At its annual Roblox Developers Conference (RDC) on September 11, 2026, Roblox Corporation announced a set of changes that, taken together, represent the most significant opening of the platform in its 20-year history. Creators will soon be able to publish their games as standalone apps on Steam, the App Store, Google Play, and consoles. The engine is gaining 2D game support with a new orthographic camera and sprite-sheet import. An AI-powered creation tool called Build is expanding from alpha to new regions. And the platform is adding browser-based play and offline solo modes. For the millions of creators who have built on Roblox — and for anyone considering game development as a career or educational pathway — these changes alter the calculation of what the platform is for.

In Brief

  • Roblox will let creators publish games as standalone apps on external platforms including Steam, mobile stores, and consoles, with Roblox powering the technology underneath
  • The engine is adding 2D game support: a new orthographic camera, animated image containers, and direct sprite-sheet import, opening the platform to puzzle, turn-based, and 2D genres
  • Build, an AI-powered mobile-first creation tool, is expanding its public alpha to Serbia and Singapore after launching in New Zealand, with 9,000 games published so far and 71% of Build users being first-time creators
  • Players will be able to join games directly from a web browser by the end of 2026, and offline solo play is in development for mid-2027
  • Roblox creators have earned over $5 billion cumulatively since DevEx launched in 2013, with approximately $1.7 billion earned in the past 12 months alone
  • New monetization tools include Roblox Wallet (daily payouts in real currency) and Roblox Card (a debit card connected to creator earnings)

Standalone Apps: Leaving the Walled Garden

The headline announcement is that Roblox creators will soon be able to ship their games as standalone apps on platforms like Steam, the App Store, Google Play, and consoles. According to Roblox Corporation, the first set of creators selected for the program will “benefit from the same revenue-share economics that the Roblox app offers, including a higher DevEx rate for 18+ age-verified users in the US.”

This is a notable shift. For 20 years, Roblox has operated as a closed platform — every game lived inside the Roblox app, was discovered through Roblox’s recommendation system, and was monetized through Robux. Opening standalone publishing means a game like Steal an Egg, Scream and Run, or Welcome to Bloxburg could exist as its own app on Steam, discoverable by players who have never installed Roblox.

The implications are significant for independent developers. A creator who has built an audience on Roblox can now reach PC gamers on Steam, mobile users who do not have Roblox installed, and potentially console players — all while using the same development tools and backend infrastructure. The question is what the revenue split looks like in practice. Roblox’s platform fees have been a long-standing concern: the company takes anywhere from 10 to 70 percent of in-game transaction revenue depending on the amount and the creator’s verification status. The general DevEx rate, which converts earned Robux into real currency, is $0.0038 per 1 Robux, according to Game Developer.

2D Game Support: A New Genre for Roblox

Perhaps the most technically interesting announcement for game developers is the addition of 2D game capabilities. Roblox has been exclusively a 3D multiplayer platform since its inception. The new features include:

  • Orthographic camera — enables true 2D perspectives without 3D rendering tricks
  • Animated image containers — for sprite-based animation
  • Direct sprite-sheet import — standard 2D game art pipeline support
  • New UI features — blur, text shadows, and improved gradients

Roblox is also expanding support for turn-based, asynchronous multiplayer games, with a notification system that alerts players when it is their turn. The notification system enters Studio Beta in October 2026, with full release expected by the end of the year.

For educators, 2D game support matters because 2D games are generally easier for beginners to design and build than 3D worlds. Platforms like Scratch, GameMaker, and Godot (which we previously covered as a strong choice for STEAM education) already support 2D game development well. Roblox adding 2D means students who start with simple 2D games on Roblox can graduate to 3D multiplayer worlds on the same platform — a progression path that was previously impossible without switching engines.

Build: AI-Assisted Game Creation on Mobile

Build, first announced as an alpha in New Zealand, is now expanding to Serbia and Singapore. Build is a tab inside the Roblox mobile app that lets anyone create a game through text prompts. According to Roblox, approximately 9,000 games have been published through Build as of September 1, 2026, and 71% of users who created a game with Build had never used Roblox Studio before.

