Coding Roblox Games Made Easy: Create, publish, and monetize your games on Roblox with AI and analytics. 3 Ed

Coding Roblox Games Made Easy....2 Third Edition....2 Create, publish, and monetize your games on Roblox with AI and analytics....2 Coding Roblox Games Made Easy....3 Contributors....5 About the author....5 About the reviewer....6 Table of Contents....8 Preface....18 Who this book is for....18 What this book covers....18 To get the most out of this book....19 Download the example code files....20 Download the color images....20 Conventions used....20 Get in touch....21 Subscribe to Game Dev Assembly!....22 Free benefits with your book....23 How to Unlock....24 Share your thoughts....25 Part 1....26 Introduction to Roblox Development....26 1....28 Introducing Roblox Development....28 Technical requirements....29 Learning about the benefits of Roblox development....29 Financial opportunities on Roblox....29 Improving professional skills....31 Benefits of networking....31 Discovering developer types....32 Programmers....33 Modelers....33 Builders....33 UIUX designers....33 Knowing what to expect from your early projects....34 Summary....36 Worksheet....36 Get this book's PDF version and more....37 2....38 Knowing Your Work Environment....38 Technical requirements....38 What is an experience?....39 Navigating the Creator dashboard....39 The Creator Store and Marketplace....41 Getting started with Roblox Studio....42 The File menu and settings....43 The Window menu....45 Movement and camera manipulation....46 Utilizing the Explorer....48 Using Studio tools....50 The Select tool....50 The Move tool....50 The Scale tool....51 The Rotate tool....52 The Transform tool....52 Managing collaborators....52 Managing game settings....53 The Basic Info tab....53 The Communication tab....54 The Permissions tab....54 The Monetization tab....56 The Security tab....58 The Places tab....58 The Localization tab....58 The Avatar tab....59 The World tab....59 The Other tab....59 Testing your experience....60 Using the Test button....60 Test....61 Test Here....61 Run....61 Team Test....61 Server & Clients....62 Using Emulator options....62 Customizing Studio to aid your workflow....63 Covering other Creator dashboard features....64 The Engagement category....65 The Analytics category....65 Promoting your Roblox experience....65 Taking advantage of Roblox's resources....67 Tutorials and resources....67 The Developer Forum and Talent Hub....67 Summary....69 Worksheet....69 Get this book's PDF version and more....70 Part 2....72 Programming in Roblox....72 3....74 Introduction to Luau....74 Technical requirements....75 Learning about data types and creating variables....75 Data types....75 Setting and manipulating variables....78 Numbers....79 Booleans....80 Strings....80 Tables....83 Dictionaries....85 Vectors....86 CFrame type....88 Instances....92 Conditional statements....92 Declaring and using loops....96 for loops....96 while loops....99 repeat loops....100 Learning about functions and events....101 Functions in programming....101 Recursion....104 Events and methods of instances....107 Demonstrating programming style and efficiency....109 General style rules....109 Roblox-specific rules....110 Summary....111 Worksheet....111 Get this book's PDF version and more....112 4....114 Roblox Programming Scenarios....114 Technical requirements....114 Understanding the client-server model....115 Different script types....115 Scripts....116 Local scripts....116 Modules....117 The Script tab....118 RemoteEvent....121 RemoteFunction....122 BindableEvent and BindableFunction....124 Using Roblox services....125 Players service....125 ReplicatedStorage and ServerStorage....127 StarterGui....128 StarterPack and StarterPlayer....128 PolicyService....130 PhysicsService....130 UserInputService....131 Working with physics....132 Constraints....132 Movement constraints....135 Adding peripheral experience aspects....139 Sound....139 Lighting....142 Other effects....144 Summary....145 Worksheet....146 Get this book's PDF version and more....146 5....148 Creating an Obby....148 Technical requirements....148 Setting up the backend....149 Managing player data....150 Creating a datastore system....151 Creating and loading session data....152 Manipulating session data....155 Saving player data....156 Addressing throttling and edge cases....157 Managing collisions and player characters....161 Making obby stages....163 Creating part behaviors....163 Creating rewards....170 Shops and purchases....172 Robux premium purchases....172 Making in-experience currency shops....179 Preventing exploits....182 Setting up the frontend....182 Creating effects....182 Sound....183 Particles....184 Tying in effects....185 Part movement....186 Testing and publication....188 Summary....190 Worksheet....190 Get this book's PDF version and more....191 6....192 Creating a Battle Royale Game....192 Technical