The Roblox (opens in new tab) oof. A loud, muffled cry of ache each time your blocky little chap dies. It is an iconic sound (opens in new tab), one that’s so ingrained in my reminiscence I am undecided I will ever overlook it. Sadly, Roblox Company should overlook it after it was compelled to take away the sound from its platform.
That is as a result of the “oof” noise wasn’t really created by anybody at Roblox. The sound initially got here from an obscure 2000 motion recreation called Messiah (opens in new tab), created by Intellivision founder Tommy Tallarico. Its utilization got here to his consideration in 2019, the place he tweeted that he would “have to be pretty compensated” earlier than cheekily including: “I’ve by no means been low-cost.”
Tallarico and Roblox appeared to work one thing out, as in 2020 it was revealed that the “oof” sound would get replaced however with the enduring model nonetheless licensable for $1 or 100 robux. Tallarico additionally supplied a handful of different sound libraries for the platform, starting from $10 to $250.
Now, two years later, evidently the preliminary deal has come to an finish. A tweet (opens in new tab) from Roblox cites “a licensing challenge” as the explanation behind eradicating the sound. It is also created a substitute sound, and wow it certain is a sound impact alright. As an alternative of “oof” we now have “deh,” which sounds extra such as you’ve simply stepped in a puddle than popped your clogs.
For a large that is price greater than a number of the greatest builders on the market, it appears unusual that it is not prepared to cough up the dough for a easy sound impact. Whether or not Tallarico will license the sound impact out himself is unknown, although Roblox says it is working in the direction of “the power so as to add sounds by getting them immediately from the creators and licensors.”
