Disclosure: Lloydtown may earn a commission if you enroll through links on this page. It doesn't change the price you pay. Course details come from each course's Coursera page, checked on the date above.
Start with Roblox Studio, which is free
You don't buy a course to open Roblox Studio. Download it from Roblox's own Creator Hub, which has free tutorials that walk you through building your first world and scripting it in Luau, Roblox's version of the Lua language. That gets you moving blocks and testing a game the same day.
Where beginners get stuck isn't the buttons in Studio, it's the thinking behind a game: how to design something people actually want to play, how to write code that doesn't break, and how to use new tools like AI. That's what the courses below are for. None of them is Roblox-only, and that's on purpose, these are the transferable skills that separate a first tech demo from a game that gets played.
Quick comparison
| Course | Teaches | Best for | Length* | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Introduction to Game Design (CalArts) | Game design fundamentals, no code | Designing a game worth building | ~6 hours | 4.7 (2,937) |
| Code Yourself! An Introduction to Programming (U of Edinburgh) | Programming logic and thinking | Getting ready to script in Luau | ~1 week | 4.7 (3,976) |
| Creating LLM powered NPCs | AI characters, built in Roblox | Adding AI NPCs to your game | ~4 hours | Beginner |
*Coursera's own estimates. Ratings are the course average with the number of reviews in brackets; where no rating is shown yet, the difficulty level is listed instead.
CalArts: Introduction to Game Design
Course · Beginner · 4.7 from 2,937 reviews · about 6 hours · no programming needed
From the California Institute of the Arts. You design small games on paper first, so you learn mechanics, rules and balance without fighting the software. It's the fastest way to stop building random parts in Studio and start designing a game on purpose, with a loop that's actually fun.
Take it if your Roblox projects look fine but play flat, or you want to plan a game properly before you build it.
See Introduction to Game DesignUniversity of Edinburgh: Code Yourself! An Introduction to Programming
Course · Beginner · 4.7 from 3,976 reviews · about 1 week · no experience needed
This teaches how programming actually works, loops, conditions, variables and good habits, using a simple visual tool so the ideas land before the syntax. Those are the exact concepts you use when you script in Luau, so when you move to writing real Roblox code it feels familiar instead of frightening.
Take it if you've copied scripts into Roblox but don't really understand them, or you want a gentle on-ramp to coding.
See Code Yourself!Creating LLM powered NPCs
Course · Beginner · about 4 hours · built inside Roblox
A short, hands-on course where you build AI-driven characters and deploy them into a Roblox experience, bringing a 3D avatar to life with a large language model. It's the one course here that works directly in Roblox, and it points at where the platform is going: NPCs you can actually talk to.
Take it if you already have a Roblox game and want to add smarter, AI-powered characters to it.
See Creating LLM powered NPCsA simple order to learn in
- Week 1: install Roblox Studio and finish one of Roblox's free "your first game" tutorials.
- Then: take Introduction to Game Design so your next build has a real idea behind it.
- Alongside it: work through Code Yourself! so Luau scripting makes sense.
- When you're comfortable: add AI characters with Creating LLM powered NPCs.
Want to build in a different engine later? Our game design courses guide covers Unity and Unreal programs on Coursera too.
What they cost
These are individual Coursera courses, usually paid by monthly subscription, and most offer a free trial so you can start before you're charged. If you plan to take more than one, Coursera Plus bundles them under a single subscription. Coursera shows prices in your local currency, and financial aid is available on many courses. Roblox Studio itself stays free.
Start with the free trial
Begin with game design, the skill that improves every game you make.
Start Introduction to Game DesignWe may earn a commission if you enroll. Prices and terms are set by Coursera.
Sources: Coursera course pages for Introduction to Game Design, Code Yourself! An Introduction to Programming and Creating LLM powered NPCs, plus the Roblox Creator Hub, checked October 1, 2026.