Now that you have the skills needed you create your own experiences, we’ll go over 50 cool things you can do on the Roblox platform for inspiration. These topics will range from programming challenges and experience ideas to the use of new Roblox features and more.
In this chapter, we’re going to cover the following main topics:
You may want to experiment in Roblox Studio in this chapter as well as do further independent research on the topics covered. As before, you will need an internet connection to do either.
As you learned throughout this book, Luau is a fast and powerful language. In this section, we will explore more general programming challenges to increase your understanding of and proficiency in the language. Note that each example will reinforce important programming concepts for making systems in your experiences. These challenges will be roughly sorted so that easier ones are at the beginning of the section and more difficult ones at the end.
We’ll start simple. In a script in Roblox Studio, define a function that returns whether a passed-in number x is divisible by a passed-in number y. We define divisibility as x going evenly into y. Remember to look for possible issues with your implementation; if the user passes in 0 for y, will your function break? If yes, what cases might you consider to always return a sensible value?
This is a programming challenge that many companies might decide to quiz...
Now that we have explored different challenges in the Luau language, we will look at different systems you can create to add and enhance your experiences. These systems may be part of many experience genres, improve player experience, or improve overall engagement.
Roblox is a very social platform; one of the driving factors behind the success of many experiences is competition. Adding leaderboards to your experience is a way to drive players to compete with one another, adding another element of fun while keeping players even more engaged. Your leaderboards should be put in a central location and show the top players for whichever stats you think best.
For example, in Figure 8.1, there are three leaderboards at the spawn area of the map keeping track of top lifetime yen, top kills, and top lifetime strength.
Figure 8.1: Well-placed leaderboards in a simulator game
In order to make a leaderboard system, you will...
In this section, we will explore what types of experiences you might think to create on the Roblox platform as well as the underlying systems you would need to make as a programmer. Keep in mind that new genres of experiences are always emerging, sometimes completely original or as the combination of several genres.
Simulator games are extremely popular on Roblox. In these experiences, players typically start off as “weak” or with poor equipment and through some simple tasks, such as clicking, they gain something they can exchange for currency or gain currency directly. They can then spend what they earn on better equipment that allows them to earn more money and progress faster. Many simulators have multiple worlds or maps so that players have a better sense of progression. For example, after unlocking the first 10 equipment items, you must unlock and move to the next world to purchase the next 10. Often, simulator games include pets...
This section will talk about some of the new features and tools Roblox has introduced since the last edition of this book.
In January 2022, Roblox announced that developers would be getting the ability to change the name of a group. This had been a long-requested feature, and many expressed their appreciation for its release. If you own a Roblox group, you can change the name of it every 90 days for 100 Robux, assuming the name you wish to change it to is not already in use.
In February 2022, Roblox announced that developers would now be able to create badges for free, instead of the 100 Robux required before. In order to prevent abuse, developers can upload five badges in a 24-hour period for free and then any additional badges in that same time period will cost the original price of 100 Robux. As mentioned in Chapter 5, Creating an Obby, badges are another way to make players feel rewarded and further encourage...
Now, with the skills to make any program you want, problem-solving skills, and deeper knowledge about experience systems all under your belt, we will look at some of the cool things other development types do and that you may want to do yourself in addition to programming.
Plugins are powerful tools that can greatly increase your workflow in Roblox Studio. Making plugins is easy and you may decide to make some for your own use or to be used by others. Some developers choose to primarily make plugins and often sell them on the Creator Marketplace. Try creating one yourself! To learn more about creating plugins you can visit the following page:
https://developer.roblox.com/en-us/articles/Intro-to-Plugins
UI designers are those who create sets of UIs for experiences. Part of their work is making sure that the design of their UI is easy and clear to interact with; this is known as user experience design or UX. Additionally...
In this chapter, you learned 50 cool things to do on Roblox and hopefully gained inspiration for many new projects through making different systems.
Now, we find ourselves here, at the end. But in reality, this is not the end. For you, you have arrived at the bright beginning of a journey of making lifelong friends, memorable game titles, professional connections, and money to support yourself in the future.
I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors!
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