Introduction to Roblox Studio

This tutorial explains the basics of Roblox Studio by building, playtesting, and publishing a simple platformer experience. A platformer, or "obby", is a game in which users navigate through a path of platforms while avoiding obstacles and clearing treacherous gaps.

Follow each section and learn how to:

• Utilize Studio's templates to create the foundation of your platformer experience.
• Navigate around the viewport with ease to see the 3D environment from every angle.
• Create platforms for players to traverse using Studio's primary building blocks.
• Insert user-generated models from the Creator Marketplace to create an immersive theme for your environment.
• Inspect and troubleshoot errors in your experience.
• Make your experience available for everyone to play.

Getting Started

Roblox Studio is the essential building tool for Roblox experiences. It's free to use on Windows and Mac devices, and it doesn't require you to purchase a license. If you haven't installed Studio yet, see Setting Up Roblox Studio.

Creating a New Experience

The Baseplate template provides a spawn location and a baseplate. A spawn location is a platform that marks where users appear in the world at the start of the experience and where they respawn when their health reaches zero. A baseplate is Studio's default floor that prevents users from falling when they walk off the spawn location.

To create a new experience in Studio:

1. Open Studio. In the left-hand navigation, ensure that New is in focus.

   

2. Under the All Templates tab, select the Baseplate template.

   

A new experience opens. In the viewport, a SpawnLocation object displays at the center of your camera view.

Moving the Camera

Now that your experience is open in Studio, click inside the viewport and move the camera around to get a better view. For keyboard and mouse controls, see the following table.

Building Your Experience

When you are comfortable navigating the viewport with the camera, you can begin building your experience by adding platforms of different shapes and colors for users to jump between to reach the end of the experience. In addition, you can also insert user-generated models from the Creator Marketplace to add a theme to your environment.

Working with Parts

A Part is Roblox's primary building block. You can move, resize, rotate, and customize part properties to affect their appearance, such as their color and material. This tutorial uses parts to build a series of platforms.

Inserting Parts

There are five different part types that you can insert through the Parts section of the Home or Model tabs:

To insert a part:

1. In the menu bar, select the Model tab.

2. Navigate to the Parts section.

3. Under the Part icon, click the dropdown arrow. A dropdown menu displays.

   

4. From the dropdown menu, select a part. A new part appears in the viewport at the center of your camera view.

   

Moving Parts

The new part is the first platform that users jump to, so move it a little farther from the spawn location. Parts can move along the X, Y, and Z axes, which are color-coded:

• X Axis - Red
• Y Axis - Green
• Z Axis - Blue

Studs are Studio's basic measurement unit. By default, parts move incrementally by snapping 1 stud at a time along the grid. Snapping is useful when positioning parts that should be exactly aligned with each other, such as the walls of a building. To move a part:

1. In the Tools section, select the Move tool, then select the part you want to move in the Workspace.

   

2. Click and drag the arrow that is pointing in the direction you want to move the part. The new part is the first platform users jump to, so move the part slightly away from the spawn platform to give users an easy first jump.

   

3. If you want to adjust or disable the snapping behavior, edit the Move field in the Snap to Grid section and move the part again.

   

Scaling Parts

Similar to moving, parts scale along the X, Y, and Z axis. You can make a part larger or smaller by using the Scale tool. To scale a part:

1. In the Tools section of the Model tab, select the Scale tool, then select the part you want to scale.

   

2. Click and drag a ball to scale the part in that direction.

   

Rotating Parts

Similar to moving and scaling, parts rotate around the X, Y, and Z axes. You can rotate a part to a new angle using the Rotate tool.

By default, parts rotate by snapping 45° at a time along the grid. Snapping is useful when you are rotating parts that should have edges that exactly align with each other, such as two halves of a roof on a building. To rotate a part:

1. In the Tools section of the Model tab, select the Rotate tool, then select the part you want to rotate.

   

2. Click and drag a circle to rotate the part in that direction.

   

3. If you want to adjust or disable the snapping behavior, edit the Rotate field in the Snap to Grid section and rotate the part again.

