Tell us about learning to develop!

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#1

Hey Developers!

We want to hear about the type of content that helps you learn best. There are different forms, and different styles of tutorials that Roblox has made available for developers in the past, but because these tutorials are for you, our developers, we want to know what kind of content you prefer!

When you have time, please give us some insight by completing the short poll below:

Which style tutorial do you find most useful?

  • Large, end to end tutorials
  • Short, single skill tutorials

0 voters

How do you prefer to consume your tutorials?

  • Video tutorials
  • Written tutorials
  • Example tutorials

0 voters

Make sure to leave any additional feedback you may have below!

11 Likes
#2

Video tutorials, in my opinion, are really awful for programming. Not only is it much harder to skim a video tutorial (sometimes you just want clarification on how to do something, so you can quickly scroll through a written tutorial), but they usually don’t have a table of contents like written tutorials, can’t be Ctrl+F’d like a written tutorial, don’t go at the learner’s pace, are harder to follow visually (in a lot of video tutorials, you may not catch what happened or the quality is too bad to figure it out), and their usefulness is correlated to the quality of the learner’s internet connection (bad internet connections have choppier, less readable videos).

26 Likes
#3

I will (probably) never use video tutorials to review, and most likely not to learn anymore, however videos were crucial in my beginning stages of learning to program.

I had tried to learn ~4 times, before years ago when I finally tried out video tutorials on YouTube. With lua being my first language, as well as being a visual learner, video tutorials were the only type of learning resource that worked for me. After getting a fine understanding, it’s fairly easy to understand new things now by reading them.

All that being said, I think it would be cool to see tutorials on the wiki get videos to go with them. Obviously video tutorials take longer than just reading a tutorial, however there are people (like me) who need(ed) these as an introduction into programming.

5 Likes
#4

Back when I was beginning to learn how to script, I have tried a lot of things, Roblox Wiki, Free models, Youtube videos, and I was an active member in the late Lua Learners (may it rest it peace)

Back then I would go to several places trying to find the best place I can understand from, personally I found that some wiki articles were rather hard to consume because of the vocabulary and the way it was written just wasn’t very “young brain” friendly.

Later on, I moved to free models and I started to tinker with them I’d mess with scripts they had but because I didn’t quite understand what things meant I was having little bit of a hard time grasping Lua.

I believe at the same time as the other two above, I was an active member of a fan site called Lua Learners which had a great community and resources that helped me along the way.

Out of all, I think that learning from @pighead10’s Youtube tutorials really helped me understand what things meant as I’d see him write the code and then see what happened because of what he made. I remember every time in a tutorial he’d get a good distance I’d pause and try it out myself, and once the tutorial was done I’d spend a few hours messing with the code and changing it up to however I liked.

While I do like to learn from video tutorials, I much rather a tutorial be split up into several 3-5 minute videos that I can digest at my own pace without needing to worry about where I had to stop, than watch long videos where I run the risk of going overboard with how much I consume at once that it just doesn’t stick.

Edit (Shameless advertising / an example of what can hard work learning scripting do ): After all the work I’ve put into learning how to script, I now have a game I’ve scripted and has several hundred people enjoying it, (Freeze Tag By @ConnorVIII) and soon to be releasing a game I’ve made all on my own so watch out for it!

tl;dr: I’ve always thought that tutorials that are split up into several videos are easier than any other resource I can learn from.

9 Likes
Resources on Scripting help | Resource Compilation
#5

I think this is dependent on the situation. When I’m working on a project and can’t figure out how to get an API working, I prefer a short explanation to a lengthy example tutorial (hence why I keep my own tutorial videos short and sweet) in order to get back to work more quickly. However, if I’m looking to try out an aspect of a project that I have no idea how to attempt and/or want to learn specifically how to do, I’d prefer a longer tutorial that goes more in-depth.

5 Likes
#6

I believe @ChipioIndustries brings up a very important distinction.

Short examples are fantastic for looking up very specific things, and it’s great because they’re pretty quick to glean and are fairly digestible.

On the other hand, longer tutorials are very important to teach the larger overall concepts. I personally the best format would be to create a series of small examples and group them together into a larger tutorial.

For example, the overall concept could be about creating a round based game, and some smaller examples could be things like creating the game loop, implementing data saving, fundamental UI skills, etc.

i.e. make tutorials like linked lists so we can still get to the smaller nodes (examples) but tie them together in a meaningful, overarching tutorial.

5 Likes
#7

Videos are really good when you’re young and have trouble reading & understanding large amounts of text. Reading the wiki is really hard for newer developers, too.

However, as things go on, written stuff becomes way easier. It’s efficiently copyable and easy to skip irrelevant/already-known information (Udemy is bad example of this).

Comparing skill-based tutorials to end-end tutorials is like comparing short, separated & organised code to one massive script spanning thousands of lines. However, that being said, tutorials are a lot friendlier than code so having good end-to-end tutorials isn’t impossible.

2 Likes
#8

Comprehensive documentation about whatever it is I’m trying to work with. I don’t like being left with questions that I can’t find answers to without experimenting.

Initially, though, the only learning resource was examples (dissecting other peoples’ code), which was over 10 years ago. I’m sure it’s gotten a lot nicer these days.

5 Likes
#9

I think short videos are better for learning how to build because writing a written tutorial for building would need pictures at the very least to be really helpful, but coding would be better taught through written tutorials with the assistance of a picture here or there.

