The Story of Universal Roblox (ft. Dapale)

hello everyone and welcome to today's

event today's event will be the story of

universal Roblox featuring theale and

today we're going to go over some

questions about the game and some

questions in general and we'll be

interviewing with Deale so if anyone has

any questions feel free to put them in

the Q&A Channel and we will answer them

um so I'm going to hand over to gelle

and he's going to talk a little bit

about what he does and yeah yeah hey

guys uh I am the co-founder SLC current

head developer of universal Roblox as

well as some other projects on

Roblox um I've been on the platform

since 2011 it's a long time now it

doesn't feel like it's been that long

but it has uh and I've worked on a

couple games from uh my early days in

horror games I I kind of started um

doing things like with the Slender and

stuff I don't even know if many people

even some people might not even know

what that is because it was so long ago

uh but I I joined doing horror games and

then I kind of transitioned into just

other General stuff I worked alongside

now do the Harlem Shake on the normal

elevator and then eventually I became

one of the main developers here at

Universe of Roblox and I think that was

yeah that was in 2016 so also it's also

been a very very long time just with

this project but I enjoy doing it um um

yeah perfect so yeah that's pretty much

a basic

overview oh that was great okay um let's

get stting into some of the questions

then I have a few and then I've copied

some from what people have asked um so

the first question I have for you is

what got you interested in Roblox and

how did you get started on the platform

as a

whole yeah so in

2011 I

it has like the weirdest connection

but I I I guess I can go pretty in depth

here but so at the time one of my dad's

high school friends was on the show The

Biggest Loser which is like a Extreme

Weight Loss kind of uh like game show

like they're trying to lose a bunch of

weight um well he he my Dad's

friend he won that Year's Biggest Loser

and we eventually we went to Oklahoma to

go see him we had never met him before

but we all wanted to like hey what's up

and meet them well his son the biggest

losers The Biggest Loser winner really

complicated way of saying that um his

son actually had a Roblox account and uh

he he showed me he's like oh I have a

YouTube channel and I was like oh okay

this is kind of cool um and so I was

like okay I'll look at it when I get get

home or something um but this entire

time I wanted to work on I was very I

was very much into Call of Duty and Call

of Duty zombies and I always liked how

um Halo reach the specific Halo game at

the time of this that I was interested

in people would make custom maps in Halo

Reach and they would make like these

zombie maps right yeah there's a lot I

know there's a lot of connections here

but I was like yeah I really want to

make my own zombies maps because that's

cool and then when I went to look at

this guy's YouTube channel he had like a

I saw a custom map that was replicating

in Call of Duty zombies and I was like

whoa that looks way better than Halo

Reach because it looked way more custom

it looked like you had more creative

freedom and I was like that looks cool

and so I went onto the platform and I I

I I tried to make the if anyone even

knows what this is It's the um what's it

called

is the Call of Duty the the moon map it

there was like a map on the moon it was

a Call of Duty zombies map yeah

I I don't really know how many people

know that but that was Black Ops 2 it

was a long time ago but it I made a

little map I thought it was a lot of fun

and eventually I started learning how to

code through the platform and yeah I got

interested just straight up because I

thought it was cool to create my own

little Maps um and then little did I

know that that would lead me to

like the whole coding atmosphere and all

that stuff that I ended up going

through fair enough okay so keeping on

that topic of Roblox itself what do you

personally enjoy the most about the

platform both as a Creator and your show

a

user what I enjoy most with the platform

um well okay I guess in a platform sense

but like before the community just the

platform sense um um I do enjoy

how uh people may may have different

arguments on this but I do find Roblox

to be a way easier way to Kickstart a

project compared to just like jumping on

steam or something because Roblox gives

you you know you have like an unlimited

number of servers that scale to your

your game that you make you have instant

multip like the server I guess that's

the same thing but you have scalability

you have a free to use engine

and there's a bunch of tools that they

give you and there's an audience that

already exists there um if you know what

the general audience likes you can

pretty much make whatever you want and

push it out as a game and there will

already be an audience that can get

FedEd if you understand a few things

about maybe the recommendation algorithm

which I understand that that's a debate

if that's even good but yeah that that

should be simplified in how well you can

can reach your audience but nonetheless

there is an audience and then they also

scale your servers which I very much

enjoy um it's really helpful as a

Creator uh in terms of the community um

there I think what one of the most cool

things about it and this was even on in

in early times of

Roblox um usually you were able to find

a pretty Niche group of people who like

things that you like just because they

played those certain games and so a lot

of communities have spawned out Roblox

such as maybe some people here are are

in the coaster team Discord for example

or or just even our own games Discord

you usually find these n groups of

people that were all interested in very

specific things and so you know I was

interested in uh physics and programming

and also theme parks and then there's a

lot of people who are in that coaster

Community who all who all grew up with

Roblox and they learned some of the

physics that that are behind coasters

they learned things about how coasters

and and theme parks actually operate all

just because we found each other through

these Niche games and I think maybe

maybe this is actually a good argument

for Roblox they always try to call

themselves like the metaverse I think it

was more of a metaverse before than it

is now but I I really much did enjoy

being able to to reach that kind of

Niche

audience definitely and over the last

couple years the platform has changed

massively oh yeah yeah for

sure okay um yeah cool okay so I think

we should probably start moving into

Universal Roblox itself um and I guess

the best place to start was how did you

join it where did you hear about it or

did you know Andrew originally or how

did you find out about the game yeah

so this is funny

because

I I I had seen the game and I played it

and I thought it was really cool but I

wasn't a part of the project when it

first opened and nor did I know I I

might have like known Andrew from his

other random projects like the City walk

and stuff that was made before um but I

didn't really have a close communication

with him uh and I think back in 2016 The

Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened

at Universal Studios Hollywood it was it

opened during at the time my spring

break April of

2016 and I got I really really liked it

I had seen the wisney world at Florida

but once having it like at home I was

like oh okay I came became more

accustomed to it and so I started making

my own build of that of that

actual like land and so I showed

Andrew that the progress I had made on

it which was a few of like the buildings

as you were going down the street and he

was like wow that it looks great would

you like to work on this for Universe of

Roblox would you like to put it in the

game and I was like sure and so

basically I focused on doing the wising

world project that did take about I

think it took two years from the day I

started there till the day we actually

released it um but it was it was a lot

of work and it was

fun uh but yeah I join through through

showing off my ability to to I guess

work on some out like wasn't necessarily

as to me but just like showing off my

cool work which that's exactly the kind

of way we look for people who are who if

we need to find someone who is super

creative in a certain kind of they're

good modeler they're good programmer we

usually look at their past work and if

they show off things that are cool we're

like hey you want to join question mark

so but yeah back back to the point um

although I was only FOC like initially

focused on the wiy world project I

kind

of started like just doing random things

like I made the first line system in the

Halloween event in 2016 because that

there was like a queing system they it

