Rooms, a unique 3D design application serving a growing community of virtual interior decorators and game designers, recently announced a comprehensive update that introduces a series of new discovery-driven features. This free iOS app combines elements of ‘cozy games’ and design platforms, enabling users to create personalized digital spaces and interactive mini-games. With a robust user base that has swelled to 250,000 from just 40,000 at the start of 2023, Rooms is a testament to the creative potential of a small, dedicated team.
The founders, all of whom bring a wealth of experience from previous roles in tech giants and startups, envisioned an app that went beyond mere decoration to include coding capabilities that empower users to modify and animate their designs. Using Lua, the same language utilized in Roblox Studio, decorators become developers, transforming their visions into intricate, coded mini-games.
Upon its initial release, the app offered a trio of vertically-scrolling, TikTok-esque feeds that featured curated “For You” suggestions, Editor’s Picks, and Recent uploads. The app’s latest version, dubbed “Rooms 2.0,” expands on these foundations by adding a ‘Trending’ feed that spotlights the creations gaining popularity and recognition within the community. Users are now presented with a wealth of new categories to explore, including “Games,” “Art,” “Fantasy,” “Nature,” and the imaginatively intriguing “Weird.” Moreover, there’s a “Tribute” category celebrating rooms that pay homage to beloved intellectual properties, like Minecraft and The Legend of Zelda.
The discovery process is further enriched by a novel Explore page featuring expansive ways to delve into content, including browsing user profiles and investigating top games and all-time favorites. A visually appealing “Honeycomb View” introduces an innovative browsing experience, presenting a hexagonal grid of rooms that users can dive into with a simple touch, seamlessly zooming in and out to peruse a wide array of designs.
The new Activity tab aims to enhance user engagement by allowing creators to stay updated on the reception of their rooms, tracking likes, comments, and instances their room is “remixed” or shared. The success of a creation is also indicated by an icon that reveals the total count of remixes it has inspired.
The Remix feature, a cornerstone of the platform that encourages collaboration by letting users leverage existing designs as templates, receives an upgrade to protect the originality of designers’ work. Additionally, behind-the-scenes efforts have led to significant speed improvements, with mesh optimization techniques enabling large rooms to render up to 20 times quicker—an upgrade that is consistent across both iOS and web versions of the app.
Looking ahead, Rooms is exploring the potential integration of AI to streamline the coding process, aiming to assist users in identifying and correcting errors in their scripts. Though generative AI for designing room elements is an intriguing concept, its implementation is paused due to prohibitive costs.
Plans for expanding Rooms’ reach include launching a desktop version on Steam and considering the development of an Android app. While the idea of a premium subscription is on the table, the company intends to wait until the app secures a stronger foothold in the market.
These updates not only highlight the app’s commitment to an evolving user experience but solidify Rooms as a creative oasis where the boundaries between design and gameplay are merged into an inspiring and collaborative arena.
