How to build a roblox game on ipad

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

1. Launch the free Roblox Studio. You can do this by either visiting Roblox.com and clicking Create, or by downloading Roblox Studio to your PC.

2. Click All Templates > Line Runner. A Line Runner is a side-scrolling game in the style of Super Mario Brothers. Of course, you can select another game style that matches your vision.

3. Find and open the Line Runner template. Tada! You've created your first game! Seriously. This game template is ready to play out of the box. 

4. Click the Play icon or press F5 on your keyboard to start the game. 

5. Your avatar appears in the game, along with text that states “Press Space to Start." Do so, and this causes your avatar to run across the screen.

6. Press Space to jump over monsters and obstacles. 

7. If you die, your score appears on screen, along with the number of coins you collected and your progression level.

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.

1. Click Stop to return to Roblox Studio's main screen. 

2. Locate the Explorer window on the right-hand side. It displays a file hierarchy. 

3. Navigate to Workspace, the area where you alter the game world. If something doesn't appear in Workspace, it doesn't appear in the live game.

4. Click any grassy area. A blue box will appear around the grass, indicating that it's ready for modification.

5. Click the drop-down button just below the Material heading. Select "Grass," and the color “Bright Green." 

6. Click a dirt patch and change its Material to “Slate” and the color to “Reddish Brown.”

7. To customize multiple grass or dirt areas at once, hold the CTRL key (CMD on Mac) and click each part you want to change. Remember, you can always undo changes by pressing CTRL + Z (CMD+Z on Mac).

8. To change the game world from daytime to nighttime, navigate to Lighting.

9. In the Properties window, scroll down to Clock Time. Change it to 20, which is 8 p.m. It gives the game world a dark, shadowy look.

10. Now, you must add the Start section to your game, and tweak it to match the rest of your scene. This is the first platform that appears when you launch the game, and it isn't visible within the Workspace. To find it, visit ReplicatedStorage > PathModules > StartModule.

11. Click Start, and drag Start from the StartModule folder into Workspace.

12. Inside the Start are two editable Walkway files. The top one represents grass, and the bottom one represents dirt. Make your changes.

13. Return Start back to its original location once you've finished editing it.

14. Press F5 to test your game.

Publishing Your Roblox Game

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

1. Click File > Publish to Roblox.

2. Give your game a catchy title and description. 

3. By default, your game will be available for PC, smartphone, and tablet. Check the Console box if you want it available on Xbox, too. Unfortunately, Roblox isn't available for PlayStation or Switch.

4. Click Create.

5. The game's now published, but only you can access it. Click File > Game Settings to change the game permissions from Private to Public.

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(Opens in a new window), my books on how to script games(Opens in a new window), and AlvinBlox(Opens in a new window)'s excellent tutorials. Keep exploring, building, and scripting. Your only limit is your imagination.

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