Building Contests Have Returned!

Ayeeee, pbjms here, and with the return of building contests, you also get the return of me! I haven't written a post in ages, mainly because I've been busy with life, or I just didn't feel like writing anything, because you know, 5 minutes of writing is too much, right?

Anyway, back during a BLOXCast in December of 2013, your favorite fella pbjms asked a wonderful question: Will building contests ever make a return? And Arbirator has been asking this question long before this, since the dawn of time it would seem. Now, with my luck, the question wasn't answered on the BLOXCast. But don't fear my friends, because it was answered in a follow-up Blog Post! So basically, they said that Building Contests will come back at some point, but they just need to figure out how to balance them out.

Roblox LEGO Contest

Yes, you read that correctly! You could potentially be the the creator behind the next LEGO set, and it could be a ROBLOX one!

BLOXTober Costume Contest

BLOXTober:

Halloween Costume Contest

Hello, Robloxians. During this spooky month of the year, BLOXTober, ROBLOX has decided to release something new, an official Costume Contest!

I know you're probably wondering, "Why enter a Halloween Costume Contest??" If you aren't wondering, then start wondering, because that's what this article will be about. I will mostly just be recapping the important parts of this blogpost, so if you want a more in depth look at this, read that.

My entree, if anybody cares to know.

First of all, here is how you enter:

• Dress your character in a costume and save it as an outfit.
• Using the dropdown gear next to the outfit, click “Download as image” and save the image to your computer (important: do not change the name of the file)
• Go to the contest site, enter the required information and upload the image you just saved

So, now to answer that very important question that I doubt any of you have, "Why enter a Halloween Costume Contest??" Well, there are just a few reasons, really, most of them ending in fame from being in the blog.

1.) Exclusive Virtual Item

Yeah, the top three winners get an exclusive virtual item. It is unknown what that item is, though. I do suggest trying though, as the virtual item, whatever it is, will be EXTREMELY rare. Only three out of millions will own it, and if it ever goes limited (which I doubt), it will make a ton of money.

2.) The Halloween Event

According to the Blogpost, the winners will have a special feature dedicated towards them in the Halloween Event. If any ROBLOXian wears the winner's outfit, they will get a special boost in the game, unknown as to now. So really, you will pretty much get a free bonus in the event.

3.) Fame

Yeah. You will be in the Blogpost next week, which will most likely give you some fame. And fame is always good.

So, if you want a chance to get a ruper rare virtual item, free bonus prizes in the event, and all around fame, I highly suggest you take a chance with the contest.

Good luck!

~pbjms~

New ROBLOX Event: LEGO Hero Factory: Brain Attack

If you cast your minds back a year, then you may remember the LEGO Group working with the ROBLOX Corporation in creating a Hero Factory sponsored event. This was called: LEGO Hero Factory: Breakout. The basic premise of the game was to collect parts that spawned randomly around the map. The first team to locate all their parts would win the round. If the Heroes won, all the players on that team would receive Furno's Aquajet Pack and Plasma Gun. If the Villains won however, all the players on that team would receive the Arachnix Drone. You can read the full review of the game HERE.

Today, ROBLOX launched their greatly anticipated second event sponsoring LEGO. The name of the game is LEGO Hero Factory: Brain Attack and is based on control point gameplay. You'll be pleased to hear that this second instalment is a vast improvement on the first. I enjoyed Brain Attack more simply because it has a better designed map, formulated for close quarters action unlike Breakout. The game also offers actual player versus player combat, in which opponents can dismember each other with flaming swords and metallic claws. Due to the maps size, combat is fast and deadly meaning players do not have to travel far to seek their opponents.

There are 17 badges up for grabs, four of which will unlock a virtual item for you to keep in your inventory. These 4 badges are as follows:

Heroic Victory                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                            Prize: Furno Mask 

 To attain this badge you must win a round as a Hero
 and perform at least 1 capture of a control point.



Villanous Victory                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                            Prize: Pyrox Mask

To attain this badge you must win a round as a Villain
and perform at least 1 capture of a control point.