was basically just like everyone stood

in a line and hopefully everyone

followed the line it was very weird back

then old Roblox was a lot of fun it was

very weird but it was a lot of fun uh

and so I made the first little line

system and then I did at the time the

walking dead

attraction um that was like I don't know

I don't really know what made me do that

I don't know if I just like did it or if

I was asked to do it but we did that and

it was that was a lot of fun to do

because I hadn't worked on any Halloween

events or anything so it was my first

haunted house of of A Sort and so I I

thought it was cool to do that so yeah

and then eventually I just started

getting more involved in programming the

event because uh one of our the time our

head programmer was kind of busy with

other things and so I started trying to

take over things so yeah that's that's

it took a little bit longer to get that

point across but yeah no fair enough The

Walking Dead game I remember playing it

in the very early days of the game yeah

very different from what it is now yeah

it was it yeah I think it came out in

early

2017 maybe maybe I think it yeah around

there yeah

okay um so moving on to the next

question it is what inspired you to take

Universal Studios from Andrew and

continue the legacy of the game

so I don't think like obviously like as

someone who isn't in like the internal

team we didn't I didn't like take it

from him or anything we were like pretty

much I guess co-owners at a point we

were both working work together on

things and still this day Andrew works a

lot on the project he helped a lot in

managing Halloween scare nights this

year so he's not like out of the picture

he just didn't want the responsibilities

of managing the overall project and so

he told me at one point hey I have a lot

of stuff going on in life um do you just

want to be like the figurehead and help

manage a little bit more of the other

you know end to end stuff just to um try

to get things going and I was like well

it sucks that you're handing it over to

me right when we have to do this IP

removal thing but yeah I'll do it just

because uh like you know I I feel like I

was pretty well accustomed I had wrote

at the time all the code in the game was

essentially my code besides a few little

pieces and so I felt like it it was just

a good position it made sense to do it

and so

yeah okay I think on the S of topic of

Ip removal is it worth maybe explaining

a little bit of why that change happened

for anyone that

yeah so it IP is intellectual property

which is

essentially like I guess characters

movies anything that's made of made in a

creative way uh that's not owned or it's

owned by some like the Creator right so

if for example you know the new wild

robot movie Wild robot and that movie is

considered intellectual property of

universal SL NBC NBC unal um and so

without a license if if if we didn't

have a license to use wild robot if we

put wild robot in our game and and try

to do anything with wild robot that

would be illegal without a license is

their intellectual property and you

can't use it um just out of the blue so

in the earlier days of of Roblox it

there wasn't really a like you didn't

just make money off the game it was kind

of just making things for fun and making

things to show off I don't know just

that you were involved in that community

and you just kind of wanted a place for

people to have fun uh but warbox changed

and it became way more of a like game

development distribution

platform and they started cracking down

on the use of intellectual property

without licenses uh which is rightfully

so I understand it um and our game did

start making money so we were like okay

we we do need to remove this

intellectual property and even if we

weren't making money it's still against

the law to use intellectual property

without licensing um and so it took us a

while to do it but there is the the

thing that like mainly made us make that

decision and like go ahead with it

is um I believe at the time our clothing

designer got like 50 of his items taken

down automatically by some AI uh

IP detection bot they made and so we're

like okay well if the C going to start

doing this what's going to end up

happening is a lot of our audio because

a lot of our audio at the time was also

intellectual property it wasn't owned by

us they run automatic audio IP detection

and so a lot of our audios were getting

deleted uh and basically what would have

ended up happening in the long run if we

didn't do this IP removal is the entire

game would have probably lost like the

majority of sounds you wouldn't hear

anything in the game The Sounds would be

deleted um maybe some of the textures or

images would be deleted and even the

game itself could have gotten taken down

because we didn't have proper licensing

to use if any of the IP

owners filed a dmca takedown request

because we were using their intellectual

property without a license so obviously

we would love to have the intellectual

property in our

game but it's it's extreme hard to you

can't do that without a license and

people always are always asking this why

don't you get the licenses while

licenses are extremely expensive and the

scale of this game doesn't

have there's

no yeah the game doesn't make enough

money to to even get like a single large

license like if we wanted to put the

entire

game's profits into a license we could

maybe get one big movie like one you

know and the game used to have like I

don't know 30 Properties or something

something there was a lot of properties

that were used before so yeah

unfortunately it's it's just a hard

problem at the scale of the game and I

mean even a lot of Roblox games they

don't usually have more than one

property or one promotion event at a

time it's just it's it's just not doable

unless we somehow got into a contract

deal or got bought by NBC Universal who

has the rights to potentially fix this

and make licensing agreements that would

include our game so I don't expect that

to happen but yeah it's a difficult

problem and yeah it's unfortunate and we

made us change a lot of things

especially some we had to do quicker

than others and some things still

haven't recovered from that time like

the Forbidden Adventure ride in the

wiing Village area that that ride still

not done right and like that closed

initially because of the IP removal

situation so although unfortunate it was

necessary to keep the game active alive

and prevent it from being

closed definitely and although it was a

big change I think it works out quite

well because we had the best Halloween

event I think we've ever had this year

as well yeah I I like the Halloween

event I'm sure we'll it'll probably get

some questions there yep uh but yeah I

love the Halloween event

okay so moving on to a slightly

different topic about Universal um lots

of the questions follow the same line of

what was your greatest accomplishment

out of the whole

game

o greatest accomplishment out of the

whole

game huh so okay the weird thing about

universeal Roblox I'm going to give you

some quick context and why this is

difficult for me to answer I wouldn't I

would say um

the difficult the reason it's difficult

to ask this question is sorry wow I am

not I don't know why to it's difficult

to answer this question because I

although a lot of the things in

Universal Roblox are there there are

some pretty cool things I I don't think

anything I've done specifically in

Universal was like groundbreaking

technology or like programming

techniques that I discovered with

universal uh it was like main like oh I

I did some complex things in my own

personal projects and then that allowed

me to come back to Universal and work on

things that I've done in my own personal

time there are certain things that I I

think we did a great job on um it's not

my work but the Epic twin that's his

username he has a really really good

ride system slash coaster

animation kind of like Tool uh that we

use on all of our attractions uh and we

like set up triggers and things just

that trigger effects like you kind of

would do in real life with sensors and

things uh so he did a great job with

that that's not my greatest

accomplishment obviously because that's

his work uh but I I we did an update in

gosh was it actually two years ago now

was it July 22 or July 23 I think it was

22 wow it's been three years with the

new stuff wow

okay yeah so in July of 2022 we did a

huge like I basically recoded the entire

game um all the UI we replaced all the

interface

[Music]

we uh everything all the code was new

and that made things so much cleaner and

it made us it made it so much easier to

add new content to the game in much

quicker way right um although things

still take a long time for us to develop

what's actually crazy is I feel like our

our develop time schedule is the exact

same it's been in the past but we'

