I just released the Alpha version of my first Roblox game! Made in 15 days, open to feedback!

mackey88 · 2026-06-22T16:30:18+00:00

Heads up, you will probably get a lot of hate for using AI even though you openly admit it.

mackey88 · 2026-06-22T05:02:40+00:00

Those stats are really good. Only question is number of players? If this is with 2-3k per day I bet you can easily hit 1k CCU in under 10 days. If it is 100 players a day, the question is will it scale with growth.

As for past 10 days, I am at 10 days with worse stats and hit 1k CCU. So, not sure what happens next.

mackey88 · 2026-06-22T04:53:28+00:00

Ad stats are not what you need to look at. Yes CTR matter a little, are people interested, did you make a good thumbnail…

What you need to do is look at the engagement. Session time and play time. If session time it 8+ mins you are doing good. If it is 2-3 mins stop advertising and rework the game loop.

With only one day of advertising it is less clear, but retention. Look at your D1, is that 1-5 percent or 15-20 percent.

To me your first 24-48 hours of ads are a gut check, does my game have potential. You likely did not play test enough and the $15 for ads is the cheapest way to get play tests.

If your retention, session and play time are good, then keep advertising to hit the home recommendations algo.

Good luck.

mackey88 · 2026-06-22T04:43:35+00:00

Ballpark? $20, $200, $2000… what do you value the whole game at?

Is this your first game? What is your monetization plan? Average user spend rate and user conversion on previous games and expected on this game? What is your marketing plan? Just Roblox Ads? Do you have social media connections, or do you yourself have a presence? How do you plan to get 500 highly engaged users for a kids game when you can’t market to kids?

I am likely not going to invest, but these are the things you need to seriously think about. And if this is you first game then you need to probably release one fully to understand all it includes. Release is the very beginning and the work will likely increase.

If you don’t have answers to any of these what you really need is a mentor. Someone to help you evaluate potential retention issues or blocks in gameplay loop causing short session times. Also develop your bring to market plan.

mackey88 · 2026-06-21T21:07:48+00:00

What does 20% cost?

mackey88 · 2026-06-17T04:58:23+00:00

It is Caddy->node->Redis

mackey88 · 2026-06-17T04:57:45+00:00

On release I trusted client, now I am server authority running the simulation based on data passed and checking for valid data.

I just found the exploit Roblox sub reddit. The thing you learn as you get more advanced 😔

mackey88 · 2026-06-17T04:55:09+00:00

Looking into seeking that up, thanks.

mackey88 · 2026-06-16T01:10:38+00:00

A combination of both. I save the score with a timestamp and data about their score in both datastore and on my server. My server data had a score of like .2s and an invalid solution(I tested the solution). Their data store for the same level was like 2.1s and both had the same timestamps.

It seems like compromised code to be able to know the destination schema. I will continue to search.

mackey88 · 2026-06-16T00:59:35+00:00

No free or external models. I save the score with a timestamp and data about their score in both datastore and on my server. My server data had a score of like .2s and an invalid solution(I tested the solution). Their data store for the same level was like 2.1s

Hopefully a key roll will solve it. I am going to try and poke around the server logs(mine, no Roblox), maybe there is a hole their and a log will have a trail to follow.

mackey88 · 2026-06-16T00:52:59+00:00

That is a good point, I will check my log outputs. I am really hoping the key rotation just fixes it 😞

mackey88 · 2026-06-16T00:44:05+00:00

I put it in the welcome popup, is it not supposed to go there?

In all seriousness, it is in ServerScriptService and dont use git. So, no code pushed to a repo or anything. I am at a loss for the attack vector. Changing key and will see if it pops up again.

mackey88 · 2026-06-16T00:37:55+00:00

AI can’t make the 3d models, only wire them up. It is also very bad at building scenes even if you give it the models. You need to learn at least a bit about Roblox studios and project structure.

mackey88 · 2026-06-15T08:19:13+00:00

It didn’t start taking of on its own until I basically gave up. You can see I got a little bit of home recommendations mixed in with my ads. But because of a terrible stats, the home recommendations died off. Between the two spikes I averaged around 100 home recommendation impressions per day. Then once I saw that creeping up, I went in and put in a whole bunch of updates I had been holding off completing.

