Alex Balfanz is an American video game developer, software developer, and audio producer, best known for creating a modification (mod) for the MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) video game Robox that he named Jailbreak in 2017. The game itself encouraged developers to make their custom creations by providing a ready-to-go framework. He, alongside his friend Asimo3089, had the idea for the game after they were both recurrent players and occasionally worked for Roblox and decided to create a game based on the ‘Cops and Robbers’ type of gameplay which Alex grew to like. Even though they have both created Roblox game mods before, such as Alex’s mildly-successful Volt in 2016, it wasn’t until Jailbreak that their creation became an overnight success. On the 1st day after the game modification launched in April 2017, it had amassed more than 70k simultaneous players and kept growing from that moment on.
By November 8, 2017, the mod had reached a number of more than 2 million total plays. The same year, Alex was also invited to the invitation-only 2017 annual Roblox Developer Conference, reserved for around 300 top-level Roblox developers. In addition, Alex stated he wouldn’t leave the Roblox platform like many others that had achieved success, because it handled all of the challenging parts such as servers uptime, payment security, marketing, and different platform compatibility. Furthermore, Alex started making money from toy sets and other merchandise, as well as in-game payment options and used it to pay off his college debt within 3 months of the game mod’s release. Jailbreak has also been featured in the book Roblox – 40 Top Adventure Games which Alex signed personally for his fanbase at the New York Comic-Con in October 2018.
Sun Sign
Taurus
Nationality
Education
Alex attended Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, United States, and studied computer science and statistics.
Genre
Trap, Electronic
Instruments
Audio Production Software
Distinctive Features
- Fringe haircut
Best Known For
Being the co-creator of the Roblox game modification named Jailbreak in April 2017
Alex Balfanz Facts
- He began playing Roblox at the age of 9.
- At the age of 9, Alex also started programming, following in his dad’s footsteps. He was entirely self-taught and focused on making unique features for Roblox.
- Alex and his business partner and game designer Asimo3089 were also known under the name “Badimo” which was a combination of the names of their online personas.
- His parents are his biggest supporters, and often go through his tweets, watch his live streams, and refer him to the videos or written text about experiences people had with Jailbreak.
- One thing Alex appreciates about his parents is that they never limited his time on the computer, and also instilled in him good personal finance skills.
- In 2014, Alex started creating his own music using the well-known audio production software FL Studio and started uploading the tracks to his YouTube channel. Despite not singing or playing any instruments, he was able to generate catchy electronic beats. To make things interesting, he also created visuals using Adobe After Effects software.
- Some members of his fanbase have told him that he resembles , an investor and real-estate developer, who was also ‘s husband.
- He initially planned to study artificial intelligence (AI) at Duke University.
- He enrolled in university because it felt weird to him not to attend any, despite becoming a multi-millionaire by late 2018. In addition, the money allowed him not to work in unpaid internships just so he could land a corporate job.
- Alex was a bit reluctant to tell his friends from the university what his occupations was, as he feared it would change the way they viewed him. Once they did, Alex wasn’t afraid to share his coding knowledge with them, and support their endeavors.
- On February 4, 2018, Jailbreak broke the record of having more than 130k concurrent players. On March 3, 2018, his game mod reached a number of more than 150k concurrent players and also hit its billionth visit.
- In October 2018, Alex stated that Jailbreak‘s game code was around 60k lines long.
- In 2018, Alex also coded his own analysis tool so he could see the percentage of the languages his player spoke, the time they played and their gaming and shopping habits. He also hoped to build a similar tool to be widely used by teachers, students, and other professionals outside of the game.
- He stated that there’s a lot of potential in Roblox, even for people that aren’t programmers. As an example, Alex said that he outsourced a lot of game design, sound design, character art, and interface to other artists and freelancers. His goal was to make Jailbreak as polished as possible, and thus have a better chance at standing out from millions of other mods.
- played Jailbreak in February 2019.
- Follow him on , , , , and .
Featured Image by Alex Balfanz / Roblox
Facts of Alex Balfanz
- Gender Male
- full nameAlex Balfanz
- nicknamesBadcc, BadCCVoid
- birthplaceUnited States
- ethnicity / ethnic backgroundAmerican
- nationalityAmerican
- net worth$100,000 - $1Million
- professionVideo Game Developer, Software Developer, Audio Producer
- weight70 kg or 154.5 lbs
- height5 ft 10 in or 178 cm
- hair colorLight Brown
- eye colorLight Brown
- body type / buildSlim
- collegeDuke University