actually we actually have less time than

we've ever had before but I think we're

still developing at the same right

because of all the changes made in the

framework had I not made all those

changes we'd probably get even slower

updates or slower content releases so I

think it was very helpful that we did

that because pretty much everyone on the

project right now has full-time jobs

uh like the main development team so

yeah it's hard to get things in but yeah

I think my greatest accomplishment was

this General framework that I redid for

the entire game because it's really

clean uh everything works together

pretty well and it's easy to maintain an

update in a quick way so I like that the

most okay um on the flip side to that

question what would you say was the most

difficult thing to add in the game or

create the most difficult thing to add

um well I

mean Halloween scare nights this year

provided a lot of problems not

necessarily with just like the code that

was needed for them but there was we had

to leverage so many decisions to even

get this game working and to to like

make sure all the variables were

considered and we still made mistakes

because it it was such a hard problem to

answer um although that that was

complicated that

wasn't most of it wasn't a complicated

like coding or

implementation uh I think the thing it

took the longest amount of time to

actually do in

Universal was the alien attack gun

system I was confident I I I knew how to

do it and I knew what I was going to do

but I had to make sure on day one that

it worked for

uh controllers touch screens and

keyboard and mouse so it had to work on

all the platforms on day

one and there's a lot of moving Parts

well like literally the the ride

Vehicles move and so there's a lot of

moving parts

to the the laser guns and all that stuff

and yeah it it was a little complicated

but I knew what I was I needed to do and

like I don't think there was ever a a

giant pause where I was like I don't

know how to solve this problem there

were bugs and things they got solved but

it took the most amount of time of any

of our projects probably just because it

needed that whole gun shooting framework

thing to

it okay awesome I yeah alien attack is

one of my favorite rides and that leads

on to our next question of what is your

favorite rid in

Universal

oh

um

huh well I

typically like if I'm just like playing

the game just randomly by myself or or

just checking something out or if I'm

like trying to show someone the quality

of it I usually do go to alien attack or

web

Adventures

I I also like to ride Jurassic coaster

but I think alien attack and web

Adventures really show off the quality

of the kind of work that can be done by

our team and by other

teams uh ah maybe alien attack because

alien attack has the whole pre-show

element and then it has a pretty fun

like Easter RS and things you can see

through the queue so may I'll go with

alien attack I do really like web

Adventures as like the ride itself but I

feel like alien Tas has so much going on

in it and I like it a lot fair enough

yeah both of them are really good as

well so match well done to the team on

those Rags yeah they did a great

job um so what advice would you give to

an aspiring Roblox developer that you've

learned since making

games um

so Roblox is a I think I mentioned it a

little bit earlier in that like yeah

there's an audience that exists in

Roblox and they have this recommendation

algorithm that will try to find that

audience for you when you release a game

um so when it comes to that although I

just said like oh it's great you like

there's an audience that already exists

and you can make games and

stuff I would two things I would do are

keep in mind when you're going to make a

game on Roblox or or develop on

Roblox um although you may really like a

certain idea there are very specific

things that don't really work on Roblox

um you can do a single player game you

can make a single player game on Roblox

it's very very likely it it might do

well for a small amount of time a little

bit of time but that typically Roblox

games Excel when they are social games

and they're are

multiplayer um and then they have some

sort of General gameplay Loop uh oh yeah

obviously I there was there is a few

times in before 2016 where I wanted to

make single player games uh I started

working on some and then I just realized

I even if this game got popular it

wouldn't stay popular because it just

does Roblox is a social platform it's

not if you want to make a single player

game unfortunately you probably have to

go out and do the extra amount of

research to go and make a game on a

different engine and publish it to steam

or epic games or or wherever um because

there are certain projects that I don't

think work on Roblox and then the second

thing this goes for any game developer

on any

platform make a game that you want to

make and that you want to play don't

make a game because I want dollars I

want money just make a game that you

would enjoy going into yourself and that

you want to play and typically there

will be other people who also want to

play the same type of game that you want

to

play and that's

typically a recipe for success when you

make a fun game for yourself you also

make fun games for other

people I would say that advice is

perfect for yeah anyone new who wants to

make

again okay um what are some of the

biggest lessons you've learned on your

uh what are some of the biggest lessons

you've learned from your Roblox

experience as a

whole

um well we just learned a pretty big one

with Halloween scare nights um

uh obviously when you're when you're

working on different projects you have

to make a ton of

assumptions

on and this is just this is outside the

game development too this this might

even go for like almost every job ever

if you're making anything for the

general

public

um you have to make assumptions based on

how people may or may not react to

different scenarios and hey if you're uh

your audience is going to like something

dislike something are they going to

understand this are people going to know

what to do in this case and I think what

a lot of Roblox games well the popular

games do well and the unpopular games

unfortunately don't do well is or I

think the most complicated thing that

people don't get to get to exactly as a

developer is they make assumptions that

like a player just knows how to play

your game game no matter how you make it

um there is a ton of work that should go

into I

guess like if I jumped in this game for

the first time and I saw nothing about

it what how would I react and see the

reason it's so hard for people and

developers to know or even understand

that is because you'll never be able to

