On March 20th, 2021 AnimalBot99 and Subprofited got to chat with Alvin_Blox. Alvin is a scripter on Roblox who makes a lot of videos on YouTube, his website can be found at alvinblox.com! We hope you enjoy this interview.
Animal: Hello Alvin! Long time no see, how have you been?
Bryan: Hello!
Alvin: Hey! Thanks for having me on. I’m doing great thanks, how are you?
Animal: Can’t complain, just living life as it goes on!
Bryan: Just doin’ the interview stuff, livin life.
Animal: So, Alvin, how about you tell us what you have been up to on Roblox lately?
Alvin: Well, alongside keeping up with scripting tutorials on my channel, I’ve been working hard on my latest game “Hotel Tycoon”, which released in beta around a month ago.
Animal: That is pretty cool to hear. On the topic of games, I remember our last interview from 6 years ago you mentioned starting a game with another fellow developer.
Bryan: Yeah, I remember reading the interview and I saw that you 're talking about a game. What happened with it?
Alvin: Well, I believe that you learn as you go along and as you make projects and look back on them you realise that there were things you could’ve done better and learn from. Those particular games, whilst they didn’t turn out to be as successful as I’d hoped, I learned a lot about scripting and releasing games from them. At times, you need to fail to gain experience for the future, and I’m kind of glad they did, because when I look back on those projects, I can see mistakes and things I’d overlooked in them which has helped me get to where I am today.
Bryan: That’s interesting, what did you learn from your past scripting experiences, and how did you implement that into your newest game?
Alvin: The most important thing I learned is not to rush into a project. I remember wanting to have a finished product quickly, and lacking experience as a scripter, there were aspects of the games which I didn’t know how to code, such as specific monetisation products or different game-modes. Often, I’d try to hack code together from forums when really what I should’ve done is taken a step back and focus my time into learning the concepts and APIs - instead, I was so eager to release and get my game out there that I’d publish the game without critical features and just hope for the game to succeed.
Animal: Well obviously it seems like you know a thing or two about scripting seeing that you have a whole YouTube channel dedicated to it and just recently (at the start of this year) passed 300k subscribers. I do not have all the numbers and breakdowns of everything in front of me but I am sure that you must’ve been really happy with how your channel expanded. Any thoughts on it, did you expect it to grow this much? Do you have lots of positive feedback from people?
Alvin: I really didn’t expect my channel to grow much when I started it. The main intention was to upload a couple of videos to help others on the journey of learning to script with me, as I’d watched videos in the past that were particularly helpful to me. I didn’t think I would pass 1000 subscribers at first, but those couple of videos started to snowball and I got a lot of positive feedback from them, so I decided to continue them. Really, I thought that starting a channel and uploading a few videos would just help me to cement and improve my scripting knowledge, but it’s grown to so much more and I couldn’t be more thankful to everyone who’s watched and supported them.
Animal: Just in terms for growth, what would you have said your follower count was when you started? When I first interviewed you your channel was only up for a few months, about seven.
Alvin: I would say around 700-800 subscribers at that time - which was still an amazing achievement for me back then!
Animal: And now you have, according to your website, 27 million video views, 324,000 subscribers, 180 videos and you are a video star member plus a Bloxy award winner (and hopefully you have an AlvinBlox toy on the way). Did you think that scripting videos would lead to this much success? (Website)
Alvin: When I started my channel, I definitely didn’t expect this much success. If you had told me back then that I would have over 300K subs and be a Bloxy Award winner, I wouldn’t have believed you! But, with the incredible growth of the Roblox platform, more and more developers are coming in who are learning scripting, and I couldn’t be happier to be aiding new developers on the same journey I was on 6-7 years ago.
Animal: I must admit that I have not yet to watch a YouTube video but it is on my list of things to do someday! With all the scripting videos you make is there ever anything that Roblox may change that may make you have to go back to an older video, and make parts of it obsolete or even have to remake parts of it. I mean, I know that Roblox from the early days drastically changed its whole scripting system, is that still a problem today?
Alvin: Of course, there is the possibility that Roblox adds new features or changes the look of Roblox Studio, and I’ve definitely had to re-make some tutorials from early-on that have become outdated due to that, however now I’ve learned to deal with it as it’s something you’re always thinking about when you’re recording. A visual change to Roblox Studio, such as moving buttons around or changing the design of a panel, can’t be changed once a video is up, but when I’m recording tutorials, I’m always trying to ensure that my code is future proof so that it can last for years to come and give confidence to viewers that it is still fully functional whenever they’re watching. An example from the last 12 months is my Piggy tutorial series, I spent many hours painstakingly revising my code to make sure it’s the best it can be and future-proofed, and hopefully all of that hard work will be shown in the tutorial series’ longevity. But it’s definitely a hard problem to deal with, you just have to explain in as much detail as you can to ensure that users can still find what I’m working with in years to come.
Animal: Very interesting how you go about all of it, hopefully Roblox won’t give you too many problems down the road! Anyways, I think it is time for a rapid question time (it is how we get our funding (just kidding, we’re broke)). What is your favo(u)rite game on Roblox?
Alvin: Ooh, good question! Well, I’ve been enjoying a couple of games right now, but I guess the favourite game has to be the one you’ve played the longest, right? And that one would be TPS: Ultimate Soccer. I’ve been playing it since 2012 and it’s been actively maintained by the developer TAYFUN7 since 2008.
Animal: What is your dream hat on Roblox? (Also we have you on record with this answer so let’s see if it is the same).
Alvin: Honestly, I’m not really as big a fan of hats or items as I probably was last time you spoke to me, but my dream hat now would actually be a face (if that counts!), and I would go for the Epic Face. Unfortunately, it’s off sale, and probably won’t be coming back. Anyway, I’m interested to know what I told you last time, I can’t remember but I’ll go for a long-shot guess at the ASCII White hat?! Ah no, Domino Crown! I must say it was in my head when I was guessing!
Animal: Next question, don8 pl0x
Alvin: umad bro!?
Animal: Do you friend everyone?
Alvin: Unfortunately not - the 200 friends limit cap only means I can add people I work with, or people who I regularly play with.
Animal: Any final comments?
Alvin: I’m really glad we’ve been able to talk again after our last interview 6 years ago. It’s awesome that we’ve both been able to stay on the platform even if that means being on/off at times, and to see the growth of Roblox. Back in 2015 I never heard Roblox being spoken about in real life, but now the platform is often in mainstream news and is being used by loads of kids especially in the UK, which is great to see. Hopefully we can speak again in the near future! (Perhaps before 6 years time? :D)
Animal: Yes, that sounds wonderful! Well, you can always keep in touch with me on my Twitter and hopefully it won’t be another six years that passes before we chat! Anyways, I must thank you for this interview and take care & be well!
Alvin: Thank you again for having me, all the best!
This has been an interview with Alvin_Blox by BloxViews!
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