Developer Interview: Zyleth
Who is Zyleth?
Zyleth is a Roblox Developer and owner of Level-Up Studios. Level-Up Studios has one title out right now, Restaurant Manager. The game currently has over 200 players after a silent release and over 400,000 total visits. He also won a Bloxy during 2017.
The Interview
- What made you become a Roblox Developer?
Zyleth: What made me become a Roblox Developer, that’s a question and a half. From when I joined back in 2008 I always wanted to have a game on the front page, a game that people genuinely enjoy. I’ve made tons of solo projects, all of them never took off because I have the coding skills of a potato haha but I still tried repeatedly. I feel like it’s been a dream since I was quite young and I don’t think I’ll give up anytime soon, so I’ll always have love for Roblox and one day I hope I can see my game standing on the front page loud and proud!
2. What’s your favourite part about being a Developer?
Zyleth: I think my favourite part about being a Developer is it’s pretty cool to say to people “I work on games” and they always look at me like I work at Rockstar or Ubisoft haha. Not a lot of people know about my Roblox career outside of the community, but those who do are very supportive.
3. What keeps you motivated as a Developer?
Zyleth: The dream really… It’s pretty demotivating watching projects fall through the ground, teams split up and friendships end. However, the end result of seeing a game release and seeing people enjoy that game makes it worth it. Whether the game is the top rated game on Roblox or it never really lifts off the ground, it does put a smile on my face. My deepest motivation comes from wanting to turn this into a career, a few years ago you couldn’t do that and now it’s like every teenager is becoming a millionaire haha. I wanna become one of the developers that makes this a living.
4. What’s your favourite memory on Roblox?
Zyleth: So back in 2008/2009 the first game I ever played was Heli-Wars: Desert Attack by someone called DrewsomeB. I was addicted to this game, I didn’t even bother with any other Roblox games but I remember my first time ever playing it I must’ve pulled out the Rocket Launcher and shot at the enemy base — it went flying into different directions. I thought this is amazing, I love this game and then 3.2 seconds later someone shot me with one and my character flew into different places, I couldn’t stop laughing. It was seeing my little yellow character fly into different places of the map that really addicted me to Roblox, no idea why.
5. How did you get the idea for “Restaurant Manager”?
Zyleth: Roughly two and a half years ago I was developing a sequel for TNT Rush with some people, the game was taking really long and not looking like it was going anywhere so I started brainstorming game ideas that would be seriously quick to make but entertaining too. I think I got roughly… 17 different Tycoon game ideas? Anyway, I was playing Retail Tycoon while I was brainstorming and I must’ve placed down a Food Shelf (if that’s what it’s called it’s been so long) and I said, “Hold on, what about Food Tycoon… like McDonalds, Fast Food Tycoon!!!” that’s pretty much where the idea came from. It is heavily, heavily inspired by Retail Tycoon.
6. What are your favourite Roblox games?
Zyleth:
When I was a child it was these: Heli-Wars: Desert Attack, Train Demolition, Ultimate Build, Armored Patrol, The Underground War, A Pirates Life, Your Store Tycoon, Survival Apocalypse.
I’d say recent games would be: Retail Tycoon, Theme Park Tycoon 2, Phantom Forces and I think that’s it, I don’t really play many new games to be honest they don’t have the same charm haha.
7. Any mistakes/hiccups you have made so far, something you would advise a new developer to avoid?
Zyleth: Don’t spend all your money on advertising or sponsoring your game for at least 2 days after releasing your game, allow organic growth to occur so you can stress test and find bugs you wouldn’t have found before. I have had experience where someone hasn’t allowed the team to thoroughly test publicly and dropped hundreds of thousands on sponsors — the game died the second it happened. One more thing, don’t beat yourself up if your game doesn’t exceed expectations straight away or even at all. Most games take a few days or weeks to properly kick off and get “front paged” or even a few thousand players. If the game doesn’t kick off at all then oh well, assess what went wrong, what you done well and apply it to the next project you make.
8. Do you have any future plans as a Developer?
Zyleth: Once I have a few games established on the Front Page and a decent pool of income I plan to release some games that will push Roblox to its limits in different genres, I want multiple games out at the same time that are in completely different genres but are all fleshed out to the extent that Triple AAA games would, whilst keeping it simple for a younger audience.
9. What are some updates that you have planned for” Restaurant Manager”?
Zyleth: Well the game has been in development for a long time, it’s gone through a lot of rewrites and content passes. We plan to add way more player jobs than we currently have, we plan to add new ways to make money, new content to spend it on, new minigames to do in your free time and even the ability to order food at a friends restaurant. There’s a lot planned, hopefully people stick around long enough to see it. :)
Conclusion
We thank Zyleth for sitting down with us and giving us this insightful interview into the day to day life of a Roblox Developer.
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