Animal: Hello Asimo and welcome! It’s great to be talking to you again from our last interview in 2015.
Asimo: Thanks for having me! I can’t believe it’s been 6 years.
Animal: So, I usually always start these with “what do you do on Roblox” but I think “What did you not do on Roblox when it was down for three days” is more fitting.
Asimo: Hah that outage was brutal… We had planned to release a new game under Badimo while also getting work done on a Nascar x Jailbreak update that was due in 7 days. That game is now on hold, hopefully we have it out before November is up. It was only 3 days but it completely wrecked our schedule!
Animal: I saw that the Nascar event just ended today or last night. I find it quite amazing how developers on this platform can get sponsorships for their own games, because this was not through Roblox but rather the game only?
Asimo: Yeah! So Roblox kind of introduced us to each other, but we were shocked when they went completely hands off after that. It was all on us. A little scary at first! But we got the hang of it and finally got the event out. I think it’s cool that the future of Roblox Events is going to be UGC too. I can see a day where Roblox is in the background and not too involved, and it’s the players basically running the whole site. Like a machine that just runs by itself.
Animal: Do you think Roblox was slowly trying to get to this point when they stopped doing events around 2019? Making it more developer based with what they did within their own games?
Asimo: Yeah totally. I think the transition period might be a little tricky but I can see a future where all events are UGC.
Animal: So since we are on Jailbreak, how did you come up with creating such a game as you used to always do showcase based places?
Asimo: So when we last talked I was still pretty focused on showcases, but I was beginning to work more with Badcc. He’s a talented programmer and I was itching to make a Tron style game (Volt/2016) which was our first major project. After that was out, we both would hang out playing Prison Life and Redwood Prison. We really enjoyed these games but wanted more out of them after escaping so we made Jailbreak! If I didn’t work on those two games with Badcc, I’d probably still be making Showcases!
Animal: If I am correct, Jailbreak holds some sort of player count record?
Asimo: Hah well it did! On launch day actually we broke a concurrent record which was crazy, and then something I’ll never forget is holding that #1 Popular spot (Before Popular was a randomized sort) for so long. More than a year, I think. I can’t believe how huge Jailbreak became.
Animal: Do you still go back to your showcases or have plans to go back to them and touch them up a bit or possibly start a side project off one?
Asimo: I’ll probably try to leave older showcases alone, they’re kind of time capsules for that era of Roblox graphics, but I’d love to get back into Showcases. I’d like to eventually get to the point where games I work on with Badcc under Badimo are Showcase quality but still playable. That’d be cool. Best of both worlds.
Animal: I just have to ask because I am sure this is where you got all your building knowledge from early on, do you plan to make any more roller coasters?
Asimo: Wow that was 10+ years ago. I don’t think I’ll return to those, there are some talented people who make better coasters nowadays. I had fun with all the limitations in building them back then. Now it’s a lot easier with plugins and even track generators.
Animal: Moving on to a completely new topic, there are two Roblox features I must mention! First one, how do you like smooth terrain as you previously were not too fond of it?
Asimo: Smooth Terrain has changed so much for the better in these past 5-6 years. Grass is so pretty. It’s something I can’t get out of parts. I wish they’d offer a way for us to use it on parts but right now it’s only available with Terrain. I think Terrain is the way to go nowadays. My only wish is for better, smoother, Level of Detail from Roblox. And more decorations like grass.
Animal: Next one is quite a big topic, what are your thoughts on the voice chat and being available to all 13+ now?
Asimo: Voice chat rocks in the sense that it’s totally going to age up the platform! I wish there was a better way to moderate it, so I could use it with my family while playing Roblox, but either way it’s going to help age up the platform significantly.
Animal: Do you think it’s going to remain in place or possibly be rolled back until something can be put in place to safeguard the younger audiences?
