The other day one of Amber and Kyle's friends came over to play, and he just could not stop going on and on about Roblox. The end result was that my kids once again delved into yet another website to eek every last drop of fun out of it.
That's right, ROBLOX. I was quite surprised to be honest. I had looked up Roblox before since somehow I ended up following John Shedletsky, one of their lead creative designers, on Twitter. The characters will remind you A LOT of Lego's (although not related to the Lego Company). There's nothing too graphically outstanding here, but nevertheless, it's online -- it's free -- it's making money -- and people are hanging out here having fun.
You should go
check Roblox out yourself if you haven't already! I'm late to the party since this site has been around for a few years. (Go ahead, laugh at me people who know all about Roblox ;-))
I guess what I had failed to put together about Roblox was that at its core, it's a really awesome builder game. I'm a fan of those anyway, and especially Little Big Planet. You may or may not remember my weak attempt to build a
Wizard101 crossover game in LBP. yeah, that pretty much bombed, but HEY, it was a blast to make :).
Being the Wizard101 fan that I am, my mind instantly went to the spiral when I started surfing around Roblox and especially after my kids and I were rocking out all the
Pokemon games builders had made. (So many future video game designers there ;-))
"Hmmmmmm," Friendly says to himself, "I wonder if there are any Wizard101 games made?" Oh yeah, there's like
five pages of Wizard101 related things on Roblox, not to worry. There's a lot to explore there if you're a Wizard101 fan. Most are . . . meh . . . good, creative, I like it, really cool to see the fan creativity . . . but the one that really stuck out to me was not in that particular search on "Wizard101."
My daughter this morning found a Roblox world named
"Wizard School," and I ended up playing this for a couple of hours with my daughter's character. hehe.
Props to Shadow580 for creating a really nice Wizard101/Roblox crossover level that simulates the Wizard City experience. A lot of nice thought went into this level, and you can tell Roblox players also like it based on the 5,500+ favorites it's received and the 111,000+ visits.
Check it out! Shadow580 has even simulated zoning into different areas of Wizard City like Unicorn Way, Triton Avenue, and Golem Court. Awesome!
(hehe. Yeah, don't ask about Amber's fashion sense on her avatar . . . I can't explain it.)
I was also quite happy to see that Triton Avenue even had a Kraken Pad on a lower level that you had to use a teleporter to get to! (I highly doubt you'll see this Kraken pad as crowded as the Real Kraken Pad since this Kraken here is TOUGH--he stomped on me a few times. XD)
You can just tell that Shadow580 loves Wizard101 when you play this level and that there has been a lot of hard work put into it. There's even a little bit of lore dialog to be had here!
And yes, you can even find Dworgyn hidden under a waterfall . . . although his spells are a little different than what you might expect.
Yup, I played a necromancer in Wizard School! That's just how I roll. :)
By the end of my play time I had made eighth level and gathered enough gold to buy all my spells and I was a lego-ish monster of DEATH POWA (in a tank top and shorts no less)!
I won't talk too much about how I eventually got bored and started hunting down other players . . . now there's something you can't do in Wizard101. ;-)
Anyway, simulating Wizard101 in Roblox must have been extremely challenging, and of course, it's not the same experience at all, but I think that's why I like it. Two thumbs up from the Friendly Necromancer, Amber, and Kyle!
Thanks again for the fun this morning Shadow580! My kids and I love your level!
Happy Dueling!
