TLDR
Rec Room is revamping its in-game store to spotlight creator-made Avatar Studio items with new dynamic carousels: Featured Creators, Recommended for You, and Trending . This system boosts visibility for new and popular creator content. This update means your items have a better shot at being discovered, purchased, and celebrated; especially if you publish regularly and create standout designs.
Hey everyone,
Over the past few months, we’ve been redesigning the Rec Room store. We’re testing new layouts, trying out community events, and overhauling how content gets featured. Our goal is to make the store a place where player creations take center stage and where you can always find something new and interesting going on.
So far we’re seeing some good results. Player-created Avatar Studio items are now around 75% of all token spending in the store. This is a big shift from where we were at this same time last year!
Where we started…
For a long time, the store was built entirely around Rec Room created items. The layout was mostly static, with item updates that didn’t always reflect what was happening in the community.
Avatar Studio changed that. It gave creators a way to design, publish, and earn tokens on their own items. Our Creator made items have performed just as well or better than Rec Room items, and brought a ton of new styles and personality to the game.
As Avatar Studio access slowly expanded, we realized the store needed to change. Static carousels and seasonal drops couldn’t keep up. So we started building a system that’s more dynamic and optimized for item discovery.
Here’s how it works now
When you publish an Avatar Studio item, it goes through our auto-moderation pipeline, with support from our Trust & Safety team to spot check. Once it’s approved and live, the item gets an automatic boost in the Featured Creators carousel. After that, high performing items may move into the Trending or Recommended carousels, giving them even more reach.
The new store highlights Avatar Studio items through three main carousels:
- Featured Creators
All newly published items get surfaced here to help creators build early momentum. Even if an item doesn’t take off right away, it can stay here for up to a month. This helps give it a chance to find the right audience.
- Recommended for You
This carousel surfaces personalized items to players based on the items they already have or have already shown an interest in. Your items will automatically be shown here if they match the type of items that a player likes.
- Trending
This one is for the breakout hits. Items featured here are getting clicks, purchases, and a lot of attention from the community.
What’s next?
These are our first steps towards a more personalized and player focused store! We’ll be making tweaks to the discovery algorithms and other changes as we see how these new carousels are doing and as we hear your feedback on them. Let us know your thoughts on these changes here on this post or with new posts in the creator forums! You can also check out what Avatar Studio creators are making and talking about in the Creator Hub Discord > Avatar Studio channels section.
Cheers
~ The RR Team
FAQ
Q: How can I get Avatar Studio access to make my own items?
A: You can apply for Avatar Studio using this link. We’re still only onboarding small numbers of creators right now but it can’t hurt to apply! If you want to start using Avatar Studio and creating items right now (without full access to publish) you can do that using the instructions here. More Avatar Studio FAQ here.
Q: Does this mean it will be harder to find Rec Room created items in the store?
A: It shouldn’t! There are still a lot of tabs and carousels in the store that will help people find Rec Room created items if that’s what they are looking for.
