Block coding system, new object BlockScript?

Feature Requests Studio Features
#1

Today I want to make the future with this idea. As you know many people struggle with coding, they have NO idea where to start or often get confused with lots of technical terms and words.

This can drive kids (and even older devs!) away from coding, there’s no visual aspect to it. It’s all just a language you have to remember off-by-heart.

Recently, I just finished my course in Games Development Level 2 at college with distinctions and you want to know the reason why? We used a program called GameMaker and when you are scripting you are prevented with ‘drag-n-drop block’ coding and at the same time if you was really advanced you could write your own scripts by hand still.

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This enabled me to succeed in my course and get the highest possible grade :durrr: if we never had a system of drag-n-drop coding or never used GameMaker me and a lot of my fellow class mates would of been utterly screwed.

When I was looking at the code I created, it was a lot nicer to look at, easier to read and I was able to process and actually understand it. It enabled everyone in my class to code with little or even NO previous coding experience.

It was mentioned 3 years ago that ‘block coding’ may come in the future but it was never mentioned again (and please don’t make it work with just wiring) :frowning:

jePWbqQ.png788×818 82.4 KB

Now, let’s take a look at some pros and cons

Pros

  • Enables people with no or little scripting experience to better understand, create and process code
  • Provides easier learning material for young kids (I mean, come on. Is the average 8 year old going to understand this?)
  • More kids will have an easier way to script games and make some interesting things.

Cons

  • Potentially limiting (although this can also be a pro)
  • Will probably be a long term thing to implant

Many players and young devs still struggle to code and those kids will stray away from ROBLOX in favour of something like Scratch or even GameMaker. Adding a block coding system really enables kids, devs of all ages to be able to script even the basic thing and fully understand how it works, why and more. It can even speed up the time it would take to write a script.

What coding blocks could potentially be added?
Well for example, while true, while X, Get All Players, Teleport X Players to Y, if Y then do X etc I could go on. Each of these represented by visual images like below

Would I be able to convert a Block Coded script into a normal script?
Yes, let’s say you made an awesome BlockScript and your friend Bob who’s a extremely talented scripter offered to expand your code to do more.

tl;dr Block coding system which enables more users to code
11 Likes
Is it possible (and allowed) to have some way for players to add/inject their own scripts in-game?
Visual/Block Programming for Lua
#2

I don’t think this is a solution to this problem. I think that education in lua, since honestly it is pretty simple and an easy language to learn if you can get proper education in it.

A website won’t cut it, I think that ROBLOX can get a lot out of this by making education programs and proper docs on the Wiki that are clear for everybody.

7 Likes
#3

[quote] I don’t think this is a solution to this problem. I think that education in lua, since honestly it is pretty simple and an easy language to learn if you can get proper education in it.

A website won’t cut it, I think that ROBLOX can get a lot out of this by making education programs and proper docs on the Wiki that are clear for everybody. [/quote]
They still aren’t helpful for children with dyslexia (which is becoming more and more common) or children who can’t learn by text-on-a-screen/unable to read which would struggle to read (if they even can) through a whole wiki.

For example Data Store my nephew took one look at this and instantly got confused, even after trying to understand it he just couldn’t he cannot understand any code on ROBLOX. Yet you can put him on Scratch or GameMaker and he’s instantly a expert in coding. Without learning a entire new language and with ease of using drag-n-drop block coding. Games that he has made on GameMaker recently have really impressed me of really good quality. Drag-n-drop coding is really becoming the future with GameMaker, Scratch and even littlebits

It would be awesome to see him apply he’s already expertise’d knowledge of ‘drag-n-drop’ coding to create an awesome game on ROBLOX

1 Like
#4

Having used block-based programming languages, I can tell you that I found them more difficult than script. Certainly, there are people out there who are far more visual than I am and will be right at home, but blocks are a completely separate paradigm from script, and those who learn how to do things in blocks will have a difficult time going to script. Look up LabView, which is the most popular block-based language (although that’s relative because the only other one I know of is a derivative that’s basically ‘LabView for kids’).

2 Likes
#5

I personally hate block-based programming languages, but you may find http://blockly-lua.appspot.com/static/apps/code/index.html useful. Basically it’s just a block-based language which can translate to Lua, and it’s used in the context of Minecraft’s ComputerCraft. You’ll be able to see what blocks do what, and how to structure code. Once you get the basic idea down, I’d encourage you move to writing your own code as fast as possible, as it gives much more power and flexibility over the language.

1 Like
#6

Unreal 4 does node stuff. It’s neat.

1 Like
#7

There’s nothing I hate more than block coding systems. Not that they’re bad, but I personally despise them. Feels so constrained.

2 Likes
#8

Yeah, I taught a group of kids to use AppInventor before and for really simple stuff it can be good but if you go beyond that it just feels like you can’t do anything you want to do with it. Here is the code one of my “best students” ended up with for an app I helped him with.

bovb8SP.png1717×871 217 KB

It just feels like the limits of the visual editor make it really difficult to make anything that is the equivalent of even just 100 lines of code.