This is the statistic that should make educators and platform designers pay attention. A majority of the people using Build are not existing Roblox developers trying a new tool — they are first-time creators who were never going to open Roblox Studio on a desktop. Build is doing what Scratch did for block-based coding: lowering the barrier to first creation from “learn a development environment” to “describe what you want.”

The expansion adds new tools including an asset library, desktop access, and iterative control. Roblox also shared early progress on connecting Build and Studio, so creators can start a game on their phone with Build and then refine it in Studio on a computer. A Scene Generator, coming later in 2026, will let creators provide a text prompt and reference image to generate a fully functional scene layout that can then be refined in Studio.

The comparison to other AI-assisted creative tools is worth noting. The AI-assisted port of Babylonian Twins from Amiga assembly to Godot showed what LLMs can do when translating existing code across architectures. Build is doing something different: it is using AI to generate game content from natural language prompts for people who have never written code. The gap between “I want to make a game” and “I have a playable prototype” is shrinking from weeks to minutes — and the 71% first-time-creator number suggests the people most attracted to this are the ones who were excluded by traditional tools.

Web Play and Offline Mode

Two infrastructure announcements extend where Roblox games can reach:

Web play will allow players to join a game directly from a browser — Chrome initially, with other browsers to follow — by the end of 2026. A player can click a link from YouTube, social media, or a friend’s message and start playing without installing the Roblox app. For creators, this means the discovery funnel widens: any link to a Roblox game becomes a potential entry point.

Offline solo play is in development, with early access coming soon and full availability targeted for mid-2027. This addresses a real limitation: Roblox games have always required a server connection. For players in regions with unreliable internet — including much of Pakistan and South Asia — offline mode could make Roblox games viable where they previously were not.

The Creator Economy: Following the Money

Roblox’s economic impact is substantial and growing. According to the company’s own economic impact reports published September 3, 2026:

  • Creators earned over $1.5 billion in 2025, up from $923 million in 2024
  • Cumulative creator earnings since DevEx launched in 2013 have exceeded $5 billion
  • In the past 12 months, creators earned approximately $1.7 billion
  • Roblox supported nearly 12,000 full-time job equivalents globally in 2025
  • In the US, Roblox generated a cumulative GDP impact of $2.37 billion from 2017 to 2025

New monetization tools announced at RDC include:

  • Roblox Wallet — daily payouts to creators in real currency, through a financial partner (Airwallex), rolling out later in 2026 to eligible US-based creators 18 and older
  • Roblox Card — a debit card connected to Roblox Wallet, planned for 2027
  • Roblox Plus incentives — generated over 300 million Robux in creator earnings in its first four months

The revenue-share model remains the friction point. Roblox takes a significant cut of transaction revenue — the exact percentage varies by creator tier, age verification, and transaction volume. For creators earning through standalone apps, the question is whether Roblox’s cut is competitive with the 30% that Steam and Apple’s App Store typically take. Roblox says standalone app creators will get “the same revenue-share economics that the Roblox app offers,” which means the platform fee structure applies even outside the Roblox app. That is a trade-off: creators get Roblox’s infrastructure, matchmaking, and backend services, but they pay Roblox’s rates rather than just the store fee.

What This Means for Pakistan, Educators, and Makers

For Pakistan’s growing game development community, Roblox’s expansion is relevant in several ways.

Access without infrastructure. Roblox Studio is free, runs on modest hardware, and does not require the kind of development environment that Unreal or even Godot demand. For students in Pakistani schools where computer labs may have older machines, this matters. The addition of web play means students do not even need the app installed — a browser is enough. Offline mode, when it arrives, will help in areas where connectivity is intermittent.

A path from player to creator. Pakistan has a large youth population that already plays mobile games. Roblox’s Build tool turns that interest into a creation pathway. A student who plays Roblox games on their phone can start building their own with the same device, using natural language. For STEAM education programs that aim to move students from consumers to creators, this is a useful on-ramp.

