The Normal Elevator

The Normal Elevator is a game made by NowDoTheHarlemShake. It is a game in which players enter an elevator and play different minigames. The elevator goes to different floors which may have minigames, such as a chicken eating contest, a basketball game, etc. Thanks in part to its somewhat bizarre premise, this game has gained immense popularity and is commonly found on the front page of games. The game currently has 29 floors (reduced from 34 prior to October 2016).

This game won the Bloxxy Award for Best Art Direction in 2015.^[1]

This game achieved 100 million place visits on February 18, 2017. It currently has over 364 million place visits as of February 2020.

Interview

The following interview was between Thundermaker300 and NowDoTheHarlemShake on Error: Page "User blog:RBLXDeveloperInterviews/NowDoTheHarlemShake: The Normal Elevator" does not exist., as part of the Developer Connections Project.

What was it like developing The Normal Elevator?

I learned a lot while developing The Normal Elevator. It was one of the first games I made when I began understanding coding better. I didn't have potential to make anything too crazy, which is why it was good for me because I could make perfectly crazy things. It was also hard finding time to work on it because I was in school, so I wasn't able to get much done when I was first working on it. But once summer break started, I was motivated on putting lots of work into the game. I wasn't thinking too hugely about the game, but I believed it had potential to be a front page game once it was ready, which really made me want to finish it. My friend Dapale joined in and helped with developing the game, which made it much easier to put more content in. After a total of 3 months of development, the game was released on June 15, 2015.

What challenges did you have to overcome while developing? What was the most challenging?

Mental blocks are not fun to work with. When first creating The Normal Elevator, sometimes I would take week long breaks from working on it just because I had a sudden lack of motivation. The biggest challenge was working on the game right after it released. The fun fact about the release of The Normal Elevator is that it was released to the public on accident, so when it did become popular, it was still in an early state which meant it had little gameplay and a good amount of bugs. So over the next several nights, Dapale and I spent a lot of time creating like 2 new floors a day, fixing bugs, adding gamepasses, and just putting lots of time into shaping it up.

What did you enjoy most while developing The Normal Elevator?

I really enjoyed the early stages of making The Normal Elevator. I thought about lots of references to put in the game, some from my childhood, some I was into at the time, just whatever was on my mind. It was cool to bring those memories into the game, especially since I knew other people out there would get some of the references and remember whatever memories the references brought them which were hopefully good ones.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

I am rewriting The Normal Elevator from scratch currently. More fresh, more content, old content I've removed from the current game, and it will be more like what I was aiming for the game to be in the first place (a completed game).

Floors

Flood Escape

Players outrun a flood and must escape it to win. It was removed in October 2016. When you escape, you are rewarded with a free cookie.

Speed Run

Players were given a set of levels that you have to complete in one go. Winning this minigame gives you the Speed Run badge. This minigame lasted 60 seconds.

This floor has some connection to Gavin's story, as at the start at the event, you will be teleported to the speedrun floor, and you must jump to the rocks, then go to a hallway, and you will see four elevators. The second elevator will be opened, but in the regular game, it's closed up by yellow caution tapes.

Basketball

Play a brief game of shooting basketballs. This floor was redesigned on October 2016. This minigame last 30 seconds.

SpongeBob SquarePants

This floor takes place in Rock Bottom, as SpongeBob goes to a snack machine to get a snack. At some point, a bus comes and then leaves. SpongeBob will look at the road briefly; during this, you can steal the candy bar. Survive a bit longer while eating the candy bar. This floor was removed in October 2016. It later returned in 2019.

The Big Cheese

The Big Cheese (from the defunct Disney game Toontown Online) will start walking into the elevator, and will do absolutely nothing. The Big Cheese used to be The Big Wig. The duration of this minigame lasts 20 seconds.

Wheel of Misfortune

The monster will spin the wheel and will always land on the "?". The monster will then say "Ooh! That is a good one!" and will use random weapons such as arrows and a saw. This kills all players on the floor. This is probably a reference to the The Nightmare Before Christmas film.

E-Girl Factory

If anyone goes through the factory entrance, their face would be replaced with the E-Girl face and pigtails with a random hair color.

Black Hole

A floor that is set in darkness. The elevator will start to zoom out for the rest of the duration. It used to be 25 seconds long, but in October 2016, it was reduced to 20 seconds.

Pokémon Battle

Two random players will be chosen to complete in a Pokémon battle with Brock and Ash. The winner is randomized and if you win you will get a badge called "You won at Pokémon!". This floor was removed on October 24, 2016. It was readded on November 7, 2016 and was also redesigned as well.

Chicken eat off

Three random players are teleported into The Chicken Eat Off. To win you have to click as fast as you can and get the highest score, and you will get a badge called "You won The Chicken Eat Off!".

Cow

This is a floor that you can push the cows down with a sheep. There will rarely be a UFO in the floor. If there is, then there will be a cow going in. This floor lasts 32 seconds.

The Door

There is a floor where there is a huge door, and the walls are all snowy, the door is not opening, at all. And there is no effect. Nothing is special about it. But in Gavin's story, the door is still not opened, but its included as part of the story.

Jason

There is a floor where you see Jason holding a knife, he walks to a tent with [[1]] on it, and he murdered them. The tent inside is all covered with blood. He will then throw the knife at the elevator, killing anyone that touches it. This is part of Gavin's story, but no one is inside, and you can see Gavin hanging from a tree.

Dance Off

3 Contestants needs to step After one color like green, yellow, red and blue, If 1 Contestant Collects Score will be win, If 3 Contestants step wrong color will be lose all scores.

Jurassic Park

There is electric fences. Several seconds later, a dinosaur will come, and try to get someone close to the exit (Including the Skeleton, Big cheese, and even NPCS) and kill them.

Moto Moto

Everyone can see Giant Noob until swims and arrives to Elevator, this is reference of Madagascar Movie: Escape 2 Africa.

Gavin's Story

A locked door exists in the lobby. By entering a 4-digit passcode (which is replaced periodically, Current code: 3792), the door can be unlocked, leading to a secret room and an elevator which will teleport you to another game called Gavin's Story. This ties in with NowDoTheHarlemShake's other game, The Normal City.

You will get teleported to floors that is included in the game, including Speedrun, Jason, and the Door. He explains that he is dead for a long time, after these, you will see 9 doors, go to the 2nd door, and you see the ending. Someone is possessing him, and it end with " To be continued. "

Updates

Halloween Update 2016

This update made the elevator spooky theme. It also edited the lobby and the secret lobby. Kmansong2 and ChadTheCreator NPC are removed. It also removed some floors from 34 to 25 floors. It temporarily added the Halloween music. It reduced some floors and the time to get to next floor. The time used to be 30 seconds which is reduced to 25 seconds. One example would be a black hole which used to be 25 seconds long but reduced to 20 seconds (shown as 19). It expanded the max to 7 players. During this time if you enter the 4-digit code the door will not open instead, it will teleport you to the lobby which is color red.

Shop

Coins

Coins are earned after each floor. Coins can be allow you to buy food gear items in the shop section.

Shop Items

Gears can be purchased in the in-game shop. These include a cookie, a jawbreaker, a candy bar, spinach, and a Krabby Patty. Each item costs 8 coins. In addition, a second set of gear was added in 2019, which includes a banana, dumb juice, a leaf, a leech, and a Shake Potato. These items cost 10 coins each.

Gallery

References

1. ↑ https://www.roblox.com/games/230362888/The-Normal-Elevator Game Description