step into someone's shoes and just not

know what your game's like like you've

been working on it for all this time you

know the ins and outs of how things are

you have to get the game into people's

hands maybe either through beta testing

or whatever to see how

they react to it with no bias right so

if you get people to go into your game

and then you see them get confused you

need you can ask them questions about

why they're confused but you shouldn't

tell them oh you press this press that

and then you go over here that is going

to get them to a point that they didn't

get to by themselves right so if you

learn a lot about how people interact

with your game either through like

direct play test where you watch what

they do or you you track statistics and

you see where players like go to with

the buttons they press and you figure

out how to make those better and make it

more seamless you typically will get

people more interested and more willing

to play your game longer uh and just get

people invested in your community as if

you don't just like make it super

complicated from the beginning and so

one question we always get asked is hey

why did you guys remove the menu from

Universal Roblox so what used to happen

is there was like a menu page and it had

a play button it had a all these

different buttons it's basically what

you see right now when you join the game

it's on the left side of the screen why

it used to be like a whole screen and

then you had to press play and then you

had to choose a place to start and it

was like the theme park the hotel or the

shopping center right uh and so the

problem with that is a lot of people had

like no idea what they they joined for

the first time and they were expecting

oh I'll see theme park but they see a

menu with a bunch of interfaces a bunch

of buttons and there's some people who

never even press the play button and

then press the theme park button right

they didn't even get to that point or

they pressed the play button and they

didn't press the theme park they went to

somewhere that wasn't the theme park but

they eventally played the game expecting

a theme park so there's all these things

that you can people can get stuck in and

you as a developer like well it looks

good I like it but why are why are

people not liking it or why people not

playing it it it's typically because

either they don't understand something

they don't see it the same way that you

saw it or you made an incorrect

assumption about how a player was going

to go about something right and so I

think trying to figure out when you can

make good assumptions when you shouldn't

make assumptions and like seeing how

people go through your development

process and and how people go through

what you present is a very smart way

to understand how to improve your

experiences your in your games um try to

remove all the bias from your head it's

not it's that's an impossible task but

try your very best to see things as a

new player would see them and typically

that will really help

you um

streamline the the the playing process

the game processor across any industry

honestly uh don't make too strong of

assumptions but also don't make things

suck because you don't add anything of

substance to the game because you don't

want people to get confused there like

the find Balancing

Act that's great advice and the menu a

lot of people do say oh I want the old

menu back but it is a very much

understandable reason for removing it

and it does help a lot of new players

yeah because yeah now you now you play

and you're immediately in the theme park

and the menu the tabs on there now are

just like additional pages of people

wanting to look at things news and all

that stuff more quickly yeah yeah okay

one of the questions we have coming in

on the Q&A panel is why did you get rid

of the City walk SL shopping area it

didn't have any

IP

so yes most of it didn't have IP I

actually I think yeah What mo like the

majority had been unpd already um the

reason we got rid of it um well it it

was just another part of the game we had

to maintain so if we ever made updates

to like oh how I don't know a small

piece worked right let's say for some

reason I wanted to change how the Fast

Travel worked um I would have to make

sure that oh if if it was I was moving

positions I was moving stuff in the game

I had to make sure all the Fast Travel

locations for all those shops still

worked right and then I oh if I had to

change something that the night lighting

or something something we something had

to change that means we had to update

all the night Lighting in the game

that's just another piece I have to

update

it it kind of the decision was more so

that we saw that a huge amount of people

didn't like most people ignored the area

but if they didn't ignore it uh there

were some players who would go through

that that Universal Plaza portal at the

very entrance of the game and they would

go through the shopping center and they

would leave because they don't see theme

park again it's the same problem as as

the menu um and so we we went through a

few designs when changing this we were

going to have like a very mini shopping

center right at the entrance but we also

realized that like that's still the same

problem where you're not seeing theme

park you're seeing shops you're seeing

like it's not people didn't play this to

go through the shopping center they went

to go to the theme park um and so our

eventual goal was to take all the shops

and things most of them maybe not all

but most of the content that was in

Universal Plaza and disperse the shops

into the park so there's more actual

things just around the park and so

there's still like three or four shops

that we want to add we kind of got

delayed on that um because there like a

shake up in in Avatar accessories and

what's going on there so we still want

to finish that and put more more stores

into the park but yeah having it as a

separate area that had to be maintained

in addition to the rest of the park was

just and and also it not being the most

popular place and kind of adding to that

whole uh oh it's on a theme park it's a

shopping center idea it was just it's

hard to justify keeping it there and up

dating it when it was so not it wasn't

used that

much yeah fair enough I did enjoy

shopping and I remember it when it first

came out but over time it did get

quieter but it was a good

addition yeah no it it was yeah the

initial version was very big um and at

some point we scaled it down a bit to

put it into the the the universal we

what to call it now the production

Central area which is like the backline

stuff with uh the Rip Ride what is it

called rocking coaster yeah uh so yeah

it yeah it unfortunately was just not