requirements....192 Setting up the backend....193 Managing player data....194 Creating weapons....195 Creating the weapon system....196 Adding a handle....196 Adding ToolHandler....198 Implementing hit detection....199 Creating a projectile visualizer....200 Adding gun effects....202 Setting fire behaviors....202 Firing and hitting an object....203 Verifying the hit....205 Determining the damage....208 Local replication....210 Setting up the round system....213 Preparing the player....216 Spawning loot....221 Setting up the frontend....225 Working with the UI....225 Game message and remaining players display....225 Making a spectate menu....230 Creating a shop....236 Summary....237 Worksheet....238 Get this book's PDF version and more....238 Part 3....240 The Logistics of Game Production....240 7....242 Boosting Your Game with AI and Analytics....242 Technical requirements....242 Tracking key Roblox-provided analytics....243 Engagement....244 Retention....244 Monetization....245 Benchmarking....246 Breakdowns and exports....247 Acquisition and demographics....247 Introduction to using Gamebeast....247 Getting started with Gamebeast....248 Understanding basic KPIs....249 Collecting custom data....250 The query builder....251 Metrics....252 Aggregations....253 Filters....253 Breakdowns....254 Configuring the visualization....254 Funnels....254 Heatmaps....256 Retention....257 User cohorts....258 Remote configuration....258 Experiments....259 Remote actions....261 Shareable Dashboards....261 Portfolio analysis....262 AI analysis....262 Roblox AI features....263 Assistant....263 Code assist....265 Assistance for creative applications....265 Limitations and best practices....265 Mastering using data....266 The Data-Driven development loop....266 Prioritizing what to measure....267 Using funnels to diagnose Drop-Offs....267 Using heatmaps for spatial optimization....268 Experiment best practices....268 Building a data culture....269 Summary....269 Worksheet....270 Get this book's PDF version and more....270 8....272 The Three Ms....272 Technical requirements....273 Mechanics....273 Simulators....273 RP games....274 Tycoons....275 Minigames....276 Monetization....276 Marketing....278 The Roblox promotion system....278 Content creators....279 Community....279 Summary....280 Worksheet....280 Get this book's PDF version and more....281 9....282 50 Cool Things to Do on Roblox....282 Technical requirements....282 Programming challenges....282 Is number x divisible by y?....282 FizzBuzz....283 Finding the maximum value in a table....283 Checking whether an element exists in a table....283 Formatting seconds into hours:minutes:seconds....283 Returning unique elements from a table....284 Finding the number of stickers....284 Concatenating two tables....284 Reversing a table....284 Sorting a table using table.sort()....284 Sorting a table using a sorting algorithm of your choice....285 Solving a linear equation....285 A guessing game....285 Finding the nth number of a Fibonacci sequence....285 Experience systems....286 Making a leaderboard system....286 Building an announcement system....287 Making a daily reward system....288 Creating an interaction system....288 Making a custom ProximityPrompt appearance....288 Making a world lighting system....290 Making a projectile system....290 Making a car system....290 Making a racing system....291 Making an aircraft system....291 Making a ship system....291 Making fighting NPCs....292 Making a survival system....292 Creating an inventory system....292 Making a pet system....293 Making a crafting menu....294 Creating a house customization system....294 Experience ideas....295 Simulators....295 Tycoons....296 Role-playing games....297 Roblox features....298 Group name changes....298 Free badge creation....298 Spatial voice....298 Mesh deformation....298 Layered clothing....300 Flipbooks....300 Custom materials....301 Talent hub....301 Other development types....301 Plugins....302 UIUX design....302 Art....302 Clothing design....302 Thumbnailsicons....302 Particle design....302 Sound and music design....303 Animations....303 Summary....303 Reviewing what you've learned and some final words....303 Get this book's PDF version and more....304 10....306 Unlock Your Exclusive Benefits....306 Unlock this Book's Free Benefits in 3 Easy Steps....307 Step 1....307 Step 2....308 Step 3....309 Need Help....309 11....310 Worksheet Answers....310 Chapter 1: Introducing Roblox Development....310 Chapter 2: Knowing Your Work Environment....311 Chapter 3: Introduction to Luau....312 Chapter 4: Roblox Programming Scenarios....313 Chapter 5: Creating an Obby....314 Chapter 6: Creating a Battle Royale Game....315 Chapter 7: Boosting Your Game with AI and Analytics....316 Chapter 8: The Three Ms....317 Why subscribe?....320 Other Books You May Enjoy....321 Packt is searching for authors like you....323 Share your thoughts....323 Index....324