Historically, the Developer app was a handy tool for developers that allowed to test places directly on the phone simply pairing it with Roblox Studio. The Developer App should be brought back, as it really helps developers to test their games, especially when they are heavily scripted for mobile. The emulator doesn’t cut it, as it lacks the precision and multi-touch features some games may need.
Here are 3 features the Developer App had that the emulator cannot replicate:
Testing purposes: As i said at the top, this app was designed to be a easy way to test on mobile, and testing on a actual mobile is much easier that on Studios’s emulator, due to the following reasons:
Being able to muti-touch.
Being able to use the gyrometer
Testing out the haptic functions.
Easy Tech-Demos: Imagine i’m for example, advertising my new mobile game in roblox. And i want to show how the game controls. I wouldn’t use the emulator who doesn’t have all the features, instead i wold record the dev app running the game.
Allow less experienced play-testers to test the game: Let’s imagine i let a friend of mine test my game. It would be hard to make him be able to test the game using a emulator instead of using the actual device.
Support for this. I really would like to have the developer app back, as I’d rather be able to test my games on an actual mobile device as I am making them instead of having to publish the game and play it through the Roblox app.
Yes, please! I frequently publish my games just to test functionality on an actual mobile, and it’s really not convenient. At the very least, we need the ability to load up the most recent cloud save, rather than the production version of the game.
It was also quite annoying that the app was only available on iOS as I don’t own any Apple products, or know anyone that does.
After over 3 years of maturing, growing as a developer, and even switching accounts, I still think that this request is largely relevant, along with its usecases.
We need a better way of testing in mobile (heck, even consoles!). Although creating a private place is a decent workaround, it still bogs down the testing workflow (you have to re-upload the place, find it in a specific category, etc…) and doesn’t allow the proper separation of development from playing, along with some advantages studio testing has that the standard client will never have.
I suggest allowing the mobile app (and also the console app) to pair directly with studio, allowing the device to participate in both a local testing session and a teamtest session.
Local testing sessions: Allow these devices to join a server started by studio, which lets developers run their debugging tools and plugins in the server, as they would in a regular local testing session. Multiple devices (along with the usual studio instances) can join.
Teamtest sessions: Allow these devices to join an online teamtest server, which lets developers test the game in a private playing session with their teams. In this case, there’s one device per developer.
This would fit nicely within the existing testing solutions studio already provides, while allowing mobile/console testing to receive many of the benefits these mechanisms already provide, including (but not limited to):
No need to create alt accounts for testing with more than one device at a time. (Local studio testing doesn’t use accounts!)
No need to constantly re-upload your place every time you make a change.
No need to browse through the home page to find a testing place.
Server debugging can be done through studio, allowing development plugins to be used in a mobile/console testing session.
This functionality is a must-have for developers doing constant cross-platform testing.
Unity allows you to attach and debug / profile mobile devices running your game. This is invaluable functionality, especially when it comes to performance optimization and mobile-specific bug reproduction, as well as developing in-depth mobile features. Given that >50% of Roblox’s playerbase is mobile / tablet, better supporting development on these platforms is extremely important.
Bump. It’s surprising how a majority of the player base is on mobile, yet the workflow to testing on mobile is inconvenient. It’s extremely tedious having to re-publish to private places just to test functionalities such as gyroscopes, accelerometers, multi-touch etc which aren’t possible on the emulator.
I didnt know there was developer app wow, how about this instead inside the roblox app, we click some secret button like the roblox icon three times and we enter the developer mode
In a game im working on, I have a studio debug mode that stops the round system and lets me test client-sided things. This mode exists only in studio (so I dont accidentally publish a broken release) so if I need to debug clientside stuff on mobile, I have to hope I don’t die in a round while testing or get interrupted.