Asimo: I don’t think it’ll be rolled back since it’s 13+. The age verification is strict. I’m also not sure how much moderation they’ll ever give it. It’s a hard problem to solve with live chat.
Animal: So to switch it up a bit more, you mention on your Twitter you previously did work for Roblox, are you able to mention anything specific?
Asimo: Yeah! This was going on maybe during our last interview. In 2015? I was working on Port Gloom, an 80,000 part showcase. I was working on a project with Badcc we never released, another 50,000 or so parts. And then I was working with Roblox on a project never released. Even more parts. I also worked on Xbox with Roblox. I designed all of the backgrounds you can subtle-y see in the menu.
Animal: Checking our old interview I feel like I failed to mention one small event that was going on so hopefully you don’t mind this one being 6 years late: How was the Winter Games 2014?
Asimo: That was fun!! I miss events like those. It wasn’t perfect on release but players seemed to really like it. It was also the first big project I worked on with Badcc. Really introduced us to each other and our work flows.
Animal: Anything you would’ve done differently with the knowledge you have now?
Asimo: Absolutely. Keep it simple. I don’t know if we were trying to impress Roblox or we just wanted to go all out but our teleport system (to the event games) involved a physics-based ski lift system that would of course break from tons of characters trying to hop on. I wish we had just kept it simple. That’s something we always tell ourselves, even today, on all projects.
Animal: How about some rapid questions now, all randomized: How are you enjoying your Epic Katana?
Asimo: HAH. I wish more games supported Gears!! And I hope they don’t go away! It’s truly Epic!
Animal: Any favorite games right now, besides any you worked on?
Asimo: I wish I played more games (or experiences)… Off the top of my head I love the new Super Bomb Survival by Polyhex. It’s so fun and so nostalgic. A great rewrite for a classic Roblox game.
Animal: If you could only keep one of your games, whether you worked on it or own it, which would it be? All others must disappear forever.
Asimo: That’s tough. I’m attached to all of them… Jailbreak is my job now so it feels wrong to remove it but maybe that’s the answer everybody expects. Outside of Jailbreak, maybe Port Gloom. That’s a showcase I’m still really proud of. Just the scale of it, and the textured trees. And then some quirky tricks to make water appear to flow in riverbeds when the weather system kicks in. And the birds. So many tiny details I love. I’d probably keep that game.
Animal: Do you have a favorite UGC item on the catalog?
Asimo: I don’t know if I have a favorite! But I love looking. I never get too invested since I can’t change my look at this point.
Animal: True, the iconic look. What would you say was your best year on Roblox?
Asimo: Maybe 2018… Jailbreak was in year-2 and we had just won a crazy amount of awards from Roblox for the game. It was life changing and something I’ll never forget. Even if I manage to find a bigger project in the future.
Animal: Final two questions, after the platform being down do you think Roblox’s response to it was done well? Such as, giving missed revenue and everything, was there anything else you would’ve wanted or was it sufficient enough?
Asimo: I just hope they dig deep into the problem so outages like that don’t happen again. I can’t believe they paid back developers. I’m happy they did but I wasn’t expecting it. Not something you get from other stores and it’s so expensive to do it after being offline and losing millions for three days. Really cool move by them. Players like to claim Roblox is greedy but that move was the opposite of greed.
Animal: Final question, what advice would you give to any aspiring developers out there to have nearly as much success as you’ve had on the platform?
Asimo: Keep creating and keep it simple on the big projects. And find a great partner if you’re lacking in an area like I was with programming. Looking back at my games, all the way to like 2008, each new project is something I was more and more proud of. Because I was learning something from each project and applying it to the next. Eventually you have this huge set of skills and work flows you can’t teach anybody. Something you only learn from doing it. Don’t stop creating!
Animal: Thank you again for your time with this interview. I wish you luck with Jailbreak and can’t wait to see what will happen in the next 5 years!
Asimo: Thanks again for having me! It’s fun looking back and talking about the latest projects! Take care!
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