January 29, 2015 at 12:00 PM

What’s in STORE with Dinizterz!

A few days ago, I had the privilege to interview Dinizterz, developer of Zombiecon (1,100,000+ visits), and his most recent, Black Friday Simulator (5,000+ visits). He also owns a development studio named [ARSENAL] (otherwise known as: Arsenal Industries). This seems to be helping him a lot to connect with his fans and give them updates, while they give him feedback.

Zombiecon first appeared around the time of BloxCon 2013, hence the name. Your goal is to defend the BloxCon facility through 20 waves of zombies (including at least 2 bosses) using a wide variety of weapons provided in-game, or through purchase. The zombies’ (bots) role is to eat the cake inside the facility; once the cake is gone, you lose!

Black Friday Simulator is a totally different and unique approach compared to what we’ve seen so far! At the start of each round, the shoppers (the players) are given shopping lists for a simulated Black-Friday, and you’re only given a short few minutes to collect the items! This usually ends in chaos, as was expected for Black Friday. There is a few more catches: users are given weapons, and there is only 1 check-out! Happy shopping, remember not to die!

Here is what Dinizterz told me during the interview:

[Q] OverlyAttachedDev: How long have you been on ROBLOX?

[A] Diniztezr: I’ve been on ROBLOX for almost 6 and a half years now; joined in 2008.

OverlyAttachedDev: Wow, that’s a pretty long time!

Dinizterz: It is, ROBLOX has grown a lot. Which is interesting to see, how much it’s grown.

[Q] OverlyAttachedDev: If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?

[A] Dinizterz: I’m 18, at the moment.

OverlyAttachedDev: That’s cool!

Dinizterz: Yeah, I joined when I was 12, I was looking for a Lego building program. ROBLOX was perfect, still is. Also very convenient.

OverlyAttachedDev: Indeed, that it is.

Dinizterz: Yep! (laughs)

[Q] OverlyAttachedDev: When did you learn to build and script?

[A] Dinizterz: The first 2 years of my life on this website I spent playing games, along with playing around with Studio. I started taking a serious step in learning around my 3rd year on ROBLOX. So, I’ve been learning for about 3 years now. I’ve learned a lot since then, at first I was such a beginner.

OverlyAttachedDev: Yeah, a lot of people don’t seem to get it at first. Practice makes perfect!

Dinizterz: Definitely, I remember it being super tough. It can be very frustrating, the key is to keep at it. Don’t give up, it will definitely be hard!

[Q] OverlyAttachedDev: When did you decide to start developing games?

[A] Dinizterz: I’ve actually made game developing something official recently, last September. Since I’m taking a year off from college, I’m going to have to do something worthwhile in the meantime, which is game developing. But, I have been making experimental stuff since I started learning.

[Q] OverlyAttachedDev: How do you go about marketing your games?

[A] Dinizterz: I actually don’t have an exact plot for that, my main ideal is that if my game is awesome, then it sells itself.

But for monetization, I go about making game passes and developer products, in such a way that “expands the fun.” For example: more weapons, more skins, or more options, things like that. Usually not increases in power, such as extra health, extra bullets, or extra lives. Nothing like that, I think that unbalances the fairness, which is something I value highly.

[Q] OverlyAttachedDev: Yeah, that appeals to the users, and at the same time doesn’t make the game ‘pay2win’.

Dinizterz: Yep, definitely. I go for “expanding fun,” not “better guns.”

[Q] OverlyAttachedDev: I saw the Art of War (undeveloped) game on your profile, do you plan on developing Art of War?

[A] Dinizterz: Yes! I’m going to start very soon! Art of War will be developed after BFS (Black Friday Simulator).

OverlyAttachedDev: Cool, it looks like it could be amazing!

Dinizterz: I’m taking this week to make some tools that would make development faster (such as plug-ins, preset functions, and of course planning). This week is like ‘pre-setup’. After that I officially will start developing Art of War.

OverlyAttachedDev: That will be a good thing to have!

Dinizterz: Then I will officially start developing it, I’m hoping development will take about 40 days. I know 40 days is a lot of time, but I’m not going to look at it like that. I’m going to try to get it out as soon as possible.

[Q] OverlyAttachedDev: I understand you’re working prolifically, how many projects do you have planned right now?

[A] Dinizterz: I have 5 right now lined up, Black Friday Simulator is one of them. Since I just finished development, I have 4 now. Art of War is 2nd, Edge of Smallwood (revamped) is 3rd, and I won’t give out the next  2 right now (smiles). Their pretty great ideas, you can know that.

[Q] OverlyAttachedDev: What do you have planned for Black Friday Simulator down the road?

[A] Dinizterz: I have no plans set in stone for that, if I’m going to develop a lot of game like I said, then I’m going to have to leave a lot of them “without bonus content.” It’ll just be v1 (Version 1). Of  course if there are any bugs, then  I’ll fix them. No plans for BFS, although I have thought of it.

New maps would be awesome, I can get really creative  with new maps! It would be more like a “if I have time” kind of thing.

[Q] OverlyAttachedDev: Are you going to keep updating Zombiecon?

[A] Dinizterz: Zombiecon 1 has most likely seen the last of updates, so really no. It has been updated from v1 about 3 times (boss updates, gun packs, and more explosive weaponry). I may do events though, and that’s all for games.

[Q] OverlyAttachedDev: Will you be able to get Zombiecon 2 onto ROBLOX?

[A] Dinizterz: Zombiecon 2 being a big file size of 30MB+, would cause a lot of frequent disconnection for players. ROBLOX has a thing where if the file size of a place is too big, it will cause frequent disconnection. Zombiecon 1 has this, being 5MB, but the disconnection is at a lower frequency. Really low, I’ve heard reports from about 10 players. It’s sad that I can’t do anything about it. I leave them with “I can’t do anything about it :(,” I’ll have to depend on ROBLOX to fix this issue. Otherwise, ZC2 won’t be seeing light.

OverlyAttachedDev: Unfortunate, but it’s out of your reach.

Dinizterz: Yeah, I’m keeping my other small in file size, definitely. For example, BFS is