The road to Roblox

Once upon a time, all we had was Space Invaders and Pacman. Simple games for simple devices. But the worldwide web we spun became a literal gamechanger. It enabled not just massively more games, but platforms which countless creative teenagers have since built careers on. Britt Coker catches up with one local developer who found global success with some wacky wizards.

Day one. Create video game. Day two. Earn $2 from day one’s work. Are you disappointed? If you are Janzen Madsen the answer is no. You are in fact, ‘super jacked’. Now if a single gold coin could bring that much jack to him then you can only imagine that after six years, dozens of games and millions of plays, Janzen must be beside himself. Instead, he appears, as we speak, to be the antithesis of this. Though I guess that euphoric moment was a quarter of his lifetime ago and game developing is a job for him now. The 25-year-old is a creative director of a company that employs 15 game developers based in the UK, USA and Canada. Yes, it turns out that day one’s effort has generated many more days, and many more two dollars since. Son of Nelson musician Paul Madsen, Janzen had fancied the idea of making video games from a young age. When he was 19, he sat down and did something about it. “I just played Roblox at a party and then the next day I just like logged in and decided to create a game. Back then as well, Roblox was a lot different. It’s still relatively easy now. A lot of people come to the platform and create games but it’s a lot more competitive now because it’s like a lot bigger.” Roblox, if you haven’t heard of it (don’t worry, me neither), is a U.S platform with more users than Minecraft. Games are often free to play, (and when I say, games, the official Roblox line is ‘experiences’) but the players do need to spend money on game passes or accessories within the game.

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1. Janzen shows that from his simple home office in Richmond, big dreams can be achieved. | 2. Janzen and some of the Splitting Point Studios team. Together they founded the business in 2018, with members from around the world. | 3 & 4. The Roblox experience, 'Field Trip Z', is one of Splitting Point Studios most successful, with over 160 million plays worldwide. | 5. In 'Wacky Wizards', users create all kinds of magical potions to achieve different results. The experience has become popular primarily with players aged 9-14.

Seventy-five percent of your spend goes to Roblox and the balance, to the game developer. In Janzen’s case, it is now his company, Splitting Point Studios, where he and his global team spend their days (his) and nights (theirs), developing more games for Roblox. I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is, 'yes, you can'. Just get a grasp on the finer elements of coding and you can create your own Roblox experience and watch the $2 coins metaphorically roll in. But that’s if it’s any good. It’s a competitive gaming world out there. Janzen’s word of advice, just do it. “I make heaps of games and I still fail all the time. Most of my games probably, but then there are a few that do well which makes it all worth it. A failure for me now would have been something I would have seen as a success in the past.” “If you really just start creating a game on Roblox, there are so many resources on Google and you can search up questions. I Google search constantly now, and I’ve been working on Roblox for five or six years.” Janzen’s definition of failure is a game that doesn’t get a lot of plays. Not one that doesn’t offer an interesting concept or isn’t well made. It just hasn’t resonated. He says it’s always a surprise when some don’t do well (but I guess you wouldn’t create them if failure seemed likely) though he’s philosophical, seeing lessons in the fails before he moves on to the next project. But when he creates a winner, it’s all worth it. Janzen’s most successful experience is Wacky Wizards where players, primarily aged 9 to 14, can make their own potions. Since May last year, he says, the game has had over 645 million plays, 130,000 at one time. This has resulted in an enthusiastic fan base who look to the game creator with adulation. “I think it’s nice, I do appreciate it. I think my favourite things are when kids draw artwork… It’s pictures of my game or my characters and stuff. It’s super cute.” So, what next after this? I’m not by a long shot, the first to ask. But I guess when we observe a young, successful entrepreneur, the constraints that keep the rest of us on the typical life path do not have to be his. The world, his oyster, etc. He hasn’t given it much serious thought, but he does feel the next adventure, whatever it is, will be a complete step away from tech. The option he mentions is, nevertheless, a stride further than I was expecting. Affordable housing. “I just think it’s really messed up that people can’t buy houses in New Zealand, it really bothers me.” He’s a property owner himself, so the concern is not personal. In the meantime, Janzen is happy to keep creating games. It was a childhood dream, after all. “I feel very blessed and lucky. I’ve done something that I’m really passionate about and it’s worked out.” Yep, you could say that.