Ok first off, sorry if this in the wrong category. It is not a discussion, more of a guide, so it seems right here.
Let’s get started.
Why should you test your scripters when they apply for a job?
A few reasons, such as
Making sure they know the fundamentals
Making sure they possess intermediate to advanced knowledge of the Roblox API (This weeds out a bunch of the script kiddies who just wanna get paid and ditch you)
Ensuring they can write efficient code
Double checking they can actually code before you pay them (I recommend you pay half upfront and half upon completion)
Ensuring they know how to write readable code that can be read and edited with ease by possible future scripters
and a bunch more reasons that you would come up with
How should you test them?
It depends on the job, but for a general test, I recommend you asking them to either
Make a simple formatting tool
Make a recursive function that does A or B
Tween something with multiple stages
Fix an error or bug that you purposefully added into a script that you will give them to fix
Solve a logic puzzle in scripting that you write or find from someone
Now you should NOT
Ask them for a script that will take more than 20 minutes to do
Ask them to make something for your game
Require a 20+ line script
Or anything else that is exploitative of their labor
Why am I making this topic?
I’ve been hired to script some stuff and finish some things before, and the code is god awful. The performance is really bad because of bad memory usage, which makes it laggy, which means people won’t play your game. The code has no comments, horrible variable names, and really long references with no variables to store things. It makes the code really hard to read for other scripters, which means our performance and efficiency goes down, which means you don’t get the most out of your scripter.
As unfortunate as it is, the only people that can test others are programmers themselves. Most people don’t really care, as long as the task is done they don’t mind.
I’d advise paying only when the whole product is complete, I’m sure we wouldn’t want half of a product that’s literally useless unless completed. It’d be difficult for someone else to work off of it as well.
I do want to clarify to anyone that this message should be taken as:
“Because the previous programmer formatted their code in an awful way, it becomes difficult to edit and reduces efficiency in terms of development speed.”
Just because there are no comments with bad variable names doesn’t necessarily mean that the script performance is going to drop, but that doesn’t mean I’m supporting the idea to format your code unreadable.
Yep, I’ve been asked to create a 100+ line script to “prove my skill” which happened to be a core part of their game.
Make sure the scripter also compatible with your team. If they’re toxic, no matter how good they are, chances are it not going to end well for either party.