Publishing Your Roblox Game — Step by Step

You built something in Studio. Now you want other people to play it. Publishing on Roblox is straightforward, but a few settings make the difference between a ghost town and actual players showing up. Here is the full process from “Save” to “Public.”

Before you publish

A few things to handle before making the game live. Skipping these means scrambling to fix them after people are already playing.

  • Test thoroughly. Run through every mechanic. Play with Shift+F5 (multi-client) to catch replication bugs. Nothing kills early retention faster than a game-breaking bug in the first five minutes.
  • Name and description. Keep the name short and descriptive. The description should explain what the game is in two sentences, then list notable features. No walls of text — players scan, they do not read.
  • An icon. A 512x512 PNG thumbnail. This is the first thing people see in the game browser. If it looks generic or low-effort, they scroll past.
  • Age rating and devices. Roblox asks you to set an age recommendation and pick which devices (computer, phone, tablet, console) your game supports. Be honest — misleading the age rating can get the game taken down.

Publishing the first time

In Studio, go to File → Publish to Roblox (or Publish to Roblox As…). If you have not published this place before, it asks you to create a new experience. Give it a name, set the initial privacy to Private — you do not want it public before you have configured everything.

Once created, Studio uploads the place file. The first upload takes longer because it uploads everything from scratch. Subsequent publishes only upload changed assets and scripts, so they are much faster.

Configuring the experience page

Open the Creator Dashboard (create.roblox.com) and find your experience. The configuration page has several sections worth tuning:

  • Basic Info — Update the description, set the genre, add a short tagline.
  • Thumbnails — Upload multiple thumbnail images. You get several slots; use them. Good thumbnails show gameplay action, not logos. See our Creator Store guide for thumbnail design tips.
  • Permissions — Set who can play (Everyone, Friends, or Private), who can edit the place, and whether the game appears in search results.
  • Social Links — Add links to your Discord, Twitter, YouTube, or group. These appear on the game page and make it easy for players to follow updates.
  • Monetization — Configure game passes, developer products, and Premium Payouts. Covered in depth on the monetization page.

Going public

When everything looks right, flip the privacy setting from Private to Public. Your game appears in search results and on your profile immediately. Roblox also sends it through a moderation review within a few hours. If it violates any rules, it gets taken down with a notice explaining why. Common moderation issues: inappropriate audio uploads, misleading thumbnails, broken mechanics that crash the client.

After going public, publish updates through Studio as normal. Each publish updates the live place without resetting player data or game settings. Use File → Publish to Roblox for standard updates or Publish to Roblox As… to create a new experience copy.

After launch

Publishing is not the finish line. Watch the Analytics tab on the Creator Dashboard — visit counts, playtime, retention charts, and revenue data. Player feedback in the comments and on Discord tells you what to fix next. Iterate fast in the first two weeks; that is when the algorithm is deciding whether to promote your game or bury it. Use the Studio Tips for efficient iteration workflows.