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Table of Contents

HOUR 1: Coding Your First Project 1

Installing Roblox Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Let’s Take a Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Opening the Output Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Writing Your First Script. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

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Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

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Leaving Yourself Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

HOUR 2: Properties and Variables 17

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Object Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
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Finding Properties and Data Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

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Creating Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Changing the Color Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
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Instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
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HOUR 3: Creating and Using Functions 31

Creating and Calling Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Understanding Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Using Events to Call Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Understanding Order and Placement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

HOUR 4: Working with Parameters and Arguments 43

Giving Functions Information to Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Working with Multiple Parameters and Arguments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Returning Values from Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Returning Multiple Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Returning Nil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Dealing with Mismatched Arguments and Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Working with Anonymous Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
vi Coding with Roblox Lua in 24 Hours

HOUR 5: Conditional Structures 57

if/then Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
elseif . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Logical Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
else . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

HOUR 6: Debouncing and Debugging 73

Don’t Destroy, Debounce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Figuring Out Where Things Go Wrong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

HOUR 7: while Loops 91

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Repeat Forever, while true do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

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Some Things to Keep in Mind. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
while Loops and Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
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HOUR 8: for Loops 101
How for Loops Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Nested Loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
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Breaking Out of Loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

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HOUR 9: Working with Arrays 113

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What Are Arrays? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Adding Items Later. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
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Getting Information from a Specific Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Printing an Entire List with ipairs() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Folders and ipairs() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Finding a Value on the List and Printing the Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Removing Values from an Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Numeric for Loops and Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

HOUR 10: Working with Dictionaries 127

Intro to Dictionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Adding and Removing from Dictionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Removing Key-Value Pairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Working with Dictionaries and Pairs ....................................................... 132
Returning Values from Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
 Contents vii

HOUR 11: Client Versus Server 145

Understanding the Client and the Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Working with GUIs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Understanding RemoteFunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Using RemoteFunctions .......................................................................... 149

HOUR 12: Remote Events: One-Way Communication 161

Remote Events: A One-Way Street. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Communicating from the Server to All Clients. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Communicating from the Client to the Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

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Communicating from the Server to One Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

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Communicating from Client to Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

HOUR 13: Using ModuleScripts 173

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Coding Things Just Once . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Placing ModuleScripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Understanding How ModuleScripts Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
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Naming ModuleScripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

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Adding Functions and Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Understanding Scope in ModuleScripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
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Using Modules in Other Scripts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Don’t Repeat Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
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Dealing in Abstractions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

HOUR 14: Coding in 3D World Space 187

Understanding X, Y, and Z Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Refining Placement with CFrame Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Offsetting CFrames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Adding Rotations to CFrames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Working with Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Understanding World Coordinates and Local Object Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

HOUR 15: Smoothly Animating Objects 199

Understanding Tweens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Setting TweenInfo Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Chaining Tweens Together ..................................................................... 205
viii Coding with Roblox Lua in 24 Hours

HOUR 16: Solving Problems with Algorithms 209

Defining Algorithms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Sorting an Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Sorting in Descending Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Sorting a Dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Sorting by Multiple Pieces of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

HOUR 17: Saving Data 219

Enabling Data Stores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Creating a Data Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

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Using Data in the Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

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Limiting the Number of Calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Protecting Your Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Saving Player Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
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Using UpdateAsync to Update a Data Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

HOUR 18: Creating a Game Loop 229

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Setting Up Game Loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

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Working with BindableEvents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

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HOUR 19: Monetization: One-Time Purchases 243

Adding Passes to Your Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
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Configuring the Pass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Prompting In-Game Purchases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

HOUR 20: Object-Oriented Programming 259

What Is OOP? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Organizing Code and Projects ................................................................ 259
Making a New Class .............................................................................. 260
Adding Class Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Using Class Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

HOUR 21: Inheritance 271

Setting Up Inheritance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Inheriting Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Working with Multiple Child Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
 Contents ix

Inheriting Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Understanding Polymorphism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Calling Parent Functions ....................................................................... 282

HOUR 22: Raycasting 287

Setting Up the Function to Raycast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
3D Math Trick: Getting the Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Setting Raycast Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
3D Math Trick: Limit Direction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

HOUR 23: Plopping Objects in an Experience: Part 1 297

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Setting Up the Object. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

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Creating a Plop Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Tracking Mouse Movements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
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Previewing the Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

HOUR 24: Plopping Objects in an Experience: Part 2 313

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Detecting Mouse Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Sending a Message to the Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
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Getting the Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

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APPENDIX A: Roblox Basics 321

Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
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DataType Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Naming Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Animation Easing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Possible Solutions to Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

Index 355
 HOUR 1
Coding Your First Project

What You’ll Learn in This Hour:

 Why Roblox and Lua are a perfect combination
 What Roblox Studio’s main windows are

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 How to say “Hello” to the world with your first code

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 How to make a part explode
 How to check for errors
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 How to leave a comment
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Roblox is the world’s most popular game development platform. All types of people come
together to create amazing virtual experiences: artists, musicians, and—you guessed it—coders.
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Coding is what allows players to interact with the world that they see.
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In Roblox, the coding language used is Lua. Lua is one of the easiest coding languages to learn,
and when used with Roblox Studio, you can see the results of your code fast. For example, want
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to create an enormous explosion with a massive blast radius? You can do that with just a couple
of lines of Lua.

Roblox Studio is the tool in which all Roblox games are created, and when paired with Lua, it
offers seamless access to multiplayer servers, physics and lighting systems, world-building tools,
monetization systems, and more. And even though Roblox provides the environment in which
your program runs, you control the vision. You are the creator and artist. Roblox gives you the
canvas and paints, and Lua the brushes and actions. But you, with some well-placed dabs of
code, get to create your masterpiece. This first hour covers how to set up Roblox Studio, make
your first script, and test your code.

Installing Roblox Studio

Before you get started, make sure you have Roblox Studio installed. It runs on Windows and
MacOS, and you can grab a copy at https://roblox.com/create. Click Start Creating to begin.
You’ll need to create a Roblox account if you don’t yet have one (see Figure 1.1).
2 HOUR 1: Coding Your First Project

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FIGURE 1.1
You need an account to use Roblox Studio. It’s free and just a quick sign-up away.
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Let’s Take a Tour
Roblox Studio provides everything you need to create games. It includes assets such as character
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models, items to put in the world, graphics for the sky, soundtracks, and more.
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Go ahead and launch Roblox Studio to see the window shown in Figure 1.2. Enter the login infor-
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mation for the account you created when you signed up on the Roblox website and click Log In.
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FIGURE 1.2
Enter your normal Roblox account information.
 Let’s Take a Tour 3

When you first open up Studio, you see templates. These are starting places you can use for your
experiences. The simplest starting point for any project is the Baseplate template. Click on the
Baseplate template, as shown in Figure 1.3.

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FIGURE 1.3
Studio offers template places you can use as starting points.
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Let’s start with a quick overview of the main parts of the screen in Figure 1.4, and then move
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straight into your first line of code:

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1. The offerings in the Toolbar ribbon change according to the menu tab you’ve selected.

2. The Toolbox contains existing assets to add to your game. You can also create your own
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assets through a 3D modeling program such as Blender3D, and Studio includes a set of
mesh-editing tools to customize the 3D models already available.

3. The 3D Editor provides a view of the world. Hold your right mouse button to turn the view,
and use the WASD keys to reposition the camera. Table 1.1 describes the different controls
to move the camera.

4. The Explorer window provides convenient access to every key asset or system in the game.
You use this to insert objects into your experience.

5. Use the Properties window to make changes to objects in the game, such as color, scale,
value, and attributes. Select an object in the Explorer to see available properties.
4 HOUR 1: Coding Your First Project

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FIGURE 1.4

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There are a number of panels, buttons, and lists in the Studio, and you’ll quickly become familiar with them.
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TABLE 1.1 Camera Controls
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Key Movement
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WASD Move the camera up, left, down, or right

E Move the camera
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Q Lower the camera down

Shift Move the camera slower
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Right mouse button (hold and drag mouse) Turn the camera
Middle mouse button Drag the camera
Mouse scroll wheel Zoom the camera in or out
F Focus on selected object

There are numerous ways to configure this main screen, including hiding different sections,
rearranging their positioning to be more convenient, and changing their size.

Roblox Studio is a very complete game development environment that goes well beyond Lua. It’s
a big topic on its own, so you may want to check out our other book, Roblox Game Development in
24 Hours, for help.
 Opening the Output Window 5

Opening the Output Window

The Output window in Studio isn’t open by default, but you need this before you continue so
that you can see errors and messages that are related to your code.

Use the following steps to display the Output window:

1. Click the View tab (see Figure 1.5). If you ever close a window and need to reopen it, you
can find it here.

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FIGURE 1.5
Use the View tab to control which windows are open.
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2. Click Output (see Figure 1.6) to display the Output window at the bottom of your screen, as
shown in Figure 1.7.
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FIGURE 1.6
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Click the Output option to open the Output window.

FIGURE 1.7
The Output window opens beneath the 3D Editor.
6 HOUR 1: Coding Your First Project

Writing Your First Script

On to coding! You need something to hold your code, and that’s a script. You can insert scripts
directly into objects within the world. In this case, you’re inserting a script into a part.

Insert a Script into a Part

A part is the basic building block of Roblox. Parts can range in size from very tiny to extremely
large. They can be different shapes such as a sphere or wedge, or they can be combined into
more complex shapes.

1. Return to the Home tab and click Part (see Figure 1.8). The part appears in the 3D Editor at
the center of your camera view.

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FIGURE 1.8
Click Part on the Home tab to insert a part.
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2. To add a script, in Explorer, hover over the part and click the + symbol, and then select
Script from the drop-down menu (see Figure 1.9).
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FIGURE 1.9
You use Explorer to insert a script into the part.
 Writing Your First Script 7

TIP
Finding Items Quickly
Typing the first letter (S, in this case) or two of the items you are adding filters the list so you can
locate that item quickly.

The script automatically opens. At the top, you see words familiar to any coder: "Hello
world!" (see Figure 1.10).

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FIGURE 1.10
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The window shows the default script and code.

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Writing Some Code

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Since the 1970s, "Hello World!" has been one of the first pieces of code people have learned.
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Here it’s being used in the print function. Functions are chunks of code that serve a specific pur-
pose. As you learn to code, you’ll use prebuilt functions like print(), which displays messages
in the Output window. You will, of course, also learn how to create functions of your own.

print() displays a string, which is a type of data usually used with letters and numbers that
need to stay together. In this case, you’re printing "Hello world!":

1. Make this code your own by changing the message inside of the quotation marks to what
you want for dinner tonight. Here’s an example:
print("I want lots of pasta")

2. To test the code, in the Home tab, click Play (see Figure 1.11).
8 HOUR 1: Coding Your First Project

FIGURE 1.11
Click Play to test your script.

Your avatar will fall into the world, and you can see your dinner dreams displayed in the

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Output window, along with a note about which script that message came from (see Figure

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1.12). pa
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FIGURE 1.12
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The string is displayed in Output.

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3. To stop the playtest, click the Stop button (see Figure 1.13).
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FIGURE 1.13
Click Stop to quit the playtest.

4. Return to your script by clicking on the tab above the 3D Editor, as shown in Figure 1.14.
 Writing Your First Script 9

FIGURE 1.14
Click Script to return to the window where your script is visible.

Code an Explosion

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Code of course can do more than just display messages to the output window. It can completely

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change how players interact with the world and make it come alive. Let’s take a slightly longer
piece of code and make the block in the Baseplate template destroy anything it touches:

1. Use the Move tool (see Figure 1.15) to move the block off the ground and away from the
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spawn point. The code you’re going to write will destroy anything it touches, and you
don’t want it to go off prematurely.
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FIGURE 1.15
Move the part up and away from the spawn.
10 HOUR 1: Coding Your First Project

2. In the Properties window, scroll to Behavior and make sure Anchored (see Figure 1.16) is
selected so the block doesn’t fall when you click Play.

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FIGURE 1.16
Check Anchored to keep the blocks from falling.
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3. In the script, below the print function, add the following code:
print("I want lots of pasta!")
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-- Destroys whatever touches the part

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local trap = script.Parent

local function onTouch(partTouched)
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partTouched:Destroy()
end
trap.Touched:Connect(onTouch)

NOTE
Code Boxes
Code boxes for this book will be presented in light mode, unless specifically calling attention to
Studio UX.

4. Click Play and run up and touch the part.

The result should be that your character breaks or parts of your avatar are destroyed. You may
notice that this code only destroys what touches it directly, such as your feet. Try jumping on top
 Error Messages 11

of the block or brushing against it with just a hand. You’ll see only that part of your avatar is
destroyed.

The reason is that code only does what you tell it, and you told the part to destroy only what it
touches and nothing more. You have to tell it how to destroy the rest of the player. Throughout
this book, you’ll learn how to write additional instructions so that the code can handle more
scenarios like this one. In Hour 4, “Parameters and Arguments,” you’ll learn how to make sure it
destroys the entire player character.