traveled well enough and it was hard to

maintain

so cool one of the other questions

coming in is if you had the opportunity

to bring back any old ride what ride

would you bring

back

o yeah I to bring back any old

ride let me

think see a lot a lot of the old rides

most of them were removed just because

either they weren't up quality or they

got replaced by a newer version right

there are like very select ones that

were just removed

because like I guess st's disco coaster

was removed because you removed all the

Simpsons intellectual property from the

game um people like SE coaster I

actually even though I was involved in

that project I still didn't understand I

guess I still don't understand why it

was so popular that one I just never

understood I know people liked it maybe

it was the music um

but I'm indifferent to STS and then we

had the fly dinosaur which was um kind

of back in the Jurassic Kingdom area it

was a B&M wing

coaster uh it was a good coaster but it

was also just an exposed steel barely

themed coaster and so the

reason uh we put Megalodon there is we

were able to wrap Megalodon more a bit

around the park I I don't know it

Megalodon was put in the game for hey

we're not ready for the River Adventure

ride here's a coaster in the meantime

because we can make coasters way more

easily and eventually when the River

Ride came we're like okay the co poter

that doesn't exist in real life at a

universal Park doesn't really make sense

in our park and also it's just an

exposed steel coaster let's try to

just that's let's remove it because we

have better things coming uh I I'm

trying to think of rides that I don't

think we removed anything that was like

I mean okay I guess I'll say if I had

the opportunity to add back the

Ghostbusters walk through haunted house

I would I think that was one of our best

haunted houses and it was a lot of fun

we put a lot of work into that house it

looked great but yeah we don't have the

licensing to use Ghostbusters so can't

use that house

anymore so yeah I'll go with that fair

enough I would say Stew was my favorite

one mainly because it was indoors and

then it would go outdoors and I don't

think there's any ride similar to that

on universal

today yes that would be true yeah I

think that's all for me that's what made

it unique know about other people as of

now as of now we we may have a project

that we've been slowly working on that

does go indoor and outdoor again but I

will keep that secret okay keep an eye

out for that update

then cool um we should move on to

Halloween screen uh Halloween field the

Halloween event in general I guess yeah

um so the main question which there are

quite a few few questions about it is

why was the event paid this

year yes so the event was paid this year

because well it was actually very

similar

to um our previous years so in our our

last big Halloween event was in 2020

when we did essentially what we did this

year um so in 2020 and the previous

years the event used to be within the

main game this is before age ratings

that's the primary reason we put it into

a separate game anyway because it has a

13 plus age rating and we didn't want to

restrict the universal Park game from

being accessed by everyone who's under

the age of 13 right so in 2020 and

before it used to be in the main game

and we would sell tickets there was day

tickets and there were like season

passes essentially right uh the day

tickets I think yeah the day tickets

were about 10 Robux per day and then the

season passes were like 150 Roo for the

for attending it for the duration of the

event so we wanted to get rid of the

idea of having the one- day tickets

because they it there's a lot of

complicated things that were involved

there people had to figure out which

days the event was open how long their

ticket was good for and we thought it

was complicated and that we could

improve this the whole ticketing system

and just say hey there's one price and

you buy and you have it for the whole

season and we want to make it cheaper

than it used to be so that you're not

spending 150 ORS like it you like that's

what it used to be it was 150 for the

season um but it's not 10 for a day so

we're like okay I think 50 is a pretty

good reasonable amount and that's only

four of the houses uh we we gave the

whole event and scare Zone stuff out for

free which it used to be behind the day

tickets and the season pass so they the

Scaris ones and stuff was never none of

that was free uh so we like okay let's

make it just have the haunted houses

cost Rob bucks um

however that was our we made an

incorrect assumption with this whole

thing and it was yes our audience

understood the ticketing system people

who played the our old Halloween events

knew what they to expect right when this

was in VIP previews it had like a 94 95

% approval rating and we're like okay

we're good we did a good job we're happy

but then we when we released it to the

public and the game started getting

recommended to new users that assumption

no longer held because these people had

no idea what the event was and so they

would join the game and they would see

oh my goodness I can't play it seemingly

looks like they can't play the game

right like they try to go into any of

these haunted houses and it requires

them to buy it so they feel like oh they

were misled into thinking this is

something big Halloween event it's like

no I have to pay for it and it Le it led

to a lot of people dis disliking the

game and it's a bad look I wish we had

not failed in that assumption what we

should have done is made the game paid

access or something like that right but

to kind of focus more on the general

question uh so sorry I I'll the paid

acces decision would be because it would

be an upfront it would show you hey this

game is 50 robo

and you're not unintentionally

misleading people into thinking it's

this big event that's completely free to

access right uh people don't a lot of

people don't read your description of

your game and all that stuff so you

can't you shouldn't assume that they'll

understand how it works and that was the

incorrect assumption we made this year

um but yeah back to the whole point why

is it even purchasable to begin with

like why is there a price tag on the

event at all well the event costs an

extra ex extraordinary amount to develop

both time and MoneyWise right um and so

and the event only lasts for a month is

right and so to even justify making the

event and not losing money on it we have

to kind of have some sort of paid access

and it's not like we we just reuse all

the content that we've made in previous

years this year we made all new haunted

houses and all new scare zones so

everything that was made in the event

