Roblox announce plans to let people AI generate basic games using text prompts stuck into a mobile app, but claim that won’t fill their homepage with AI slop

“Play is humanity’s oldest technology for connection and learning,” Roblox’s CEO yells at me through my monitor. “Before agriculture, before commerce, before civilization, we played together.” Right, so, where’s this going? Oh. They’re rolling out a tool on their mobile app which allows people to generate basic games by sticking a text prompt into an AI model, then do some light rearranging of said game so they can pretend it’s in any way unique or artful before they publish it for others to give a go. The tool’s called Build.

Announced as Roblox continue to work generative AI bollocks into various bits of their all-consuming UGC-verse, Build’s being tapped as a tool that’ll make it even easier for Robloxers to get a game up and running with minimal effort. “A creator can type ‘Let’s make a cozy adventure game set in a dense forest with environmental obstacles.’ Build will then automatically generate a starting point for the creator to iterate on, playtest, and share with friends or publish to Roblox,” as the company put it.

“Powered by a broad set of AI models, including both open-source and proprietary Roblox models, Build handles gameplay mechanics, environment, characters, visual style, sound, and more—without leaving Roblox,” they continued. “Because these models are trained on a uniquely large set of 3D models and gaming-specific data, Roblox’s proprietary AI models are able to generate functional 3D objects and even full 3D scenes that can easily integrate into working games using our existing creation tools.”

Roblox noted that they plan to start rolling out testing for this gubbins, alongside “a new suite of AI-powered tools within [established Roblox game creation tool] Studio for creators of every level” on July 28. I’ve asked Roblox whether games generated using Build will be playable on PC, or just mobile. Whichever platforms these creations hit, Roblox are insisting that this won’t result in homepages filled with low-effort crap produced by someone moaning ‘Let’s make a first-person shooter entirely out of marmalade and discarded snot’ as they sit on the loo.

“Our discovery systems are designed to highlight games with long-term retention, which doesn’t include AI slop,” the company wrote. “The quality of games on the homepage isn’t changing: If no one plays it – no one can find it. The goal across these new tools is to continue to accelerate creation across all experience levels.”

If that wasn’t enough, Roblox have also announced plans to unleash a trio of other AI agent tools for Build and Studio in the coming months. These include “a playtesting agent that surfaces bugs before a single player experiences the game” and “an experiment agent that identifies tests to run to drive higher engagement, retention, and monetisation”. Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccccckkkkkkkkk.

Roblox, please listen to this text prompt: please stop inflicting stuff like this on the world while your boss yacks on about it allegedly being necessary to increase the amount of playing we can all do.