GDC Festival of Gaming is part of the Informa Festivals Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

March 9-13, 2026
Moscone CenterSan Francisco, CA

Agenda

Building Boundary‑Pushing Games on Roblox: Faster Iteration, Bigger Audiences, Better Monetization [Developer Showcase] (Presented by Roblox)

Alex Hicks  (Chief Design Officer, Twin Atlas)
Janzen Madsen  (Founder, Splitting Point Studios)
Justin Sousa  (Head of Developer Community, Roblox)
nosniy  (Developer, Rivals)
Matthew Hufton  (Developer, 99 Nights in the Forest)
Location: Festival Stage, South Hall
Date: Thursday, March 12
Time: 1:50 pm - 2:50 pm
Pass Type: Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass - Get your pass now!
Audience Level: All
Track: Game & Production Technology, Independent Development
Format: Panel
Vault Recording: Not Recorded
Audience Level: All
Roblox

Four top Roblox developer teams break down how they ship bold game ideas. From new mechanics and visual styles to live-ops and social design, they'll share how they spot opportunities, prototype fast, and decide what games are worth scaling.
We'll dig into how these developers test with real players, use community feedback and data to guide decisions, and grow audiences over time. You'll hear how they structure experiments around retention and engagement, design monetization that players value, and recover quickly when ideas miss.
Expect concrete examples of pipelines, iteration workflows, and Roblox tools that help teams move faster, learn faster, and build durable, player-first businesses.

Takeaway

Attendees will leave armed with the playbooks of top Roblox developers and with actionable insights on how to approach building top experiences and new novel content for Roblox's 144 million users.

Intended Audience

This session targets developers, designers, producers, product managers, and live-ops leads who build or operate games on or off Roblox and want to sharpen their approach to experimentation, analytics, and monetization. Basic familiarity with Roblox Studio and at least one launched experience on the platform is recommended for getting the most value from the discussion, but all are welcome.