Every week, we’re busy telling the stories behind our community, our technology and our place in the gaming and technology industries. For those of you who catch up with us over the weekend, the Weekly Roundup collects the best stuff to hit our various avenues of publication in the last week. This time: an expansion to user-uploaded sounds, two Studio updates (Script Modules and plugin management), the January BLOXcast livestream, the 2014 event-location survey, a bunch of games you should definitely play, and other bits and pieces. Enjoy.

Seven-day blog recap

The 2014 updates started rollin’ last week. We saw sound uploads get a significant extension and price reduction — from 15 to 120 seconds and from 250 to 100 ROBUX, respectively — making it much easier for game developers to integrate fleshed-out soundtracks and a greater variety of effects.

On top of that, Studio received a pair of welcome updates: support for Script Modules and a brand-new plugin-management enhancement. While Modules are particularly useful for hardcore scripters who want to write the most efficient and organized game code possible, the plugin-management enhancement is a welcome addition to every Studio user. Rather than installing plugins via third-party websites and manually moving files, they are now centralized on ROBLOX.com and can be installed with just a few clicks from within ROBLOX Studio. Convenience!

Last week also brought the second official BLOXcast livestream, which has been archived for playback at any time. In fact, it’s embedded here for — if you can believe it — even more convenience.

And we’d be remiss not to mention the launch of a survey to help us determine where we should go for ROBLOX events in 2014. If you still want to chime in, feel free to fill it out and let us know where you think we should go!

You should play this game

Andrew’s pick: Le Bote

Le Bote is the latest game from NearmissTFW, who’s also known for Wingz World V, a large-scale flight simulator. Le Bote is, in a sense, the sea-baring version of Wingz World V crossed with the classic Battleship board game. You customize a ship (with better craft becoming available as you earn experience) and deploy it, then head into a grand battle with the opposing team. From a distance, you’ll see rounds arching across the sea — and it looks cool. When you get up close, it’s not such a surreal sight, as those rounds are probably raining down on you. Despite the size of the ships and level, things move quickly, and it’s fun to experiment with different weapon and craft combinations.

Alan’s pick: Operation Overlord – Omaha Beach: Dog Red

Operation Overlord – Omaha Beach is a fun and frantic WWII recreation where you can re-enact one of the great military operations of history. There are three separate teams, and if you find yourself fighting on the side of the Americans, you actually get to storm the beach — ever see the beginning of Saving Private Ryan? You get the idea. The sound effects of the weapons are top-notch — they echo in a very distinct way that makes the gun you’re holding feel powerful. There’s also a great deal of strategy involved. Utilizing vehicles and cover is paramount to winning.

Maxxz’s latest game reviews

Bits

• An awesome new Twitter account known as @RbxDevTips came to be last week, with content curated by real ROBLOX developers. If you’re into building and scripting, this is definitely worth following. We hope these guys keep it up — invaluable tips.
• I’m not 100% sure what this means, but it seemed to elicit some excitement among developers.
• Apocalypse Rising has amassed enough of a core following that it now has its own subreddit. We’d love to see more of this for other ROBLOX games!
• Another reason to use the recently released Script Modules feature.
• ROBLOX calligraphy spotted on the ROBLOX subreddit. Very nice.
• Yes. Do.
• Batman vs. Superman: The Truth

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