The Ultimate Roblox Game Building Cookbook E-Book

Taylor Field-Draper

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Roblox is a massively popular online gaming platform, but it can be challenging to maneuver for beginners who don’t know where to start, as well as seasoned developers who tend to struggle with limited scripting tools that make transitioning from other platforms such as Unity more difficult.
The Ultimate Roblox Game Building Cookbook is an invaluable asset for any Roblox developer looking to take their skills to the next level. With a wide range of recipes, this Roblox book covers everything from the basics of game development on the platform to advanced techniques for creating immersive experiences.
As you progress through the chapters, you'll gain a deep understanding of the proper workflow and building methods that will enable you to create extraordinary virtual worlds. You'll gain insights into creating complex game mechanics, such as multiplayer games, working with textures, and special effects in games. This cookbook will also provide you with tips from top Roblox developers, as well as valuable guidance on how to monetize your games and stay up to date with the latest trends in the Roblox development community.
By the end of this book, you’ll have gained a comprehensive understanding of Roblox game development and design.

Leseprobe

The Ultimate Roblox Game Building Cookbook

Design immersive experiences with easy-to-follow recipes for world and game development

Taylor Field-Draper

BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI

The Ultimate Roblox Game Building Cookbook

Copyright © 2023 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Group Product Manager: Rohit Rajkumar

Publishing Product Manager: Urvi Sambhav Shah

Book Project Manager: Aishwarya Mohan

Senior Editor: Rashi Dubey

Technical Editor: K Bimala Singha

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First published: January 2024

Production reference: 1011223

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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B3 1RB, UK

ISBN 978-1-80512-159-6

www.packtpub.com

Dedicated to 11-year-old Taylor and his childhood dreams of becoming a Roblox builder.

Thank you to the ones who supported his journey to make those dreams a reality, including Natasha, Ducky, and friends and family. A special thanks to my little brother Levi whom I had the honor to play many hours of Roblox with.

Shout out to the Roblox community for providing a fun and collaborative environment for those dreams to become unbounded and limitless.

I hope that this book helps you cultivate the most powerful tool at your disposal – your imagination. Happy building!

– Taylor Field-Draper

Foreword

Taylor Field-Draper, otherwise known as Trustmeimrussian, is a veteran Roblox developer who has made a name for himself in the Roblox community for his high-quality standard of work and unmatched devotion to his craft. With over 15 years of experience years of experience under his belt, Taylor has refined his workflow and building practices in a way that ensures his maps are highly optimized, aesthetically pleasing, and organically understood by players of all ages. Taylor’s rise to popularity came in 2019 with his role in creating the Lil Nas X Concert Experience, after which he created many more virtual concerts and events on Roblox, ultimately playing a pivotal role in shaping the virtual event scene on the platform.

As an up-and-coming developer on the platform, Roblox Studio can be a confusing and intimidating program to use. With The Ultimate Roblox Game Building Cookbook, you will learn the fundamental tools and methods of building on Roblox Studio, as well as tips and tricks that will ease your development process and make your experience stand out from the rest. This book will also teach you the basics of monetizing your experience and the theory behind creating maps according to their gameplay style from the perspective of a graduate of the Roblox Accelerator Program. Developing alongside Taylor in this step-by-step process will leave you feeling prepared to create a multitude of high-caliber experiences.

During my time working with Taylor, I have come to understand how much he values sharing his expert knowledge of Roblox Studio with those who want to become developers themselves.

Taylor found building on Roblox to be a fun way to express himself during his younger years, and he anticipates that kids like him will be able to utilize their creativity in similar ways with the knowledge provided in this book.

– Natasha West, executive assistant, Microsoft

Contributors

About the author

Taylor Field-Draper is a veteran Roblox developer based in Alberta, Canada, who has been creating on the platform for over 15 years, specializing in level and game design, building, and 3D generalist work. At the time of writing this book, he works as the lead producer for special projects at Gamefam where he oversees the direction, conceptualization, and art production for some of Roblox’s most popular events, particularly virtual concerts. Prior to working at Gamefam, Taylor was a freelance game developer for numerous Roblox-focused studios and dozens of games that have collectively garnered billions of accumulative visits.