was new we we haven't we didn't reuse

anything and and so the development cost

of doing that is high so we had to have

an access price to it to even justify or

even cover how much we spent to develop

it and the hours and stuff that we had

we that Andrew and I put in uh we don't

we don't pay ourselves through like

commission we pay ourselves uh a

percentage of the gains Revenue so even

though I may have put 250 hours in

Halloween scare nights I may have only

made like some small amount per hour if

you took it into hours because um yeah

that just we we commission people and

then we get and then Andrew and I just

get a percentage when everything's all

done so that all being

said yeah it's just to cover the cost of

development no fair enough and the event

this year I would say it's the best

event Universal has ever had it had so

much more detail and was much bigger

thing any of

them yeah and I mean I'm proud because

I'm proud that I think the team did a

great job um we had some really fun and

creative ideas uh we had been talking

about these house ideas and some of

these scaron ideas for two years we had

them in our like backlog of hey these

are cool things we could do and so I I

think we did a great job in some of like

the creative idea Department I guess you

could say I I I really like the

mannequins alive scare Zone I really

like um jigsaw junkyard and then of

course I I really enjoy lost riches and

the Bigfoot

houses um I I I personally wrote a lot

of like the Lost riches ideas like and

as well as the Bigfoot ideas I really I

liked the story lines we had and like

the ideas we had and I think the team

did a very good job executing on those

ideas

definitely and they did a great job for

the whole event it was great oh yeah

yeah I loved it it was I think we did I

I love I just love going through the

event too it's a lot of

fun okay what would you say your

favorite Halloween maze this year would

be and what is your favorite Maze of all

time in Universal

Roblox that's yes a hard question the

the maze question is hard because how

many have we had now like 30 there's a

lot we've done a lot of 100 houses now

um the pro okay I I I do really much I

do enjoy our Ghostbusters house we did I

thought that was very good um but I I

think it's a toss up between for me it's

a tossup

between lost

riches this year and

oh

man I'm like going through all our

different houses and

I'm there are a lot I I I also liked our

Halloween 2 house we did yeah I think it

was was that 2018 it was in 2018 yeah

2017 was the first one I think okay yeah

I I I enjoyed our Halloween 2 house I

put a lot of like my own ideas into it

and I I enjoyed that house a lot I

played it so many times um Halloween

2 lost

riches and I would probably say that I

also put a lot of work into that for

stranger things

house um did we do stranger things

before Universal did stranger things or

did we do it the exact same year I think

you g it the same year but you announced

it before they gigs yeah yeah so I cuz I

think we yeah so so I I I don't we did

hear Rumblings before that they were

going to do stranger things and we're

like dang we're doing it

too I mean I guess it's kind of cool we

were doing at the same time but yeah I

know we we made everything based like

that was our own original Maze

and I liked it I think our third version

of it was the best one um but yeah I

think it's between Halloween 2 and lost

riches I really like both of those

houses fair enough good choices L riches

this year was definitely my favorite one

yeah a great one it's it's really hard

to be it looks it's just visually it

looks

awesome sort of leads on to the next

question of how did you come up with

original names that weren't IP related

did you get any inspiration from other

IPS

or

honestly I mean I'm sure different

things influenced are like naming when

we were

randomly

um I guess like just like coming up with

ideas I'm sure there was random things

that popped in her head that were

influenced by maybe an intellectual

property but to be totally honest I

don't think I think a majority of these

names were just original ideas I don't

really know if there was too much

influenced by any real life one I mean

obviously graveyard Madness into the

catacombs is kind of graveyard Madness

is kind of inspired by graveyard

games although this this into the

catacombs one is doesn't exist it's an

original one it's kind of

taking um dead exposure and graveyard

games from real life and kind of making

its own little thing of it it's not

exactly the same but there's a there

kind of a connection between those

houses and

then um let's see big foot is just kind

of a typical crypted like story is that

how you say that um I think so Bigfoot

we knew we wanted to do Bigfoot and and

just like or just other things like

Bigfoot and although the ideas changed a

bit um the initial ideas of our Bigfoot

house was going to it wasn't a a

detective house like it was that kind of

morphed into that as we worked on it but

it was going to be just like actually

that's not true I think you always were

going to be a detective but it was going

to be a lot less obvious than it is now

because obviously you have like the

detective dialogue and all that stuff it

was initially going to

be like you just stumbled upon a car

that was parked at a rest stop that uh

was like I don't know it was just

running and its door was open and you

would pass by that and you would kind of

walk into the forest and they had

there's basically like a giant camera

crew and people who were trying to find

out who Bigfoot was and and like you

make it to their campsite and you find

that it's like all destroyed and then

the the camera crew had all been kind of

killed and like that's how you

eventually run into Bigfoot and so that

was the original concept I mean we I

think what we did is a little bit better

than that uh

but yeah a lot of the ideas just kind of

happened just naturally I think I there

Bard Tera might have been slightly

inspired by scarecrow scare The Reaping

and then car eval Carnage actually was

very heavily inspired by

um um what's the house called

uh oh my gosh Carnival graveyard I don't

know if that was the actual name of it

but there yeah so but yeah most of the

names and all that thing they were just

kind of we just came up with them I'm

sure there was influen like an unknown

bias that influenced us but like I

couldn't tell you off the top of my head

but they are

fair enough that was a great answer um

one of the other questions coming in is

will there be any haunted houses with

lights on for example the ones that were

in

backstage

so we haven't done any work it might

take a bit might not do it instantly but

I

think will'll

[Music]

