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Interesting. Seems like a Typescript for Lua. The Roblox platform is a great testing platform for it I am sure.

by eggy 6y ago

giancarlostoro 6y ago
I gave this game a try last night, it was amusing all the different types of games you could potentially play, I was wondering who developed each one. It seems you can build your own games (game modes? unsure of the term for Roblox) and earn some income on it. I had no idea it was done in Lua, might give it a shot to see what is possible.
- QuesnayJr 6y ago
  Roblox is like a game engine that you can script in Lua, plus the servers to run the engine for you. The barrier to entry to make a game is relatively low -- making an obstacle-course game requires almost no coding, for example.
- kitd 6y ago
  My son spends his life on Roblox. If you're ever after beta testers? ;)
  - exikyut 6y ago
    Hmm, that's a good idea - connecting interested kids directly with Roblox developers and letting them play around in/QC alpha-stage worlds. That would teach the value of iteration, failing forward and how to deal with imperfection at a very early age. Of course reality is not a vacuum and there would be a lot of noise though :)
  - giancarlostoro 6y ago
    Ah man! I'm just starting to learn, so if I get far enough along maybe I'll write up a blog post and submit it on here documenting my concept, still unsure what I want to do currently though.
- homarp 6y ago
  https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/28/roblox-jumps-to-over-150m-monthly-users-will-pay-out-250m-to-developers-in-2020/ https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/28/roblox-jumps-to-over-150m-... Roblox has 150m users. will pay 250m to devs. 2020 dev conference talks are now avail https://developer.roblox.com/en-us/resources/rdc https://developer.roblox.com/en-us/resources/rdc
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- AnonsLadder 6y ago
  I've played this a lot back when Roblox was still brand spanking new. It's absolutely a lucrative area if you can manage to make multiple game-modes with people buying your in-game items for RBux (RBux is the premium currency roblox, which can be used to extend your developer membership or be redeemed to cash). Those big game modes out there with a lot of traffic are actually making real decent money. The game is played by millions of kids willing to spend money on cosmetics/advantage on game-modes. If I recall, I think it was 2017, Roblox rewarded $200k to a young developer for his work on a DayZ Roblox clone.
- chc4 6y ago
  Roblox is essentially a full on game engine and store now, comparable to Unity + Steam with free, automatic cloud hosting and matchmaking. There's a lot of daily users, and the top earners on the platform make multiple millions of dollars from it. I first learned programming due to Roblox. It's really easy to pick up, and you can make almost whatever type of game you want. I honestly believe that highschool programming classes should universally use it for introducing how to code rather than Javascript or Unity.
  - jwatte 6y ago
    The way I see it, Unreal is eating Unity from above, extending down, and Roblox is eating Unity from below, developing awesome new technologies. Gotta be hard being Unity :-) Roblox has tons of innovation. It has a volumetric/voxel based lighting system. It has networked rigid body dynamics built right in. It lets you take your avatar between each game, keeping your look. And you can late-join any game -- you don't need to be there "at the start." Some games have tens of thousands of moving pieces, yet load reasonably quickly. Check out the tornado in Natural Disaster Survival for a good example!
- eggy 6y ago
  I've been playing with Minetest instead, because it is easier to work in isolation without a Roblox server. Can you run a Roblox server in single player mode?
  - monkeypizza 6y ago
    Yes, and you can run a local server as part of the test functionality in Studio.
    - eggy 6y ago
      Thanks! I'll give it a try this weekend. I tend to isolate, so social gaming is not my comfort zone, which is why I like to play Minetest on my local machine by myself. I do play with my kids in the same game on one computer though, so there is hope ;)
- McKayDavis 6y ago
  Please check out Roblox Studio [1], the free Win/Mac IDE for creating and publishing games on the platform. Also look at the developer site [2], where you can find documentation, tutorials, and an awesome, active community in the developer forum [3]. [1] https://roblox.com/create https://roblox.com/create [2] https://developer.roblox.com https://developer.roblox.com [3] https://devforum.roblox.com https://devforum.roblox.com (disclaimer: I'm an engineer on the Roblox Studio team)
  - giancarlostoro 6y ago
    After having read this HN post this morning I went ahead and installed the studio, it's pretty damn nice, there's a bit to unload for me mentally but I love the whole thing so far, you can test within the IDE and switch between user / server which seems interesting. I'm currently teaching myself Godot so I can make some games on my time off but this seems like an even easier approach given that a lot of graphics are already available plus the user base. I guess now I have to learn how this all works, and what kind of games most users like so I can try to make something interesting and different. Thanks for the links, so far from what I can see Roblox Studio is pretty good!
minxomat 6y ago
There is a typescript for lua: https://github.com/teal-language/tl https://github.com/teal-language/tl
- dgb23 6y ago
  Is it actually a TS for Lua or does it use the annotations to improve performance?
  - MaxBarraclough 6y ago
    It transpiles to plain Lua, so presumably it doesn't improve performance. https://github.com/teal-language/tl/blob/master/docs/about.md https://github.com/teal-language/tl/blob/master/docs/about.m...
  - minxomat 6y ago
    No, literally TS. It compiles to plain Lua, doesn't add any language features apart from types, has an equivalent strict mode and uses .d.tl files just like .d.ts
Kinrany 6y ago
There's also roblox-ts: a fork of the TypeScript compiler that compiles to Lua with Roblox's runtime. https://roblox-ts.com/ https://roblox-ts.com/

Interesting. Seems like a Typescript for Lua. The Roblox platform is a great testing platform for it I am sure.

by eggy 6y ago

Interesting. Seems like a Typescript for Lua. The Roblox platform is a great testing platform for it I am sure.

