Funky Little Roblox World Thing

When deciding what to make for my personal project, I decided to turn to one of the things I am most comfortable with when it comes to technology; games. I have always felt like one of the most important parts of any entertaining experience is what goes on in the background. When it comes to games, this often takes the form of things like the setting of certain levels or worlds. I decided to combine my past experience in Roblox's editor with my enjoyment of background settings to throw together a small map as a demo of what I could potentially do given more time and a clearer goal. Most importantly, it was a program I had used for fun when I was younger and as such I thought it would be easy to stay motivated and make something that was clearly meant to be enjoyed if I could enjoy the process of making it myself.

The only supplies needed are a computer, Roblox studio, and plugins for it - I chose the F3X Building Tools plugin because I always found it to be simple, intuitive, and capable. A mouse also helps greatly with productivity over something like a keyboard's touch pad.

I wasn't sure at first what I wanted to do for my personal project, and I spent a lot of time making tiny samples and abandoning them quickly. I think this was one of my biggest mistakes, as once I stuck to an idea I realized things came pretty naturally. I used a program I knew I would be able to use as a competent creative outlet and eventually got to work building a rocky map set in the clouds.

While there is undeniably a lot to process in Roblox Studio, especially when coding, nearly the only thing I needed to use was F3X to make my map. After downloading the plugin, going to the editor's plugin tab will let you open the program, from which you can place objects and customize a number of settings, from texture to orientation to size and so on. I actually found it very intuitive, and was able to get a lot done in a surprisingly brief time.

This process was a lot smoother than I expected, with most of my mistakes in this process being in the earlier stages when I was not sure what I wanted to do. Ultimately though, I went with a combination of natural and manmade elements to make a space that feels both a bit untouched and familiar to man all the same. I did some experimentation with importing premade models for grass, but got results that were somewhat dissatisfying. I think I learned playing into the blocky appearance was a good decision and helped the entire map feel more cohesive than it otherwise would. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with how things turned out, but would like to try to make a new map from scratch potentially at some point with my newfound experience giving me a clearer sense of direction.