EventBlocks Devlog 9 | Making a visual scripting plugin in Roblox

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#1

Hello!
Welcome to the 9th devlog of the Roblox visual scripting plugin, EventBlocks!

Important

The plugin will be free for an unknown amount of time, but after that it will cost 50-100 robux.
If you don’t want to miss a free copy, tell in the replies if you want to be tagged about devlogs and the release!

About the release

We’ve reached this point so fast.

It looks like the release will come along with the 10th devlog! (tagged people will get notified about both!).
As I said, it will be free until I can fix the major bugs you find (about 3-4 days).
Keep in mind the first version will lack features and blocks because If I would try to make every feature before release, it would take 1000 years to make.
More about release in the release post. (If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the replies!)

Now, let’s see the actual progress.
Again, less new blocks and epic things because I’m focusing on bug-fixing before release!
Anyways, let’s see!

The progress:

First, new block colors (again)! The colors are look more like in Scratch (the engine that inspired me to make EventBlocks).

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I’ve make a new category and 2 blocks with it.
It’s the ‘Look’ category.
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It currently has 2 blocks, of course there’s more to come.
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(Also, there’s currently no ‘color’ value, so you can’t use the ‘set color’ block)

Another block I’ve made is under the ‘Actions’ category.
It’s the ‘attach script’ block!
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It’s obvious what it does.

That’s it for this devlog.

But I’ve got a little surprise (kinda)!
Here’s a bit more complex code, so you can see how it looks like:

Click to open! (the code generates a staircase!)

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Tagged people:
@BandaidKidd, @zCrxtix, @BotGabrielquintasYT, @EOASTUDIO, @Xenonic_778,
@Qin2007, @Luxurious_Scripter, @Y0utube_Dino, @IT1024, @CopWade,
@commitblue, @Megalodox_Official, @TenBlocke, @Lleventyate, @2jammers,
@TomskiKiller, @bitsplicer, @BoredCatGaming, @teapotatorange,
@GamersInternational

Have a good day!

27 Likes
EventBlocks Devlog 8 | Making a visual scripting plugin in Roblox
#2

Other tagged people (I can only mention 20 in the OP…)
@Tinfloco_Sushi

2 Likes
#3

I honestly can’t wait to see this finalised, will be fun trying to mess around with it in games.

1 Like
#4

This is coming along really well! Are you gonna add trigonometry to this?

1 Like
#5

How would you imagine trigonometry with blocks? I’m curious!

3 Likes
#6

Scratch uses trigonometry to render 2d as 3d.
https://en.scratch-wiki.info/wiki/Trigonometry?adlt=strict&toWww=1&redig=A13CB6CB02D64D5CBF442598F9C7FC02

Functions like tan, sin, cos
Numbers like pi, e

#7

I see! That’s no problem other than I haven’t made dropdowns yet. I’ll add them, thank you!

5 Likes
#8

I think you should add some sort of theme changer(if that’s not already a thing). Otherwise, you’ve made great progress so far. Great to hear that release is just around the corner!

2 Likes
#9

You should add a future where if you hover over blocks, it’ll tell you it’s purpose and an example, like for example, increment

Maybe it could be like a different tab too

2 Likes
#10

That basically means I need to make an entire documentation. I won’t do that right now, but maybe in the future.

4 Likes
#11

No offense to all the superb work you’ve done so far, but I couldn’t recommend this to anyone trying to code their first game, and for one reason: Abstraction

For an analogy, let’s use OOP. In some cases, an abstraction of code can be beneficial, but once you start applying it to all your code you are going to start thinking of your code as constructors rather than what the actual logic is doing

Coding blocks take this a step further, it removes the need to understand the logic behind what each block is really doing. You’re removing the how and only supplying the what which can be detrimental to learning; it limits people’s scope of thinking with oversimplification

Of course, it’s your own project and I’m not here to say anything, but at the same time I don’t think it should be endorsed as an easy alternative to LuaU

2 Likes
#12

It is an easy alternative. Why? Because it offers quicker methods and it’s basically readable for anyone who knows english.

That’s not true either. Most of the blocks represent 1-3 lines of Lua code (with exceptions, of course). Because let’s say you want to kill every player who joins. You need to figure out how to get the character of the last joined player (in lua, it’s .Character. In EventBlocks, there’s a character of block for that)
You still need to use logic and your brain to be able to make a working code.

That’s the whole point of visual scripting. You don’t need to know what each block is doing exactly. You just need to know how to use them properly. As I said most of the blocks translate to just a few lines of Lua. They sometimes contain some if statements to avoid errors.
If you used Scratch, you didn’t know that each block means in javascript, you just learn how to use them and how they work together with other blocks.

This is your opinion. But I would recommend this for a first game. Of course, not for a Jailbreak or Adopt Me, but it would be hard in Lua too anyway. This will be perfect for a simulator type game, an obby, sandbox games.

It doesn’t have the capability to do these things at the moment (except an obby). But I want to see how the release works out and then continue to put more effort to the project.

4 Likes
#13

That’s exactly the problem, blockcode doesn’t help people learn the actual syntax and grammar of the language (Which is what I meant by “Logic”), it’s a disconnection from what’s going on behind the scenes

Think music apps, they always advertise their products as being a liberation to music theory or the fact that learning an instrument is hard and use that to entice beginners that learning the real deal is not needed; their solution is much easier and provides the same results. (When in reality this is a lie, you do need to learn music theory to actually understand how to make good music)

Blockcode applies that same mentality, that learning code is hard but thankfully here’s a dumbed-down version that “you just learn how to use them and how they work together with other blocks.” It discourages actually learning programming

1 Like
#14

You are both correct I think, it can be used to get people to make games when they are young but then you want them to learn how to code

2 Likes
#15

This plugin would be the building blocks to understanding code. Not only is the UI/Plugin friendly and easy to use, it’ll give you a basic understanding on how to use code, so that when you actually start writing lines of code, you would know what you’re doing.

I’d recommend this to beginners, I kinda do understand what you’re saying though, but I think you need to elaborate more on your thoughts more as I feel like you didn’t support your evidence. What is removing the “how” and what could he do to possibly add it?

2 Likes
#16

Because, it doesn’t have to. Most of the people who will choose EventBlocks choose it, because they don’t understand LuaU.

You need to learn how coding works to actually make working code. You can’t just put some random blocks and except them to work as you want. You need to understand that the code runs line-by-line (in this case, block-by-block), variables, what is a Vector3 and when to use it.

That’s the way I learnt coding. I figured out I need to use Vector3 to move/rotate a part. So I memorized that I need to use Vector3 for this, for that.
EventBlocks just makes this process easier. It shows you what type of value you need to move/rotate a part.

I mean, probably you just use Vector3 and don’t know what it actually is.
This plugin is not made for LuaU programmers, they can use it for fun but it’s not made for them. It’s made for the people who can’t or just don’t want to understand LuaU.
This is not a LuaU learning plugin. This is almost a seperate ‘programming language’ that just compiles to LuaU.

3 Likes
#17

This plugin will be great, thats for sure. One thing tho, if possible, it’d be cool if you added rounded corners to the blocks since they look kinda, well, blocky, but other than that, pretty cool!

2 Likes
#18

I’ve tried that already, it looked bad so I just sticked to this design.

They are blocks afterall :smiley:

3 Likes
#19

Umm, no it isn’t.
Charrrrrrrrrrr

#20

Well,

The first value is the object you want to attach the script to. The second value is the script itself. It attaches a new script to an object. I can’t explain it better lol.

2 Likes