Getting a solid roblox studio round system script up and running is basically the backbone of any successful lobby-based game you see on the platform. Whether you're building a fast-paced "last man standing" survival game or a round-based obby, you need a reliable way to cycle players from the lobby into the game and back again. Without a good loop, your game just feels like a static playground rather than a polished experience.
Setting this up might seem a bit daunting if you're new to Luau, but once you break it down into smaller chunks, it's actually pretty logical. You're essentially just telling the server to watch a clock, move some parts around, and keep track of who's still alive. Let's dive into how you can piece this together without losing your mind.
The basic logic behind the round loop
Before we even touch a line of code, we should talk about what we're actually trying to achieve. A standard round system follows a very specific "lifecycle." It usually looks something like this:
- Intermission: Everyone hangs out in the lobby while a timer counts down.
- Start/Teleport: The script picks the players who are going to play and zaps them over to the map.
- The Actual Game: The round runs until either a timer hits zero or only one person (or team) is left.
- Cleanup/Reset: Winners are announced, everyone gets teleported back to the lobby, and the map gets cleaned up for the next round.
If you can get these four stages right, you've got a functional game. The tricky part is making sure the script doesn't break when someone leaves the game halfway through or when a new player joins right as the round is starting.
Setting up your Workspace
You can't just write a script and hope for the best; you need a place to put your players. In your Roblox Studio Explorer, you'll want to have two main areas. One is your Lobby, and the other is your Map or Arena.
I usually put a "SpawnLocation" in the lobby and a few "GameSpawns" (just invisible Parts with CanCollide off) inside a Folder in the workspace called "MapSpawns." This makes it way easier for your roblox studio round system script to find places to put people when the round kicks off.
Also, don't forget to use RemoteEvents. You'll want one in ReplicatedStorage called something like "UpdateTimer" or "StatusUpdate." This is how your server-side script is going to tell the players' screens what's happening (like "Intermission: 15 seconds left").
Writing the main server script
Now for the meat of the project. You'll want to create a Script (not a LocalScript!) inside ServerScriptService. This script is the brain of your game. It's going to run a while true do loop that never ends.
You'll start by defining your variables. You need to reference the players, the workspace, and the status value. Instead of just hard-coding numbers like "30 seconds," it's much smarter to use variables at the top of the script. It makes it way easier to tweak the game balance later when you realize your rounds are way too long.
lua local intermissionTime = 20 local roundLength = 60 local status = game.ReplicatedStorage.Status -- A StringValue to show text on UI
The heart of the roblox studio round system script is the countdown. You'll use a simple for loop to count down from 20 to 0. During this time, you're constantly updating that status value so the players know how much longer they have to wait.
Handling the teleportation
Once the intermission hits zero, it's go-time. This is where most people get tripped up. You need to gather all the players who are currently in the game and move their Character to the arena.
A common mistake is trying to teleport everyone at the exact same millisecond. While Roblox handles it okay, it's usually better to loop through the player list. You'll grab the Character of each player, check if it actually exists (very important, otherwise the script will error out if someone just reset), and then use Character:PivotTo() to move them to one of those MapSpawns we talked about earlier.
Using PivotTo() is much better than setting the CFrame of the HumanoidRootPart directly because it moves the whole model more reliably and handles rotations better.
Managing the round itself
While the round is active, your script shouldn't just sit there. It needs to be checking for two things: Did the time run out? And is there anyone still left?
If you're making a battle royale or a tag game, you'll want to keep a list of "ActivePlayers." Every time someone dies (you can detect this with the Humanoid.Died event), you remove them from that list. If that list's length hits one, you've got a winner, and you can end the round early.
If it's just a timed game like a race, you just let the timer run down to zero. Regardless of how the round ends, you need a "CleanUp" function. This is where you teleport everyone back to the lobby and maybe regenerate the map if players destroyed things.
Connecting the UI to the script
The roblox studio round system script is doing all the heavy lifting on the server, but the players won't see any of it unless you hook up the UI. This is where that StringValue in ReplicatedStorage comes in handy.
In your StarterGui, create a ScreenGui with a TextLabel. Then, put a simple LocalScript inside that TextLabel. All it needs to do is watch the StringValue:
```lua local status = game.ReplicatedStorage:WaitForChild("Status") local label = script.Parent
status.Changed:Connect(function() label.Text = status.Value end) ```
This is a really "cheap" and efficient way to handle UI. Instead of the server sending a message to every single player every second, each player's client just listens for a change in that one value. It keeps the game running smooth and prevents lag spikes.
Dealing with edge cases
Let's be real—players are chaos agents. They'll leave right as they're being teleported, they'll reset their characters in the lobby, or they'll join just as the game starts.
A good roblox studio round system script needs to be robust. You should always wrap your character checks in if player.Character and player.Character:FindFirstChild("HumanoidRootPart") then. This prevents the whole script from breaking just because one person had a bad internet connection.
Another thing to consider is what happens if nobody is in the game. You don't want the rounds to keep cycling if the server is empty. You can add a check at the start of the intermission: if #game.Players:GetPlayers() < 2 then. If there aren't enough people, you can set the status to "Waiting for more players" and just wait.
Making it your own
The cool thing about this setup is how modular it is. Once you have the basic loop of Intermission -> Teleport -> Game -> Reset, you can swap out the "Game" part for literally anything.
Want a sword fighting game? Just give the players swords during the teleport phase. Want a "floor is lava" game? Start a script that raises a lava part during the round phase. The round system is just the skeleton; the mechanics are the muscles.
Don't be afraid to experiment with the task.wait() function instead of the old wait(). task.wait() is much more accurate and is the modern standard for Roblox development. It'll make your timers feel way more snappy and professional.
Final thoughts on the loop
Writing a roblox studio round system script is really about managing states. You're moving the game from "Waiting" to "Playing" to "Ending." Keep your code organized, use plenty of comments so you don't forget what a specific block does three weeks from now, and always test with a friend (or use the "Local Server" test mode in Studio) to see how the teleports handle multiple people at once.
It might take a few tries to get the timing perfect, but once you see that timer hit zero and everyone zip over to the map perfectly, it's one of the most satisfying feelings in game dev. Happy scripting!