I’m DucksAreYeIIow and I work with the Developer Excellence Team. We’re very excited to introduce a new form of Roblox documentation: Roblox Sketch Series videos!
The Roblox Sketch Series videos are bite-sized video tutorials that break down complex game design principles to help you make the experiences you see in your head. We want to create engaging videos that can serve as supplemental resources to the written creator documentation.
With so many devs learning how to create experiences on Roblox through YouTube, we want to provide best-in-class learning resources so you can learn about Roblox straight from the source. While we’re really excited about this new style of short form videos, we want to make clear that they won’t be replacing our existing in-depth long form videos.
We already have a few topics covered, such as:
Core Loops: We talk about how to design central gameplay systems to build your experience from the ground up.
Check out the creator documentation on Core Loops here.
Prototyping: We talk about the different prototyping methods for exploring your experience’s potential and how they can help bring your vision to life.
Check out the creator documentation on Prototyping here.
We have plans for more videos and articles (progression systems, live ops planning, and different onboarding techniques), and would love to hear your feedback on what resources you’d like to see from us. We also want to know how you learn best:
Do you prefer to learn through videos or written articles?
Does it depend on what you’re learning?
What questions/topics about game design would you like answered?
Comment your answers below and also let us know what you think of the Roblox Sketch Series so far.
Interesting to see a different educational perspective on how to teach development. Hope to use some of these videos. I think that to efficiently supplement written documentation it also should maybe have a slower pace, even though it is a video. The prototyping video felt a bit quick though otherwise very well produced.
Great work on Roblox’s Part! Many developers like myself will benefit from the visual explanations of documentation. One tiny criticism I have is the harshness of the sketching itself. Something like the writing below would be a lot nicer on the eyes. Overall, great work, and props for the Developer Excellence Team for pulling this together.
This is exciting! I’m glad these videos are able to provide so much vital information in such a short time. Given this format stays consistent, the future generation of developers seem to hopefully have a more narrow path for their careers
My name is @JuanGamerPlayz_RBLX (but you can call me Juan) and firstly, I really thought you were someone apart from Developer Relations such as Erin, Dan, and the rest of the Level Up team, yet, it is pretty awesome to know that you are apart of such an interesting team! Second, I am a big fan of the Roblox Sketch Series. This created a proper entertainment guide for me to remember whenever developing projects on Roblox Studio!
I personally believe through videos, because you can comprehend visually and practice the methodology with fun.
Yes, it really depends on which area you want to know. For instance, if I am a Composer and I want to learn how to customize my audio on Roblox Studio, the series won’t help too much (as an example).
I actually not sure if this is a question related to game design, but I would like to know if there will ever be a sync between the series and the curriculum paths. For instance, whenever preparing a prototype and having an idea of how the game would look like, you would use your knowledge from the Core Curriculum and apply for your Roblox experience work and be entertainable! (Just a silly example, but I believe it can be understandable)
I’m personally happy to see Roblox introducing better learning resources for newer developers lately. In the past, whenever I’ve tried to find an answer to some design-related question, or a productivity process for creating games, or intermediate-level guides such as how to code in a modular way, I’ve had to look for resources outside of the platform, which ended up being harder to translate to Roblox as a beginner. I still wouldn’t come to Roblox for learning technical skills or advanced practices, but it’s great to find general industry-level knowledge on topics I didn’t know were a thing before!
To be honest, I might utilize them occasionally only for entertainment purposes, but I believe this is beneficial for new developers who can only learn through videos.
I prefer developer articles and looking at simple example code pieces, for programming.
Videos are nice for relaxing and maybe also for showing how UIs work, or showing a workflow in the UI. Maybe also for talking about concepts in a general way.
It is really nice to see something for learning. Roblox and lua is actually very complex, imho. So it needs to be an area that has focus. Thumbs up.
That’s nice! Videos in a shorter format may be more enjoyable for some users. Moreover, I’m glad they won’t be replacing your existing long-format videos because they’re really useful.
Personally, I prefer written articles because I generally enjoy and understand more when I read something than when someone explains it to me.
Of course: - If it’s something technical, concrete, factual, tangible (for instance, programming): Written article. - If it’s something more abstract in a very general sense (any kind of mental or visual conceptualization): Video.
General approach techniques for problem-solving in development, specifically in scripting (e. g. “… What if we want this cube to be green? Well, to modify the appearance of something, we usually check the Properties tab…” or “… And what if we want to make this cube fly? Well, to change the default behavior of something, we usually use scripts. …”). So, the people watching the videos will not only have the necessary knowledge to develop, innovate and create, yet also a competent ability of solving bugs and approaching complex challenges of their development process by themselves.
That’s an often overlooked, essential skill, IMO.
I’m definitely looking forward to the future of this. Keep up the good job.