About the reviewers

Deep in the metaverse, Xeane Martinez hailed from the Roblox platform as both a developer and a game producer. His expertise lies in game design and project management, as he had the opportunity to work with some of the heavyweights in the industry. He had the pleasure of working with and leading multiple teams in making wonderful experiences on the Roblox platform. But before he took on leadership roles, he spent countless hours refining his developer skills as a level designer, environment artist, and game designer. He is what some people might call a Roblox veteran as he was on the platform for well over 11 years. His dedication and passion for the platform will continue to make more projects come to life!

I thank my peers and mentors for giving me the proper guidance and motivation to do what I genuinely love, and that is making fun and exciting games! I also thank my loved ones, my mother, my father, and my partner for fully supporting me on my daunting journey in the gaming industry. I would also like to thank all the people involved in this book for making it happen; you guys are the best!

Dean Pereira is a video game developer and graphic designer, formerly working in the advertising industry, who has experience working on mobile, PC, and Roblox games as a gameplay programmer and game designer. He is skilled in C#, Lua, Unity, Roblox, Amazon Web Services, Illustrator, and Photoshop.

Table of Contents

Preface

1

Getting Started with Studio Modeling

Technical requirements

Creating a chair

How to do it…

Building cactuses

How to do it…

There’s more…

Creating wooden crates

How to do it…

There’s more…

Building a functional TV

How to do it…

There’s more…

Creating a ladder

How to do it…

There’s more…

Making your bed

How to do it…

There’s more…

Creating a stone water well

How to do it…

2

Introduction to Solid Modeling and CSG Tools

Technical requirements

Carving out holes

How to do it…

Modeling a bowl of cereal

How to do it…

Engraving details onto surfaces

How to do it…

Unioning an arch

How to do it…

Creating a broken wall

How to do it…

From block to rock

How to do it…

3

Sculpting Terrain

Technical requirements

Generating large biomes

Getting ready

How to do it…

There’s more…

Creating large terrain landscapes from scratch

How to do it…

There’s more…

Stamping terrain with heightmap images

Getting ready

How to do it…

Modifying terrain properties

How to do it…

How it works…

Hand-sculpting hills

How to do it…

Creating an island in the ocean

How to do it…

There’s more…

Creating a desert landscape

How to do it…

Creating a mountain with a waterfall

Getting ready

How to do it…

Sculpting an erupted volcano

How to do it…

There’s more…

4

Learning to Use VFX

Technical requirements

Creating simple effects with fire, smoke, and sparkles

How to do it…

Creating hi-res fire with particles

How to do it…

Making volumetric smoke with particles

How to do it…

Beaming a laser

How to do it…

Flipbook particle explosion

How to do it…

Trailing behind players

How to do it…

Building a whirlwind

How to do it…

Snowflakes falling from above

How to do it…

5

Building a Multiplayer Obby

Technical requirements

Building the obby lobby

How to do it…

Creating the obby template

How to do it…

There’s more…

Creating stage 1 – Slide

How to do it…

Creating stage 2 – Truss course

How to do it…

Creating stage 3 – Lava

How to do it…

Creating stage 4 – Spinning blades

How to do it…

Building the winners’ area

How to do it…

Setting up respawn checkpoints

How to do it…

6

Designing a House

Technical requirements

Blueprinting your house

How to do it…

Building out the walls

How to do it…

There’s more…

Adding windows, doors, and floors

How to do it…

Grayboxing the props

How to do it…

There’s more…

Adding lights and ceilings

How to do it…

There’s more…

Creating a roof and front overhang

How to do it…

Finalizing your house

How to do it…

7

Single-Player Map Flow

Technical requirements

Planning your map

How to do it…

Drawing the player forward

How to do it…

Creating a locked door

How to do it…

There’s more…

Adding obstacles

How to do it…

Building out the map

How to do it…

Creating an atmosphere with lighting

How to do it…

There’s more…

Adding ambient sounds

How to do it…

8

Building a PvP Map

Technical requirements

Planning your layout

Getting ready

How to do it…

Grayboxing the map

How to do it…

Risk-versus-reward spots

How to do it…

Placing props for cover

How to do it…

Creating an outer perimeter

How to do it…

Adding volumetric lighting

How to do it…

Finishing the map

Getting ready

How to do it…

9

Monetizing Your Experience

Technical requirements

Gamepasses

How to do it…

Developer products

How to do it…

Paid access

How to do it…

There’s more…

Private servers

How to do it…

There’s more…

Engagement-based payouts

How to do it…

10

Extra Building Recipes

Technical requirements

Modifying a weapon system

How to do it…

Swords as tools

How to do it…

There’s more…

Vehicle system basics

How to do it…

Building a custom emote bar

How to do it…

Enabling Team Create

How to do it…

There’s more…

Customizing your game settings

How to do it…

Index

Other Books You May Enjoy

1

Getting Started with Studio Modeling

Roblox Studio is unique in its use of parts. A part is the fundamental building block in Roblox Studio that can be used to create literally anything in an experience. Parts can be moved, resized, and rotated. The properties of a part, such as the color and material, can also be adjusted to affect its appearance.