I gave this game a try last night, it was amusing all the different types of games you could potentially play, I was wondering who developed each one. It seems you can build your own games (game modes? unsure of the term for Roblox) and earn some income on it. I had no idea it was done in Lua, might give it a shot to see what is possible.

QuesnayJr 6y ago
Roblox is like a game engine that you can script in Lua, plus the servers to run the engine for you. The barrier to entry to make a game is relatively low -- making an obstacle-course game requires almost no coding, for example.
kitd 6y ago
My son spends his life on Roblox. If you're ever after beta testers? ;)
- exikyut 6y ago
  Hmm, that's a good idea - connecting interested kids directly with Roblox developers and letting them play around in/QC alpha-stage worlds. That would teach the value of iteration, failing forward and how to deal with imperfection at a very early age. Of course reality is not a vacuum and there would be a lot of noise though :)
- giancarlostoro 6y ago
  Ah man! I'm just starting to learn, so if I get far enough along maybe I'll write up a blog post and submit it on here documenting my concept, still unsure what I want to do currently though.
homarp 6y ago
https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/28/roblox-jumps-to-over-150m-monthly-users-will-pay-out-250m-to-developers-in-2020/ https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/28/roblox-jumps-to-over-150m-... Roblox has 150m users. will pay 250m to devs. 2020 dev conference talks are now avail https://developer.roblox.com/en-us/resources/rdc https://developer.roblox.com/en-us/resources/rdc
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
AnonsLadder 6y ago
I've played this a lot back when Roblox was still brand spanking new. It's absolutely a lucrative area if you can manage to make multiple game-modes with people buying your in-game items for RBux (RBux is the premium currency roblox, which can be used to extend your developer membership or be redeemed to cash). Those big game modes out there with a lot of traffic are actually making real decent money. The game is played by millions of kids willing to spend money on cosmetics/advantage on game-modes. If I recall, I think it was 2017, Roblox rewarded $200k to a young developer for his work on a DayZ Roblox clone.
chc4 6y ago
Roblox is essentially a full on game engine and store now, comparable to Unity + Steam with free, automatic cloud hosting and matchmaking. There's a lot of daily users, and the top earners on the platform make multiple millions of dollars from it. I first learned programming due to Roblox. It's really easy to pick up, and you can make almost whatever type of game you want. I honestly believe that highschool programming classes should universally use it for introducing how to code rather than Javascript or Unity.
- jwatte 6y ago
  The way I see it, Unreal is eating Unity from above, extending down, and Roblox is eating Unity from below, developing awesome new technologies. Gotta be hard being Unity :-) Roblox has tons of innovation. It has a volumetric/voxel based lighting system. It has networked rigid body dynamics built right in. It lets you take your avatar between each game, keeping your look. And you can late-join any game -- you don't need to be there "at the start." Some games have tens of thousands of moving pieces, yet load reasonably quickly. Check out the tornado in Natural Disaster Survival for a good example!
eggy 6y ago
I've been playing with Minetest instead, because it is easier to work in isolation without a Roblox server. Can you run a Roblox server in single player mode?
- monkeypizza 6y ago
  Yes, and you can run a local server as part of the test functionality in Studio.
  - eggy 6y ago
    Thanks! I'll give it a try this weekend. I tend to isolate, so social gaming is not my comfort zone, which is why I like to play Minetest on my local machine by myself. I do play with my kids in the same game on one computer though, so there is hope ;)
McKayDavis 6y ago
Please check out Roblox Studio [1], the free Win/Mac IDE for creating and publishing games on the platform. Also look at the developer site [2], where you can find documentation, tutorials, and an awesome, active community in the developer forum [3]. [1] https://roblox.com/create https://roblox.com/create [2] https://developer.roblox.com https://developer.roblox.com [3] https://devforum.roblox.com https://devforum.roblox.com (disclaimer: I'm an engineer on the Roblox Studio team)
- giancarlostoro 6y ago
  After having read this HN post this morning I went ahead and installed the studio, it's pretty damn nice, there's a bit to unload for me mentally but I love the whole thing so far, you can test within the IDE and switch between user / server which seems interesting. I'm currently teaching myself Godot so I can make some games on my time off but this seems like an even easier approach given that a lot of graphics are already available plus the user base. I guess now I have to learn how this all works, and what kind of games most users like so I can try to make something interesting and different. Thanks for the links, so far from what I can see Roblox Studio is pretty good!

minxomat 6y ago

There is a typescript for lua: https://github.com/teal-language/tl https://github.com/teal-language/tl

dgb23 6y ago
Is it actually a TS for Lua or does it use the annotations to improve performance?
- MaxBarraclough 6y ago
  It transpiles to plain Lua, so presumably it doesn't improve performance. https://github.com/teal-language/tl/blob/master/docs/about.md https://github.com/teal-language/tl/blob/master/docs/about.m...
- minxomat 6y ago
  No, literally TS. It compiles to plain Lua, doesn't add any language features apart from types, has an equivalent strict mode and uses .d.tl files just like .d.ts

Kinrany 6y ago

There's also roblox-ts: a fork of the TypeScript compiler that compiles to Lua with Roblox's runtime. https://roblox-ts.com/ https://roblox-ts.com/