Roblox Weekly: May 14–20, 2023
Cast your nominees in the 2023 Innovation Awards, information on UGC avatar bodies, and new Terrain Editor improvements.
Welcome to Roblox Weekly, a newsletter series covering the latest and greatest news, announcements, and events that happen on the Roblox platform. Let’s recap everything that happened for the week of May 14–20, 2023…
2023 Innovation Awards: Nominations Open
Every year, Roblox hosts an awards show honoring the most innovative creators, video stars, and experiences. This year, the Innovation Awards are back and will be hosted live from the 2023 Roblox Developers Conference on September 9, 2023! Right now, there is a form where you can write in your nominations for each category. View the full list of nominations and more information in the Blog post below:
UGC Avatar Bodies Guidelines
Soon, Creators publishing accessories to the Avatar Marketplace can upload custom bodies (Bundles) and, soon after, standalone Heads. This is a huge step in Roblox’s vision to have a 100% community driven Marketplace. Today, Roblox released their guidelines in preparation for the full release “in the coming months.” In the coming weeks, Roblox will be releasing additional tools and resources to help with the creation process, including a set of template heads and bodies with documentation, a staging environment to help QA test avatars with clothing and animations, and a full set of guidelines and technical requirements.
Roblox’s Vision: Online Dating?
On Wednesday, Roblox released a Blog post detailing how their vision is to build a platform that is for everyone of any age. In this post, CEO Dave Baszucki made a statement that shocked the community:
In a distant future, Roblox could envision different types of experiences, like virtual dating for older age groups, indie movie screenings and new forms of content such as news and hot topics. — Roblox CEO Dave Baszucki
Creator Roadmap: Part 2
Last week, Roblox released the new Creator Roadmap, a new place where Roblox will share products they’re building specifically for creators and solutions they are investigating to address the pain points you’ve shared. This week, the second of four installments was revealed, and focuses on new ways to grow and engage your audience on the platform.
Improvements to the Terrain Editor
A wide range of improvements and additions have been made to the Terrain Editor in Studio, including simplifying the toolset, gizmo updates, and more coming soon.
Draw and Sculpt Tools
The draw tool replaces what used to be the add and subtract tools. The sculpt tool replaces what used to be the grow and erode tools.
Select Tool
The terrain editor now has a universal region selection, which gets used by all region-based tools, including generate and import.
Transform Tool
The transform tool helps with placing terrain. You enter this tool automatically when performing a paste or duplicate action. In order to perform a standard move, rotate, and/or scale operation just enter the tool manually after making a selection.
Gizmo Updates
All region selection mechanisms now use the same region selection in-viewport gizmo, this includes the generate and import tools. The Select Tool also shows a wireframe that approximates the terrain that is included within the current selection.
DragDetectors (Beta)
DragDetectors are a new instance type designed to make interacting with objects easy for Creators. They enable easy mapping of cursor/dragging actions to intuitive motions in 3D space. DragDetectors are highly customizable. You can choose from a wide array of drag styles, set directions and limits, and define how objects respond to the motion. DragDetectors work with anchored objects (will stay where you leave them) and unanchored objects (will apply physics as you drag and when you let go) so you can create the perfect interaction for your experience.
Team Create Presence
Presence makes collaboration easier by showing currently active users across your Team Create places on the start page. You can view the online status in Studio and on the Creator Dashboard.
And that’s a wrap! Thanks for tuning in to this week’s Roblox Weekly. Come back here next week to see what Roblox will be up to next. To keep up to date with the latest and greatest Roblox news, follow Bloxy News on social media.