Five Badges                                                                                        

                                                                                                       Prize: Furno's Sword and Shield

To attain this badge you simply have to collect 5 badges.





10 Badges

Prize: Pyrox's Flame Staff

To attain this badge you simply have to collect 10 badges.





A video walk through will be posted over the weekend, showing you how to earn each of these cool pieces of equipment. 


Other LEGO Hero Factory: Brain Attack items available in the catalog:

LEGO Hero Factory: Evil Brain                             

LEGO Hero Factory: Brain Attack Cap

LEGO Hero Factory: Brain Attack Shirt





Thanks for reading! Look out for reviews of the LEGO Hero Factory: Brain Attack place and the gear that can be acquired from it.

Thanks,

-Arbirator
Editor of Roblox News

Croods Event Sneak Peek

Pajke here, with an interesting article.

There has been a lot of hype going on about the new Croods event. Well I've been doing my research, and I've come across a lot of information which I feel like sharing. Now, I will try to keep this as short as possible.

The Grug Package

We first found out about the Croods event, when a bunch of GUI images called "TheCroods_GUI_" were accidentally published to gear on 1/10/2013. They were on the front page of the catalog. This caused confusion, and no one knew what it was about. The GUI assets were later changed to "Future gear item". People figured out that this was most likely a sign to a new event.

As I said, I've been doing my homework. The game will be a survival game, featuring 3 playable characters: Grug, Eep and Guy. There will be four disasters, and they are:

• Macawnivore Attack
• Piranakeet Swarm
• Fire
• Rockslide 

From this GUI, you can kind of get the point of the game. There is also an MVP system. To be the MVP, you have to collect more Food items, and power-ups than the other players. Which is also kind of the point of the game, along with surviving until the end of course. 

A few bonus GUIs: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Croodhat textures: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] - It's pretty lame that they're all the same template.

The Macawnivore (Might be put together wrong, lol)

ROBLOX Contests: Making a Comeback!

The ROBLOX staff stated at the beginning of the month that this year they wish to bring about more community involvement and discussion to the site. They said they will listen to users more and will play a significantly larger role on the ROBLOX Forums.

The ROBLOX team now have a growing community team dedicated to discussing ideas and suggestions with users within the ROBLOX Community Staff and Forum Users group. The group is host to a friendly environment in which users and staff can chat casually, but also home to a number of Personal Build Servers built for the community enjoyment. These servers are owned and managed by users within the group and are open to all with building privileges given to member's of the 'forumer' rank or above. 

Visiting one of the many Personal Build Servers 

Now, this an excellent step forward for the ROBLOX corporation. But how will some of the less aware users become more community involved once again? 

The answer to that is simple: contests. 

Back in 2010, ROBLOX unveiled the first official Contest System. It had it's own page, leader-boards  prizes and even sponsors. Contests were hosted regularly, each with a different theme and aim. 

Originally, there was talk of ROBLOX Contests being based around several different areas of the ROBLOX site; Places, Shirts, T-Shirts and models, but this most of these ideals were dropped in favour of the classic building contests. These contests ran until early 2012, then suddenly were abandoned.

Why was it abandoned?

The contest system, while being enjoyable for some users, was heavily exploited by a large majority. This exploitation took shape in the form of the notorious 'Free Model'. If you were to take a peak at the leaders of each contest you would notice a sinister pattern emerging; every single place looked the same. 

You may ask: how? Surely users did not share their work with others and make their creations available to the public domain? And you would be correct. The problem is that early on in after the contest's launch, one user would find an old model that matched the theme of the place. Often this model would be an entire place  uploaded by a user (perhaps stolen). The user would then upload this to their contest entry and voilà; a quality place that would surely win votes that required no effort. 

What made matters worse was the fact that these games were purely voted for based on their aesthetics. A large percentage of contest entries had no gameplay elements, no tools and no objectives. You would simply enter the place and have absolutely nothing to do. Entrants would also use the infamous '+2/3/4/5 voting accuracy' tagline on their game, trying to persuade users to vote for their game.

Both of these habits had a very negative effect on the contest ethic and with each subsequent contest, less and less effort was put into entries. 

