Roblox Build will enable creators — even ordinary players — to create mobile games with just an idea and AI tools starting in a limited market on July 28. But will it enable games that go beyond AI slop?
It’s a big bet on “games without limits,” according to a post by Nick Tornow, senior vice president of engine and Vlad Loktev, chief creator ecosystem officer. They specifically said they will combat AI slop.
The company will start testing in New Zealand and then figure out if the tools are being used properly and any safeguards are working. It’s risky, given anti-AI sentiment that appears to be rising among game developers and hardcore gamers. But the Roblox team has high hopes.
“Somewhere right now, someone has an idea for a game. They know exactly what it would feel
like to play. They just don’t know how to build it. Today, that changes,” they said.
The founders’ words
Echoing that sentiment, Dave Baszucki, Roblox cofounder and CEO, said in a post on X (Twitter), “For 20 years, Roblox has been on a mission to remove limits on what gaming is – and what it can be. Today, we’re introducing Build – a new way for anyone to create a game on Roblox from their phone. And we’re expanding AI-powered tools for developers of every level.”
And he said, “We’re doing this for one reason: The world needs more play.”
Baszucki said play is humanity’s oldest technology for connection and learning. Before agriculture, before commerce, before civilization, we played together, he said.
“And as the world has become more fragmented, the need for play only grows. Our role is to remove every obstacle between that play and the people who want to create it,” Baszucki said. “Faster iteration and fewer technical constraints. And more room to push further than a single creator – or a small team – could have gone in the past.”
He said this isn’t just for studios who’ve already proven themselves.
“Some of the most important work in this industry has come from first-time creators – who were often Roblox players first – with a single focused idea,” Baszucki said.
He said that between now and the Roblox Developer Conference in early September, Roblox will incrementally roll out what it’s are building to make all of this real – “new tools for creators, new ways for players to play, and new ways for people to find the things they love.”
Doing something radical
Tornow and Loktev said that, 20 years ago, Roblox launched with a simple idea: “You make the game.”
At the time, that was a radical proposition—most games were made by studios and professionals, and the idea that anyone could be a creator was far from obvious, Tornow and Loktev said.
“But we believed it. And the millions of creators who built on Roblox proved it. As we look to a future where any one of Roblox’s 132 million daily active users could come up with the next hit game, we’re taking that original idea further than we ever have,” they said.
They added, “Over the coming months, we’ll share a series of announcements that will give every creator a clear runway to go further and fulfill the promise of ‘You make the game’ for more people than ever before.”
With Roblox Build, players will have a new mobile-first creation tab within the Roblox app, and a new suite of AI-powered tools within Studio for creators of every level. On July 28, the company will begin testing these new agentic tools. With Build and Studio, creators can delegate the parts of development that don’t require their full attention.
Roblox has always provided creators with powerful tools to publish globally in seconds, a
platform that drives discovery and rapid viral growth, easy iteration and scaling with no up-front
costs, robust safety systems to protect players, and incredibly rich worlds supported by our
game engine, Tornow and Loktev said.
“The creators who’ve built real audiences on this platform have done it by making things people actually want to play, and we’ve always surfaced the most played, highest engaged experiences on Roblox,” they said. “Our discovery systems are designed to highlight games with long-term retention, which doesn’t include AI slop. The quality of games on the homepage isn’t changing: If no one plays it—no one can find it. The goal across these new tools is to continue to accelerate creation across all experience levels.”
Build is a new way to create on Roblox
Build brings mobile-first AI creation to Roblox, allowing anyone to turn text prompts into a basic
game directly within the Roblox mobile app. A creator can type “Let’s make a cozy adventure
game set in a dense forest with environmental obstacles.” Build will then automatically generate a starting point for the creator to iterate on, playtest, and share with friends or publish to Roblox.
Build extends Roblox Studio, which creators have been successfully using for years, into the
Roblox app. With a shared back end, models, and chat history, creators can start work in Build
and enhance their creation with the broader capabilities of Studio, or launch agents from Studio
and check in on progress from their mobile device.
Powered by a broad set of AI models, including both open-source and proprietary Roblox
models, Build handles gameplay mechanics, environment, characters, visual style, sound, and
more—without leaving Roblox.
Tornow and Loktev said, “Because these models are trained on a uniquely large set of 3D
models and gaming-specific data, Roblox’s proprietary AI models are able to generate functional 3D objects and even full 3D scenes that can easily integrate into working games using our existing creation tools.”
Build allows rapid exploration and refinement of ideas. This makes it a powerful tool for iterating on design, sharing with friends, and getting feedback, they said. Upcoming releases will unlock flexibility for new and established creators to improve their games from the mobile app.
Select Build features, including the ability to publish games, will be available in public alpha to
users in New Zealand beginning July 28. Roblox will deploy Build to creators and more regions
over the coming months as it iterates on core functionality and expand its capabilities.
During alpha testing, Build will be available to age-checked users 9 and older (varies by region). Published games that pass the safety checks will be globally available for age-checked users 16 and older. Before being added to the Roblox Kids or Select catalogs, Build-created games will undergo the extended review process all Roblox games follow.
They will also join the same candidate pool and be ranked by the same retention-based discovery system as all other Roblox games. A base-level version of Build will be available at no cost to creators, with additional paid options for power users.
The Road Ahead for Build and Studio
We’re also shipping a new suite of tools for professional creators over the coming months.
Available across Build and Studio, these tools will include:
● A playtesting agent that surfaces bugs before a single player experiences the game
● An analytics agent that lets creators ask anything about a game in plain language and
get insights without needing to hunt through dashboards
● An experiment agent that identifies tests to run to drive higher engagement, retention,
and monetization.
Roblox’s recently launched Procedural Models generate parametric 3D assets from a text prompt or image. Creators can set parameters to reshape and refine, with no manual modeling or regeneration required.
And Cube, Roblox’s 3D foundation model, turns a prompt into game-ready objects, from simple props to vehicles that drive and weapons that shoot. Coming soon, a new scene-generation model will build entire editable and playable 3D scenes from a single prompt. The company will share more about these capabilities as they become available in the coming months.
Together, these updates bring Roblox closer than ever to our vision where “You make the
game.” Let’s build, Tornow and Loktev said.
Response to queries
I asked Roblox some questions about how it will handle challenges around AI game creation, like how they will handle slop and deal with it. A spokesperson for Roblox said, “Our algorithm is designed to surface games that retain players, creating a larger, more engaged audience over time, with benefits that compound as more users keep coming back. Ultimately, games with more creativity and long-term engagement are those that rise to the top. You can read more about our approach to Discovery in our recent Newsroom post.”
I also asked how many games players can create. The reply was, “We’ll share more specifics as we continue to expand. If helpful, we will have a base-level version of Build available at no cost to creators, with additional paid options for power users.”
As for how complex is to create, Roblox said, “Our role is to remove every obstacle between play and the people who want to create it. Faster iteration and fewer technical constraints. We hope Build helps us achieve this and we’ll continue to listen to feedback from our community and see how they’re using Build and Studio together to bring their creations to life.”
And regarding how much testing will happen and when the expansion might loosen up for all, Roblox said, “We’re using this opportunity to test and iterate on the technology. We’ll continue rolling out to more regions in the coming months.”