Roblox

This doc goes over some of the Pros and Cons of building for Roblox.

Roblox has become one of the biggest platforms online. Not considering it as a potential platform to build on, for fun or for profit, would be a mistake.

As with any engine there are pros and cons. Balancing the pros and cons depends on the experience you are creating.

Roblox Pros

Audience - Roblox has millions of players available as soon as you hit Publish. This is honestly a pretty huge benefit in comparison to having to find your own audience with other engines.
Free - Even with the significant weight of running servers for the millions of players, playing and creating for Roblox is free.
Multiplayer - Multiplayer works out of the box.
Monetization - Roblox has monetization options in built such as selling assets or game passes as well as some advertising tools you can place within your space. Even Donations can be an option.
Platform Access - Desktop, Mobile, Console, and VR are available from the one experience. You may have to consider each one in order to create the best experience for all though.

Roblox Cons

Editor Experience - In comparison to Unity/Unreal the Roblox Studio is a little frustrating to use to put it nicely. Some of these are covered in the next doc, but this would be the biggest con. It is always evolving, but some of the missing features are strange seeing as Roblox came out in 2006.
Exchange rate - To buy Robux from Roblox is 400 Robux for $4.99. Whereas a Creator can exchange 350 Robux for $1 as long as you pass the . As much as it may seem like Roblox is taking up to 70% of the rate, they are supplying servers and resources that allow millions of users to interact with each other for free.
Support - It seems that a lot of support, by email or otherwise, and moderation of spaces and even plugins, is based on Bot interactions. It can be very difficult to get a straight answer.
Official Roblox Forums - Difficult to get enough permissions to post a question or reply to others.
Official Roblox Docs - Many of the docs are good, but due to the eco system having variations of complexity and updated features over many years it can be sometimes difficult to find a clear path to the task you are trying to solve. Custom Avatars is a prime example of this hard to follow pipeline.

Last updated 11 months ago

Roblox has become one of the biggest platforms online. Not considering it as a potential platform to build on, for fun or for profit, would be a mistake.

As with any engine there are pros and cons. Balancing the pros and cons depends on the experience you are creating.

Roblox Pros

Audience - Roblox has millions of players available as soon as you hit Publish. This is honestly a pretty huge benefit in comparison to having to find your own audience with other engines.
Free - Even with the significant weight of running servers for the millions of players, playing and creating for Roblox is free.
Multiplayer - Multiplayer works out of the box.
Monetization - Roblox has monetization options in built such as selling assets or game passes as well as some advertising tools you can place within your space. Even Donations can be an option.
Platform Access - Desktop, Mobile, Console, and VR are available from the one experience. You may have to consider each one in order to create the best experience for all though.

Roblox Cons

Editor Experience - In comparison to Unity/Unreal the Roblox Studio is a little frustrating to use to put it nicely. Some of these are covered in the next doc, but this would be the biggest con. It is always evolving, but some of the missing features are strange seeing as Roblox came out in 2006.
Exchange rate - To buy Robux from Roblox is 400 Robux for $4.99. Whereas a Creator can exchange 350 Robux for $1 as long as you pass the . As much as it may seem like Roblox is taking up to 70% of the rate, they are supplying servers and resources that allow millions of users to interact with each other for free.
Support - It seems that a lot of support, by email or otherwise, and moderation of spaces and even plugins, is based on Bot interactions. It can be very difficult to get a straight answer.
Official Roblox Forums - Difficult to get enough permissions to post a question or reply to others.
Official Roblox Docs - Many of the docs are good, but due to the eco system having variations of complexity and updated features over many years it can be sometimes difficult to find a clear path to the task you are trying to solve. Custom Avatars is a prime example of this hard to follow pipeline.