If you've been spending any time on the platform lately, you've probably wondered how to make a tycoon in Roblox Studio that actually keeps players clicking and coming back for more. It's one of those classic game genres that never really seems to die. Whether it's a superhero tycoon, a pizza factory, or a literal "poop" tycoon (don't ask, they're weirdly popular), the core loop is addictive. You start with nothing, you buy a dropper, you make some cash, and you build an empire.
But here's the thing: while it looks simple from the outside, getting all those moving parts to work together without the whole game breaking can be a bit of a headache if you're just winging it. You've got to handle currency, saving data, physical parts moving on conveyors, and buttons that only appear when you have enough "Robux" (or in-game cash) to buy them.
Don't worry, though. We're going to break this down into manageable chunks so you can go from a blank baseplate to a working business.
Getting Your Workspace Ready
Before you even touch a script, you need to set the scene. Open up Roblox Studio and grab a Baseplate template. It's clean, it's empty, and it gives you all the room you need.
A tycoon usually lives within a "plot." This is the area where the player builds. If you're planning on making a multiplayer game—which you probably are—you'll need multiple plots. For now, let's just focus on one. Create a large Part, scale it out to be a decent-sized square, and anchor it. This is your floor. If you don't anchor it, your entire tycoon will fall into the void the second you hit play, which is a pretty hilarious way to fail, but not very productive.
The Secret Shortcut: Using a Kit vs. DIY
Let's be real for a second. If you look up how to make a tycoon in Roblox Studio, you're going to see a lot of people talking about the Zednov Tycoon Kit.
Is using a kit "cheating"? Absolutely not. In fact, most of the famous tycoons you see on the front page started with a modified version of a kit. These kits come with the basic "purchasing" logic already handled, which saves you about ten hours of banging your head against a wall.
However, if you want to be a pro, you shouldn't just "plug and play." You want to understand what's happening under the hood. Even if you use a kit, you'll still need to know how to customize your droppers, change the prices of your buttons, and make sure your "Collect" button doesn't glitch out.
The Three Pillars: Droppers, Conveyors, and Collectors
Every tycoon is built on a "Cycle of Greed." It looks like this: 1. The Dropper: A part that spawns a "drop" (usually a cube or a sphere) every few seconds. 2. The Conveyor: A moving belt that pushes that drop toward the end of the line. 3. The Collector: A part that "kills" the drop and adds its value to the player's bank account.
Making the Dropper
Your dropper is just a part with a script inside it. That script needs a while true do loop. Inside that loop, you tell the game to Instance.new("Part"), set its position to just below the dropper, and then wait(2) before doing it again.
Pro tip: Don't make the drops too big. If you have fifty players and each has twenty droppers spitting out massive blocks, the server is going to lag harder than a 2005 dial-up connection. Keep your parts simple and maybe even use a script to delete them if they fall off the conveyor.
The Conveyor Belt
This is actually simpler than it looks. You don't need fancy physics. You just need a Part and you need to change its Velocity (or AssemblyLinearVelocity in the newer versions of Studio). By setting the velocity in a specific direction, anything that touches the part will be pushed along. It's basically a magic carpet for your money blocks.
The Collector
The Collector is a part at the end of the belt with a Touched event. When a drop hits it, the script checks the drop's value, adds that number to the player's "Money" leaderstat, and then uses :Destroy() on the drop. If you forget the destroy part, your game will eventually crash because there will be ten thousand blocks piled up in a corner somewhere.
The Purchase System (Buttons)
Now, how do you actually grow? You need buttons. A tycoon button is basically a floating brick that says "Buy Dropper 2 - $500."
When a player steps on the button, the script needs to check two things: 1. Does the player have enough money? 2. Has the button already been bought?
If they have the cash, you subtract the amount from their leaderstats and use the Transparency and CanCollide properties to make the new item appear. Or, even better, you can parent the item from ServerStorage into the Workspace. This keeps the game running smoothly because the computer doesn't have to load every single item in the tycoon the moment the player joins.
Making It Look Good (The "Vibe" Check)
If your tycoon is just gray blocks on a gray baseplate, nobody is going to stay for more than thirty seconds. Aesthetics matter. Once you've figured out the logic of how to make a tycoon in Roblox Studio, you need to spend some time on the Environment.
- Lighting: Go into the Lighting settings and play with the Atmosphere and Bloom. A bright, colorful tycoon feels a lot more inviting.
- UI (User Interface): Don't just rely on the default leaderboard. Create a nice screen GUI at the bottom of the screen that shows the player's balance with a cool money icon.
- SFX: Add a "cha-ching" sound when the player collects money. It's a small detail, but it's that hit of dopamine that keeps people playing.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
I've seen a lot of beginners get frustrated because their tycoon works for five minutes and then breaks. Usually, it's one of these three things:
1. Forgetting to Anchor: Seriously, I can't say it enough. If your walls aren't anchored, a player will bump into them and your whole factory will slide across the map like it's on ice.
2. Data Persistence: If a player leaves and comes back, do they lose everything? If the answer is yes, they aren't coming back. You need to look into DataStoreService. This is a bit more advanced, but it's what allows the game to remember that "Player123" already bought the second floor.
3. Too Many Parts: If you have 50 droppers all firing at once, that's a lot of physical objects for the engine to calculate. Use "Static" droppers (where money just goes straight into a bank) for late-game items to save on performance.
Adding Rebirths
Once a player finishes your tycoon, they'll get bored. That's where the Rebirth system comes in. You let them reset all their progress in exchange for a multiplier (like making 2x money) or a special item. It's a simple way to extend the life of your game without having to build ten thousand floors.
You just need a script that wipes their "Purchased" folder and resets their money but increases a "Rebirths" value in their stats. It's the ultimate "prestige" move.
Wrapping It Up
Learning how to make a tycoon in Roblox Studio is honestly one of the most rewarding projects you can take on as a new dev. It teaches you the basics of scripting, 3D modeling, and game economy all at once.
Don't get discouraged if your first script throws an error or your conveyor belt sends parts flying into space. That's just part of the process. Start small, maybe with just one dropper and one button, and build out from there. Before you know it, you'll have a fully functioning factory and a player base wondering when the next update is coming out.
Now, get in there, open Studio, and start building that empire. You've got this!