3D Design with Roblox (Roblox Build)

What is Roblox?

How Does it Work?

Roblox is a sandbox game, similar to another popular game, Minecraft. Players explore 3D worlds with an avatar, earn points to buy clothes, gear, and other accessories, and play and create multiplayer games in a shared space. Unlike Minecraft, however, the Lua programming language upon which Roblox is based offers a simpler, more user-friendly set of tools that can allow even young children with limited reading skills to use the Roblox programming tools.

Creating on Roblox

While the games on Roblox are generally social games like Sims, your child can create just about any type of game they can imagine.  New users often start simply making 3D spaces to explore, from simple rooms to sprawling cities, before moving on to games. When they do start making games, one the most common is an obstacle course, or “obby”, though the basic steps are the same for any game:

• Choosing a baseplate or terrain: A baseplate is the foundational piece of your child’s 3D world, upon which they will build. Options range from plain colored plates to themed templates like Pirate Island.
• Building Blocks: If you’ve added shapes in Word, you already know the process for creating objects in Roblox. Simply choose an object from Roblox’s vast catalogue and use the properties window to alter the shape, size, material, and other aspects as you like. This allows your child to create just about anything for their games and environments, from trees to stars to lava.
• Super-Charging: Now just add codes by a process similar to Excel’s VBA. This lets your child name their objects and set instructions with simple WHEN and DO formulas to make objects move, roll, and change as they like.
• Testing: Roblox allows your child to debug their programs by playing the games rather than just reading code. This testing via play helps keep your child engaged in the creative process.

The Social Aspects of Roblox

In this time when kids are so often staring at a screen, many parents yearn for a way to get them to spend time playing outside with friends instead. Well, Roblox provides exactly that. And while a Roblox playground or forest obviously isn’t the real thing, the interactions your child can have with other kids are just as real. With Roblox, kids from all over can meet, play, and chat. And once your child does start making their own games, they can collaborate on and share games with their friends, with feedback that can further hone their programming skills.

How Can I Get Roblox?

Roblox is available as a free download on Android and iOS devices, PCs or Xbox One. Roblox Studio, needed to create games, is a separate download, but also free. As part of CodeAdvantage’s online Roblox classes for kids, our instructors will walk your child through the process.

What Can Roblox Do for My Child’s Future?

Believe or not, quite a few people make a good living simply creating games for Roblox, some of them making over a million dollars a year. Of course, the odds of that are like your child growing up to play in the Superbowl. A more grounded outcome is that your child, while having fun and connecting with other kids, will build up a proficiency in Roblox’s Lua programming language, a marketable skill later in life, as well as giving them the basic skills of programming that could translate to more advanced languages like Python.

CodeAdvantage Classes for Roblox

We offer online courses for kids in two different age groups, each designed to allow kids with no programming knowledge to create their own Roblox games in less than ten lessons:

• Roblox Build (Ages 6-8)
  This course makes your child familiar with the Roblox environment and introduces them to the array of tools available in Roblox Studio. After this introduction, they will have the skills to create their own 3D environments in Roblox, from single rooms to wide forests to anything they can imagine!
• Roblox Code (Ages 9-11)
  This course is geared to making your child proficient in Lua, the programming language that forms the foundation of Roblox. But since we believe the best way to learn involves fun, this course will also have them make a unique game of their own they can then play and share with friends. Games students have created through this course include Infinite Runner; Parkour Maps and No Roadblocks Here Obby.