maybe

um probably put the Bigfoot house in

backstage with lights on because that

house is like in one of the the the the

sprung tents or whatever that are

usually there so the Bigfoot house will

probably go there I don't know when but

we'll put it there sometime in the

future fair enough

okay cool if we step back from Halloween

a little bit then and go back to the

Roblox in general questions mhm what

inspires you to keep creating content on

Roblox as a

whole

so inspiration randomly comes and goes

right

obviously I okay we were very excited to

do I guess back to the Halloween event

we were very excited to do the Halloween

event because it had been since 2020

that we made new houses or anything like

that so we had tons of

inspiration and we were very excited to

do it and it was just like out of love

for the event and love of The Craft um

and

honestly I I think I think I've even

said this before when I've been kind of

asked about the inspiration part I don't

know if I'm normal when it comes to

inspiration in terms of like how my mind

burns out and how my mind keeps myself

motivated I I feel like a lot of people

have a lot more problems and a lot more

difficulty than I do getting myself

motivated to work on things

and I I I do take a long time sometimes

to do things but but I I I usually try

to get things done and I usually am

pretty okay with that but I think yeah I

think I answered this the last time I

was talk I talked about motivation

inspired and how not to get burned out I

don't know if I I can answer that well

because there's a lot of people who can

answer that question better and I feel

like I don't I don't really face too

much burn out

myself and yeah I don't think I could

provide a good answer to that that would

be helpful helpful uh for people but I

know there's people out there who have

answered that and um there's good tips

in uh that I've heard

so fair enough

okay so one another question from

someone is are there any other theme par

games on Roblox that you enjoy

playing

h i mean i growing into the platform

before univers un existed I really liked

Roblox Point uh it was like that was the

kind of the best park that before

Universal came around in my opinion

obviously um so I really liked Roblox

Point honestly I I I've seen a lot of

other Parks but I I haven't really

found many that like I always go back

to uh I don't know I I feel like

Universal even though I obviously have a

bias because I worked on universal

Roblox but I feel like it has a charm to

it that I haven't found in too many

theme park games

um

but yeah I mean there's like people have

made individual rides that are

Recreations off of your life that I like

I like checking out randomly

but I would yeah I wouldn't say I would

I don't go out of my way to just go to a

theme park game on Roblox anymore unless

I I like replaying Universal just to

like see what's in the game and how

people react to stuff which again it's a

probably just because of a bias that I

work on this

game fair enough yeah definitely her

Universal is one of my alltime favorite

games it's very unique as you say from

other games on the platform as well yeah

I I really enjoy it and I we we strive

to keep the quality up um obviously it

was made in

2016 and you know we have to keep

updating it to make sure it stays up to

modernish standards

so but yeah I enjoy it a lot fair enough

okay we're almost done there's only a

couple more questions to go um one

question I have for you is was Universal

Roblox your first ever theme park

project you worked on on the

platform

o uh I mean

yeah yes any like public oh no that's

not true

I had to think about it for a second um

before I did Universal

Roblox I made a haunted mansion holiday

ride um it's not public and you can't

even access it anymore because it it

broke and the sound got deleted that's

like what would have happened with our

this game too if we didn't update it but

yeah I made like a Haun Mansion holiday

I played around if anyone remembers

these I played around in the uh oh my

gosh what were they called oh no

remember like remember those servers

that you used to be able to build with

like the stamp tool and

things do do you remember the name of

what they used to call those things

welcome to Roblox builds in was the main

one it had like the build tool the it's

just Builders tools I guess

uhhuh remember when they introduced the

voxal terrain for the first time yep

they kind of looked like m c yeah the

blocky sort of feing yeah do you

remember they had servers specifically

for building in those worlds oh I can't

remember so long ago I'm trying to

remember the but basically I what I used

to do is I would take that that terrain

tool and water used to have like a

direction and a magnitude you could

apply to it so you could have like the

water flow in a certain direction I used

to make boat rides with that right and

so I build a whole boat all the Stamper

tool models attached to like some

anchored object and then delete a part

that like connected it to the anchored

object and then you'd have the whole

boat it could flow in the water and so

I'd make these boat rides that had like

sensors and triggers and it was all

through the Roblox tools right and so

I'd make boat rides I go down drops and

things and they would have block

sections and stuff so it wouldn't like

pass a certain part if it didn't reach

the sensor it it was fun but yeah I know

you're not going to see that publicly

and the water doesn't have a direction

or any of that stuff anymore so you

can't really do that

but I mean public facing that you could

still play right now yeah it's my only

one but yeah I did like internal small

things before they weren't great but

they were just like fun projects at the

time fair enough okay I have three more

questions and then that'll be all of

them um one of the questions is from

someone in the public on the Q&A and it

says is there ever a thought to have

more than one hotel in the

game

so I mean we were thinking about it and

we even had uh if you if you've seen the

hotel in real life the Adventura Hotel

uh people call it the fidget spinner

Hotel because it looks like the shape of

a fidget spinner from the sky uh but we

actually had a lot of the evur done uh

but I think we came to the conclusion

that it wouldn't really make sense to

add multiple hotels but instead we

should probably just make like a good

hotel and I'll make the argument now I

don't think sum summer Bay right now is

what we want it to be it's very Bare

Bones it's not there's not much to it

and so I think we want to go back at

some point I don't know when it's really

it's like a weird priority because

everyone wants us to make rides

obviously and Halloween events right and

people aren like oh make the hotel like

most people don't care about that but at

some point I'd like to make the hotel

way more modern maybe even have the

ability to I guess it I don't know if it

be called a hotel or like Apartments but

you it would be able to like modify the

rooms maybe have like parties or

something and I wanted to do more than

just having to be a

hotel and or and if it is just a hotel I

want it to be better than it is now and

we just we've been talking about that

for like three or four years now we just

haven't gotten around to it

so I don't know if we will have multiple

hotels

unless uh we REM we make these

apartments or whatever and we have a

bunch of different style or different

places you can have your apartments then

maybe will that there's multiple of

those but I don't know if they'll have

multiple hotels just dispersed like

Summer Bay or

whatever fair enough okay so so the

final two questions I have for you is

how do you manage a project timeline for

Universal Roblox how do you sort of plan

how you do a

rid so in terms of deadlines we pretty

much don't put a deadline on anything

except for the things that are seasonal

like the Halloween event obviously has

to have a deadline we can't really do

much about that we have to give it

enough time to where it lasts before

Halloween and it has enough time to make

the money back um and then obviously the

the holiday I guess like event has to

start at a certain day in the exact same

way the Halloween one needs to as well

um but uh for most of our projects we

don't put deadlines on things because

that typically just like that will

eventually just lead to rushed projects

and lower quality builds

and yeah I mean that might be why we

have long Windows between attractions

like yeah it do it I know that

obviously it takes a long time for us to

release things but I think we we the

majority of the time we were very

focused on the quality we want to

deliver with our rides right we don't

want to release a we we Half Bake and

just ruin because we went we tried to

rush it too much right um so we we try

very hard to not do that um um but when

it comes like if you're talking about

the actual like project timeline like

how how a project looks and how it goes

through its development cycle what

typically happens

is it starts as just writing we write

some stuff maybe draw a few random

pictures on a really really really bad

pictures like you go into paint and you

