2 months ago
EXCLUSIVE: Baobab Studios, nan Emmy-winning animation workplace led by Eric Darnell (Madagascar franchise) and Maureen Fan (FarmVille), has acquired exclusive movie and tv authorities to celebrated Roblox games Natural Disaster Survival, Barry’s Prison Run, and Deepwoken for improvement arsenic animated features and series.
Given nan ethos of nan company, properties are being developed for nan surface successful adjacent collaboration pinch their creators.
Created by Stickmasterluke (aka Luke Weber), Natural Disaster Survival launched successful 2008 arsenic 1 of Roblox’s earliest breakout titles and remains 1 of nan longest-running titles connected nan platform, having amassed much than 4.1 cardinal visits. Known for its replayable, physics-driven endurance scenarios, it’s an biology survivalist crippled located connected an land known for its chaotic, unscripted moments.
“For astir 20 years, Natural Disaster Survival has been portion of nan Roblox community, truthful uncovering nan correct partner to grow this world was critical,” said Weber. “Baobab understands our games because, arsenic 1 of us, they make Roblox games themselves, and I afloat spot them to authentically create breathtaking caller contented for some nan fans and caller audiences.”
Created by PlatinumFalls (aka Osian Taubman-Edwards), Barry’s Prison Run has surpassed 4.1 cardinal visits successful conscionable 4 years, pinch complete 42 cardinal minutes of engagement. It’s portion of nan “Cinematic Obby” genre, bringing a narrative-driven acquisition to nan obstacle people format done nan utilization of first-person perspective, scripted events, and leader encounters. A apical 50 crippled of each clip and a favourite among YouTubers and streamers, Barry’s Prison Run has spawned a activity of story-driven platforming imitators. Its wide entreaty besides precocious led to an charismatic business pinch Lego.
Said Taubman-Edward, “I’ve ever envisioned Barry’s Prison Run arsenic much than a game, pinch a communicative and characteristic that unfold much profoundly complete time. Baobab understands my imagination and nan game’s storytelling potential, truthful I’m excited to spot wherever they return it.”
Developed by Monad Studios and headed by creators Ragoozer and Arch_Mage, Deepwoken is simply a acheronian imagination paid-access action RPG released successful December 2021 that has drawn astir 1.5 cardinal visits, pinch complete 50 cardinal minutes of engagement. It’s Roblox’s astir successful paid-access title, pinch a Gen Z assemblage that has cultivated a highly progressive instrumentality organization extending beyond nan game, driving immense off-platform engagement crossed YouTube, Reddit, and Discord.
Said nan game’s creators, “Deepwoken‘s acheronian and magical mounting has near a lasting effect connected our fans, letting their imaginations tally wild. Baobab person shown they’re passionate astir nan world we’ve created alongside our community, and we’re thrilled for our fans to spot its stories told successful a wholly caller medium.”
Launched successful 2006, Roblox is an online ecosystem wherever users tin stock and play games built by different users and create their own. Per institution data, their titles person led to 39.6B hours of gaming, pinch 151.5M regular progressive users and 3.5M developers creating content, arsenic of Q3 2025. As a platform, Roblox has been a earthy destination for Baobab erstwhile it comes to IP acquisition, fixed nan studio’s attraction connected games pinch semipermanent staying power, progressive multi-generational communities, and storytelling pinch franchise potential. They’ve besides already dabbled successful creating their ain interactive experiences for Roblox — galore centered connected their Momoguro franchise.
Said Maureen Fan, CEO and co-founder of Baobab Studios, who antecedently oversaw nan $3 cardinal FarmVille franchise arsenic VP of Games astatine Zynga, “We’re not conscionable looking astatine scale—we’re looking astatine what sustains. Having built our ain Roblox games, we sought titles that harvester scope pinch retention, deepen engagement, and clear world-building that tin transportation powerfully into movie and television.”
Added Baobab Studios co-founder Darnell, who co-directed each of DreamWorks’ Madagascar films, and Osnat Shurer, co-chief imaginative serviceman and shaper of Moana, “Roblox is 1 of nan astir powerful platforms for entertainment, pinch games reaching audiences astatine a standard that rivals accepted media. These games person fans who are genuinely invested successful these worlds, and that level of engagement is nan instauration we’ll build connected to invited caller audiences while preserving nan passion that already exists.”
Backed by Disney and Comcast, Baobab develops projects that span animation, games, movie & television, interactive experiences, and publishing. Breaking retired pinch Invasion!, an Emmy-winning short which successful 2016 became 1 of nan first wide embraced story-driven VR experiences, they’re besides known for projects for illustration Asteroids!, Crow: The Legend, and Baba Yaga.
