Roblox Tech Talks Creator
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Sep 5, 2025 
Nick Tornow, Senior VP of Engineering at Roblox, talks about his journey from game development to leading engineering for creator tooling. He and creator Jandel dive into the success of 'Grow a Garden,' discussing its design philosophy and unexpected peak popularity. They explore groundbreaking engineering that enables massive scale, AI tools boosting creativity, and real-time collaboration akin to Google Docs. Additionally, Tornow shares insights on enhancing platform safety and the exciting future of virtual worlds with limitless possibilities for creators.
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Simple Loop, Deep Retention
- Grow a Garden's core loop is buying seeds and planting them with offline growth so players return later to progress.
- Jandel designed weekly updates so players can skip weeks and still rejoin without feeling left behind.
A Teen Creator, Independent Inspiration
- The original Grow a Garden creator was 16 and hadn't heard of FarmVille despite similar mechanics.
- Jandel describes this as simultaneous evolution rather than direct inspiration in that case.
Platform Removes Toil For Creators
- Roblox's mandate is 'creation of anything anywhere by anyone,' focusing platform work on scaling and removing toil.
- Nick says engineering should let creators like Jandel focus on weekly creative updates, not infra details.