{"id":6008,"date":"2022-12-04T22:49:13","date_gmt":"2022-12-04T22:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/distractionware.com\/blog\/?page_id=6008"},"modified":"2022-12-04T23:04:05","modified_gmt":"2022-12-04T23:04:05","slug":"climb-the-giant-man-obby-part-9","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/distractionware.com\/blog\/climb-the-giant-man-obby-part-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Climb The Giant Man Obby: Part 9"},"content":{"rendered":"

As you might have seen already: I finished my Obby! It’s been out for a day and a half now, and it seems to be going down pretty well! roblox.com\/games\/65744753\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

@AlchemistJijo: Were there any major roadblocks you ran into during the design and building process?<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There were a few things that I wanted to do (like moving platforms, a lot of things with physics) that felt like swimming against the current. After a while I decided to stick to things that the engine was reliably good at.<\/p>\n

That sounds critical of Roblox Studio, but it’s not really meant to be – the engine is super fun to work with, and that’s a big part of why I got so carried away with this project in the first place. (But yeah: there are a few wonky edges)<\/p>\n

Deleted user: did you use Rojo<\/a> at all to use external tools like VScode?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I didn’t know this was a thing. It looks really nice actually, lol<\/p>\n

@Drewiker_: What’s one feature you really enjoyed with Roblox, and what’s one feature that you think really needs to be improved?<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Feature I most enjoyed: just manipulating parts in Roblox Studio feels *really* nice. You can just drag parts around in the editor and they raycast-collide with the scene in sensible ways. It makes it feel like playing with a lego set.<\/p>\n

Feature that needs to be improved: The Toolbox is amazing, but it’s genuinely overrun with viruses and I don’t know how they let it get so bad. That whole feature really needs some attention.<\/p>\n

@Mal_loc: Did the process leave you with any ideas for future Roblox games?<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes! The really nice thing about learning a new tool is that everything you do inspires new ideas. I’m definitely going to be doing more things in Roblox. (after a little break)<\/p>\n

(It’s also inspired a lot of thinking that I hope to take to future non-roblox projects!)<\/p>\n

@Spicy_Josh: This has less to do with the project itself and more so just you exploring Roblox. Were there any games that particularly stood out to you as impressive\/notable that you tried?<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ll probably do a big thread of Roblox games I love at some point, but a few that I think are really interesting are: Jailbreak, Tower of Hell, Eg!, Scuba Diving at Quill Lake, and Marble Mania.<\/p>\n

@ObiCon: What’s the best way to currently support you financially?<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thank you! I have three commercial games, and picking up any of them is more than enough to support me <3 I’m fortunate enough that those games do well enough to pay the bills, and that I can therefore spend some of my time on freeware projects<\/p>\n

I have a lot of disjointed thoughts about roblox and monetisation, but I figured, at least at this point, it was more constructive for me to put a pin in that and focus on just making a nice free thing<\/p>\n

I did try to think about how I might put some Roblox products in the game, but I couldn’t think of anything I liked. As someone who makes a living from “premium” games, I’m coming at this from a very different perspective and tbh I don’t even know where I’d start<\/p>\n

(I particular, I really don’t like the idea of charging for level skips, or anything that fundamental to the player’s experience of the game)<\/p>\n

@Ctrl_Xthroat: If Roblox allowed you to use its tools to create and publish your own game retail, would you?<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maybe? Definitely not no. The Roblox tools are really nice.<\/p>\n

Deleted user: was roblox’s editor accessible enough to design features?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sort of tangentially to this question: something I discovered quite late in the process is making your own Roblox plugins, and just how easy and powerful that is. I made my own “Stairmaster” plugin for placing the steps at the opening challenge!<\/p>\n

Roblox Plugins are incredibly simple – they’re *just* scripts that you can attach to buttons in the main UI, so you can easily make your own custom tools to do whatever you like inside the editor. developer.roblox.com\/en-us\/articles\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

@goo3r: Given how many engines and tools you’ve used to make games. Where would you situate Roblox in terms of usefulness, ease of use, etc?<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The last time I used Unity was 2011. I’ve only really taken a quick look at Godot. I’ve never used Unreal. It’s possible that the reason I enjoyed working with Roblox Studio so much is that it’s my first real encounter with a modern 3D game engine.<\/p>\n

@JigxorAndy: Do you think you could make a viable business out of selling plugins on their marketplace?<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Very hard for me to judge, tbh. There seems to be a fairly short list of Roblox plugins that people commonly use. The real appeal is that you can just make your own, fairly easily.<\/p>\n

Deleted User: I didn’t realize Roblox itself is F2P… did you (need to) spend money to create your level?<\/p>\n

Bonus question: does the engine have support for anything other than 3D-platforming-ish gameplay?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Both questions worth answering here: the tools to make and play roblox content are completely free – up to a point. Once you want to upload assets like sounds or textures, they charge a small moderation fee. I was also charged for creating badges.<\/p>\n

I probably spent somewhere around ~700 Robux in the end, which works out at about $2.50. (Whoops, sorry, that’s actually very badly off, brain misfire. It’s closer to like $10.)<\/p>\n

As for the other question: Yes! It’s a little hard to find examples of this, but you have full control over characters, cameras, shaders, everything you’d expect in a 3D engine. You can make Roblox games that look nothing like Roblox, if you like.<\/p>\n

There’s a great thread here of Roblox “showcases”, where people make visually impressive Roblox places: devforum.roblox.com\/t\/the-great-li\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Deleted User: There\u2019s paid access feature you can enable for games, which gives you ability to set a price for a game to buy and get access. This works well and atleast makes developer put less ingame monetization.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, interestingly, you can just straight up charge for Roblox games! I’ve only actually seen one game that does it, but it’s apparently hugely successful.<\/p>\n

@presssssure: did you run into any snags with server\/client stuff like things not replicating correctly, and how easy were those fix compared to what you’ve worked with previously?<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ok, yes: this is sort of a big question. The number one thing to say here is that Roblox makes multiplayer game design more accessible than *anything* else I’ve ever played with.<\/p>\n

By default, Roblox just sort of magically handles server replication, and if you’re making a certain type of game, you basically don’t need to worry about networking at all. That’s kind of amazing!<\/p>\n

But it’s not perfect – even for an Obby, you do need to think about client versus server code a fair bit if you want things to feel good. In the end, I moved almost all the code in Giant Man to be client side.<\/p>\n

Once you get your head around how it’s structured, Roblox’s approach to multiplayer code is pretty sensible. I banged my head against things a few times, and I think there are some things that could be clearer, but for the most part it’s very nice to work with.<\/p>\n

It’s worth repeating: there’s basically nothing else out there which makes multiplayer game design so accessible. It’s really the big thing Roblox has going for it.<\/p>\n

Ok, I think I can safely wrap up now – thank you for the questions! I consider Climb the Giant Man Obby a very successful side project, and I am very glad to have spent time making it!<\/p>\n

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As a first Roblox project for learning the ropes, I think an Obby was a very good choice. But a huge part of the appeal of Roblox for me is the multiplayer stuff, and it’s a bit of a shame that there isn’t more of that in the Giant Man.<\/p>\n

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So whatever my next Roblox project is (probably not for a while), I’m excited for it to explore something with a more explicit multiplayer focus!<\/p>\n

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That’s it, THREAD COMPLETE! (thanks for reading, all <3 )<\/p>\n

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Bonus: Advertising the Giant Man Experience -><\/a><\/big><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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