April 2020 Recap: Beats to hunt eggs to

Hey developers,

April was pretty solid. It seems like we’ve all learned a lot while easing into this strange new reality. Let’s stay strong and keep our heads up as always!

Here are the changes that the platform saw in April.

Updates and Changes

Create User Ad Page Glow Up :nail_care:

The Create User Ad Page got a makeover and it looks SO GOOD! You can now preview your advertisement before you upload it and the page supports multiple languages and dark theme. Check out the announcement for more details.

Asset Manager is Here (Beta) :fire:

The Asset Manager, a replacement to the Game Explorer, is here and it’s quite a step up! Saying much more would be an injustice to the lovely announcement that nsgriff put together, so go take a look!

Unified Marketplace Fee for Dev Products and Game Passes :money_mouth_face:

Non-Premium developers had a 90% marketplace fee on Dev Product and Game Pass sales. Not anymore! Now Non-Premium devs get the sweet, refreshing 30% that their Premium peers enjoy. See the announcement for more info!

Looking Forward in 2020: This Year’s Developer Roadmap :world_map:

FUTURE! FUTURE! What does the future hold in terms of epic new features for Roblox developers? Well, you don’t have to speculate anymore - it’s all laid out on the roadmap!

Say hello to the new Lua dragger (Beta) :drooling_face:

I’m awful at building on Roblox, but even I’m excited about the new tools written entirely in Lua for ease-of-customization! We can’t wait to see what you’ll make with these new-and-improved tools. The announcement has more details.

Account PIN now required for transferring group :closed_lock_with_key:

Pretty self-explanatory. You need to enter your Account PIN now, if you have one set up, if you want to transfer your group to another user. Looking forward to seeing more account security improvements!

Configure Item now on Mobile :iphone:

Yup.

New Studio Beta Feature - CollisionFidelity.PreciseConvexDecomposition

There’s a new setting for the CollisionFidelity of MeshParts and PartOperations. See the announcement for some video demos and a whole lot more info!

Introducing the Play Together Sort :video_game:

We created a Play Together sort that highlights Roblox simulations of real-life activities to help bring friends, families, and classrooms together. These games are providing VIP Servers for 10 Robux. There are more details and an application link in the announcement!

New Trades Page - Available for All Users :art:

Sleek. Elegant. Powerful. No, this isn’t a car advertisement - it’s a new look for the Trades page! There are some screenshots in the announcement as well as additional information.

[Live] Changes to Motor6D.Transform and Motor.CurrentAngle :brain::chart_with_upwards_trend:

Motor6D joints have historically been complicated, but we’ve fixed some of the inconsistent behavior issues. Hopefully, your knees should no longer be unintentionally backwards! Take a look at the announcement to learn what changed.

ScrollingFrame Changes :computer_mouse:

Smooth scrolling! Trackpad input support! Layout refinements! This is just a taste of what mrow_pizza’s announcement has in store for you, so go check it out!

StarterGear and Backpack Replication Bug Fix :school_satchel:

We fixed a bug where StarterGear and Backpack, and the objects in them, wouldn’t properly replicate to the first Player object added to the game. Enjoy consistent behavior!

Tripling Premium Payouts :moneybag:

Premium Payout amounts got tripled - meaning that as of just a few days ago, your daily payouts should be 3x as big! Stonks :chart_with_upwards_trend:. More details in the announcement!

Upcoming change to (correctly) limit the local count to 200

TLDR: Luau was enforcing a limit of 255 locals instead of the actual limit of 200. This has been fixed. Take a look at the announcement for more info!

One World: Together At Home Game Sort :notes:

Some of our favorite musicians, actors, comedians, and other entertainers captivated us from their homes in the One World: Together At Home Concert Series… in a Roblox game! How did the video look on your device? Who was your favorite? Who do you wish had performed?

Introducing Featured Search in App :ballot_box_with_check:

We’ve made it so that the Game Search will attempt to highlight the game you’re looking for. This is live on both mobile and desktop. Read the announcement to learn more!

Introducing Audio Search by Length in Marketplace :loud_sound:

Now you can search for audio and filter by length in the Studio Marketplace! Pretty cool, right? No more sifting through ballads looking for sound effects! Screenshots and details in the announcement.

Collaborative Editing updates :memo:

A few quality-of-life updates for Collaborative Editing. Check out the announcement to learn what those updates are!

Release Notes

There’s a real tragedy hidden in these numbers. I’ll point it out.

WHOA! So much happened last month! If these are the April showers, I can’t wait for the May flowers :heart_eyes:.

How’s everyone holding up? Have you learned any cool new skills during lockdown?

Stay safe and stay healthy!

Thanks,
Developer Relations

154 Likes

Wow honestly I agree with this so much its amazing

12 Likes

The egg hunt kinda sucked, but all the updates they have released is just amazing. Keep up the great work!

34 Likes

Uh, still awaiting my FabergEgg of the New Decade…

On a side note, I have actually really liked these updates however. The glowups, the tripling premium payouts, and so much more have been so helpful to developers.

Hoping to see more content like this being rolled out.

12 Likes

Overall, a good month. Egg hunt was ehh, but I’ll take it.

In terms of the changes to the website, a lot of really good stuff. Looking forward to what May brings.

9 Likes

Another great month of roblox!

Can’t wait too see the future of development for more and more many awesome things too come. It’s crazy how roblox has changed over 14 years. Roblox just keeps getting better and better as roblox becomes more advanced each year.

10 Likes

Honestly, I agree with this and it was amazing updates you guys have created thank you guys a lot.