ROBLOX Contests 2013

Everything is set to change however as contests are returning. We are only 3 weeks into January and and a ROBLOX Contest has been launched already. The ROBLOX Studio 2.0 Splashscreen contest was launched on the 10th January 2013 and asks users to create a splashcreen (loading graphic) for the new ROBLOX Studio (2.0). For more details on how to enter the contest, click HERE

.

However, the more exciting news is that a revamped Contest System is being developed by the ROBLOX Team. This was confirmed by the two following pieces of evidence:

Tweet from BeckyLee - ReeseMcBlox (Community Manager) stated contests were in the works

Forum post by the VP of Marketing stating that a new contest system was coming

This will likely include a rebuilt voting system, tighter controls on the way contest entries are presented and marketed and perhaps even pre-selected models which they are allowed to do - this could be implemented with a special version of the ROBLOX Studio tailored to contests. 

A new year, with lots to look forward to! I can't wait to start entering contests again!

Thanks for reading!

-Arbirator

Editor of Roblox News

A Trailer Contest?

What is this madness? Yes, there is a ROBLOX contest! Woo! I'm here to explain this trailer contest a little bit more to those who don't understand what it's about and what is required from you. Alright, so ROBLOX, after years of not making another video contest, has finally decided to make one. But, is it free like all of the other ones?

Well, there is a fee of 1k ROBUX just to make a trailer. But, there is a 50% discount on these trailers, so from now until the contest ends, there is a fee of half off, let me do the math, 500 ROBUX is the new fee. I guess it's worth it if you think about it because there is a grand prize of 22k ROBUX ($150 USD?) (That USD value is just an estimate BTW) and a trophy of some kind. With those prizes you'd make a very good profit. So, how do I enter you may ask?

This is the easiest way to enter. All you have to do, is publish your video to your ROBLOX place and you are automatically entered! But, that only happens during the time of the contest. I've seen some great trailers lately, including one from our very own Staff member Ulquiorra98. Let me tell you what my thoughts are about this contest and if you should enter or not.

So, my thoughts are that they shouldn't have made a fee to enter. It's not much, but for some people (like myself) it is. Older contests would have no fee at all. Negative one for them. The prize sure makes up for this fee. I'm wondering, why was the prize never this much before? Back then, we would get simple hats, now we get currency? Great! But, not for me. Q.Q Anyway, enough about me, they for sure have made a better system out of this than ever before. Enjoy that very much.

Do I recommend you entering? GO FOR IT. IT'S WORTH IT.

Thanks to regilord who told me to cover the trailer contest via Twitter.
By the way, this is my return post, so yay?
I was gone for a few weeks, few know why.
Let's just keep it at that.

Thanks for reading, Dx.

Place Review: LEGO Hero Factory: Breakout

     Hey guys, this is regilord finally finding time to post on this wonderful labor day weekend. Today I am reviewing the Lego sponsorship place: LEGO Hero Factory: Breakout. Just like the Kre-o sponsership, instead of creating contest places, the Roblox team created a place where there is a competition for specific prizes. The Hero Factory competition prizes are the Arachnix Drone and the Furno's Aquajet Pack and Plasma Gun. Of course like always, you earn these by getting a certain amount of points on each team. You earn these points by collecting one or more of the six items scattered around the playing field; you may also earn points, and the possibility of a badge (Saboteur), by destroying one or more of the enemies six collection items. Of course besides earning these points you must win the the match to earn the badges and the gears.                              

                   
Building: 10/10
     Shedletsky asked for futuristic buildings from users and they provided! I really like the building because it is a collective build from the community that was hand picked by John Shedletsky. About a month ago Shedletsky posted on Iron Noob forums asking for futuristic buildings that looked professional, yet he provided no reason. Eventually it was released that it would be used in a city for a Roblox contest, yet still no one knew what the contest was. Users were quite shocked to hear that LEGO was being sponsored by ROBLOX. This just goes to show that Roblox has come a long way from not letting users even speak the word Lego.

