The Three Ms

Through the previous chapters, you have learned how to program in Luau and create engaging experiences on Roblox. With the skills you have, you can create an experience around virtually any vision that comes to mind. However, it is one thing to create an experience of your own, but to find success with it you need to follow a set of steps to optimize your experience’s performance.

The main performance categories for an experience typically rely on three alliterative factors, those being Mechanics, Monetization, and Marketing—or, as I have coined them, the Three Ms. This chapter will focus on introducing you to the best practices to follow regarding these three groups, to ensure that your experience is as enjoyable as possible for players, your earnings are maximized without intruding on the user experience, and your experience captures and retains the largest audience possible.

In this chapter, we’re going to cover the following main topics...

Technical requirements

This chapter will focus entirely on the best practices for finding success on the Roblox platform. Some articles from the developer website and the Developer Forum (Dev Forum) will be linked throughout the chapter, so having an internet connection to view these or to research any other mentioned topic would be beneficial.

Mechanics

The first M we will cover is mechanics. The mechanics of experiences on Roblox, or any platform for that matter, can vary widely. Some popular themes on Roblox include simulators, role-play (RP) games, tycoons, and minigames. The shared characteristics between these experiences regarding mechanics can be simplified down to repeated reward, social interaction, or both.

In this section, we will break down the mechanics of these commonly occurring experience themes and identify what makes them successful so that you can potentially integrate those ideas into entire genres of your own creation.

Simulators

For experiences such as simulators, users start off with very basic tools, weapons, or abilities. Over time, as users perform some simple task—often as simple as clicking their mouse—they gain stats, which can be converted to a currency that is used to purchase better items in the experience. This allows players at the beginning of the experience to...

Monetization

The next M is monetization. Monetization is one of the most important aspects of development if your primary goal is to make Roblox either a career or a profitable hobby. The first thing to realize is that there are great and terrible implementations of monetization. For example, all players, regardless of whether they buy anything in your experience or not, can be positively or negatively impacted by your monetization strategy. We will start off with what not to do.

Perhaps the most egregious offender that you will see players mention is “pay-to-win” monetization. In these instances, players that have the ability to spend money can purchase very powerful items, or anything that gives them a unique advantage over free players. Some game companies such as Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) are notorious for this style of monetization and it has, in the past, stunted the initial—and later, overall— performance of some of their games, such as Star...

Marketing

Finally, the last M is marketing. Marketing is the process through which you will make your experiences known to the world and gain thousands of new players. We have touched on some marketing concepts before, but let’s look at what makes a marketing campaign successful and how to engage the most players at a minimal cost.

The Roblox promotion system

As previously discussed, Roblox has an internal system of promotion that utilizes two forms in which promotional material appears to players; these are called User Ads and Sponsors. In Figure 7.3, you can see an example of an experience promoted via the Sponsors system and an advertisement made for an experience using the User Ads system:

Figure 7.3: This shows examples of the Sponsors (top) and User Ads (bottom) promotion systems

There are advantages and disadvantages to using one of these systems over the other. When using the Sponsors system, advertisement-blocking web browser extensions will not...

Reviewing what you’ve learned

With the conclusion of this chapter, you have completed this course in Roblox development. You have gone from having what is likely little to no experience working with Roblox to possessing the tools necessary to create your own career. Let’s look at some of the skills you gained chronologically, as follows:

Chapter 1

In the first chapter, you learned what the Roblox platform is about and what it has enabled others to accomplish, and what you can accomplish, through learning and practice. Additionally, we discussed the different types of developers that exist on the platform and the skillsets that each of them grants you, should you choose to take them up. Lastly, we talked about the professional skills to be gained that you can take into the future with you, regardless of your career trajectory. Overall, this chapter informed you why there is so much to be earned from the platform and what it has already done for others.

Chapter...

Metaverse

“Metaverse” can be considered an honorary fourth M. While this topic isn’t core to your success as a developer like the other Ms, being familiar with it might give you some perspective on the future of Roblox and what types of experiences you want to create.

The metaverse, as a concept, is a network of virtual experiences focused on social connection and interaction. While the idea of the metaverse has been around for decades, interest in practical versions of it began to grow exponentially in 2021 and onward. While most think of the metaverse as a recreational space, some companies or individuals, like Mark Zuckerberg and Meta, started work on building environments for nearly every aspect of everyday life to be lived virtually. With this spike in consumer interest and potential reimagining of the human experience, investors and companies alike began putting large amounts of money into developing this concept.

While many platforms have emerged...

Summary

In this chapter, you learned the best practices to ensure that whatever concept or theme you create in the future, it has the best chance of finding an audience and becoming profitable and popular among players from around the world. By heeding the advice of the Three Ms (Mechanics, Monetization, and Marketing), I have no doubt that you will have experiences garnering thousands of concurrent users in no time. Remember that while we focused on the prospects of making money from what is otherwise a hobby, it’s important to have fun and experiment with what you want to do. Make your experiences how you want them to be because the wonderful thing about topics in development theory, such as those discussed in this chapter, is that they are constantly evolving. So, do not be afraid to get out there and design a genre of your own. Make concepts and visuals that no one has ever conceived before. Be the best developer you can be from your own perspective.

In the next and...

Worksheet

Q1. What are the Three Ms?

Q2. What is the basic game concept of a simulator?

Q3. What is one of the greatest aspects of RP games in terms of engagement?

Q4. What is something you should always avoid when implementing your monetization strategy?

Q5. What is a good level of advantage to be expected from Passes?

Q6. What is a truly fair monetization option that may bring in less overall revenue?

Q7. In what two ways can you monetize access to your experience?

Q8. What two types of experience promotion formats does Roblox offer?

Q9. What is a grouping of experiences by genre, engagement, or other factors called on Roblox?

Q10. What external group of content creators can be crucial in getting your experience publicized?

Q11. What is one method to maximize potential performance of future experiences?

Q12. What trend does Roblox have the potential to lead and change the way humans interact?