How to Copy a Game in Roblox: What You Can (and Can't) Do

Copying a game in Roblox sounds straightforward, but the answer depends heavily on who made the game, what permissions are set, and what you actually mean by "copy." There's a meaningful difference between saving a game template, duplicating your own published experience, or trying to replicate someone else's work — and Roblox treats each of these very differently.

What "Copying a Game" Actually Means in Roblox

Before diving into steps, it helps to separate the three most common use cases people are actually asking about:

1. Duplicating your own game — copying an experience you already created and published under your own account
2. Saving a template or starter place — using Roblox's built-in templates or community-shared templates as a starting point
3. Copying someone else's game — attempting to replicate or save another creator's published experience

Each one works differently in Roblox Studio, and only some are supported without restriction.

How to Duplicate Your Own Game in Roblox Studio

If you want to copy a game you already own, Roblox Studio makes this relatively simple through the Creator Dashboard.

Steps to Duplicate Your Own Experience:

1. Go to create.roblox.com and log into your account
2. Navigate to Creations in the left sidebar
3. Find the experience you want to copy
4. Click the three-dot menu (⋯) next to the experience
5. Select "Copy" or "Duplicate" from the options

This creates an exact copy of the experience — including all places, scripts, and assets — saved under your account as a new, unpublished experience. From there, you can open it in Roblox Studio and modify it freely.

🔧 Note: This only works for experiences you own outright. Group-owned experiences may require specific group roles and permissions before the option appears.

Copying a Place File Within Roblox Studio

If you're working inside Roblox Studio and want to duplicate a place (a single map or level within a larger experience), the process is slightly different:

1. Open Roblox Studio and load your experience
2. In the Explorer panel, you can select objects, models, or entire sections and copy them using Ctrl+C / Cmd+C
3. Paste into a new place with Ctrl+V / Cmd+V
4. To duplicate an entire place file, go to File > Save to File As and save a local .rbxl copy, which you can then re-import as a new place

Local .rbxl files give you a portable snapshot of a place that can be re-uploaded as a new experience or shared with collaborators who have edit access.

Using Templates as a Starting Point 🎮

Roblox Studio includes a library of official templates — pre-built environments and game frameworks like Baseplate, Flat Terrain, Racing, Capture the Flag, and more. These are explicitly designed to be copied and built upon.

When you create a new place in Studio:

• Choose New from the Studio home screen
• Browse the Templates tab
• Select any template and it opens as a fully editable starting point

Some creators also publish their games as free models or open-source experiences, intentionally making them available for others to learn from or build on. These will have clear permissions indicating they can be copied.

Can You Copy Someone Else's Published Game?

This is where most confusion arises — and the short answer is: not through any supported Roblox feature.

Roblox does not provide a built-in mechanism to copy another creator's published experience unless that creator has explicitly shared access with you through Team Create or published an open-source template. There is no "copy game" button on other people's experiences for good reason — it would directly violate Roblox's Terms of Service and undermine the intellectual property of creators.

What the Rules Actually Say

Any third-party tools or methods claiming to rip or extract another user's game assets without permission fall outside what Roblox sanctions — and using them risks account termination.

Variables That Affect How This Works for You

Even within the supported paths, a few factors change what's actually available:

• Account type — Free accounts and Roblox Premium members have the same core duplication features, but group management and publishing limits may differ
• Group ownership — If the game is owned by a group rather than an individual, you'll need the appropriate group role permissions (typically "Create and edit group experiences") to duplicate or manage it
• Place count limits — Each experience can contain multiple places, but there are limits on how many experiences an account can have active at once
• Asset permissions — Copying a place file doesn't automatically transfer ownership of third-party assets (models, audio, images) used inside it; those assets need to be individually licensed for your use

What Happens to Scripts and Assets When You Copy

When you duplicate your own experience through the Creator Dashboard, scripts, local assets, and place structure carry over intact. However:

• Linked assets (meshes, audio, images uploaded by others) remain tied to their original uploader's permissions
• Scripts copy fully — but if they reference external IDs or datastores, those connections still point to the original experience's data
• DataStore data does not transfer — a copied game starts with a blank datastore, which matters a lot for games with progression systems or saved player data

For developers building on a copied base, reconnecting datastores and auditing asset permissions is a necessary step that's easy to overlook.

Whether you're backing up your own project, spinning up a test environment, or starting a new game from a proven framework, the mechanics of copying in Roblox are fairly accessible — as long as you're working within your own creations. The more nuanced question is what you actually need from the copy: a clean slate to experiment on, a live branch of an existing game, or a collaborative workspace. Each of those scenarios leads to a meaningfully different approach inside Studio and the Creator Dashboard.