November 2018 Recap: Keeping Up With the Developer Community

[new_storm]

Whether its due to the upcoming holidays, or developers have found some new inspiration, November was an awesome month of new updates and work coming from the Developer Community. If we think back to October, you’ll remember that it was also a busy month for the community, and November was no different. If you missed October’s recap, be sure to take read the Community happenings here: October Recap: Here's Whats Happening in the Developer Community.

Events

This month, a team of talented Roblox developers shipped a sponsored game, Aquaman: Home is Calling. In this game, players of all ages can enter an underwater world and complete missions, unlock trials and fight their way through Atlantis. Test your skills and join the game here: City of Rolantis - Roblox

This game is much more than a series of challenges; the underwater world that the developer team created is absolutely stunning and amazingly details. Be sure to drop to @beeism, @buildthomas, @deepbluenospace, @director1406, @erythia, @evaera, @GGGGG14, @gunsbullets, @masteroftheelements, @noalias, @oniich_n, @potofpaint, @RBXKyle and @vocksel a note or congratulate them in the comments.

Developer Content: From the Devs and Developer Spotlights

We’re nearing the end of our module on Player Retention, but we have a few more articles in the works to wrap up the series! Check out the below articles to find out how you can attract players to your game and keep them there!

• "From the Devs": How Events Can Boost Player Retention, by @FearMeIAmLag: “From the Devs”: How Events Can Boost Player Retention, by FearMeIAmLag | by Roblox Developer Relations | Developer Baseplate | Medium
• “From the Devs”: The Psychology Behind Player Retention, by @RichOfPickles: “From the Devs”: The Psychology Behind Player Retention, by RichOfPickles | by Roblox Developer Relations | Developer Baseplate | Medium
• “From the Devs”: Bringing Players Back To Your Game, by @HoudiniDev: “From the Devs”: Bringing Players Back To Your Game, by HeadlessHorror | by Roblox Developer Relations | Developer Baseplate | Medium
• “From the Devs”: The Importance Of First Impressions On Player Retention, by @silky_dev: “From the Devs”: The Importance Of First Impressions On Player Retention, by silky_dev | by Roblox Developer Relations | Developer Baseplate | Medium
• “From the Devs”: Using Analytics to Improve Player Retention, by @SteadyOn: “From the Devs”: Using Analytics to Improve Player Retention, by SteadyOn | by Roblox Developer Relations | Developer Baseplate | Medium

We will be announcing the new topic for the next module soon. Stay tuned and check this thread for updates: Opportunity for Developer-Written Content Promotion!

But wait, there’s more! We’ve also had the opportunity to spotlight some other awesome developers on the platform this month. Check out the list of spotlighted devs below:

• Developer Spotlight: Meet the Developers Behind the Featured Games (November 2018)
• Developer Spotlight: Meet Crazyman32 | @Crazyman32
• Developer Spotlight: Meet GrottyPuff | @GrottyPuff
• Developer Spotlight: The Developers Behind the Featured Games (November 2018)

Updates and Changes:

There were a lot of exciting updates that came out this past month! Among the most exciting is the first phase of Future Is Bright
(Future Is Bright: Phase 1 Released), which introduces the new voxel lighting engine, and ViewportFrame object in Studio (ViewportFrame Release), which allows you to view 3D options in 2D UI and more. Check out a full list of updates and changes from the past month below:

• Moving All Games to PGS Solver on March 4th, 2019

• Reconnect to Game, Improved Join and Teleport errors

• Measuring Engagement in Your Game

• (Resolved) Video & Thumbnail Uploads Temporarily Disabled - #3 by KnightGaladeld

• Sponsored Games on Xbox!

• Smooth zoom & poppercam are coming

• New Active Property for Joints

• Calling all European Roblox developers!

• Planned Maintenance Schedule

• Roblox 2019 Events: Updates, Calendar & More

• Best Practices for Collaboration

• (Resolved) Rbxgameasset:// links broken for places opened today - #24 by Seranok

• https://devforum.roblox.com/t/november-14th-incident-report/201878

• Restoring Robux Balances For Conversion Revenue

• Humanoid Movement Update - Steep Slope Bugs + Some minor tweaks!

• Localized Game Titles and Descriptions

• Removing the Physics Analyzer from Studio

• New BasePart Properties: Massless & RootPriority

• Removing Support for Third Party Closed Source Modules

Featured Game Updates:

You can check out this month’s Featured games here:

• 11/13 Official Featured Sort Game Nomination Survey - #103 by InceptionTime
• 11/27 Official Featured Sort Game Nomination Survey - #104 by InceptionTime

[railworks2]

Nice work everyone and congrats and thanks to all the team behind underwater world

[GeorgeOfAIITrades]

Really enjoy that we’re doing Monthly Recaps. Please continue this for forever.

[CheetahSp33d (CheetahSpeed)]

I love these monthly recaps

[colbert2677 (ImagineerColbert)]

This one came in a little late, I’ve noticed, but I am nonetheless happy that this initiative has been continuing since its inception back in September or so. Thank you for keeping us informed as always. Now, time for my usual rant about the wonders of this month, as I do per recap.

I honestly have to say that outside of the updates we’ve been receiving, this month has been a pretty quiet month in my opinion. November seems not to have caught onto that October boom. Unfortunate, but forgivable and understandable. It does not matter; things are looking great as always.

It sesems this month has been stocked on several From the Devs articles on the medium page. I’ll be taking a look sometime soon - looks like good food for thought when developing a game.

I believe the cake of November lies in the updates. Check 'em out.

• New error windows: Rather than a bland-looking yellow bar, there is now a tab that appears on your screen with options to rejoin or leave depending on the error code that caused a server to close. More than this though, I wonder when we’ll get access to that GUI mask.
• Conversion Revenue Mess: I think we can all agree that this was a giant flop for November and it was unfortunate that it occurred just before Black Friday. On the flip side though, can we all say that Roblox is taking a step forward towards respecting its developers and the community? To rectify a dual issue in a row (both the exponential gain of currency and poor first resolution), they returned the Robux back to developers and took a huge hit as well as owned up responsibility for the issue. I think that their final resolution deserves the highest respect, so a well-rounded applause to them for this.
• Removal of Closed Source Modules: Okay, this has been probably the biggest talk of the month. I remember seeing a couple Discords exploding over this update. Long story short: read the thread. I don’t want to get into a debate here.

And so that concludes my opinion-based analysis of the monthly recap. Here’s to a good December, fellow developers.

[herfave_wastaken (herfave)]

ive reached peak clout.
I got mentioned in a public announcement.

[FearMeIAmLag]

Thanks for the opportunity to write an article, I hope I can be in more of these recaps. Congrats to everyone else as well.