A 10-year-old makes a simulator game to let kids her age build hotels. Tweens join a concert where their avatars dance on stage with their favorite artist. And a group of young motorsports fans customize their own vehicles for open-world racing.

It’s no secret that kids have embraced Roblox as a platform that allows them to make their own games and play games made by their peers. And while some brands are starting to reach out to them through the platform’s game creation features, the question that’s top of mind for everyone is: How do I succeed on Roblox?

That’s where game developers come in. Companies like Dubit and Gamefam have forged thriving businesses by bridging the gap between brands in the physical world and the kids in Roblox’s digital universe.

And after scoping out the potential of the platform, prodco Epic Story Media is launching its own studio dedicated to bringing itself, and others, into the Roblox universe. In the US, more than 23 million kids ages two to 17 play Roblox every week, according to Dubit data from June 2022. Kidcos already on the platform see it as similar to where YouTube was a decade ago—a growing user-generated space that offers big opportunities for brands that stake a claim in it now.

Developers building experiences in Roblox are hearing from IP owners eager to add the platform to their marketing and franchise plans. And these developers have one message for companies still uncertain if Roblox is worth investment: It’s time to get in the game.

In early 2020, before the global pandemic shutdown, UK research firm Dubit saw that more kids around the world were talking about and playing Roblox. The company started spreading the word to the kids industry that it was looking to get onto the platform and bring other brands with it.

The response was crickets—until the pandemic drove everyone into hiding in their homes for months on end.

The subsequent surge in interest on both the consumer and B2B sides allowed Dubit to launch a Roblox development business and meet the demand from brands to build their own experiences on the platform. After all, kids were already making games featuring their favorite brands and characters, so getting the brands themselves into the game seemed like a natural next step.

The opportunity for developers is clear, and so is the need for a guiding hand. There’s very little know-how among industry execs about how to execute successfully in the space, says Matthew Warneford, Dubit’s CEO and co-founder.

After bringing Nickelodeon’s brands and the Grammy Awards into Roblox through branded games and experiences, Dubit now operates as a full-service studio with more than 100 people on its team. The company can take a brand from the early game development stage right through to marketing and updating the final product.

In addition to making custom games, Dubit also offers low-cost, low-commitment options such as pop-up experiences where kids can play in branded worlds for limited-time runs. These smaller-scale events, which can be made and marketed for under US$10,000, have the potential to reach tens of thousands of players, and can be relaunched later to coincide with new consumer product or content launches, says Warneford.

Roblox games are much easier on the budget than building mobile games from the ground up. Mobile games need to be close to perfect when they come out. This means several months of work may be required to make a game—not to mention the time and money for updates post-launch to keep kids engaged. A Roblox game, in comparison, can be made in weeks, and less-than-perfect is more acceptable to Roblox players because they’re used to unpolished games made by other kids, says Warneford.

Mobile games also face a range of other obstacles, including expensive player acquisition (marketing), retention and monetization, as well as parental consent hurdles in app stores. Roblox is more frictionless because parental permission is not required to play individual games, and it has its own virtual currency.

It’s never been harder to connect with kids because of the sheer number of competing platforms vying for their attention, says Warneford, adding that Dubit’s success stems from being able to help toycos and producers struggling to advertise to this consumer group.

Children’s time spent watching TV is on the decline, and while they love YouTube, they hate the ads. On Roblox, marketing can be embedded in the experience in a more organic way, from avatar accessories to branded rooms and buildings (i.e. Nikeland). That approach, which immerses kids instead of interrupting their enjoyment, helps build their affinity for brands, he says. “We’ve driven tens of millions of players into our portfolio of branded experiences, and we can use our network of games to cross-promote the titles and track who is playing what,” says Warneford. “Engaging kids the right way means building love, and we’re able to do that on Roblox.”

When you don’t have research to lean on, a key to being successful on the platform is hiring the young creatives who are making titles on it. This is the route that three-year-old developer Gamefam has taken to grow quickly, as kidcos are increasingly realizing that a Roblox strategy is the new must-have for reaching kids.

“The next generation of big brands will come from the metaverse and Roblox,” says Ricardo Briceno, chief business officer at the LA-based company. Briceno first became interested in Roblox in his previous role as a franchise marketing executive at Mattel. Seeing the platform’s growth, he wanted to get Mattel brands such as Hot Wheels on it in a meaningful, ROI-positive way. It was Gamefam that crystallized the opportunity and helped bring it to life, he says. The developer steered Hot Wheels onto Roblox in 2020 through the free-to-play Hot Wheels Open World game, where kids can collect cars, compete in races and explore a large map with friends.

That experience so impressed Briceno that he eventually moved to Gamefam, joining its C-suite in 2021. The company has since teamed with other major kids brands like Sonic and WowWee to create games and experiences on the platform.

Gamefam has brought multiple brands onto Roblox, including SEGA’s Sonic the Hedgehog.

Beyond games, Gamefam has partnered with rapper 24KGoldn to launch a concert that racked up close to 500,000 concurrent viewers—far more than could fit in any real-life venue. The company’s network of games, which now spans more than 30 titles, has more than 6.5 million unique daily users and 15 million total users globally.

One of Gamefam’s keys to success is partnering with native Roblox creators, says Briceno. Instead of attempting to hire game developers who don’t know the platform and tasking them with building popular titles, the company taps existing indie developers who are already making Roblox games—and some of these creatives are still teens themselves.

This gives Gamefam deeper insight into what resonates with the community in order to make Roblox titles that will connect with kids. Being on-trend is paramount, he says.

Gamefam’s growth on Roblox is just beginning. The company raised US$25 million this March, and it’s using this capital to staff up its team of Gen Z game creators to more than 100 people.

“The success with which companies come onto Roblox with brands is varying,” says Briceno. “There’s no playbook, but we’re trying to write one now with bigger and more exciting games, and by building the franchises that will be popular with kids.”

As companies like Dubit and Gamefam continue to build their audiences on Roblox, Toronto-based prodco Epic Story Media is heading onto the platform for the first time with the launch of its own studio and plans to develop a universe of games.

To get a piece of the digital pie, the company is currently incubating content in a game-focused sister company. Epic Storyworlds’ four-person team includes co-founder and gaming industry veteran Steve Couture, and the goal is to expand to a dozen people within the next year.

The Roblox-focused development hub will create original games that Epic Story Media can grow into franchises, as well as bringing existing brands such as Slugterra and Dex and the Humanimals onto the platform. With so many kids entertainment companies looking to get onto Roblox in ways that will make money, Epic Story Media sees its new studio as a means to also help other brands enter the virtual world, says CEO Ken Faier.

Epic Story Media is starting off its work on the platform through a partnership with Florida-based events company Falcon’s Beyond. Through this deal, Epic will expand Falcon’s Katmandu theme park brand into many forms of content, including a digital theme park game in Roblox. This game will let kids explore a branded theme park, which Epic will regularly build out with new attractions and experiences.

Offering its services as a Roblox developer is a key business strategy for Epic. The hope is that companies coming in for a Roblox game will want to partner on a series and licensing deals as well, says Faier.

The platform also serves as a testing ground where Epic can experiment with reaching kids. It’s planning to launch 10 to 15 projects a year in Roblox, and being able to have developers in the game with kids, seeing in real time how they interact with brands, will provide insights that Epic can leverage in future products and share with its partners, says Faier.

“Beyond launching ourselves into Roblox, we can be a service provider to companies that want to turn their brands into games,” he says. “There aren’t a lot of pros on the platform yet, and we can help other brand owners succeed on it.”

Roblox offers such a sea of opportunities for both developers and gamecos that working together might just be the best way forward.