Developing | How to start off?

[ValkyrieHuskyy (DevelopedByHusky)]

Hello.

My name is Crash, I’m a builder on Roblox.

After talking to my friend, I went to DevForums to ask You if you can help me.

I want to know how developers start off. How do you collect ideas, how do you create a full game? Me and my friend just were really confused, we didn’t know how to start off, and we’d love to go to Roblox Developer Conference one day. And that’s why I’m asking you guys, how to start off. Do you have any tips for us?

PS: Sorry is this belongs to another category.

Regards,

CrashFacts also know as Crashstyler747
Tester, Builder.

[Zip_her]

Hello, Crash. I gain ideas by looking at others work and I try doing something that will test my skills to see how far I can push myself. The ideas come from popular games to see what they have and haven’t done yet.

[Dravespear]

For building I’m constantly thinking of different designs and processes to make an object. While once or thought about something I really like. I draw it either on paper, digital or on my own whiteboard. That way you will have a rough idea what you’re looking at and wouldn’t require so much thinking. While especially drawing it out will help as sometimes thinking something looks cool turns out it doesn’t.

An example of where I done this and has proven benefitial is when I was drawing a store which looked like this when drawn out.

Although in my final product I didn’t exactly replicate it since I thought it looked a bit naff so i looked at images or even taken a walk to refresh my mind set which eventually my building now as it stands look like this.

.

Although most of this is directed at building but same applies to programming, or team management. Draw a brief doesn’t have to be detailed but execute the task and any issues that come up, you create solutions but make sure you have contingency plan

[Simulation_Studio]

Back in 2012, when I created my first ever Roblox account, I really wanted to develop, in particular, build. Back then there was no such thing as the DevForum like we have now, there were limited tutorials and not many people to go to for any sort of help- the front page developers were respectively locked within themselves. My first builds were hilariously out of scale and blocky but I was proud and continued to explore what Roblox Studio has to offer (which wasn’t much back then.)

I mostly built for myself but the got sucked into the roleplay community within the platform, I personally messaged group owners, offering my services for free- mostly because I enjoyed being a part of their community but also I wanted to branch out and reach the god-like front-page (which was around 500-1k concurrent players to be the top game.) I worked for 4 continuous years like this, with the cliche knockdowns from other developers, working for free and having that dream of me being a part of a game on the front page.

In 2016, I was very lucky to be exploring Roblox’s features and come across the ‘Forum’ on the site which I never bothered to ever read. There was one post by nick_hz that he was looking for a builder, and I applied. I was trialled with a mini-game map, I made it but I also pushed more and got involved in nick’s game, Ball Tag. We worked on the game for around 1 month together, I was then honoured to be the co-owner of the game, Ball Tag. We were sponsored 75,000 robux and further have received a 100,000 robux investment; this was a major Kickstarter for my dream to the front-page. We were able to reach 2,000 concurrent players- which was beyond my mind.

Since then, for the next 3 years, I’ve been working countless hours trying to be a professional builder and start to make a living off this.

These are my tips from my own experiences for all of the new developers:

• Build whenever you feel like building, don’t force it- if you never have that feeling of you just wanting to build; then you don’t have the passion for it.

• Write. Writing is extraordinary and will make you explode will thoughts and ideas. When you look at a building or a piece of architecture- the first thing you would think to yourself in your mind is how it looks; if you are unable to describe it, you aren’t able to build it. This is because you have no thought of it in your mind.

• Build from what you see, then build from your thoughts. The majority of my building experiences were building off blueprints or images- you must master the ability to translate an image into a Roblox build, if you are unable to do that yet then building from your mind and being creative will be extremely challenging.

• Plugins. These Roblox Studio extensions are lifesavers when you get into more sophisticated builds.

My message to you, and any other new developers starting out is- take the huge advantages you have available to you, all of the youtube tutorials, the countless amount of other developers offering help. However, the most important tip for all of the new developers is to be passionate about what you do and enjoy it- experiment with it and you’ll find yourself creating extraordinary and awe-inspiring builds.

Good luck,
Sim

[knrkar (alizard)]

I recommend for practice goof off and follow tutorials, but when your ready to work on a project, look around your enviorments. Think in the shower, take walks, even go to the market. Get your brain going and make sure to note down all your ideas and inspirations.

