Explore

R&C - W1 Unit 2

Lesson Plan

Introduction to Roblox Studio - Solo Obby Building Overview

Duration: 30 mins

Introduction to Roblox Studio - Solo Obby Building Lesson

Part 1: Create a Basic Obby and Play It!

Hello, young creators! 🌟 Welcome to Roblox Studio, the place where all the magic happens! Today, we'll be creating a basic obstacle course, or "Obby" as it's known in the Roblox community. Let's dive right in!

Introduction to Roblox Studio

This tutorial explains the basics of

Roblox Studio⁠

by building, playtesting, and publishing a simple platformer experience. Follow each section and learn how to:

Create the foundation of your platformer using one of Studio's bundled templates.

Navigate around the 3D viewport to see the environment from every angle.

Create platforms for players to traverse using Studio's primary building blocks.

Playtest and troubleshoot your experience.

Make your experience available for everyone on Roblox to play.

Creating a New Experience

⁠

Roblox Studio⁠

, a free application available on Windows and macOS, is the essential building tool for Roblox experiences.

With Studio open, create a new place by pressing CtrlN on Windows or ⌘N on macOS. Alternatively, click the Baseplate template under the All Templates tab.

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The Baseplate template consists of a spawn location where player characters appear in the world when they enter the experience, as well as a wide open baseplate floor.

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Moving the Camera

With the new place open in Studio, click inside the 3D viewport and use the following keyboard/mouse controls to look around.

Table 5

Table 5

Key/Shortcut

Action

W A S D

Moves the camera forward, left, back, or right

Q E

Moves the camera down or up

Shift

In combination with any movement key, changes the camera speed

Focuses the camera on a selected part

Right Mouse Button

When pressed, dragging the mouse moves the camera view around

Mouse Scroll Wheel

Zooms the camera in or out

Middle Mouse Button

When pressed, dragging the mouse pans the camera

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Building Your Experience

When you're comfortable navigating the viewport with the camera, you can begin building your experience by adding platforms of different shapes and colors for players to jump between.

Inserting Parts

Part⁠

is Roblox's primary building block. You can

move⁠

resize⁠

, and

rotate⁠

parts, as well as customize their appearance, such as their

color and material⁠

. There are five different part types that you can insert through the Parts section of the

Home⁠

Model⁠

tabs:

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Table 6

Block

Sphere

Cylinder

Wedge

Corner Wedge

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To insert a part:

In the menu bar, select the

Model⁠

tab.

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Under the Part button, click the dropdown arrow to reveal the part type picker and choose a part type.

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Click the button to insert a part of the chosen type into the world.

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Selecting Parts

Inserted parts are automatically selected, and you can select parts at any time with the Select tool. Hovering over and clicking a part selects it, and you can select multiple parts by holding Shift, Ctrl, or ⌘ as you hover over and click them.

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Moving Parts

The new part is the first "platform" that players will jump to from the spawn location, so you should move it further away. By default, parts move incrementally by studs, the basic measurement unit in Roblox.

With the newly inserted part selected in the 3D viewport, toggle on the Move tool.

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Click and drag the arrow that's pointing in the direction you want to move the part. Remember that this is the first platform players will jump to, so you should move it just slightly away for an easy first jump.

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If you want to adjust the default snapping increment, change the Move field value in the Snap to Grid section. Alternatively, you can disable move snapping by toggling off the checkbox next to Move.

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Scaling Parts

Similar to

moving⁠

, parts scale along the X, Y, and Z axes. You can make a part larger or smaller by using the Scale tool.

With the platform part still selected in the 3D viewport, toggle on the Scale tool.

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Click and drag the handles to scale the part up in size, making the platform easier for players to land on from the first jump.

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Rotating Parts

Similar to

moving⁠

and

scaling⁠

, parts rotate around the X, Y, and Z axes. By default, parts rotate incrementally by degrees.

With the platform part still selected in the 3D viewport, toggle on the Rotate tool.

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

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If you want to adjust the default rotation increment, change the Rotate field value in the Snap to Grid section. Alternatively, you can disable rotation snapping by toggling off the checkbox next to Rotate.

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Customizing Colors and Materials

The fastest way to recolor a part is through the hexagonal color picker accessible through the small dropdown arrow under the Color button. By default, picking a color applies it to all selected parts. Alternatively, you can apply a chosen color as a painting tool by toggling on Color Action as Tool and clicking specific parts in the 3D viewport.

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You can also customize a part's material to simulate real-world materials such as wood, glass, or fabric. A part's material affects both its visual appearance and its physical traits; for example, the Concrete material is heavier than the Plastic material, so a concrete brick will have higher density than a plastic brick and sink faster in water.

To apply different materials to parts:

Open the Material Manager.

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In the 3D viewport, select one or more parts.

In the Material Manager palette, hover your mouse over the desired material (you don't need to select it) and click the Apply to Selected Parts button.

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Completing the Course

Using the skills and tools you've learned so far, build out the course with several more platforms of varying

shapes⁠

sizes⁠

rotations⁠

, and

colors/materials⁠

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As you add more platforms, remember to

move the camera⁠

and view the overall construction from multiple angles. While the gap between two platforms might appear jumpable when viewed from one angle, looking at it from another angle may reveal that a jump between the two platforms is obviously impossible.

Anchoring Parts

If you

playtest⁠

the platformer now, you'll notice that gravity pulls each new part down to the baseplate.

Since platforms should remain fixed in space, you'll need to anchor each part that you insert into the world.