The revenue question. Roblox’s DevEx program is available in a limited set of countries. Pakistani creators who build successful games on Roblox face the challenge of monetizing their work — DevEx availability, payment processing, and tax infrastructure all matter. As Roblox expands standalone app publishing, creators in markets not supported by DevEx could potentially monetize through external app stores instead, though this depends on how Roblox structures the standalone program’s eligibility.

Educational platforms vs. game engines. There is a design tension that educators should think about. Roblox is a commercial platform with its own economy, recommendation algorithm, and monetization model. It is not the same as teaching with an open-source engine like Godot, where the tool is free, the output belongs to the creator, and there are no platform fees. Both approaches have merit: Roblox excels at engagement, community, and lowering the barrier to first creation, while open-source engines teach transferable engineering skills and give creators full ownership of their work. A well-designed curriculum might use both — Roblox for initial engagement and rapid prototyping, Godot or similar for deeper skill development.

Product Builder’s Perspective

From a product-building perspective, Roblox’s announcements reflect a platform making a calculated bet: that opening up increases total value more than it risks cannibalizing the core app.

The standalone apps move is the clearest example. By letting games exist outside the Roblox app, Roblox is conceding some control over discovery and distribution. But it gains something larger: relevance on platforms where Roblox has been absent. A Roblox game on Steam is a marketing channel for the Roblox platform itself. The Build tool’s 71% first-time-creator rate suggests that AI-assisted creation is not just a feature — it is a different entry point to the product, serving people the existing tool chain was never going to reach.

The 2D expansion follows similar logic. Roblox was losing an entire category of games — puzzle, turn-based, 2D arcade — to platforms that already supported them. Adding 2D does not just serve existing creators; it brings in creators who were never going to make a 3D multiplayer world.

The risk is in the execution. Revenue-share economics that make sense inside a closed app may feel different when a creator is also paying Steam’s 30% or Apple’s 30% on top of Roblox’s cut. The offline mode timeline — mid-2027 — is slow for a feature that markets with poor connectivity need now. And Build’s AI generation quality will determine whether first-time creators become repeat creators or abandon the platform after one experiment.

What to Watch Next

  • Standalone app launch timeline and eligibility — Roblox has not yet announced which creators get access first or when the program opens broadly
  • Build’s expansion to more regions — currently limited to New Zealand, Serbia, and Singapore; South Asian availability would matter for Pakistan
  • Scene Generator quality — the prompt-to-scene tool could be Build’s killer feature if it produces usable layouts
  • DevEx expansion — whether Roblox Wallet and standalone app monetization extend to creators in countries currently outside DevEx
  • 2D game adoption — whether the new 2D tools attract creators who previously chose GameMaker, Godot, or Scratch for 2D projects

Conclusion

Roblox is making a set of bets that, if executed well, could expand the platform from a closed game ecosystem into something closer to a game development and publishing infrastructure. Standalone apps extend distribution. 2D support extends the range of games. Build extends who can create. Web play and offline mode extend who can play. The creator economy numbers are real — $1.7 billion in annual earnings is a meaningful economic engine, even if the revenue-share model remains a concern.

For anyone involved in game development education, the Build tool’s 71% first-time-creator rate is the number to watch. If AI-assisted creation can consistently turn players into creators — and keep them creating — it changes the economics of game development education in the same way that block-based coding changed programming education. The question is whether those first-time creators stay on Roblox or eventually migrate to open tools where they own their work.

What would you build if you could publish a game to Steam, the App Store, and a browser — all from the same tool? For educators and program builders thinking about game development curriculum, this is a good time to reconsider which platform serves your students best.

Sources

Shamyl Bin Mansoor

Shamyl Bin Mansoor is a technology entrepreneur, product builder and STEAM educator. He is Co-founder and CTO of LearnOBots and works on educational technology, robotics and interactive learning products. Learn more about him.

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