Edit: spelling

[SilvRHat]

Hey CrashFacts!

Heres how I see it. Anybody can be anything, anyone can be an artist, a chef, a musician, and a ROBLOX developer. I think it’s really an art and one that depends on creativity and experience. If you want to develop a game and go to the RDC, have a passion, will, and drive to create and innovate. That’s the vague jist.

Into specifics, theres no one way to start building. But heres my process, hope it helps:

The Idea
First, ya have to come up with a basic idea. It can be changed at any point until the end. You should think of what kind of style game you want, and you should choose something related to your knowledge and what you personally like. A lot of the ideas I have found are along the developing process.

Gameplay styles

I think the most common gameplay styles are either round-based or individually progressive. You can also do a hybrid between them.

Progressive Game styles include:

• Obby
• Story-based
• Tycoon/ Simulator

Developing
I start by drawing out concept art. I suggest when you begin building that you start with the largest and easiest components, so that you have traction and momentum when you go in for smaller details.

[HozierVonRosenvall (Hozier)]

Do not lose hope. Keep following your dream and practice building
Based on your imagination. Good luck with your projects.

[MaxIevv]

If your wanting to make a new game think of something original and something that you yourself would play. RDC have plenty of videos talking about developing I would start off from there.

[landonis]

I’ve been programming for a few years now and would consider myself to be pretty decent. To be completely honest I don’t think I’ve ever watched a YouTube video on how to code something. I mean yeah it is a way to learn but not my preferred way. I primarily study it like it is a language. I feel people forget that it really is just another language. You just have to figure out the right words and how to build sentences.
Just start creating, work on your problem solving skills and I know you’ll succeed. If you get stuck figure out where you went wrong. If you can’t figure it out, move on do something else just forget about it for a while. Usually after you attempt a few more projects you come full loop back to an old idea that you just couldn’t quite do and then all the sudden you can do it.
Here’s a few topics to start on that I think would get you started:

What is a function and how it works,
What is an instance
What is a parent/child
What are events
How can you connect events functions

[MaxIevv]

I was talking about making a game in general not how to develop. RDC have many videos on marketing and such.

[StevenMusk (Steven)]

I make games based off games that I really enjoy. Obviously not a 1 for 1 copy but maybe throw some aspects that you really like into the game.

[landonis]

Gotcha, my bad. For that I would just focus on game concepts that are fun to you. I feel in this stage just do a lot of messing around don’t worry about making it look good just get a good feel for things. Take everything one step at a time and soon you’ll be at the top! Sorry I love the cheesy phrases lol easy way to remind yourself.

[Disparrel]

Hello,
@ValkyrieHuskyy

I hear you’d like to become a developer on Roblox. First off, what I usually do is go around and find inspiration and test some of my skills.

Creating a full game can take weeks from months to make, depending on how large or big you’d like it to be. As mentioned above, gather inspiration, test what you can and can’t do, and see if the idea you came up with is something you can do.
Next you need to come up with a game layout, something that other players would play. And remember think this while thinking of a layout. Remember this when making the layout of your game; “Why would players prefer this game more than others?”.

Alright now that you have a layout let’s get to work on a game genre.
So we’re back to the layout, what is your idea? What is it based on? Their is multiple game genre’s to pick from in Roblox, so pick one that fits your game just… Right!

Starting development for a game can be hard. Mostly when you’re new to building. First things first, don’t use free models. You want your game to be unique, like other games you can find on Roblox.
YouTube tutorials as well help with developing if you’re struggling.

Weather or not It’s been a few weeks, months or even longer, your game is now done.
Now I should have mentioned this before hand, but I didn’t.
Usually developers decide a game name and description of a game after they’re done building the game, so they have a general idea of what the game is based on. Usually it helps them decide a name.

Now, your game is ready for release.
These were just some tips I use when I develop my games, and other things. Thanks for reading.

[ValkyrieHuskyy (DevelopedByHusky)]

Hello everyone again. Thank you for all the help. I’d love to mark every comment as a solution. But sadly I cannot do that. But I liked all of your comments and I selected the one I liked the most. Thanks for the help.