In the 3D viewport,

select⁠

each of the platform parts you've inserted into the world.

Toggle on the Anchor option in the Parts section.

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Deleting the Baseplate

If you

playtest⁠

your experience right now and miss a jump, your character will land safely on the baseplate. To provide a consequence when players miss a jump, you can delete the baseplate, forcing them to restart from the spawn location each time.

Access the

Explorer⁠

window. If it's not currently open, click Explorer from the

View⁠

tab.

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Expand the top-level Workspace tree, locate the Baseplate object, and select it.

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Press Delete. The course now floats in an empty sky.

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Playtesting the Course

Playtesting is a vital step before

publishing⁠

any experience because you need to verify that players can reach the final platform. When you playtest your platformer, consider its difficulty and how that might effect the typical player's experience.

To playtest your experience, click the Play button (F5) in the menu bar.

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

Table 7

Table 7

Control

Action

W A S D

Run forward, left, back, or right

Spacebar

Jump

Right Mouse Button

When pressed, dragging the mouse moves the camera view around

Mouse Scroll Wheel

Zooms the camera in or out

There are no rows in this table

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To stop playtesting, click the Stop button (ShiftF5) in the menu bar.

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Publishing an Experience

When you're ready to showcase your experience, you can publish it to allow other players on Roblox to test it. To publish your experience:

In the menu bar, select File → Publish to Roblox.

In the popup window that opens, fill in the following fields:

Name — A name for the new experience.

Description — A summary of what a player should expect from the experience.

Leave the other fields as their defaults, then click the blue Create button near the bottom of the window.

Navigate to the

Creator Dashboard⁠

Hover over the experience's tile, click the ⋯ button, and select Make Public.

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Hover over the tile again, click the ⋯ button, and select Copy URL.

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Share the copied URL with others via social media or similar, as a direct link to your experience's landing page featuring a play button.

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Congratulations on creating your first Roblox experience! To add more features to your platformer and learn more about building immersive experiences on Roblox, check out

tutorials⁠

On this pageCreating a New ExperienceMoving the CameraBuilding Your ExperienceInserting PartsSelecting PartsMoving PartsScaling PartsRotating PartsCustomizing Colors and MaterialsCompleting the CourseAnchoring PartsDeleting the BaseplatePlaytesting the CoursePublishing an Experience

Playtesting the Course

Playtesting is a vital step before

publishing⁠

To playtest your experience, click the Play button (F5) in the menu bar.

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⁠

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

Table 8

Table 8

Control

Action

W A S D

Run forward, left, back, or right

Spacebar

Jump

Right Mouse Button

When pressed, dragging the mouse moves the camera view around

Mouse Scroll Wheel

Zooms the camera in or out

There are no rows in this table

⁠

To stop playtesting, click the Stop button (ShiftF5) in the menu bar.

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⁠

Publishing an Experience

When you're ready to showcase your experience, you can publish it to allow other players on Roblox to test it. To publish your experience:

In the menu bar, select File → Publish to Roblox.

In the popup window that opens, fill in the following fields:

Name — A name for the new experience.

Description — A summary of what a player should expect from the experience.

Leave the other fields as their defaults, then click the blue Create button near the bottom of the window.

Navigate to the

Creator Dashboard⁠

Hover over the experience's tile, click the ⋯ button, and select Make Public.

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Hover over the tile again, click the ⋯ button, and select Copy URL.

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Share the copied URL in the discussion board!

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Grouping Objects in Roblox Studio

Grouping objects in Roblox Studio allows you to organize your workspace and manipulate multiple objects at once. Unfortunately, the link provided for this topic is not available. However, I can provide a brief tutorial on how to group objects:

Select Multiple Objects: Hold down the Shift key and click on each part you want to group together.

Group the Objects: Right-click on one of the selected parts and choose "Group" from the context menu. You can also use the shortcut Ctrl+G.

Name the Group: In the Explorer window on the right, find your new group (it will be called "Model" by default). Click on it and rename it to something descriptive in the Properties window.

Manipulate the Group: Now, you can move, rotate, and scale the group just like a single object. Any changes you make will affect all the parts in the group.

Creating a Lava Object

Now, let's add some danger to our Obby by creating a lava object that kills the player:

Insert a New Part: Create a new part as before. This will be our lava.

Change the Color: In the Properties Window, change the "BrickColor" to bright red.

Add a Script: With the lava part selected, click on the "Script" button under the "Model" tab. This will create a new script.

Write the Script: In the script, write the following code:

script.Parent.Touched:Connect(function(hit)

local character = hit.Parent

local humanoid = character:FindFirstChild("Humanoid")

if humanoid then

humanoid.Health = 0

end

end)

This script will reduce the player's health to zero when they touch the lava, effectively "killing" them.

Creating a Finish Line

Create a new part and place it at the end of your Obby. This will be the finish line. Change its color to green and add a script to it that congratulates the player when they touch it. Here’s the code:

local finishLine = script.Parent

function onTouch(hit)

local character = hit.Parent

local player = game.Players:GetPlayerFromCharacter(character)

if player then

player:Kick("Congratulations! You completed the Obby!")

end

finishLine.Touched:Connect(onTouch)

Grouping Objects

As your Obby grows, it's a good idea to keep things organized. You can group objects in Roblox Studio. Select multiple objects by holding Shift and clicking on them. Then, right-click and select “Group”. You can also use the shortcut Ctrl + G.