanics, and we’ll help you make that work on Roblox in a variety of ways.”<\/p>\n In March, Roblox launched two new developer programs: Roblox Incubator and Roblox Jumpstart.<\/p>\n Roblox Incubator is a six-month program that helps experienced developers refine their games by providing expert mentorship and support. Jumpstart is an ongoing initiative designed to assist newer creators.<\/p>\n Creators are experimenting with genres and gameplay systems with novel games | Image credit: Roblox<\/span><\/p>\n “My team handles the engineering side,” Greer explains. “I was also part of the initiative. We had programs like this in the past, I suggested, ‘This is what we should do for [misheard].’ A new C-level leader also came in and championed it, so now it’s real.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Both initiatives provide subject matter experts, promotion, office space \u2013 virtual or in person at our office in San Mateo. We’ve got a dedicated space next to my desk, so I’m really excited to have that energy in the office. It’ll be interesting because it’ll be a mix of Roblox-native developers who want to do something novel and off-platform developers who want to bring their vision to Roblox. Both those groups can really learn a lot from each other and create a community.”<\/p>\n In September 2024, Roblox announced plans to increase its revenue share for developers from 30% to up to 70%, based on purchases made with in-game currency. In addition, Greer says that “vetted developers” are also connected to external investors.<\/p>\n “We’re helping you make your game, get your game discovered, and potentially do off-platform marketing. We’re not actually funding the development teams \u2013 they’re still self-funding. Just as there are studios that are having a hard time now, there are also investors that have capital to deploy, but they’re looking at a lack of growth \u2013 they’re trying to figure it out, but it’s a very different ecosystem,” Greer explains.<\/p>\n “There are game developers who have succeeded on the platform who are now going on to help other game developers, both in terms of advice and, in some cases, financial investment. So we believe that the good teams will be able to find the capital to spend six months making the great game.”<\/p>\n Greer emphasises that Roblox is prioritising discoverability, especially for standout games. Media coverage tends to highlight viral experiences like Steal a Brainrot and Grow a Garden, which, despite strong retention, don’t look polished or sophisticated. The new initiatives are an effort to showcase the platform\u2019s full potential and support more ambitious projects.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “That might not mean that it’s got super high-realism graphics, but we’ve done a lot of work on our engine side to optimise and let higher performance games run well on the platform,” Greer explains. “There’s going to be an audience that just wants to look at Roblox and want it to be blocky and funky, but most of what the audience wants is for it to load quickly and be immediately engaging.”<\/p>\n “We’re working to make sure that the ability to sample a lot of different games and low friction remains \u2013 we’ve seen other studios do that. Riot said, ‘Oh, we’ve got League,’ but then they created Team Tactics and said, ‘Let’s take this depth of gameplay, but bring it into a form factor and pacing that works in other [games].’ We can do that on Roblox as well without losing what’s already made it Roblox.”<\/p>\n Popular Roblox experiences such as Steal a Brainrot and Grow a Garden attract younger players. However, the platform faces challenges in retaining these users as they age and their preferences evolve. The firm plans to address this by increasing the diversity of its ecosystem.<\/p>\n Grow a Garden is one of the most popular experiences on Roblox | Image credit: Roblox<\/span><\/p>\n “How much does the top game hold within that genre? For shooters, it’s very concentrated,” says Greer. “That’s a successful genre we don’t want to take away from, but we also want different games for different kinds of people looking for different things. We see people ageing into those games but lacking diversity in offerings, so we’re probably losing more of those people than we could.”<\/p>\n The goal, Greer says, is for Roblox to offer a diverse range of genres. He notes that while shooters and RPGs are popular on the platform, its biggest breakout hit was fashion game Dress to Impress.<\/p>\n “We don’t want to look away from that. Many things can appeal to an older audience, and we want to see how a game can retain these users. How do [certain genres] appeal to people who want deeper gameplay or a different style?”<\/p>\n “It’s the quality of the team, of course, and then the novelty of what they’re proposing, which could be gameplay, graphics, social mechanics or any combination of those.”<\/p>\n “Many things can appeal to an older audience, and we want to see how a game can retain these users”<\/p>\n Greer also highlights the struggle to retain a demographic that may age out of Roblox and move on to other platforms that offer games suited to their changing tastes.<\/p>\n “We don’t have demographic data to share externally, but it’s about figuring out what people want as their tastes change. Maybe they come back after years away.”<\/p>\n “Some might come back for a specific title, but people don’t say ‘I want to go back and play game X that I used to play in 2016.’ They say, ‘I want to go back and play Roblox.’ We do want to change that to some extent; we want to associate titles that they’re really passionate about outside the platform and find developers who are going to help us do that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" User-generated content (UGC) in the gaming space is a buzzy topic, with platforms like Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft and even GTA Online serving as a platform for thousands of creators to build their own games and in some cases their own fortunes \u2013 but it’s not a new one. Twenty years ago, web game portals like<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[7578,7576,7577,1658,7194],"class_list":{"0":"post-7773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upcoming-games","8":"tag-believes","9":"tag-founder","10":"tag-kongregate","11":"tag-roblox","12":"tag-successor"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Focusing on the over-18s<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Prioritising discoverability<\/strong><\/h3>\n