“From the Devs”: 3 Tips to Consider When Making Money from Your Roblox Game
At RDC US this year, Roblox introduced a new track of breakout sessions for developers to enjoy: how to build a business on Roblox. The theme of the track focused on tips and tricks for expanding your player base, monetize your game and grow your Roblox skills into a career. Attendees also heard from developers who have done this very successfully; Berezaa, AlexNewtron, Sharksie, Simbuilder, Blockfacebob, Blockfacesteve and RickyTheFishy all took the stage at different points of the day to discuss their experience.
The opening panel focused on monetizing Roblox games to grow developer earnings and incentivize players to spend in-game. The panel was hosted by Christina Shedletsky, who asked some questions of Jeff Maher (Director of Analytics at Roblox, previously at Kabam! games), AlexNewtron and Berezaa. Jeff Maher chatted with us after the panel about the three key points he gathered from the panel discussions:
1). Gameplay comes first
While this might seem a logical argument, this is an argument that some developers forget. It is a good idea to have a plan for how you will monetize your game, but developers often focus on how to increase in-game spend while letting gameplay suffer as a result. Jeff, Berezaa, and AlexNewtron all kept returning to the same underlying point: if you don’t have players returning and engaging in your game, then these players won’t invest in your game.
Berezaa and AlexNewtron each outlined several ideas of how to do this: daily rewards, events tied with sales, and loot crates are among their preferred methods. Using these methods, players are more likely to be incentivized to return to your game.
Jeff Maher’s feedback? Tie monetization into your game. If you can put the gameplay first, and focus on bringing people back, you can also host events and promote sales for the event. For example, if you host a big race, you’ll likely sell more cars. If the events and monetization make sense in your gameplay, you’ll be able to monetize your game with ease.
2). Couple in-game currency with analytics
Both AlexNewtron and Berezaa use in-game currencies in their Roblox games, as well as implementing analytics to track player spending with these currencies.
AlexNewtron picked a single in-game currency to help prevent money farming and focuses on monitoring how many coins are put into the economy.
By comparing the fluctuation of coins to the amount of time a user has spent in-game, he can determine whether users are there to play the game and unlock the items, or if they’re impatient and buy the items outright. Additionally, if players have too many coins and not spending them, that indicates a lack of content.
Berezaa also has in-game currencies and leverages these currencies to push players to buy items. In instances where players have too many crystals and aren’t buying items, he likes to will release a limited edition item.
Jeff Maher provided some insight into some of the potential behavior behind spending in-game, which led to a bigger conversation around making your game more social. Jeff advises making people feel good about spending in-game and unlocking loot. AlexNewtron talks about doing this in his game; he has a celebration emote programmed in for when players purchase or unlock loot and players around that player can see the emote. Other games do this map-wide so that a notification is sent to all players. This provides a social incentive for players to spend and unlock.
3). Track Who Is Buying What
When you’re able to track who is buying which items, you’ll be able to adjust pricing accordingly. Additionally, when you have a game that people are spending a lot of time in, they’re more likely to invest in the game. If you’re able to track what people are purchasing, you can create content or events that encourage players to purchase in-game items.
Jeff also points out that you should make sure you put paid items at popular points in your game, where lots of players end up. Making this content visible can only help encourage players to spend.
Check out the full video here:
Going to RDC EU? Be sure to stop by the monetization panel and get your questions answered!