In this chapter, we will be manipulating parts in many ways to develop an understanding of the use of parts in creating an experience on Roblox Studio. We will be using the basic tools provided by Roblox Studio to create various props and assets that will be used to furnish and decorate many of the scenes we will be creating in the proceeding chapters of this book. We will learn how to use the MaterialFlip plugin to properly orientate textures applied to parts, and utilize a technique called shingling to make our assets stand out in terms of quality. Finally, we will learn about the different methods of creating ladders using parts and trusses.

The following is a list of the recipes found within this chapter:

Creating a chairBuilding cactusesCreating wooden cratesBuilding a functional TVCreating a ladderMaking your bedCreating a stone water well

Technical requirements

You will need the latest version of Roblox Studio downloaded. In this chapter, we will be building with primitive parts, which can be found in the build kit model located inside the Chapter 1 folder at https://packt.link/gbz/9781805121596.

Alternatively, you can use parts directly from the Part drop-down menu found in Roblox Studio.

Creating a chair

In this recipe, we will be creating a chair prop using primitive-shaped parts. We will start by boxing out the shape of the chair with a primitive part and then attach a seat, which will allow players to sit on the chair. You will see how to orientate the seat part before we apply color and wood to our chair. We will finish off this recipe by using the MaterialFlip plugin, which can be downloaded from here: roblox.com/library/166951203.

How to do it…

We will begin by creating the basic shape of the chair out of square parts. We will further render out the chair’s shape by adding legs. Next, will add a seat part to the model and then detail the chair with color and the Wood material. To finish, we will correct the woodgrain of the chair using the MaterialFlip plugin.

So, to create a chair, follow these steps:

Insert a square part into Workspace by navigating to the Model tab in the top bar and then selecting the Part tab.Next, select the part and then navigate to the Property tab. In the Size value field, change the increments to 2, 1.5, 2.25 studs.Duplicate the square part and place it flush on top of the original part. Resize the duplicated part to 0.35, 2.5, 2.25 to make this the back of the chair.Rescale the original part to 2, 0.2, 2.25, which will be the seat of the chair. Adjust as necessary using the Scale and Move tools.Next, create four legs on each corner of the bottom of the chair using a square part scaled to 0.2, 1.3, 0.2 studs.Now, in the Model tab, select the Rotate tool. In the Snap to Grid part of the Model tab, checkmark the box labeled Rotate, and then change the number in the value field box to 5 degrees.Rotate each of the legs 5 degrees outward on the x and z axes. You can see a before-and-after comparison in Figure 1.1:

Figure 1.1: Rotated chair legs

Now, to make sure there’s no gap between the legs and the chair seat, select all four legs and then use the Move tool to move the legs upward so the tops of the legs are hidden inside of the chair part.Next, insert a Seat object from Toolbox or the Chapter 1 folder.Next, place the Seat object onto the chair with the yellow marker facing where the player’s legs will point. You can press Ctrl + R and Ctrl + T to rotate the seat or part selected:

Figure 1.2: A seat object placed on the chair

Change the transparency of the seat to 1 by navigating to the Appearance tab found within the seat’s Properties box.Change the color of the chair to (108, 88, 75).Next, change the chair part Material type to Wood.If your wood grain does not flow the proper way, select the MaterialFlip plugin found in the Plugin tab within the top bar and then click on the part with improper woodgrain to flip the texture’s orientation:

Figure 1.3: Images of incorrect (left) and correct (right) woodgrain

Select all of the parts of the chair and then checkmark the Anchored box found in the Properties menu. This will cause the parts to remain in place and not be affected by physics.With all of the parts still selected, click Ctrl + G to group the parts of the chair, and name the model Chair within the Workspace.

This completes this recipe for creating a chair:

Figure 1.4: Completed chair model

You now should have a basic understanding of how to manipulate parts within Roblox Studio, set transparency, and use seat parts.

