Building Full Turbo, a high-speed Roblox game studio
Sharing raw playtests, retention fixes, and dev lessons every week. Let's build better games together.
First game flopped.
It’s not the algo or Roblox updates, it’s just not that great of a game.
That was partially the plan to begin with. When I started this journey in November last year, I said, let’s just build anything to get a hang of it. And I think that was OK, although I could have done some things much better...
We spent too much time on the first game. Three months until launch, and then another month to try and “optimize” it...
Started without a plan... well, that was the plan, but unfortunately what happens is that after 1–2 months of working on something, it becomes more of a romantic thing and you start to make yourself believe it will turn into something good... but it’s very hard to patch a non-existing concept into a game that is fun. My current thoughts are that the minimum you need before starting is a core gameplay loop designed... sure, it can change, but if you don’t have this and just go “Let’s build a racing game!”, it’s destined to fail.
Roblox is not easy. I see a lot of people on the internet who think Roblox is easy (look at the graphics, look at the gameplay, etc.). And honestly, I thought so too when I first looked into it, but the reality is very different. If you cannot humble yourself to understand that you have no clue how this platform works, it’s going to be very hard to succeed.
I am personally still very excited, in fact, I am more excited than before, because I now see things I could not see 6 months ago.
On to the next... ;)
@BeanJuiceStudio Ok I like that bridge, if no one wants to test it most likely nobody wants to play it either. And I should have done that with my first attempt actually and safes a lot of time. Thank you 🙏
Thank you 🙏 I would look at game loops of other games and understand those especially if you already have an idea of what type of game you want to build. Study other games and how they build the core loop. How they get players to play each step… what’s the progression etc. I think that helps to build a foundation. Then I’d probably cut all that down to the essentials and something you can build in a short time. I.e. reduce features as much as possible. If you can add something that makes your game unique/different add that one thing.
And lastly I try and test everything by asking: why would the player want to do that?
For example: “win the race” ok but why would I do it again once I won a race? If you can’t answer that most likely there is an issue.
Or “why get another brainrot” well, because it will bring me more cash to get an even better one… motivation is clear.
@Tokaint Yes you have a point. Maybe there will be something that clicks eventually. But it felt like I just add random stuff without a clear plan… so for now better I keep it there and as you said it can still turn into something
@MrBadAttitudude I used ads to drive traffic and have around 70k plays, but engagement remains too low. My hunch is that if it’s not working on Roblox itself, external traffic won’t change this. If my numbers would look better then for sure do organic to get more traffic etc.
@ThetaForgeCo Yes I agree. I figured that after I started designing a new game and said “ok so this can be ready in about 3 months” 😂 I scratched the idea (luckily) right there. Goal is now to aim for weeks to deliver something and scope it accordingly to build up xp
@IceTimeStudios Yes! I am now documenting the flow, build some screens and then build it from there.
Also helps to manage the scope and not getting into the trap of having too many features, or sometimes just simplifying stuff.
@Byron_LoveRBLX yeah it's literally practice, I think there is general game design rules to be considered and then it has to be something that has trend potential on Roblox "today"...
Because of this stuff I am scared each time I upload an asset… but on a different note, how does it work with mechanics like admin codes. If you implement a feature that requires getting a code, and the code is obtained on let’s say TikTok… is that allowed or is that guiding users off platform…