I feel that while it is great that the devforum has different groups, we do not have enough to include other types of developers. Most of the groups cater to a large group of people, specifically Builders, Programmers, Game Designers, and Clothing Designers. This makes sense, as these are very common. However, some of these cater to a small amount of people, such as Composers and Translator. Again, this is good.
The issue I see is we don’t have enough groups for people who do certain critical jobs. I suggest we add the following groups to the devforum:
Terrain Artist. This one should be a no-brainer. Terrain is an essential aspect of most games, and it’s done on the Roblox platform itself! We have groups for Composers, Modelers, and UI Designers, which aren’t even done on the platform. Why do we not have a role for people who do this on Roblox itself. (Again, I do not want the other groups removed, I’m bringing up a point that the devforum supports some very niche and specific groups, and does not have a group for a common one.)
QA Tester. Testing is an essential role in game development. Why do we not have this as a role? Often times I see people needing testers, and many people are experienced enough and can test your game for you.
If there are any I am forgetting, let me know!
The reason I find these important is that these are done in-studio! If we can support people who do their work on a 3rd-party platform, we certainly should support those who do work in-studio.
Please let me know if you have any questions, hopefully I am conveying my point.
I disagree that Terrain Artist = Builders. When I, (and probably many people,) think of builder, we think of people building maps, not terrain. Terrain is a totally separate aspect, and should be recognized. Many of our top games utilize terrain! Why should we limit these people? On top of this, terrain is one of Roblox Studio’s greatest features, and is critical in game development.
Being a tester requries no special talents or skills. Translators are more important than testers as they have a special skill and open up your game to a wider audience, whereas anyone could test a game.
There is a difference between testing without skill, and a skilled tester. Just check out the QA Testers of Robloxia if you need proof that these people are specialized.
True, however, many people do not look into bios. They want a quick answer. When responding to questions about building under #help-and-feedback:building-support, most of the time the OP wants to see someone with the “Builder” title. It’s more or less for the people too lazy to find out what you do.
Well I would suggest to those whom look for those with the ‘Builder’ title to not do so; there is no review to see if you are even a builder. Heck, even I could join the group and my building skills are crap.
I think my sentiments about this are very similar to another thread about this. I think that new groups are a good idea, I just don’t think that these groups specifically have enough of a population that needs them.
Terrain artist, in my opinion, is a very niche category. I know a considerable number of people use Roblox Terrain, I just don’t know how many people pride themselves over strictly their terrain-building skills above anything else.
This is true, but I think all of these are very distinct categories that are different enough to warrant their own groups. Composers make music/sfx - which is completely different from anything else. Although I suppose it is a small community, what they do is so different yet essential that it definitely warrants a new group. (Whereas terrain artist is very much ambiguous). Modelers make 3D models, which although similar to building, tends to have a completely different outcome/use case than building. UI Designers I feel can be on platform imo. This group encompasses not only those who make art assets for UI, but also plan out and organize UI (such as “when the player clicks this button, x should happen”).
Terrain artists just feels like either modeling or building to me, which is who I would want even if I had a question on Terrain. It just doesn’t feel different enough to building or modeling, but I don’t have enough experience to be an authority on this.
QA Tester I think is a very controversial one. I think that people don’t realize that QA Testers are supposed to actually have knowledge about how to properly stress test a game and how to hunt down every bug they can. What people will actually think about this role is that it’s just some average joe who likes to play games, which is why I don’t see a lot of people needing this role here right now. I do think it is a good idea though.
However, Composer is a very niche category as well.
I agree. When I think of QA tester, I do not mean your average Roblox player who plays games. I’m looking for the people who are specialized at finding bugs.
