What I’ve learned about programming is that it is VERY adaptive. If you tell me to code something, a lot of what I end up doing is learning, even things I’ve already done before. This makes programming in Roblox a lot less specialized, and could mean someone with less experience could something amazing. Some things are obvious to see differences between a beginner and expert, and my quality of code is going to be a lot worse than someone who’s been doing this for 9 years, but most of the time, if the code works, and it’s reasonably efficient, it’s hard to tell the difference. Within a reasonable margin, I don’t think quality of code is that important. I want to program some stuff specifically to build up a portfolio, but I don’t know what I should do, and how someone would be able to tell if what I built was good or not. Does anyone have any feedback or ideas on that?
Depends what you measure “good” off of. Companies will usually just throw you an interview question and see if you can complete it.
What I’m trying to do is to build a portfolio to show to different studios to prove to them that I’ve done something before they ask me to compete an interview related task.
You can start a GitHub account where you can post whatever you’re working on that you’re fine making open source, then anyone who’s interested in hiring you can just look at your repositories to see that you can code.
For long term projects it’s almost all about organization skills
Code organization or team organization?
Employers are commonly concerned with:
- Past work
- Attitude / workability
- Cooperation skills
- Prioritization and time management
- Honesty and trust
- Code/game organization
Scripters abilities are commonly judged with:
- Coding speed / familiarity
- Coding environment / concepts (like vehicles, weapons, etc)
- Efficiency and managability
- Code readability (if open sourcing or working with others)
- Implemenal ability (the ability to implement other / new concepts w/o needing script implementation directly)
- API knowledge (knows a lot of the API and knows workarounds and abilities related to it)
and more
Modularization is also very important. An example is: I can have a single vehicle framework script and the chassis config can have one value changed that affects all related values, handling, physics, and appearance. They can also inherit from a base vehicle class, overwriting some of its parent class’s contents and be controlled from outside of the module in simple ways.
Here are some types of ‘proof that you’re a good scripter’:
- Portfolio / resume
- Testimonies (coworkers, classmates, ext)
- Degrees and certifications
- Tests
You’re resume and/or application will likely be screened and automatically ranked according to how to how well it matches the position requirements. For this reason you should customize your resume for each position to emphasis what employers are likely looking for. On LinkedIn with a premium account you can actually see many of the keywords that employers are using to rank applications. I’d recommend getting the free trial to see for your self and get a feel for what terms employers use. Once you pass the initial screening, your portfolio may help you (depending on if hiring managers have enough time to go through portfolios. They will likely just browse).
About a year ago I decided to put together a portfolio to apply for an internship at Roblox. Luckily, they were kind enough to let me join a team for a few months. Here are the remains:
My YouTube channel for demo videos
My GitHub profile where I keep some of my projects. If I was going to search for another software position, I’d clean this up (make school and minor repositories private) to help employers find the interesting projects.
My LinkedIn profile where I keep a digital resume. This is pretty important because it can give employers a quick overview of who you are, and allows them to look deeper if you catch their eye.
Note: If you work on open source projects, I’d also make sure to include your contributions in your portfolio as well.
Throughout my time at school, Roblox, and other jobs I’ve had the pleasure with working with some truly amazing people and made some good friends. According to a 2016 survey, 85% of all jobs are filled via networking. Knowing your stuff is important… but having a friend to testify that you know your stuff is even more important to landing your dream job!
While it is possible to get a good job without a degree or certifications is possible, it is much easier if you to have them. The bodies that govern these awards spend much more time with each individual than a hiring manager ever could and work hard to maintain a minimum standard for all those who earn these awards. Hiring someone without awards like these can be a risky adventure. They may be the next Bill Gates (who dropped out of school), be really knowledgeable in some areas but have holes in others, or be submitting their resume to every job posting they can find hoping to get lucky. I’ve personally enjoyed my schooling and wouldn’t recommend skipping out on it (although some would disagree with me). It is another form of proof and while not sufficient itself, is a good indicator employers are aware of. I did have two associate degrees listed on my resume when I applied to Roblox.
After deciding that you may be who they are looking for, many hiring managers and recruiters I’ve spoken to will ask you to take tests. In Roblox’s hiring process you are asked to take some tests with a third party service and code a bit while talking to a senior Roblox engineer. These tests are probably the most stressful part of proving you know your stuff.
While a good portfolio can defiantly help prove to a potential employer that you are a good scripter, you can also prove your worth to an employer through these other means. Even if you make some mistakes on a test, don’t have a portfolio, and followed in Bill Gate’s footsteps, someone who has worked with you and knows your skills can make the difference between receiving an offer or no offer!
I don’t want to say this but it’s the truth…
You don’t have to be a good scripter to have a successful game (it’s better of course).
What I am saying is your code can be disgusting and inefficient but if it doesn’t ruin the game then it’s fine.
Trust me I have seen a lot of games with terrible code and they are on the Front Page.
(I didn’t steal the game and read their code I just look at the game and know what’s going on)
You just need a fun game, The players doesn’t care about how you code!
Now with that said, here’s why I said that;
To prove that you are a good scripter it’s pretty hard because it’s like driving, you can get from point A to point B in many different ways right?
Now what is easier and better is that you have a Successful game which is more valuable than 10 years of coding experience, but why?
Simple, if you have a sharp sword but you have no idea how to use it then it’s pretty useless.
Now remember that this is just my opinion and preferences.
If I were to hire a Scripter I would;
Hire someone who has better or equal to my scripting skills.
Hire someone who has more or equal to experience than me. (Not necessarily time based)
Hire someone who organizes code really well.
Hire someone who knows how to do OOP and MetaTables.
Hire someone who writes code similarly to me.
Hire someone who writes code efficiently.
I think rather than joining a Studio you should make your own, be the boss.
It’s easier to follow than lead.
This is true, but is going to be increasingly less the case as games start to get more technically complex, with larger scopes, and with multiple people working on the project. If you have clean code, you will be able to iterate quicker, reduce occurrences of bugs due to lack of code transparency, and locate and fix bugs more easily, and that can put you a step ahead of competition.
What about Flappy Bird? Crossy Road? and many other games that are really simple to make but super popular?
What about Idle clickers?
What about Simulators? It’s never been harder, it’s just not seen as much because of how People think about games they think about Fornite, Minecraft, or Welcome to Bloxburg which takes a lot of skills, effort and greatness to achieve but the bottom line is “If it’s fun to play, has simple a Coregame and easy to play” then it’s bound to be popular.
It doesn’t even have to be fun, it just has to be “Enjoyable”, something you are willing to skip meals and not finished other stuff for.(Not exactly addictive)
Flabby bird is easy to play, you click,
It’s core is to not hit the pipes and go as far as you can,
and it’s fun.
Now, Simulators and Idle Clickers are successful but not as much as Clash of Clans, Fornite and Welcome to Bloxburg, those games are perfect! But you don’t need your game to be perfect to be successful.
I don’t think that it’s getting harder it’s even being abused right now, (right under our noses) and we should too.
Look on the Front Page if you think I am wrong, tell me how many Simulator games are there on the Front Page.
Another key: Knowing a language doesn’t mean you know the tool. An experienced Lua programmer would not be able to jump unto Roblox and make games right away.
Yup, you still need a fun game idea. But if you coded your previous games properly and you can reuse parts of the code base more easily for that reason, you will be able to put those new fun game ideas to reality more quickly and more bug-free.
If your “simulator” game has a clean, modular structure, you have the majority of the code already for your next “simulator” project, and you can take all the experience and bug fixes that you implemented in that code along.