Scripting: 10/10
     There is a lot of scripting in this place that goes very unnoticed. Of course there is the obvious in your face scripts such as the weapons, GUI's, and item health bars, but there is also all of the new animation scripts contained in these strange looking characters. Such animations include running, an animation when you hit the ground and bend your knees, and of course a jumping animation. All of these really impressed me. Hopefully these new animations are released to the rest of the Roblox world and are applicable with all of the bodies 1.0-3.0.

Gameplay: 8/10
     It is an extremely fun game but it is also very aggravating. The one and only weapon of each team is a ray gun that when it hits you it does not do any damage, rather it knocks you back at least halfway across the map until you hit a solid object. This can be really annoying when you just approaching the last item your team needs and it has only a little life left and an enemy knocks you back and destroys it. These guns also make it difficult to do my favorite thing, sabotaging. The knock back also affects the items when you try to destroy them, sending them sometimes straight at an apposing team member. But on the flip side you can also shoot their items far away from them. The game is really fun for me because it takes a good strategy.

Prizes and Badges: 10/10
     The prizes aren't very hard at all to get if you've played a few rounds and you know what your doing, but they are very nice prizes that are being awarded and they are quite simple to achieve. I must say I myself have really come to favor the Arachnix Drone as it is very powerful and fun to watch being used. But I really like the badges because some of them are quite difficult to achieve and that's what keeps players coming back and trying to get better to be able to get them. I myself do not have all of them and I've spent a very long time there collectively. Roblox did a good job making easy and hard badges that are both fun and difficult to earn.

Popularity in the Community: 8/10
     I wasn't the only one there for over two hours! It's a highly addicting game but many users only come for the prizes and or badges. Some of these users such as I was thought only of the prizes and came in for just that and realized it was an amazing game. Others only wanted the prizes and seconds after achieving them immediately left the place, never to return. Some were just newbies and tried it out as their first ever Roblox game. And others came and went as they saw it too hard. Another group of people that were like me were determined to earn all the badges, and some did, but many of them cursed to the sky and shouted "I'll be back and I'll get them all!!".

Popularity to Me: 10/10
     It was wonderful! I really loved this place and I really hope it  is not taken down. It is by far the best Roblox built contest place I have ever seen, maybe second to last years paintball map. It was simple and complex, but best of all it was made mostly by Robloxians. I absolutely love the fact that Shedletsky came to the community and asked for them to build to help contribute to this place. It completely amazes me how quickly the community jumped up to help and give to the rest of the community. If I had the chance and the time, I would gladly return many, many times.

If you want to contact me or suggest a place to review:
Tweet: @regilord
PM: regilord
Or just party me when I'm online. I'm always glad to talk to people!     

A New ROBLOX Sponsorship?

Could this be the new sponsored place?

Recently Shedletsky was found at a place called Lego Hero Factory: Breakout by LegoHeroFactory.


 In the past ROBLOX has created simple places for different companies such as KREO, Disney XD, the Three Stooges and many others. Shedletsky is definitely preparing for something judging from this ironnoob post where he asked users for futuristic buildings. If you look at the thumbnail of the place you can recognize some futuristic buildings that Shedletsky posted on that thread.


 I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to see what they've done this time. Judging by the thumbnail it's going to be good.

~Published by Banjobug

Roblox HQ skate park

The Skate park contest is now in its final round which is named roblox HQ skatepark. Basicly you have to make a Roblox HQ that has skate park items in and around it or something to do with Roblox HQ. For this round all i added was a R ramp which when you jump through you get double points :D

NEW: Roblox contest : skateparks

This contest has been on for a while now and i think its pretty cool , we are now onto the third round of the contest each round has new prizes including skateboards and helmets . The top prize of this contest is a motoX motorcycle worth around $170 -quite a good prize i'd say! The contest is sponsered by disney XD zeke and luther.
TIPS - If your going to try and win this contest you need to make lots of ramps so people dont get bored, the ramps also need to be different sizes and varied. You also need to add some sort of point system with a leaderboard. Finally you need a good screenshot for the preview of your place so it catches peoples eye.
Check out my skate park at roblox.com : Arbs sk8park

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a great time on Roblox. This year was great with lots of old and new hats being released. One of my favourites is the rohawk brave headband : it looks awesome!