Building cactuses

Creating smooth yet optimal rounded ends can sometimes be a challenge on Roblox. In the following recipe, we will build a variety of cactuses through a workflow method that allows you to line up the rounded corner edges seamlessly together. We will be working with both cylindrical and spherical parts to give the cactus a proper non-blocky shape and will then learn how to rapidly create new variants of the original model. We will complete the recipe by applying differing colors and materials to give each cactus its own distinct look.

How to do it…

We will be building the body and arms out of cylinder parts. We will then then use spheres to round the elbows on the cactus arms. Finally, we will apply color and material to the model. To begin this recipe, follow these steps:

Start by navigating to the Model tab and selecting the Part drop-down arrow. Next, select the Cylinder option to insert a cylinder part onto the baseplate.Rescale the cylinder part to your desired height. In this example, the cylinder part being used is 12 studs tall and 2 studs wide. This will be the body of the cactus.Next, duplicate the body.Rotate the duplicated part 90 degrees so that, together, both parts create a t shape. This creates arms for the cactus, which you can rescale to differing lengths.Next, we will be creating three spheres to fit on both ends of the arms and the top of the cactus. First, we need to get the size of each sphere. To do this, select a part on the cactus and copy the number in the Size input box within the Property tab.

For this example, the cactus body part size is 12, 2, 2, so the sphere should be scaled 2, 2, 2, as that is the proportionate size:

Figure 1.5: Ensure there is no crease between the ball and cylinder

Next, insert a sphere part and paste the dimensions that you copied in step 5 into the sphere’s Size box, found inside the part’s Properties box.Duplicate the sphere three times and move the added spheres to the ends of both arms and the top of the cactus, as seen in Figure 1.6.

If you’re having trouble placing the sphere in the center, copy the numbers in the Position box of the arm or body of the cactus and then paste the position number into the Position box of the sphere. This will center the sphere exactly in the middle of the arm or body, leaving you with something similar to Figure 1.6:

Figure 1.6: Finished basic model of the first cactu.

Now, duplicate the body of the cactus and move it along one of the arms to be flush with the spheres that we previously placed on the ends of each arm, creating a rounded elbow.Next, duplicate the sphere of the arm that you just placed a cylinder part onto and move it up to round the top of the cylinder part.Select all of the parts of the cactus and then anchor them.With all of the parts of the cactus still selected, group them together by pressing Ctrl + G.Next, rename your model Cactus from the explorer’s Workspace or the Properties box of the model.Now, select all the parts in the model and change the color to (127, 142, 100).Finally, change the material of all parts to Grass to finish your cactus model.

This completes the final step of the recipe and should leave you with the knowledge to work with sphere parts as well as to create clean elbow bends without getting misaligned seams:

Figure 1.7: Various cactus styles

There’s more…

The Move tool (Ctrl + 2) and the Rotate tool (Ctrl + 4) can be set to move or rotate in increments by typing a number into the Rotate and Move fields found under the Snap to Grid section of the Model tab. This allows for consistent placements of our parts. When doing this, it is best to move parts with increments that can be multiplied into whole numbers such as 1; for example, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 1. Use increments that add up to 360 when using the Rotate tool, such as 5, 15, 30, 90. This helps keep things aligned and scale better.

Creating wooden crates

One of the most widely used props across all genres of games is the humble crate. They come in many different shapes and sizes and make for a great asset that can be duplicated and stacked on top of one another. Crate models are also a prop that can be very easily scaled, stacked, and modified. In this recipe, we will be going over how to create a basic wooden crate model.

How to do it…

We will begin the recipe by creating a large cube and then creating an extruded outline along the top and bottom. Next, we will create corner and diagonal braces. To finish the recipe, we will apply color and material to the crate after we group and name the model.

Let us start:

Insert a square block part onto the baseplate.Rescale the part to be a large cube. In this recipe, the cube size being used is scaled 5, 5, 5 studs.Next, place a 0.5 x 0.5 stud block across one of the top sides of the cube. Have the part sticking out of the cube by 0.25 studs to create a lip.Duplicate the top part and add it to the other three top sides. It should look like what is shown in Figure 1.8:

Figure 1.8: Square block outline at the top with square parts

Duplicate the four parts at the top and move them to 0.25 studs below the bottom of the cube.Duplicate one of the side parts and then place it vertically on all four corners of the box. This completes the initial outline for the box: