April 2, 2025

Shawn Pham 

11th Grade

Fountain Valley High School

Roblox, a game intended to introduce children to game-making and coding, has become much more than what it was intended to do. Over 85.3 million people around the world have access to David Baszucki and Erik Cassel’s free-to-play game, which holds infinite possibilities of minigames inside of it. These games come from users and amateur developers from all around the world who want to bring their imagination to life within Roblox’s limitless possibilities. To add on, these developers are not only doing it for that reason but also for the financial benefits that come with creating games on Roblox. To put this into perspective, over 750 developers have made over $100,000 or more in Roblox currency, Robux, which can be exchanged for real-world money.

Developers gain the ability to display their imagination by using Roblox Studio. Roblox Studio is a development platform that utilizes 3D building tools where developers can create almost anything they want. They do this by combining different built-in materials provided by the game to create their own textures and models. Additionally, text inputs, buttons, and labels are also available for developers to use to increase the amount of user interaction between the game and the users. To make the games feel more lifelike, developers can generate large-scale terrain and natural habitats, adjust lighting and atmosphere, incorporate their audio and sounds, and even create special effects. 

To create a more unique experience and special functions for each model in the developers’ game, Roblox has a specific scripting language called Luau. The coding language Luau incorporates different types of data, including Nil, a representation of non-existence; booleans, a value that outputs either true or false; numbers; strings; a sequence of characters; tables; an array or dictionary; and enums. With the utilization of this data, Luau is often compared to the more popular coding language, C#. Nonetheless, a key difference that sets the two apart is the syntax and structure of the code. This includes the curly brace syntax used by C#, compared to the line breaks or semicolons of Luau. Luau is more beginner-friendly as it utilizes dynamic typing. This means that coders will not need to specify what type the variable holds once declared, but Luau will figure out how it works as the code runs. Luau also has a system called strict type checking to make type issues easier to pinpoint and fix. Furthermore, the script editor includes a built-in debugging system that helps catch errors made along the way. Once developers are done creating all the code and designs, they can re-enter the Studio in order to test the game before publishing it to the public.

For many, Roblox is just a game to be played for pleasure or entertainment. Despite this, it is also a place for people to express their imagination and new ideas. Roblox Studio and Luau allow the younger generation to have access to more real-world experiences, including new coding skills, potential for innovation, and financial understanding. The potential for new possibilities will continue to grow as Roblox and other development platforms continue to grow as well.