December Recap: What's Happening in the Developer Community

Updates Community & Events
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2019 has officially arrived and the holidays are coming to a close. December was a short month for many, but with the free time came lots of new updates, opportunities and more! Check out the awesome updates from the Developer community below:

Events:

In December, Aquaman: Home is Calling was still in full swing! Players could fight their way through the quests and unlock new trials, completing all three trials for a chance to compete in the arena. This event ended in late December, but you can still explore the underwater world here: https://www.roblox.com/games/2056459358/City-of-Rolantis

Heroes of Robloxia also had an event over the holidays! Players could fight their way through the Heroes of Robloxia universe and win exclusive Heroes of Robloxia gear. While the event ended this week, you can check out the Heroes of Robloxia Twitter account: https://twitter.com/HeroesOfRoblox to see the exclusive gear that players earned throughout the event.

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Developer Content: From the Devs and Developer Spotlights:

As December came to a close, we ended our Player Retention module and opened opportunities for developers to apply to the upcoming Medium module: “Why Roblox?”.

Interested in applying? Submit your application for review here: UGC Opportunity: Tell Us Your Story & Get Featured on Roblox Developer Medium

You can find the newest additions to the Roblox Medium publication and the final articles on Player Retention below:

We also had the chance to learn more from developers about how they got to where they are now. Learn about your fellow community members and read their stories here:

Updates and Changes:

With the holidays in December, it was a relatively quiet month for Roblox updates. You can find a short list below:

There were some amazing features that Roblox shipped in 2018. You can check out some of these features in @BSlickMusic’s video recap here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Judp1ds5-fs&feature=youtu.be

Though there weren’t many updates shipped in December, we had some other amazing programs running in Decembers. The Winter Creator Challenge: https://www.roblox.com/CreatorChallenge kicked off in December and many developers used this opportunity to take part in the universal Hour of Code. If you’re interested in reviewing the curriculum, you can find the guide here. Additionally, @Alvin_Blox created a video to guide developers through the curriculum: Roblox Winter Creator Challenge Walkthrough - YouTube. If you know someone who’s interested in learning to develop on Roblox, share this opportunity!

Featured Games:

Check out the current Featured games to celebrate the holidays Roblox-style! This sort was specially curated for the winter holidays. Jump in here: https://www.roblox.com/games/?SortFilter=default&TimeFilter=0

Dragon Rage| @tigercode

Christmas Rush| @tigercode

Spell Battle| @space_baa

Elemental Royale| @turpichu4321

Battle Bots| @jandel

SLIMEULATOR| @doublejumpgames

Bittersweet| @myzta and @evilartist

Blox Surfers| @InactiveWizard and @explod_e

The Guide Of the Realm| @canadiandevkelly

Finders Keepers| @imaginaerum

Escape The North Pole Obby| @ezok

Butler Chase| @zeustice

Fairy World| @rickythefishy

sno day| @zkevin, @degnut and @nimblz

Snow Shovelling Simulator| @loterman23

Winter Wonderland Tycoon| @ofyderpman, @planefreak34 and @midnight_tt

Battle Bots| @jandel

REDSHIFT Arena| @TheRings0fSaturn

Hackr| @algylacey, @dev_anthony and @raquiles

SHRED| @Masteroftheelements

Fusion Fighters| @yourock101

Bonus opportunity to get Featured!

We are now offering a second opportunity for you to get your game on the Games page! Going forward, Roblox will be highlighting games that adopt the latest and greatest Roblox technology. Apply to have your game featured here: Featuring early adopters of Roblox technology

If you’d like to review the earlier months of 2018, check out the list of recaps here:

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#2

We’re finally reeling it in, awesome. The end of both a month and a year worth of development. I’m looking forward to seeing what the developer community will be whipping up within January as well as across this entire year. Hopefully, the holidays were also enjoyable for many.

This year, I didn’t take a look at the events that much. I remember I used to play them a lot, but now I’m focused on my own development progression that I normally forget to enjoy some of the events that are pumped out. Aquaman was something I was able to pick up and it has been very enjoyable for the little time I’ve played it. I hope to see a lot more innovation on RPG games in the near future like this. Good job to the developers for working hard at pumping out a fun, creative experience to go with the Aquaman sponsorship.

I remember initially playing Heroes of Robloxia for the first event it appeared in. I’ve yet to catch up with any new chapters that have been added to the game, but I hope that the developers had as much fun working on it as the players did playing it. It’s quite fun for a co-op campaign sort-of game (I’m personally a fan of campaign games very much - they’re difficult to make but I think it’s rewarding when done right).

I was finally able to scroll through the Medium page and look at a few articles. The authors of these articles have done a fine job elaborating on various topics that are relevant for us developers but also individuals who are seeking work in some kind of creation trade. I can’t thank the writers enough for spending time sharing some of their experiences and helping others improve their craft. One article has me hooked, which I’m reading (it’s quite lengthy!) through gradually.

In December, I started to pick up animating to add to my trade list. I’m still quite rough with animating, but I think the effort’s what is going to carry that further. I’m still animating on-platform using the Moon Animation Suite by @xsixx. I guess I’ll share something I made around my second day of animating. It’s short and not much, but I couldn’t do something like this before.


(yikes, the box might be a bit big)

I’ve been using a Q&A post by @OniiCh_n as a reference point for part of my animations, as well as this Medium article by @Jespone. They have both been helpful and informative along my journey to become an animator.

There weren’t as many updates (I still think October was the heaviest and greatest month for pushing updates to the platform), but there certainly was a lot of controversy specifically revolving around closed source modules. I remember that a few Discords blew up about it, so that was interesting to watch. My opinion is sort of neutral about the situation: I could rant as much for why I support this as much as why I’m against it. We’ll see how things go, but for now, cheers for the update.

Great work to the developer community and cheers to the Developer Relations Team for keeping us up to date. I’m sure that those who are aspiring to learn and improve will get better, while the developer community as a whole looks to innovate more on the platform and welcome more developers over with open arms.

Here’s to January, and 2019. :clap:

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#3

It’s been an awesome experience writing a Roblox Article last month! I’d love to write more in the future! Kudos to all the hard work from everybody in December! Can’t wait to see what we will have accomplished by the end of January.

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