Roblox 101: How to Make Your First Game

If you have children in your life, you’ve most likely have heard of Roblox, a popular, online platform where people play user-created games. Roblox isn’t just popular; it’s incredibly popular, featuring more than 43 million active players per day. What makes Roblox so appealing is that everything revolves around its “powering Imagination” mantra. Want to play as a pirate? You can! Want to be a western gun slinger? You can! Want to control a race car? You can! Even better, Roblox lets you create games, too. All you need is the free Roblox Studio app, patience, and a little creativity.

Many people think Roblox is similar to Minecraft, but that’s a big misunderstanding. Minecraft is a game; Roblox, on the other hand, is a platform that gives you the simple but powerful Lua scripting language to create and play a wide variety of games, including platformers, racers, and RPGs. So, if someone asked you if you play Roblox, it would be the equivalent of asking you if you play Java (a person should ask which games you’re playing on Roblox, such as Adopt Me! or Jailbreak). Simply put, Roblox and Minecraft offer radically different experiences.

Due to its multifaceted toolset, Roblox is a great place to learn how to make video games. We’ll walk you through how to make a Roblox game by creating a Super Mario Bros.-style side-scrolling title. By following this tutorial, you’ll create your own experiences with ease.

Please note that Roblox now refers to games as “experiences,” and for good reason. Games have defined rules and restrictions; that’s not often the case with Roblox titles. For simplicity, however, both “games” and “experiences” are referenced throughout this tutorial.

Ready to make your first Roblox game? All you need is a PC with an internet connection. Let’s go!

Creating and Starting Your Roblox Game

Easy, right? Now, it’s time to modify objects, and turn this template into something that we can call our own.

Customizing Your Roblox Game

To keep this tutorial simple, we’ll simply modify a few objects and properties. However, if you want to dive down the Lua programming rabbit hole, feel free to explore the game scripts under the ServerScriptService heading. For now, we’ll modify our game’s grass, dirt, and time of day.

Publishing Your Roblox Game

If you want to share your video game creation with the world, follow these simple steps.

That’s it! You completed and published your first game. You can always go back and check out other Roblox Studio templates to experiment with other experiences. For more Roblox tips, check out Roblox’s own walkthroughs, my books on how to script games, and AlvinBlox’s excellent tutorials. Keep exploring, building, and scripting. Your only limit is your imagination.