How to Make a Roblox Game in 2026 (Step-by-Step for Beginners)

To make a Roblox game, download Roblox Studio for free on a Windows PC or a Mac, open a template, build your level with parts, add a script or two, test it with the Play button, then publish it from the File menu and set it to public. Your first playable game can be done in an afternoon.

That's the short answer. The rest of this guide walks through each step the way you'd actually do it the first time, including the mistakes almost everyone makes and the publishing rules Roblox introduced in 2026.

What You Need Before You Start

You need three things:

A Roblox account. The same one you play with is fine.
A Windows PC or a Mac. Roblox Studio doesn't run on phones, iPads or Chromebooks. People ask this constantly, and there's no workaround that's worth your time. A mid-range laptop from the last few years handles small games without trouble.
A mouse. You can technically build with a trackpad, but moving the camera and dragging parts is much easier with a mouse.

Roblox Studio itself is free. Publishing a game is free too. You don't pay anything to make and release a game for players aged 16 and up. There's one cost that only matters later, if you want your game to reach younger players, and it's covered in the publishing section below.

Step 1: Install Roblox Studio

Go to create.roblox.com, sign in and choose to start creating. That downloads the Studio installer. Run it, sign in with your Roblox account, and you'll land on the start screen.

Step 2: Pick a Template

Studio offers a handful of templates. For a first game, pick one of these:

Baseplate gives you an empty grey floor and a spawn point. It's the best choice if you want to learn how things work from scratch.
Obby or Classic Obby gives you a ready-made obstacle course you can pull apart and change. It's a good way to see how a finished level is put together.

Don't start with a big city or racing template. They're fun to look at, but there's so much in them that it's hard to tell what does what.

Step 3: Learn the Five Windows That Matter

Studio looks busy. You only need five parts of it for now:

The viewport in the middle is your 3D world. Hold the right mouse button and use W, A, S and D to fly around. Select something and press F to focus the camera on it.
Explorer on the right lists everything in your game in a tree. Workspace holds what players can see.
Properties shows the settings of whatever you selected: color, size, material, and so on.
Toolbox is where you find models, images and sounds made by other creators.
Output shows messages and errors from your scripts. If something doesn't work, look here first.

If any of these are missing, open them from the View tab.

Step 4: Build Your First Level

On the Home tab, click Part to drop a block into the world. Use the Move, Scale and Rotate tools to shape it. Change its color and material in Properties.

Now the mistake nearly every beginner makes: press Play and your platforms fall into the void. Parts obey physics unless you anchor them. Select your parts and click Anchor on the Home tab (or tick Anchored in Properties). Anything that should stay put needs to be anchored.

A few more habits worth building early:

Name things. "Part" times fifty becomes impossible to manage. Rename parts in Explorer as you go, like Checkpoint1 or LavaFloor.
Group related parts with Ctrl+G (Cmd+G on a Mac) so a whole platform or building moves as one model.
Use the Toolbox carefully. Free models save time, but some contain hidden scripts that can break your game or let someone else take control of it. Before you keep a free model, open it in Explorer and check for scripts you didn't expect. If it has scripts you don't understand, delete them or skip the model.

Step 5: Add Your First Script

Scripts are what turn a level into a game. Roblox games are scripted in Luau, a version of the Lua language. You don't need to know it yet to follow along.

Let's make a classic "lava" brick that resets anyone who touches it:

Make a part, color it red and anchor it.
In Explorer, hover over the part, click the + and add a Script.
Delete what's in the script and paste this:

local lava = script.Parent

lava.Touched:Connect(function(hit)
	local humanoid = hit.Parent:FindFirstChildOfClass("Humanoid")
	if humanoid then
		humanoid.Health = 0
	end
end)

Here's what it does in plain words. script.Parent is the part the script sits inside. Touched fires whenever something bumps into the part. If the thing that touched it belongs to a character (characters have a Humanoid), the script sets its health to zero.

