Your first Roblox Studio game in one evening: step by step

Install Roblox Studio, build a small obby, add one scripted trap in Luau, playtest and publish it privately. Based on official docs, with a safety block for parents.

Your first Roblox Studio game in one evening: step by step

In short:

  • in one evening (a rough guide: an hour and a half to two, an estimate rather than a measurement) you can build a small obby: a few platforms and a red zone that "kills" the character on touch;
  • you need a Windows or macOS computer, a Roblox account and the free Roblox Studio app; the script, written in Luau, is very short, about ten lines;
  • the game stays private: according to the official documentation, a new game is first visible only to its author and to people the author gives access.

An obby is an obstacle-course game. It is the easiest genre for a first project: no complicated logic, and the result is visible straight away. The steps below are in the order you should do them. Button names are kept in English, exactly as in the program. There are no screenshots; instead, each step says what you should see on screen.

What you need first

  • A computer. Per the Roblox documentation, the minimum is Windows 10 or macOS 10.14 and 3 GB of RAM. Recommended: Windows 11 or macOS 14+ and 8 GB of RAM. A phone or tablet will not do.
  • A Roblox account. If you do not have one, create it at roblox.com. The Studio setup page names no age limit. Roblox's privacy policy asks children under 13 to get a parent's permission, so sign up and set up the account together with an adult.
  • Time. Installing and signing in takes the first quarter of the evening; steps 2-7 take the rest.

Steps

Step 1. Install Roblox Studio

  1. Open the Studio setup page in the Roblox documentation (link at the end) and click Download Studio.
  2. Run the downloaded file: RobloxStudio.exe on Windows or RobloxStudio.dmg on a Mac.
  3. When the installation finishes, click Launch Studio and sign in with your Roblox account.

You will see Studio's start page with a row of templates.

Step 2. Start a project from the Baseplate template

Pick the Baseplate template. The documentation describes it as having two objects: a spawn location, where players appear, and a baseplate, a floor with a grid texture. On screen you will see a 3D scene in the middle, with the Explorer window (the list of all objects) and the Properties window (settings of the selected object) on the right.

There is also a ready-made Classic Obby template with checkpoints, jump pads and hazards. For the first time it is better to start from an empty Baseplate: you will understand what a game is made of, and you can study the ready-made template afterwards as an example.

Step 3. Build the platforms

  1. In Explorer, hover over Workspace and click the ⊕ icon. Choose Part from the list: a brick appears in the scene.
  2. Select it, find Anchored in Properties and tick it, otherwise the platform will fall under gravity.
  3. Move and stretch the brick with the tools on the top bar until it is a platform you can jump onto from the spawn point.
  4. Repeat steps 1-3 two or three more times, leaving gaps between the platforms. That is your course.

Step 4. Make the "lava"

  1. Add one more Part, turn on Anchored and rename it LavaFloor.
  2. In Properties set Material to Neon and Color to orange or red.
  3. Stretch it into a flat strip on the floor between the platforms, so that landing in a gap means landing in lava.

For now the lava only glows. The next step makes it dangerous.

Step 5. Add the script

  1. In Explorer, hover over LavaFloor, click ⊕ and choose Script. Rename the script Kill.
  2. An editor window opens with some starter code. Delete it and paste in this code (taken from Roblox's official "Deadly lava" tutorial):

```lua

local lava = script.Parent

local function kill(otherPart)

local partParent = otherPart.Parent

local humanoid = partParent:FindFirstChild("Humanoid")

if humanoid then

humanoid.Health = 0

end

end

lava.Touched:Connect(kill)

```

How to read it: script.Parent is the object the script sits in, that is, the lava. The Touched event fires when something touches the lava. The function checks whether the touching object's parent has a Humanoid (a player's character has one) and, if so, sets its health to zero. The language is called Luau and is derived from Lua 5.1.

Step 6. Test the game

On the left of the top bar, choose a mode from the dropdown and click Play: a test session starts and you control the character (WASD keys and space). Jump across the platforms. If you fall into the lava, the character should disappear and reappear at the start. The Stop button (Shift+F5) ends the test and returns all objects to their state before it began.

Step 7. Publish it privately

  1. Choose File → Publish. In some Studio versions the item is called Publish to Roblox. The Game details window opens.
  2. Fill in Name and Description, and choose a Genre. You can add the icon and thumbnail later.
  3. Click Save. Roblox saves the game to the cloud.

According to the documentation, new games are private by default: only the author, users with edit access and group members with the right permissions can see them. To invite a friend, use File → Invite early testers (up to 10 people). You do not need to release the game to everyone: for that Roblox requires an age check, two-factor authentication and other conditions that are beyond a first game.

Common mistakes and what to do

  • The platforms fall when you start. Anchored is not on in Properties. Select the platform and tick the box.
  • The lava does nothing. Check that the script is inside LavaFloor (in Explorer it must be nested under the lava), not in Workspace.
  • Red lines in the Output window. Luau is case-sensitive: Touched, Humanoid and Health are written exactly like that. Compare your code with the example above.
  • Your edits vanished after Stop. Changes made during a test run are discarded. Make edits while the test is stopped.
  • Publishing fails. Check that you are signed in to Studio and that the Name field is not empty.

For parents: Roblox safety settings

The game is private, but the child's account has other settings too. The official Roblox parental controls page lists these:

  • Linking. In the child's account settings choose Add parent, verify your age and click Agree.
  • Content restrictions. The maturity level of games.
  • Communication. Who can talk to your child and how: chat inside games (Experience chat), private messages (Direct chat), chat with friends.
  • Screen time. A daily time limit.
  • Spending restrictions. A monthly spending limit and purchase notifications.

Sit next to your child on the first evening, and do not share the account password with anyone outside the family. How to limit screen time and purchases on the phone itself is covered separately: Parental controls on your child's phone, step by step.

What next

To make the game more interesting, add a second kind of trap or a checkpoint and look at how it is done in Classic Obby. When you are ready, open the official tutorials at create.roblox.com.

To be straight with you: Mars has no Roblox course, and we do not teach Roblox Studio or Luau. But tonight used the same ideas as any programming: an event, a condition, a variable. Our path is built on them. In the AI Kids program for ages 9-11, Scratch comes first, then robotics and Arduino; in AI Pilot for ages 12-17 it is a first website, then Python and Telegram bots. Mars accepts children from age 9. How Scratch, Python and Roblox differ is covered in Roblox, Scratch or Python: where should a child start.

If you want to see how your child behaves when creating rather than playing, book a trial lesson. A regular lesson with us lasts 60 minutes, a group has 8-12 children, and every lesson ends with something the child made and can show.

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