Roblox expands AI game creation, NPC playtesting and browser-based play

AI game creation reaches more users

At its annual Developer Conference, Roblox announced a broad set of features aimed at making game creation easier and getting the results in front of more players, according to TechCrunch.

The centerpiece is wider availability of "Build," the generative AI tool that lets users create games by describing them in plain language. Unveiled in July and initially restricted to New Zealand, Build is now expanding to Serbia and Singapore.

Build is also picking up new capabilities: desktop access for creating on a bigger screen, a new asset library, and finer iterative control over what it generates. Later this year, a prompt-based scene generation feature will arrive and will also be brought into Roblox Studio, the platform's professional authoring environment.

Games leave the Roblox app

Distribution is the other half of the story. TechCrunch reports that creators will soon be able to package their games as standalone apps for mobile, PC and consoles, with Roblox serving as the game engine underneath. By the end of the year, players will also be able to jump into a game directly from a browser link.

Together with the AI tooling, the move signals a shift in strategy: rather than only drawing users into its own app, Roblox wants the things developers build there to travel further afield.

Smarter NPCs and player features

Roblox is also upgrading its non-player characters. Later this year, NPCs will be able to playtest a game, giving creators an automated way to check their work. Games will additionally support an offline mode so players can keep going where network coverage is weak.

For players, a new Friends chat tab will follow them across games and support voice typing. A reworked discovery algorithm will surface shorter-format games to younger users and longer-session titles to older ones.

The engine itself is gaining 2D game support, including an orthographic camera, animated image containers and direct sprite-sheet import. In the Moments vertical feed, players will soon be able to tap an avatar in a clip and buy the items it is wearing.

Faster money for creators

Roblox said game makers have earned more than $5 billion on the platform since 2013, with $1.7 billion of that in the past twelve months. To give creators more options for managing those earnings, the company is introducing financial products.

The Roblox Wallet will pay creators in real money by the end of each business day and allow transfers to outside bank accounts. The service is offered in partnership with Airwallex to U.S. users aged 18 and older, with global expansion planned. A Roblox Card, teased for launch next year, would let users spend their earnings wherever the card is accepted.

Founder and CEO David Baszucki said players spent more than 29 billion hours on the platform last quarter across 180 countries — the baseline of engagement these announcements are meant to grow.

Why it matters

The announcements show Roblox pushing outward on two fronts at once. On the creation side, generative AI tools like Build lower the skill floor so casual users can produce playable games, widening the pool of creators beyond those who know their way around Studio and scripting. On the distribution side, standalone apps and browser links recast Roblox from a destination into an engine and publishing layer, putting it in more direct competition with established game engines.

The financial products are just as significant. Daily payouts, bank transfers and a spending card treat creator earnings like ordinary income, which could keep developers building inside Roblox instead of graduating to other platforms. With $1.7 billion earned in the last year, Roblox has a large creator population to retain as AI-assisted creation and looser distribution change how casual games get made and discovered.