scribble a bit um we draw a few things

we're like hey what do you think about

this idea or what do you think about

this or we pull out some old patents

that haven't been used and got killed or

or have expired and we're like hey look

at these patents that this they that

could have existed in real life but

never would take they never took

advantage of or were like hey what about

this and so I think although you haven't

really seen many of the things I'm

saying right now because we've just

gotten around to starting new rides like

web Adventures finished and now a lot of

what we're doing now is original rides

that you can't find find anywhere in

real life um obviously forbidden

Adventure is pretty much the last one I

think now that is somewhat focused on

the real life ride we're still trying to

make a bunch of changes to make it our

own and make it better than the real

life one but yeah we're pretty focused

on making new rides but anyway back to

the point

um yeah so we come up with ideas we come

up with some text or whatever and we

come up like okay here's like a

potential story line for a ride what do

you think

yes no bad good whatever right and then

eventually that gets ironed out and we

then start making very rough placeholder

like objects like where things are going

to go where we think certain things will

work right and then it depends on the

type of ride it is if it's a coaster

then we make the track and we start

getting all that assembled so that we

can put the track in as soon as possible

so that senior can start being developed

around the track and modeled and we

already know where things need to go

right uh if it's a tracked ride same

thing goes right you usually want to

have the whole track layout before you

make any of the stuff and so we'll

typically have all the modelers make

that stuff they'll start developing and

then what usually happens in the

development cycle is all the scenery

like the what you see in the background

and all that gets

finished and the track is done but

nothing no it doesn't run there's no

code it's just here's the visual models

and here it it's done and then I will

eventually get to it so yeah so they the

modeling team finishes and then it gets

passed over into to me and what I do

along with the Epic twin is we install

his ride system onto it and we perfect

the animation the way we want it to look

and then once it's all animated and it

looks nice then I start adding triggers

to it and then I start making those

triggers do effects in it and that that

that sounds simple but the effects take

a lot of work right you have to depends

on what you're doing if you're doing

rigs you to make the rigs and you to

make the animations for the rigs you add

sounds lighting and it takes a lot of

time and so that part usually

takes two months once I get handed a

finished

ride

um just because like yeah I work a

full-time job outside of this so takes

me to about two months to eventually

finish a ride at the Quality I want it

um and so yeah once the effects are in

and all that starts running then

obviously you have a running ride and

then for example if you have alien

attack it has a very specific thing that

needs to be added which is the whole gun

shooting system so that was the good

thing about alien attack although it was

quote coming soon for five years what

actually happened is

Andrew and the team working on the

modeling they worked on it while I

started working on the shooting system

because I knew what like had to be done

I just needed to do it and so they were

working on modeling I was working on the

shooting system and then we kind of

finished those things at the same time

and then I jumped into the ride vehicle

system and then while we were working on

the ride system I kind of threw together

the I threw in the laser shooting system

into it and eventually we had the whole

shooting system in and the whole ride

vehicle moving but with no effects and

then I was just like shooting walls and

stuff when we were testing so yeah and

then eventually that once we finish the

effects and it's nearing completion

about 90 to

95% I typically will go and that's when

we start making all like the thumbnails

the graphics and we start writing out

the announcements that are going to be

for the that project how we're going to

announce it with dates and we come up

with everything and like if you saw the

giant development plan we had for

Halloween scare kns you guys would be

like what I think it's

like three pages long of just days we

were going to announce things and what

each announcement was

for it yeah we had all the days lined up

so that's that's what's so funny is

people were like speculating when things

would happen I think yeah before we made

a single announcement every single date

for all those announcements was planned

before we even started fa

y so yeah okay so the final question I

have for you and sort of the M drop big

question if you had the opportunity to

start this journey all over again what

would you do

different

huh that's a great

question honestly I'm pretty happy with

what we've done so far far and I like

where the game is Right obviously we're

here right now because the game has done

some somewhat well right it's a good

theme park I enjoy it we still work on

it um I think two things I probably

would

have who knows where they would have

ended up if we changed them but I I

don't really want to change much except

for two

things one I wish we had already a

better job slash fun like role playing

thing in the game uh there's a lot of

work that I I don't know how I'm going

to get to like when I'm going to

prioritize it but I wish the jobs were

better I wish there

was I

guess I I don't want to like swell a

huge update that I have like written

down but I want to make the jobs a lot

better right but then the second thing

I'd like to

change is there's not a gameplay loop at

all to our game right if if you go and

ride the rides the only reason you

really want to come back is either you

really really like the park right which

there's a good amount of people who do

but if you're a casual fan you're not

going to come back until we add a new

ride and that makes it really difficult

for this game to like fund accurately

because it doesn't make very much money

unless we do ride releases and each of

those ride releases cost money to do

and so if we had I I we have been trying

to answer this question for like I swear

five six years now what gameplay Loop

can we do and like how do we get people

to I I don't even know if it's possible

in a theme park game it's a social

environment I think we've almost done

everything we can do without ruining the

game I don't want to like introduce

something that completely changes what

the idea of the game is because it's ENT

it's supposed to be theme park and I

don't really know how else we can go

about trying to monetize the game more

than we already have without ruining it

or changing its genre so maybe I don't

actually want to change that but

nonetheless I'd like to have better jobs

but then like the whole idea then comes

like okay if I have better jobs why

would I work those jobs if there

something I can spend my uni for right

and so it's still it's this huge giant

question we always have like why work on

the jobs when we don't have a good

uniu like like a really good thing to

spend uniu on obviously we like the the

the buddies and like the the trails and

stuff but there still we're still feel

like we're missing something that you

could do with uni buug that you could

earn with better jobs but which do we

work on first do we work on that then

not have a good way to earn it or do we

make a good way to earn it and then add

it it's just like they're not going to

happen at the same time because they're

too much work there's too much work

involved but yeah I if I had to changeed

something it be figure that question out

and have it done already but yeah

hindsight is

2020 okay that's all the questions I

have so I want to give a massive thank

you for your time and joining me on this

interview um and thank you to everyone

for listening we've had a ton of

questions come through um but with that

being said do you want to add anything

extra um well no think thanks for

listening to this I I I do enjoy talking

about how the game came to be and and

all the proc the development process CU

there's obviously tons of things that

happen in the background that a lot of

people don't know about and no I I enjoy

I enjoy talking about it because we

don't really get to talk about it to too

many people but it it's fun so um I hope

everyone enjoyed it and I hope everyone

keep sticking around we have some cool

cool things planned for the future um

yeah I'd love to just like tell

everybody but then that kind of defeats

the whole surprise aspect so I hope you

guys stick around we have some cool

stuff on the on the

horizon cool okay so thank you everyone

for joining us on this Q&A and that's it

for the Q&A so don't forget to keep

looking on the event site and there may

be another one very soon so with that

being said thank you for joining us and

I'll see you all later bye thanks guys

byebye