September 1st

Today is the birthday of a game engine most popular with twelve year olds, my twelve year old past self included. Roblox first launched today in 2006. This name is a portmanteau of Robot and Blocks, and this is easy to forget now with all that Roblox has become. While now known for being a simple but versatile consumer grade game engine with a number of high profile and high effort games, when I was young enough to be in its target audience it had a very different vibe.

When I first played Roblox, the first thing it was, in my mind, was a LEGO simulator. It felt like a series of virtual Lego builds made from low poly squares and covered in PNG stickers. And you played as a little Minifigure. Then it just kept improving and improving until it reached the point most Roblox games don't resemble LEGO at all. I wonder if I still have my old account info written down somewhere, I'd like to see if that one theater game is still up.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: I never got into Roblox myself, so up until recently I assumed it was still the LEGO-esque game I remember seeing kids play at the school computer lab. Then a couple years ago I saw an image of one of the Warrior Cats roleplay servers and was utterly mystified. Also, RIP to the old “oof” noise. Even I knew that classic.]