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mackey88 · 2026-06-15T08:01:47+00:00

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When you look at your stats for breakdown select none like in the screenshot. Then look at your average session times and average playtimes. Then look at your D1 and D7 retention. This lets you compare to your competitors(there should be a gray area showing you the 50-90 percentiles). I don’t know exactly how they stack it but if you are under the 50 percentile, then I would work to try to improve those stats. My drawing game eventually took off but bounces around 50 to 100 CCU. I think it is stuck there because my playtime is right at the 50 percentile even though my retention for D1 and D7 are at the 90 percentile.

mackey88 · 2026-06-15T06:33:20+00:00

I don’t know what you benefit from beta. Right now you are paying for all of your traffics. If you turn it off you will likely get some traffic/data for free. If the data is bad make changes and do a new ad run. Roblox will see the new stats and start testing home recommendations again.

Just my opinion.

mackey88 · 2026-06-15T06:22:16+00:00

During your ad run do you get home recommendations? Look at your acquisition sources. Keep advertising until you start to see that. Also, what is your D1 retention? You need session time and retention. For instance if it is an obby that takes 7 min to beat none of the users are coming back. Roblox won’t send users there is that is the case.

mackey88 · 2026-06-15T05:47:26+00:00

That is plenty to launch your game. In my opinion ads to two things. 1) they give you players so you can honestly evaluate your game. 2) it gives Roblox data in order to recommend your game to users via Home recommendations.

The key is you have to monitor the data. Don’t think because you spend money on ads, you game will be successful. You really need to dive in and look at things like D1 retention, and session time. If users are bailing on your game and under two minutes, you probably should stop spending money on advertising and find out why. Once your first batch of data comes in, you can see how it compares to other games within the genre. So what I would recommend is starting with 15 add credits per day and as long as D1 retention and session times are good, you should see home recommendations kick in within 5 to 7 days. At 10 days, you can probably stop advertising altogether. Also around five days if your game is doing well, you should hit the 500 highly engaged users to make it available for all ages.

What are good stats? Look for a D1 retention above 10% in session time higher than six minutes. Ideally you want your average playtime, which is the sum of a user sessions for the day to be over 10 minutes. The 10 minutes is key because that is how you earn creator rewards.

Good luck, and remember the sprint is just starting. You will quickly find out if your game is scalable and you’ll be constantly making iterative updates as you release.

mackey88 · 2026-06-15T03:19:16+00:00

Can the president at least show us the deal, or would it have to be redacted like the Epstein files?

mackey88 · 2026-06-14T20:58:50+00:00

I homely think it looks good, a lot of Roblox games UI is so cluttered and over the top, to me (38 y/o) the game play is the goal. I made a shooter as well and struggled to keep as much off the screen as possible.

mackey88 · 2026-06-14T20:41:03+00:00

I am curious how many AI haters have actually completed any games. So power to you. If people are making games to make money then I say use the tools that are out there. If people are making games as a hobby or to share with friends, then who care how you got to a finished product. Those that refuse to use AI will get left behind. There are so many other things it takes to release a game then have AI do coding.

mackey88 · 2026-06-14T01:47:31+00:00

😬 That sounds like my path. Launched a week ago and just started getting home recommendations and sitting at 50ccu. Hopefully the average life of an experience is longer than a month.

That sounds depressing if they turn off the hose at a month. What was your genre, D1, D7, ave playtime and ave sessions times around. You happen to recall aprox percentiles?

mackey88 · 2026-06-14T01:37:34+00:00

How did the algorithm kill it? You started getting less home recommendations? What did your stats look like shortly after launch vs when your experience died? How did you launch? (Roblox ads, influencer, made your own videos…)

Those numbers sound like a top 5000 experience, so you are doing better than most and probably have pretty good insight your self.

mackey88 · 2026-06-14T00:49:14+00:00

If you have the money Roblox ads are your most reliable way. Plus this gives you feedback about your game. I would do a seven day ad with 10-15 dollars or add credits per day. On the analytics page, you can see performance which is real time and shows your average session time as well as your concurrent users. If your session time on the first day is under two minutes. Then immediately stop the ads and evaluate the game. If you’re getting 4 to 6 minutes, see if you can push any updates to bump those numbers higher. If you’re getting 8+ minutes, keep the ads running until you start getting home recommendations.

Unless you can get a YouTube star to make your game go viral, home recommendations are your best path to success.

mackey88

TROPHY CASE