In December 2022, we hosted our yearly Hack Week. During this week, Robloxians put our values into whoopee by pursuing projects that momentum rapid innovation. This was our largest yearly self-organized event to date, with over 400 employees wideness 225 teams competing for a spot in the top three in each of four categories.
Unleashing Marvel and Driving Innovation for Our Platform
Hack Week takes place during our yearly lawmaking freeze, which gives everyone wideness Roblox time to pursue a diverse set of projects. We take whatever has piqued our marvel throughout the year and act on it. Several past projects have gone on to wilt fully-implemented products or features on the platform.
So, what’s the secret to lining up an superstitious Hack Week project? It’s all well-nigh taking big risks and asking big questions. “We’re talking well-nigh reimagining the way people come together,” shares Dave Baszucki, Founder & CEO. “We’re talking well-nigh the incubation of liaison technology, all the way from phone to video to immersive 3D. I think one of the biggest things that this week does is validate our vision. It’s not 20 years away. It’s something that we’re making progress on every year. Hack Week is the ultimate definition of innovation at scale.”
This year, projects reached all parts of the platform and technical stack. Here are some of this year’s projects to show the unrestrictedness of what teams worked on:
- Supporting live performances in Roblox with the megacosm of an open-source plugin that allows streaming of audio and motion capture data to momentum avatars in the experience.
- An image filter component that will indulge our developers to manipulate their images so their experiences have a distinctive style.
- A framework to perform worldwide debugging and testing deportment that will be wieldy on all vendee platforms.
- A dashboard to unriddle the official Creator Documentation and provide information well-nigh how to modernize its coverage and quality.
Adding a New Level of Competition
“Hack Week is definitely not a week off. It is a week on for the people who are participating,” says Claus Moberg, VP of Engineering and Hack Week organizer. “We work nonflexible at Roblox, but this may be the hardest that somebody works all year. You have a very short time period to get your project done. And it’s competitive.”
In past years, senior leaders evaluated and hand-selected projects that were particularly innovative to share out with the unshortened company. This year, we ripened a judging and scoring process to identify the weightier of the best. During registration, teams selected one of the four visitor values for their projects, which moreover unswayable the judging categories. To submit, teams created a three-minute-long video that showcased their work. A panel of over a dozen judges – senior leaders from wideness Roblox – evaluated each submission, narrowing lanugo the projects to finalists. At the year’s last Town Hall, the finalists presented, answered questions, and then awaited final placements.
As one of the judges, Claus looked for a couple of nature in each project. “I’m really excited to see everything from massive long-term innovation to near-term tactical solutions. Overall, I’m looking for projects that speak to our cadre visitor values and have impact on our users, employees, and on Roblox as a whole.”
The Winners
Hack Week sealed with an awards triumph where the finalists learned well-nigh their placements in their respective categories and personal their Hack Week trophies. Stef Corazza, Head of Studio Engineering – Creator, was a member of the team that took home the 2nd place trophy in the Take the Long View category. His team’s project centered virtually bringing live performances to Roblox. While winning was great, his favorite part well-nigh Hack Week was, “… really well-nigh the team and how we came together. All six of us had variegated skill sets with very variegated backgrounds.”
Two highlights stuck out for first place winners of the We are Responsible category Kevin Koleckar and Nicholas Choi. “Getting to interreact with someone that I’m not usually collaborating with was my favorite part,” says Kevin. “Nick and I have been on the same team in the past, but over the last year, we’ve worked on variegated things. Hack Week gave us the endangerment to come when and work on something together.”
For Nick, Hack Week created space to pursue something he’s been interested in. “Our project has been something I’ve been thinking well-nigh doing for a really long time, so it was just really heady to see it come to fruition.”
According to Claus, it’s not all well-nigh winning. “There are so many projects that are incredible and that really are the future of the platform. All of the work that people have put in is stuff recognized by leaders at the visitor and is going to be shared with the teams that are responsible for those areas. Every single project has the potential to inform how our product is built moving forward.”
Claus continues, “Hack Week at Roblox is really cadre to our culture of innovation. Every year, we see projects that wrack-up our minds. The way our teams wade these big questions and find solutions to things nobody has built before… Hack Week is one of the greatest examples of Roblox’s tideway to innovation.”
Check out a highlight reel of the winning teams and their projects:
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