Error Messages
What if the code didn’t work? The truth is, all engineers make mistakes in their code. It’s no big

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deal, and the editor and the output window can help you spot mistakes and fix them. Try mak-
ing a couple of mistakes to learn how to better spot them later:

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1. Delete the second parenthesis from the print function. A red line appears under local.
(See Figure 1.17.) In the editor, red lines indicate a problem.
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FIGURE 1.17
A red line indicates Studio has spotted an error.

2. Hover over the red line, and the editor gives you a clue about what’s gone wrong, as
shown in Figure 1.18. But don’t fix the mistake quite yet.
12 HOUR 1: Coding Your First Project

FIGURE 1.18
An error message displays when you hover over the red line.

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3. Click Play, which causes an error message to display in the Output window, as shown in
Figure 1.19. Click the red error, and Studio takes you to where it thinks the problem is.
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FIGURE 1.19
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The error shows up as a clickable red message in the Output window.

Stop the playtest and fix the issue.

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TIP
Changes Made While Playtesting Aren’t Permanent
Be careful about making changes while in a playtest because the work you’ve done is not automati-
cally saved. If you do make changes, be sure to click Preserve Changes when you stop the playtest.

Leaving Yourself Comments

In the previous code, you may notice the sentence -- Destroys whatever touches the
part. This is a comment. Comments begin with two dashes. Anything on the same line as the
dashes doesn’t affect the script.
 Q&A 13

Coders use comments to leave notes to themselves and others about what the code does. Trust
us: When you haven’t looked at a piece of code in months, it’s very easy to forget what it does.

The following code shows what it might look like to add a comment at the top of the script you
wrote earlier in this hour:
-- What do I want for dinner?
print("I want lots of pasta!")

Summary
In just one hour, you’ve come a long way, particularly if this happened to be your first time cod-
ing or using Roblox Studio. This hour covered creating an account and opening Roblox for the

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first time. By using the + button, you were able to insert a script into a part, and then you added

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code that turned the part into a trap for anyone who happened to touch it.

In addition, you learned how to test code using the Play button and use the built-in error detec-
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tion within the script editor and Output window to help you troubleshoot when something goes
wrong.

Finally, you learned about comments, which are only readable in the script editor and can be
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used to leave notes about the purpose of the code.

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Q&A
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Q. Can you use Studio on a Chromebook?

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A. To create, Studio must be run on a MacOS or Windows machine. Once a game has been
published, it’s available to be played on Android, Apple, Mac, PC, Chrome, and potentially
even XBox Live.

Q. How do I reopen a script if I close it?

A. If you close out of the script editor, you can reopen it by double-clicking the script object in
Explorer.

Q. How do I save my work?

A. Go to File, Publish to Roblox to save to the cloud, which makes your game accessible from
any computer.

Q. Where do I go if I want additional information about how Roblox Studio works?

A. You can visit developer.roblox.com to find documentation on all of Studio’s features and
API.
14 HOUR 1: Coding Your First Project

Workshop
Now that you have finished, let’s review what you’ve learned. Take a moment to answer the fol-
lowing questions.

Quiz
1. Roblox uses the _________ coding language.
2. Aspects of an object such as color, rotation, and anchored can be found in the ______
window.
3. Game objects are found in the _________ window.
4. To enable the Output window, which displays code messages and errors, enable it in the

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________ tab.

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5. True or false: Comments change the code to enable new functionality.
6. To force parts to stay in place, they need to be _______.
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Answers
1. Lua
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2. Properties
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3. Explorer
4. View
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5. False. Comments do not affect the code and are used to leave notes to yourself and other
coders as to the purpose of the script.
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5. Anchored

Exercise
Before moving on, take a moment to experiment with the creation tools by creating a mini obsta-
cle course. It could be individual parts the player has to avoid, or it could be a lava floor like the
one shown in Figure 1.20.
 Exercise 15

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FIGURE 1.20

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Use what you’ve learned so far to create a lava obstacle course.
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Tips
 Create more parts and manipulate them with the Move, Translate, and Scale tools found on
the Home tab (see Figure 1.21). You can also change the parts’ appearance with Material
and Color.
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FIGURE 1.21
The Home tab has the tools you need to create and manipulate parts.

 Use a single large part and insert a script as you did earlier to turn it into lava.
 Additional models can be found in the Toolbox; just be aware that some models may
already have scripts in them.
 Don’t forget to anchor all parts and models.
 If you know how to use the terrain tools, you can work that into your obstacle course as
well.