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In December 2022, we hosted our annual Hack Week. Throughout this week, Robloxians put our values into motion by pursuing initiatives that drive speedy innovation. This was our largest annual self-organized occasion to this point, with over 400 workers throughout 225 groups competing for a spot within the prime three in every of 4 classes.
Unleashing Curiosity and Driving Innovation for Our Platform
Hack Week takes place throughout our annual code freeze, which supplies everybody throughout Roblox time to pursue a various set of initiatives. We take no matter has piqued our curiosity all year long and act on it. A number of previous initiatives have gone on to grow to be fully-implemented merchandise or options on the platform.
So, what’s the key to lining up an superior Hack Week challenge? It’s all about taking massive dangers and asking massive questions. “We’re speaking about reimagining the best way individuals come collectively,” shares Dave Baszucki, Founder & CEO. “We’re speaking concerning the evolution of communication expertise, all the best way from telephone to video to immersive 3D. I believe one of many greatest issues that this week does is validate our imaginative and prescient. It’s not 20 years away. It’s one thing that we’re making progress on yearly. Hack Week is the final word definition of innovation at scale.”
This 12 months, initiatives reached all components of the platform and technical stack. Listed here are a few of this 12 months’s initiatives to indicate the breadth of what groups labored on:
- Supporting dwell performances in Roblox with the creation of an open-source plugin that permits streaming of audio and movement seize knowledge to drive avatars within the expertise.
- A picture filter part that can enable our builders to control their photographs so their experiences have a particular type.
- A framework to carry out frequent debugging and testing actions that shall be accessible on all consumer platforms.
- A dashboard to research the official Creator Documentation and supply details about enhance its protection and high quality.
Including a New Degree of Competitors
“Hack Week is certainly not every week off. It’s a week on for the people who find themselves collaborating,” says Claus Moberg, VP of Engineering and Hack Week organizer. “We work onerous at Roblox, however this can be the toughest that anyone works all 12 months. You’ve gotten a really quick time interval to get your challenge completed. And it’s aggressive.”
In previous years, senior leaders evaluated and hand-selected initiatives that had been significantly revolutionary to share out with the whole firm. This 12 months, we developed a judging and scoring course of to determine the perfect of the perfect. Throughout registration, groups chosen one of many 4 firm values for his or her initiatives, which additionally decided the judging classes. To submit, groups created a three-minute-long video that showcased their work. A panel of over a dozen judges – senior leaders from throughout Roblox – evaluated every submission, narrowing down the initiatives to finalists. On the 12 months’s final City Corridor, the finalists offered, answered questions, after which awaited remaining placements.
As one of many judges, Claus regarded for a few attributes in every challenge. “I’m actually excited to see the whole lot from huge long-term innovation to near-term tactical options. General, I’m in search of initiatives that talk to our core firm values and have affect on our customers, workers, and on Roblox as a complete.”
The Winners
Hack Week closed with an awards celebration the place the finalists realized about their placements of their respective classes and claimed their Hack Week trophies. Stef Corazza, Head of Studio Engineering – Creator, was a member of the staff that took house the 2nd place trophy within the Take the Lengthy View class. His staff’s challenge centered round bringing dwell performances to Roblox. Whereas successful was nice, his favourite half about Hack Week was, “… actually concerning the staff and the way we got here collectively. All six of us had totally different talent units with very totally different backgrounds.”
Two highlights caught out for first place winners of the We’re Accountable class Kevin Koleckar and Nicholas Choi. “Attending to collaborate with somebody that I’m not often collaborating with was my favourite half,” says Kevin. “Nick and I’ve been on the identical staff up to now, however during the last 12 months, we’ve labored on various things. Hack Week gave us the prospect to come back again and work on one thing collectively.”
For Nick, Hack Week created house to pursue one thing he’s been fascinated with. “Our challenge has been one thing I’ve been excited about doing for a extremely very long time, so it was simply actually thrilling to see it come to fruition.”
Based on Claus, it’s not all about successful. “There are such a lot of initiatives which are unbelievable and that basically are the way forward for the platform. All the work that individuals have put in is being acknowledged by leaders on the firm and goes to be shared with the groups which are answerable for these areas. Each single challenge has the potential to tell how our product is constructed shifting ahead.”
Claus continues, “Hack Week at Roblox is de facto core to our tradition of innovation. Yearly, we see initiatives that blow our minds. The way in which our groups assault these massive questions and discover options to issues no person has constructed earlier than… Hack Week is likely one of the biggest examples of Roblox’s strategy to innovation.”
Take a look at a spotlight reel of the successful groups and their initiatives:
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