   

Anchoring Parts

When you playtest your experience, gravity pulls each part to the baseplate. To prevent any forces from changing the position of a part, anchor it in place. To anchor a part:

1. Open the Explorer window. The Explorer window lists all objects in your experience. If the Explorer window isn't visible, select the View tab and click the Explorer button.

   

2. In the Explorer window, select the part you want to anchor.

3. Open the Properties window. The Properties window lets you inspect and change properties for any selected object. If the Properties window isn't visible, select the View tab and click the Properties button.

   

4. In the Properties window, find and toggle the Anchored property.

   

Customizing Colors and Materials

You can customize the appearance of a part by changing its Part.BrickColor, Part.Color, or Material property. The Material of a part changes its physical traits and appearance to reflect real-word objects. For example, parts with a concrete material sink faster in water than parts with a plastic material because real-world concrete is heavier than real-world plastic.

To customize a part's color and material:

1. In the Explorer window, select a part.

2. In the Properties window, click the color box to the left of the Color property. The Colors popup displays.

   

3. Select a color, then click the OK button.

4. In the Material field, click on the existing material. A dropdown arrow displays.

5. Click the dropdown arrow. The material options display.

   

6. Select a material for the part.

Deleting the Baseplate

If a user were to play your experience right now and miss a platform, they would fall and safely land on the baseplate. You may want to provide a consequence when they make a mistake, such as forcing them to restart the obby each time they fall. If you delete the baseplate, the user's character falls below the height threshold. This causes the character to dissemble and respawn from the spawn location.

To delete the baseplate:

1. In the Explorer window, click the Baseplate.

   

2. Press Delete.

Inserting Assets

The Creator Marketplace is an asset sharing platform within Studio that you can use to quickly find and insert ready-made models, images, meshes, plugins, audio, and videos into your experience that were made by Roblox and the Roblox community. This platform is very useful for filling out 3D environments and adding themes to your creations. For more information on how to find, filter, and insert assets, see Creator Marketplace.

To insert an asset:

1. Navigate to the View tab, then select Toolbox. The Toolbox window displays.

   

2. Under the Marketplace tab, click on the Search field and type anything you want to find.

   

3. Click on an asset. The asset displays within your experience.

   

Playtesting Your Experience

Playtesting is a vital step before publishing any experience because you need to verify that everything works and that users can reach the final platform. When you playtest your platformer, consider its difficulty and how that might effect the user's experience. If any jumps are too hard, users may get frustrated, but if every jump is too easy, they may get bored.

To playtest your experience:

1. Navigate to the menu bar.

2. Click the Play button.

   

While playtesting, you can use the same controls as a default Roblox experience:

To stop playtesting:

1. Navigate to the menu bar.

2. Click the Stop button.

   

Publishing Your Experience

After you are happy with your experience, you can publish it to the cloud to allow other users on Roblox to play it. To publish your experience:

1. In the menu bar, select File. A pop-up menu displays.

2. Select Publish to Roblox. A dialog displays.

3. Fill in the following fields:

   • Name: A name for your experience.
   • Description: A description of what a user should expect from your experience.
   • Creator: The user you'd like to attribute as the creator of the experience.
   • Genre: The genre that best describes your experience.
   • Devices: The devices you'd like to enable for your experience. Only enable devices that your experience supports.

4. Click the Create button. The Game Settings menu is now available for your experience.

5. From the Home tab, click the Game Settings button.

   

6. In the Permissions tab, choose which users can access the experience:

   • Public — Everyone can access the experience.
   • Private — Only developers of the experience can access it.

7. In the bottom-right corner, click the Save button.

8. In the upper-right corner of Studio, click the Share button. Various options display for sharing the experience with others.

   

9. Try playing your obby with friends and compete to reach the end of the course the fastest.