That's a whole game mechanic in seven lines. When you're ready for more, our guide on how to learn Roblox scripting lays out what to learn next and in what order.

Step 6: Test It

Press Play (or F5). You'll spawn as your avatar in your own game. Walk around, jump on things, touch the lava. When you're done, press Stop.

Two things to know about testing:

Changes you make while playing are thrown away when you stop. Always stop first, then edit.
If something isn't working, the Output window almost always tells you why, including the script name and line number.

Step 7: Save and Publish

Press Ctrl+S to save. The first time, Studio asks whether to save to Roblox or to a file. Save to Roblox so your work is backed up online.

To publish, go to File > Publish to Roblox. Give your game a name and a description and confirm. Your game now exists on Roblox, but it's private until you make it public.

Before you can make it public, Roblox asks you to fill in a short content questionnaire about what's in your game (violence, scary content, social features, and so on). Answer it honestly. It decides the maturity label your game gets and who can see it.

Then open your game in the Creator Hub at create.roblox.com, go to its settings and switch it to public.

How Publishing Works in 2026

Roblox changed how new games reach players in 2026, and older tutorials don't mention it:

New games are shown to age-checked players aged 16 and older first. Roblox watches how those players engage with your game and checks it for safety.
Reaching younger players takes extra steps. Roblox now splits younger players into Roblox Kids (ages 5 to 8) and Roblox Select (ages 9 to 15). To be shown to them, your game needs a suitable content rating and enough engagement from highly engaged, age-checked players: 250 unique plays within 60 days, according to Roblox's Kids and Select documentation. You'll also need to verify your own age, turn on 2-step verification, and either keep a Roblox Plus or Premium subscription for two months in a row or pay a one-time publishing fee that Roblox refunds later (1,000 Robux per game when the rule launched).

You can track progress toward that threshold on the Audience Reach dashboard in the Creator Hub. None of this stops you from publishing and testing with friends today.

Step 8: Make the Game Page Look Good

Your icon and thumbnails are the first thing players see in search and recommendations, and they decide whether anyone clicks. Even for a first game:

Make a clear, bright icon that shows what the game is about.
Add at least one thumbnail screenshot that shows actual gameplay.
Write a short description that says what players do in the first sentence.

If you don't have design software, our free Art Studio makes Roblox-sized icons and thumbnails in the browser.

What to Make First

Make something small enough to finish in a weekend or two. An obby with ten good stages beats a half-finished open-world RPG every time. Finishing teaches you the full loop: build, script, test, publish, fix. You'll use that loop on every game after this one.

If you'd like to pick something with a real chance of getting players, read what Roblox game you should make. It uses data from the current most-played games.

Common Questions

Is Roblox Studio free?

Yes. Roblox Studio is free to download and use, and publishing a game is free. You only pay if you choose to: buying assets, running ads, or meeting the extra requirements for showing your game to players under 16.

Can I make a Roblox game on my phone, iPad or Chromebook?

No. Roblox Studio only runs on Windows and macOS. You can play your published game on a phone, and you should test it there, but building happens on a computer.

Do I need to know how to code to make a Roblox game?

Not to start. You can build a complete obby with almost no scripting. For anything with shops, saving, levels or rounds, you'll want to learn Luau. It's one of the friendlier languages to start with.

How long does it take to make a Roblox game?

A simple obby takes a few days. A polished simulator or tycoon usually takes a few months for one person. Big games take teams years. Start small.

How old do you have to be to make a Roblox game?

Anyone with a Roblox account can use Studio. Cashing out Robux for real money requires being at least 13, publishing for younger audiences requires an age check, and some Studio features, like Team Create for building with friends, now need an age check as well.

How do I make money from my game?

Through game passes, developer products, subscriptions and Roblox's Creator Rewards, then exchanging the Robux for cash. Our guide on how Roblox developers make money covers every option.

How to Make a Roblox Game in 2026: A Beginner's Step-by-Step Guide