Well, developers, January is officially over and we have another month behind us! The developer community kicked off 2019 in style with events, developer stories, spotlights and more. Let’s jump into a quick look at the past month on Roblox.
Events
In January, Roblox hosted an event called “Powers”. The objective was to complete 3 missions in 3 games in order to win 3 prizes. The games included in this were Zombie Rush, Swordburst 2 and Pirate Simulator. Check out the prizes that were awarded below:
Developer Content: From the Devs and Developer Spotlights
In January, we kicked off a new module on the Roblox Developer Medium, “Why Roblox?”. In this module, we have the opportunity to hear from developers, new and experienced alike, about why they chose to learn game development in Roblox Studio. So far, we’ve heard stories from the following developers:
We also had the opportunity to spotlight more members of the developer community in January. If you haven’t already met them, drop a note in the comments of the following spotlights and say hello!:
This month, we formally introduced the Roblox Champions! If you went to RDC last year, you might have heard them mentioned in the keynote presentations, or seen a presentation by a Champion. You can now get to know the Champions and the story behind how they got to where they are now. read about the Champions and their development careers here: Meet the Roblox Champions
Updates and Changes
Below you can find a list of features that were shipped since December:
Think you missed adding a hot link here. Cool stuff though to start off 2019. Can’t wait to see what else is in store. And I’m gearing up something fierce for that Racing Event in the Summer!
Ah, there it is. I was looking for you so I could get to my monthly rants. That’s great, because the month of January was really great. It was reaching the expectations I had for the update trains that happened in October of 2018 and this year has gotten off to an amazing and promising beginning. The year and furthermore the month have kicked off to an outstanding start and there is much to discuss.
From the Developers
It is my utmost joy to see that this series is still being written for currently. It provides valuable insight on topics relevant to developers and is great for sharing personal experiences as developers or helping guide others within trades. The thing I love about these articles is that a lot of them do not just focus on Roblox, but they include articles which you can carry beyond just Roblox.
I hope to read more of these articles within the coming months. Thank you guys for writing for the Medium page and for sharing your experiences as developers.
Developer Spotlights
Congratulations to those of you who have received developer spotlights! I personally believe that these spotlights were overdue. These awesome individuals have been both helpful around the community and doing an applause-worthy job showcasing their skills to the community both for themselves and for us.
Updates and Changes
This month was absolutely packed with goodies. Here are some I wanted to highlight and talk about. Big thanks to CloneTrooper1019 for providing API Difference Logs each time new Release Notes are published.
Visual Indicator for Disable Scripts: Remember when you would always wonder what was wrong with your code, only to check through your object hierarchy and find a disabled script? Remember when you wanted to know what scripts you had disabled or not? Remember the pain you went through to determine what was enabled or not? No longer is that a worry. The visual indicator is now sufficient enough to show you what scripts are disabled or not. This is a very helpful tool for developers for organisational and tracking purposes. Such a small update has had such a huge impact on my workflow personally.
HumanoidDescriptions: Oh man, the ABSOLUTE frustration it was to hardcode avatar appearances or to change R15 bundles on avatars. Humanoid descriptions are a really easy way to apply new assets to avatars. I personally don’t modify avatars unless I set up morph kits, though I can see that this API will be a very big help to my workflow in the future to come.
Sunsetting Clans: It’s unfortunate to see the clan and points system finally being wholly put to rest after a short-lived time, however they no longer had much use for existing once developer-implemented systems superseded them. They were a fun little touch to groups sometimes to organise clan-based events or for showing your “VIP” members (not its intention), though I believe that the group updates in the future will be enough to sate our desire for group changes. Goodbye, clans.
ViewportFrame Release: This had to be one of the most hyped updates besides something like voxel lighting. ViewportFrames allow for the display of 3D models within 2D GUI objects. I was one of the people who was really excited to jump into their usage, but conveniently when they drop, I no longer have a use for them. On the other hand though, the agonising process of uploading thumbnail cameras and then decals of models has now come to an end.
Update to the Developer Forum Entry Process: One of the most controversial updates to the forums altogether. I had to mute this thread as well. Personally, I welcome this change with a grain of salt, as someone who took the application process before the existence of New Members. I am glad to see that the developer forum is opening up to the general public and that we have more developers on board to collaborate with and discuss development. One obvious gripe or concern I have, as well as I’m sure many others do, is the quality of posts that make it here or those who are merely using the forums for 200 player servers. The forums are a valuable resource, just remember that. If people are happy about the move from the elitist feel though, that’s great. With or without this update, I will continue to contribute as I always have.
Data Stores Data Loss Issue: This was, well, disappointing to say the least. I can understand its occurrence around the holidays since that’s when the code freeze happens and the traffic raises exponentially, but this was a critical issue that impaired a lot of games so much to the point where developers started moving to external databases. I’m glad to know that the issue has been adequately addressed and that we were given the tools to assist in the recovery process. Thank you as always for the increasing transparency on critical issues and support in rectifying them.
Release Notes
Release notes have my blood exploding. I am so excited to start using the newest features Roblox has in store for us. Be sure to really check the Release Notes, they have VERY promising utilities coming up in the future. Let me go over some of my favourites.
Release Notes 367
MessagingService: I absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely (…) cannot wait to use this feature. Before the inception of this, DataStores were being used for cross-server communication, however it didn’t have a real-time feel to it and OnUpdate was not the most reliable tool aside from polled updates. This service has so much use for it - trading, cross-server chats, game-wide announcements, just interacting with other servers in general. This is a service I know I’ll use a lot of and won’t get sick of, because the use cases for server-server communication are far too great.
Humanoid clothing colouring: At first, I didn’t see a real cause for this API to be used. I’ve been thinking about incorporating the use of this API to some clothes and I now realise how effective this API can actually be, like for colouring clothes without uploading multiple copies of the same shirt in different colours (unless it’s for website wear and not in-game use, then by all means continue uploading multiple copies). I’m interested to see this API at work.
Release Notes 369
Humanoid.BreakJointsOnDeath: It’s not really that uncommon for the classic break-on-death effect to be replaced by ragdolls or for there to be some hacky method to keep joints from being destroyed on death. This property means we can now add interesting death effects without having to force joints to remain, using an ugly workaround or act on something that isn’t the character itself.
string.split: I’m lazy. I want to use this function to split my messages to be parsed for chat-based code, such as admin commands. Enough said.
Well then. I believe that concludes my review of the month’s updates. Thanks to the staff for their hard work. Here’s to a great February.
On the other hand though, the agonising process of uploading thumbnail cameras and then decals of models has now come to an end. 
