Migrating from Roblox Studio

Bringing a place across is usually a matter of opening it. The work, when there is any, is in deciding what a standalone build should do about the parts of your game that depend on Roblox itself.

Open an existing place#

File → Open accepts .rbxl, .rbxlx, .rbxm and .rbxmx. Everything comes across: the instance tree, scripts, attributes, CollectionService tags, packages, terrain and lighting.

From the CLI, converting a place into a project skeleton is one command:

luauengine import ./MyGame.rbxl --out ./my-game

That produces a luauengine.toml, extracts scripts into src/ as .luau files, and rewrites the place as .rbxlx. Your original file is not modified.

Keep shipping to Roblox#

If Roblox is your only target, you are done. Set it as the default and publish as usual:

[targets]
default = "roblox"

[targets.roblox]
place-id = 1234567890
universe-id = 987654321

luauengine publish --roblox

Everything in Publishing to Roblox applies unchanged.

Preparing for a standalone build#

A standalone target has no Roblox behind it. Four categories of code need attention.

1. Player identity and accounts#

Player.UserId, Player.DisplayName and friends exist, but off Roblox there is no account system to populate them. By default the runtime assigns local identities. If you need real accounts, plug in your own provider:

if Engine.Platform ~= Enum.Platform.Roblox then
	Engine.Identity:SetProvider(require(script.Parent.MyAuthProvider))
end

2. Data persistence#

DataStoreService has no Roblox backend outside Roblox. The runtime ships a local implementation that writes to the user's save directory, which is right for single-player and wrong for anything authoritative:

local DataStore = if Engine.Platform == Enum.Platform.Roblox
	then game:GetService("DataStoreService"):GetDataStore("Saves")
	else Engine.Storage:GetDataStore("Saves") -- local files, or your own backend

Engine.Storage:SetBackend() lets you point it at an HTTP service you control. See Dedicated servers.

3. Monetisation and social#

MarketplaceService, GamePassService, friends, groups and chat filtering are Roblox platform services. Off Roblox they are absent, and calls raise a clear error rather than silently no-op. Gate them:

if Engine.Capabilities.Monetisation then
	-- Roblox purchase flow
else
	-- your storefront, or nothing at all
end

4. Assets you do not own#

This is the one that catches teams out. Free models, Toolbox audio and marketplace meshes are licensed for use on Roblox. They cannot be redistributed inside a standalone executable.

The analyser flags them for you:

luauengine check --target windows

Any asset without redistribution rights is reported with the instance path that references it. Replace it with something you own, or keep that content on the Roblox target only. Licensing covers this in detail.

A staged approach that works#

1. Open the place in Luau Engine and confirm it still runs against the roblox target. Nothing else changes.
2. Run luauengine import to move scripts onto disk and get them into version control properly.
3. Run luauengine check --target windows and read the report without fixing anything yet — it tells you how far you actually are.
4. Introduce Engine.Capabilities guards around platform services.
5. Replace or remove non-redistributable assets.
6. Build, run, fix what breaks, repeat.

Most projects clear steps 1–3 in an afternoon. Steps 4–6 scale with how deeply your game leans on Roblox platform features.

Things that do not carry over#