1 Like
#10

Note to the reader - in this post I make note of a number of issues that Roblox has to deal with which in-directly attributes to learning

Teaching online in general can be very difficult, as has been mentioned above, there are different types of learners, who have different paces, who are at different stages in development.

I learned by experimentation, like a lot of others did as you may have read above.
After I learned about how to open Roblox Studio (I was using ‘Build’ previously), I found an Android and Humanoid Controller tool made by (name here), which was one of the first scripts I experimented with heavily, and later developed in to a full Beyblade game (a series I loved as a kid).
My ability to experiment and learn by my self (using Roblox’s Object Browser heavily) plus the motivation of making one of my favourite TV series into a game, and having others join in that fun is what kept me developing and learning.

Video tutorials are great for first time learners, especially builders. But as creators develop, so should the tutorials.

Roblox Wiki suffers from being too complicated. It is a great for advanced developers who are used to the site, but even for my self, I can easily get lost on a page when I’m looking for specific information that I can’t remember the name of because of my dyslexia.
For example, go to the Roblox Wiki and search for Humanoid. Let’s say you want to learn how to unequip all tools from the player - but you can’t remember the exact phrase to search with Ctrl+F.
The wiki gives a lot of information that is typically irrelevant or has confusing phrases it in that even some experienced developers have never used or come across, such as “Ref < Instance >” or “Void”.
Don’t get me wrong, the Roblox Wiki is fantastic, and has improved a lot, but searching for specific things can still be a hassle.

I think the Roblox site is overwhelming and confusing. It looks nicer than it used to, but it is not set up to encourage users to make their own games. In fact, when the updated page was first released, I struggled to find where to Edit my games through the website, as there was no longer a direct link to my place.
It is also inconsistent from the Mobile app and website. I can’t look up my games or get to certain information from the mobile app. To find my games I have to Search for my own game, which may have a generic name, and be populated by thousands of copiers.
Also, if I want to set a place of mine to private, or configure a game/place, I can’t do it through the Roblox app.

Another issue today is that children are not learning how to experiment with things. Prior to Roblox I played a lot with Lego a lot growing up, and doing so I developed the ability to problem solve. A lot of children (and even teens that I grew up with or studied with) today don’t learn such skills, for many various reasons which I won’t get in to.
My point is, if Roblox wants their users to develop, they are going to have to take some tips from the old Roblox website, which was a lot easier to navigate, simpler, and encouraged users to make their own places.

-David

P.S.
Oh and on the subject of video tutorials - this format should be applied:
-Short video(s)
-Intro (brand that the user can consistently skip)
-Reference to a video that shows the user how to open studio / setup
-Contents (timestamps and subject)
-Highlights that the programmer may have missed (e.g. what does the red error line mean in code?)
-High definition video and clean audio plus subtitles in different languages.
-References to the written script or a place that has the script (Description links)

3 Likes
#11

It takes time to review videos, and therefore money. It’s one thing when a link is posted to an inappropriate video, but it’s another thing when Roblox directly hosts an inappropriate video on their own site. Reviewing is necessary.

1 Like
#12

Ah, true. My bad!

1 Like
#13

I would really like it if you could make scripting tutorials for super advanced developers (even though they may not need it) Things like advanced match-making, https leaderboards… things like that. For the how I learned to develop I took apart free uncopylocked games such as lumber warfare tycoon among other games. I don’t feel like I learned a lot from scripting tutorial videos but the wiki did help me a bunch aswell.

4 Likes
#14

I find myself being a visual learner as well as a practical; I cannot learn without watching and practicing for myself. I learned the basics of scripting in Roblox Lua by the tutorials of @Peaspod when they were more to-date. Before that, I really struggled to read anything on the Wiki and understand what it was saying. I continued my learning from Wiki tutorials and reading up on free models and recreating them and making my own changes to understand what it does. I learned to build by experimenting with the F3X building tools back in early 2014, I quickly picked up on it. It’s the hotkeys that help quite a lot.

2 Likes
#15

I use both text and video learning resources and find them both valuable. You should not artificially constrain things to either text or video tutorials. The modern world of multimedia allows you to use both text and video media to achieve the best result.

2 Likes
#16

It would be great to have a tutorial on every subject, but this is not always doable nor practical for everyone, as typically - a tutorial that answers one person’s needs may leave a hundred others with questions.

For example, I want to learn how to effectively use HTTPS, and you mentioned a https leaderboard tutorial would be beneficial, which it would be. But it would be more practical to provide an advance tutorial on HTTPS, then demonstrate in a few examples how the service could be put to use.

1 Like
#17

Not that they have to, just an idea…

#18

When I started off and knew absolutely nothing about programming, I never actually intended to learn, so I never really looked at the tutorials at all. I liked video tutorials for learning the interface of studio and where all the buttons were/what they did, but I learned code by looking at free models and seeing how other people achieved simple tasks (for instance, removing a part from the workspace) and then copying it myself. It wasn’t until I started learning about functions and events that I really started to use the wiki at all. It took a little while but I think the progression went from Free model examples → Videos → long articles (because I could step through them & concepts were simple) → to now I prefer short articles and API pages to learn about specific tasks different instances can do. I still really use all types of tutorials to be honest tho.

2 Likes
#19

example tutorials worked best for me

mostly forum style tutorials where users were able to give feedback and ask specific questions (Scripter help forum was excellent source but devforums are building up the same type of archive to match it)

#20

What good way to learn to develop is learning to make simple things in Experim…

Oof.

2 Likes