At Roblox, our vision is to reimagine how people come together to play, work, and connect. We are building an immersive platform for communication and connection where 71.5 million users* in 190 countries spend 2.4 hours playing games and sharing experiences every day.
We want to empower any developer or creator to make anything anywhere on our platform, and at this week’s Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, we showcased many of the ways we help people create, scale, and monetize.
We unveiled two new AI tools that can significantly speed up creating on Roblox. In addition, we announced the evolution of our Creator Fund (previously known as Game Fund). As before, it focuses on funding next-level experiences with innovative gameplay, ambitious visual designs, and original ideas. And we’re also excited to expand the types of content in the program. That means we’ll be bringing beloved off-platform IP to Roblox, including Paramount’s iconic Avatar: The Last Airbender, as well as content beyond games, like Neura Studios’ brand-new release, Clip It.
Roblox and members of our creator community also hosted sessions on topics ranging from doing business on Roblox to generative AI to the differences between free-to-play mobile creation and creating on Roblox. We want to thank the Roblox creators who shared their expertise onstage: @badcc, @Andybloxstar, @Erythia, @Coffeenerd, @CDDevelopment, @EncodedLua, @Toya_Studio, and more.
Here’s a deeper look at everything we presented this week that we’re confident will help enable more creators than ever to achieve their goals on Roblox.
Create
One of the most important things we do for Roblox creators is develop tools and technologies that make creating 3D content easier and faster. So this week at GDC, we announced two new AI tools — Avatar Auto Setup and Texture Generator — that do just that.
With Avatar Auto Setup, it will be simpler than ever to create an avatar by quickly and automatically converting a 3D model into a fully animated avatar that people can use right away. This industry-leading tool also provides the ability to add facial animation to avatars and can cut the time it takes to set up an avatar from days to minutes.
With Texture Generator, creators will be able to use text prompts to quickly change and customize how 3D objects look. The textures the tool produces automatically conform to the shape of objects, significantly reducing the work required to bring an object to life.
Texture Generator (Before and After)
These are the latest examples of tools that can help creators proceed faster from an idea to reality in Roblox Studio. This free, advanced 3D development software makes it simple for almost anyone to create anything they can imagine on Roblox. Built on our platform’s multiplayer, real-world simulation engine, it provides creators with out-of-the-box access to advanced physics, our growing suite of innovative AI solutions, aerodynamics, and so much more.
Scale
At GDC, we delved into how creators on Roblox do best when they have access to transparent data showing how their experiences are performing and where there’s room to grow. We’ve been building out our robust analytics suite, which gives creators actionable performance insights, allowing them to adjust their content strategies to reflect how their experiences are doing. And they can rapidly iterate based on those insights by publishing updates in seconds, anytime they want, to mobile, desktop, console, and VR simultaneously.
We also explored our principles and plans for Discovery on Roblox, which helps connect creators with their ideal audiences and encourages them to continue improving their creations. At scale, that provides a greater diversity of terrific content for our users, connecting them with the creations and communities that best match their interests.
Roblox features an algorithm that continuously refreshes the creations and updates users see. It’s part of a healthy discovery system built on network effects, engagement, and monetization that allows creators to maximize their reach with our global audience.
One great example is Gunflight Studio’s Gunfight Arena, which Roblox users have visited more than 228 million times since it launched last October. The team iterated on it quickly, and was able to frequently test its changes to achieve their business goals and to improve its discoverability. And by optimizing for performance, they made Gunfight Arena the most popular first-person shooter on Roblox.
Monetize
Creators of all sizes, from individuals to large studios, are demonstrating the many ways anyone can create and monetize their work on Roblox. In 2023, our more than 25 million creators collectively earned $741 million, up 19 percent year over year, and we’re always looking to give them more opportunities to succeed. When they do, our entire ecosystem does too. So our goal is to empower all creators with a wide range of ways to earn money on Roblox, including in-experience purchases, immersive ads, and selling avatar items or creator plugins.
We want to thank everyone who came out to see us at GDC. To learn more about what Roblox offers creators, please visit our Creator Hub page. We’re excited to see how our creator community grows and thrives in the months and years to come.
* As of Q4 2023.