Start here
Build something small enough to finish and interesting enough to play together. This manual takes a programmer who is new to Roblox from an empty scene to an obstacle course, a score-and-upgrade loop, and a cooperative timed challenge. You do not need prior 3D-engine experience. Programming basics are assumed; Roblox-specific behavior is explained from first principles.
How to use the manual
Follow the numbered lessons the first time. Then use the project map to resume work, the glossary to unpack unfamiliar language, and the links at the end of a lesson to explore dependencies. A lesson is complete when you can reproduce its expected result and explain where its state lives.
The course has three deliberately separate projects:
- Obby Workshop: build platforms and checkpoints, then add per-player coins, a HUD and a server-validated boost
- Co-op Collector: start from a new Baseplate and build short server-controlled rounds with a shared team target
- Persistence Lab: use a separate test experience for a narrow data-saving exercise
Keep those projects separate. In particular, the persistence lesson must not use production player data. The project map names the scripts that belong to each stage.
Your route
- Orientation: Mac setup, Studio and its data model, Luau, events
- First game: build an obby, checkpoints and hazards, coins, UI
- Multiplayer thinking: client/server, validated remotes, modules, co-op rounds
- Reliable play: controls, testing, saving, debugging and performance
- Sharing carefully: assets, publishing, family playtests, getting help
First-session target
Install Studio, open a Baseplate, change one part, run the game and stop it. Save a local place. Do not try to design an economy or choose a commercial framework in the first session. The first useful win is understanding how a change in edit mode becomes something you can play.
If you are comfortable with code, skim the syntax lesson but do the client/server experiment. Knowing web architecture helps; it does not make replication, character lifecycle or physics authority obvious. Objects are mutable engine instances, and some of those objects are copied between server and client at runtime.
What is included and what is verified
Each coding lesson gives an exact script type and location. Downloadable .luau files contain the same full examples as the lesson. Add a script only where told, and replace an existing script only when the lesson explicitly says to replace it. Copying every code file into one place will create conflicts.
The examples are teaching implementations, not a production framework. They are written against official documentation, reviewed for logic and API usage, and checked as described in the archive's validation report. They have not been run in Roblox Studio as part of preparing this edition. Treat each expected-result checklist as your runtime acceptance test. Do not describe a game as tested until you actually perform those tests.
Source verification date: 2026-10-03. Studio menus and publishing policies can change. Use current official documentation and the Creator Dashboard if the visible interface differs. The source guide explains which source answers which kind of question.
Open in Obsidian or another editor
Extract the archive and open its root folder as a vault. Begin with content/00-start-here.md. Links are ordinary relative Markdown links; no community plugin is required. YAML front matter is optional metadata for software that supports it; the lesson remains understandable if your editor displays it as text. Keep the content and code folders together when moving the manual.
A public learning website and a local vault have different privacy properties. The lessons are public, generic material. Personal reflections, account details and family information belong in your own private notes. Browser-local notes are not an encrypted vault or a backup; export anything you want to keep.
Sources and next step
Roblox Core Curriculum is an official complementary course for readers with coding experience. Obsidian storage and internal links explain the portable folder model.
Next: Set up Roblox Studio on Mac