6 Likes

The FaberEgg will start being given out two weeks after the end date of the event (April 12th), this was mentioned in the blog post for the event.

20 Likes

Great month (if you exclude the EggHunt (just my opinion)). Can’t wait to see what’s up next, and I really wanna see the create tab getting a makeover so I don’t have to burn my eyes at 3am.

5 Likes

The month was pretty good!!

Amazing useful updates, as always!

4 Likes

This years Egg hunt is kinda okay, a lot of website changes were great. I am looking forward for this months changes.

5 Likes

The egg hunt was probably the worst I’ve ever played and wasn’t fun in any way at all - please do NOT make it a “dev hunt” next year.

On the other hand, the updates this past month have been pretty good and will help to improve the ROBLOX platform, so great job on those.

6 Likes

This month was pretty good. The egg hunt kinda sucked

7 Likes

The post was edited to include that - it was originally set to be awarded at the end of the event :confused:

4 Likes

The new asset manager was the best update from this month

3 Likes

I have high expectations from May 2020, good luck dishing out fun for the developers. :joy:

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I, in all honesty really liked the egg hunt it really wasnt as bad as people made it out to be. The theme was for you the agent to find the eggs and we who competed did so and in flawless fashion :wink: ( And this has been my first month as a verified devforum member so I am grateful for that and my bday was on the 28th lol its been a loco month) Also all the website adjustments are amazing it makes things so much more simple now its the create page and beyond!
O yea the video roblox released on their youtube made me cry and I dont even cry to petty things lol

6 Likes

April was a good month can’t wait for the new features coming this May

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I still find the situation we’re in quite surreal. It was unprecedented and it’s unfortunately led to a bunch of downs, but thankfully we’ve had our friends and close communities to turn to to help keep us all sated within the confines of our homes. I don’t speak for the majority, but that’s what it’s like for me.

April has been a rather quiet month for me, but at the very least I’ve been spending some of my time on the Roblox platform so I’ve gotten to see the changes that were made. So then: let’s get on with it. Here’s that April retrospective.


Virtual BLOXY Awards

If I do say so myself, I was quite amazed by how Roblox took to the platform to host the awards ceremony this year. Amazed, but not very impressed. Unfortunately, this just felt like a technology demonstration and not a full awards ceremony.

The performances themselves were amusing and I could get behind them, but… it didn’t feel as enjoyable to watch as other years? Something about the production of the place felt amateurish and too forced, not natural. I do know that there was a whole complaint thread regarding the awards ceremony mostly criticising the place rather than the actual ceremony. Oh well.

I also noticed something strange: the awards between 2019 and 2020 changed. 2019 introduced a lot of new awards and then subsequently scrapped those this year for rudimentary categories. I also did not notice any voting period and nominations were pre-selected. Not a choice I really agreed with.

Congratulations to all this year’s winners, anyhow, all things aside.


Updates and Changes

I’ve already made it here. April has seen a lot of goodies released out, but I am still eyeing down the roadmap. There are a lot of new features that I am really excited to get started working with. Anyhow! The changes I liked most from this month, here we go.

  • Unified Marketplace Fee: This one was both a smack in the face and a joyful update. Both reasons have to do with me needing to include Premium in expenses for maximum income’s sake. Removing the barrier of Premium means I can more comfortably develop and see returns off my work. I’m very happy with this.

  • Roadmap: As I’ve squealed about before, 2020 has had a slew of VERY great updates planned and I am truly hopeful to see a lot of them materialised. There’s a lot of things I already want to get started working with. I do believe I posted all the points I’m looking forward to in a previous recap, so I don’t want to go on repeating that here, lol.

  • Account PIN for transferring groups: At such a convenient time too. Some time ago, I received word around my community that certain types of groups (mostly those in alliances with mine) were being targeted for theft. Account security upgrades are always welcome and requiring a PIN to transfer groups is a great step towards that. With groups now being a central source for communities, games and such, losing all that would be extremely unfortunate. So, hooray for groups not falling into the hands of thieves.

  • Audio Length Searching: Now, this just needs to be implemented into the website. I’ve had so much trouble searching for audio because of the way searching currently works so being able to filter down my results to keep music out has been a great help in better finding the sounds I need. I’m still hopeful for (and will chalk up requests for) more APM tracks and more searching utilities, but this is a great first step for better filtering utlities.


Release Notes

Along with updates, Release Notes are also something that I closely follow. There are a couple of things that I’ve really liked from Release Notes, so I’m going to jot them down.

Release Notes 427

  • Depth of Field Effect: Need I even say why I like this?

Release Notes 430

  • ReplicatedScriptService: This will better help me roll out open source resources for novice developers who often have trouble on installation procedures. Not only that, but there’s also the added benefit of being able to run code in a unified location for frameworks and systems that I’d like unified. One game of mine works with an ugly distributed system and I often use a framework with components in several different locations. I’m too lazy to go through them, so over that I can just have a framework folder with my client and shared elements there while my server-side elements go into ServerScriptService.

Woah! Even though so much happened, I’ve felt like it’s been quiet for me.

So far, during lockdown, not much has really changed about my routines except for my abundance of time. It’d be more accurate to say I’m working on building my skills now than me having gained any.


and that is how you write a good response

bye

18 Likes

April has really been a decent month for Roblox. We’ve received plenty of new improvements and we even got to experience live-streamed events inside of Roblox itself.

A somewhat minor but personal favorite was the audio length searching, which has certainly saved me hours of hunting already.

Keep going like this!

3 Likes