Guides
What Is Luau?
The scripting language behind every Roblox game — where it came from, why it's great for beginners, and how to write your first line.
Luau is Roblox's language
Every Roblox game is powered by Luau (pronounced “loo-ow”). It's the language scripts use inside Roblox Studio, from the simplest clicker to the biggest experiences on the platform. If you want to build Roblox games, Luau is the language you'll write.
Luau is a faster, safer Lua
Luau started as Lua, a small, famously beginner-friendly programming language. Roblox took Lua and made it faster and safer for game development — adding things like optional type checking (so the computer can catch many mistakes before you even run the game) and heavy performance work. The result: a language that's easy to start with but scales to huge, complex games.
Because it's based on Lua, the ideas you learn — variables, functions, loops, tables — are the same ones used across game dev, scripting, and even big tech. Learning Luau isn't a dead end; it's a real introduction to programming.
Where Luau runs
- In games — server scripts, local scripts, and ModuleScripts inside your Roblox places.
- In Studio — the command bar and plugins are Luau.
- In your browser — the RoCourse playground runs real Luau without installing anything.
What makes Luau beginner-friendly
- Instant feedback. Play the game and see results immediately.
- Readable errors. The Output window tells you the line number and what went wrong.
- Gradual typing. You can write plain dynamic code and add types as you grow.
- Built-in tools. Saving, physics, and rendering are handled for you — you focus on the fun parts.
Start writing Luau today
Open the Luau playground and try print("Hello, Luau!"), then skim the Luau cheat sheet. When you want to build in a real game, the free course teaches Luau from absolute zero — variables, functions, loops, events, and a complete game — no experience or account required.