2 Likes
#9

Yeah, I taught a group of kids to use AppInventor before and for really simple stuff it can be good but if you go beyond that it just feels like you can’t do anything you want to do with it. Here is the code one of my “best students” ended up with for an app I helped him with.

bovb8SP.png1717×871 217 KB

It just feels like the limits of the visual editor make it really difficult to make anything that is the equivalent of even just 100 lines of code.[/quote]

That’s a great example as to why I hate it. I’d be able to read plain old code better than I can read that!

#10

Yeah, I taught a group of kids to use AppInventor before and for really simple stuff it can be good but if you go beyond that it just feels like you can’t do anything you want to do with it. Here is the code one of my “best students” ended up with for an app I helped him with.

bovb8SP.png1717×871 217 KB

It just feels like the limits of the visual editor make it really difficult to make anything that is the equivalent of even just 100 lines of code.[/quote]

That’s a great example as to why I hate it. I’d be able to read plain old code better than I can read that![/quote]

Look up UE4 nodemaps.

#11

Perhaps a block editor that actually writes real code, but just asks for inputs. Eventually the language syntax would just become simple enough to type out instead of fill out.

1 Like
#12

A drag&drop editor is the easy part. Take a look at that Blockly thing that was posted and observe how it handles Lua’s standard library and the ComputerCraft API. They’ve been meticulously broken down and grouped in such a way as to be convenient and simple to understand. I’m certain that most of the time and effort spent on that project went into just doing that.

Now ask, who wants to do the same thing for Roblox’s API?

1 Like
#13

I think the best bet is to just let people who have trouble learning text code to use GameMaker, instead of Roblox making from scratch a system that won’t be near as good.

#14

Its called blueprints and looks like this

N8HsIL6oiRu-gNuQqPWkVmnxQBpqHhlVyIgg4dY831NBlPUkGl8LUUusFLRi249nFnhtZrBUn_jyVLtHsvEfYqQXf8Y7qS6VvyuT6It9pe5WJzEto0xWjEpafWk-OcfvHg.png1600×1000 294 KB

Blueprints is really nice for simple things, but most developers recommend for you to use C++ for intensive or complex tasks due to C++ being faster and with the fact that blueprints can get confusing fast. The difference is that blueprints doesn’t necessarily act as a replacement for C++. It’s intended to work alongside C++.

#15

Yeah I’ve used blueprints in UE before. They’re nice to hook up stuff, but I couldn’t imagine orchestrating a full game with it. For instance, hooking up a door to open in intervals or by proximity is super easy with Blueprints and super practical. However, making a plane fly realistically with Blueprints would be a little crazy.

2 Likes
#16

My teacher is having us use Alice 3 for learning about Java and it is a block code system like TheGamer101 posted.
Sparker22’s looks super cool compared to Alice 3, which is laggy and has so much copying of blocks (and you can’t add whole numbers and decimals).

I would imagine someone could make it a very complex plugin and have it load/save as lua scripts though, or even another program compared to adding it directly to Roblox.

1 Like
#17

I asked on twitter using #ROBLOX and #ROBLOXDev and a few friends and the majority did vote for a drop-n-block style coding system

1 Like
#18

[quote] I asked on twitter using #ROBLOX and #ROBLOXDev and a few friends and the majority did vote for a drop-n-block style coding system

http://strawpoll.me/5502425 [/quote]

I feel like thats rather misleading.
"I’d rather learn coding by using simple drag-n-drop block scripts’
I’d argue that you aren’t learning coding at all. This block layout simply introduces you to a similar logical flow that programming languages have. While it makes getting into programming easier I wouldn’t call it ‘learning coding’ to the same degree that someone learns Lua or C++

Also, the total vote count is way too small for this poll to have any merit to it.

1 Like
#19

[quote] I asked on twitter using #ROBLOX and #ROBLOXDev and a few friends and the majority did vote for a drop-n-block style coding system

http://strawpoll.me/5502425 [/quote]

I feel like thats rather misleading.
"I’d rather learn coding by using simple drag-n-drop block scripts’
I’d argue that you aren’t learning coding at all. This block layout simply introduces you to a similar logical flow that programming languages have. While it makes getting into programming easier I wouldn’t call it ‘learning coding’ to the same degree that someone learns Lua or C++

Also, the total vote count is way too small for this poll to have any merit to it.[/quote]
It helped me to learn coding and I’m sure others would to. Whilst not hard coding everything off by heart they would still be able to understand everything. Scratch referred to it at one point as ‘providing easier learning for young kids with the ability to advanced their knowledge of coding’

I’m constantly promoting this poll right now and it’s still gathering votes, don’t give up on it just yet.

2 Likes
#20

Which is why we never ever want a block coding system. We don’t want to teach people how to code. We want to teach people how to program.