Sooner or later, a child who enjoys making games asks the big question: "Can I make money from this?" Sometimes it's the parent asking, half hopeful and half sceptical, after hearing about a teenager somewhere who earned a fortune from a Roblox game.
My answer is always the same. Yes, kids can make money making games, as long as the game is fun to play. Everything else follows from that.
Quick Answer: Yes, kids can make money making games, but only if people actually enjoy playing them. Platforms like Roblox and itch.io let young creators publish a game for free and put it in front of real players. Once a game has players coming back, they can experiment with earning from it: game passes and in-game items that earn Robux on Roblox, or paid and pay-what-you-want games on itch.io. Making money on Roblox is possible but harder, because Roblox games are 3D, multiplayer and crowded with competition. The tools for publishing and selling are easy to pick up on their own. The hard part is learning to make a game worth playing, and that's the skill to invest in first.
Fun Comes First, Money Comes Second
Nobody pays for a game they don't enjoy. Not with pocket money, not with Robux, not with anything. So the real question isn't "how does my child make money from games?" It's "can my child make a game people genuinely want to play?"
That sounds obvious, but it changes where the effort should go. A child who spends their energy on a clever pricing plan for a game nobody plays earns nothing. A child who spends the same energy making their game more fun, tightening the controls, fixing the confusing level, adding the feature their friends keep asking for, is building the only thing that ever earns money in games: something players love.
The good news is that this is exactly what learning game development teaches. Every playtest, every bug fixed and every "that bit is boring" from a friend makes the next game a little better. We wrote about this in more detail in the benefits of game development for kids.
Where Kids Can Publish Their Games
A few years ago, getting a game in front of strangers meant a publisher, a store deal or a lot of money. Today, a child can publish a game in an afternoon, for free. The main places young creators use are:
- Roblox. Any game built in Roblox Studio can be published to Roblox's millions of players with a few clicks. Players can find it, play it and share it with friends straight away.
- itch.io. A popular home for independent games of every kind. Creators can upload games that play right in the browser, such as the 2D games teens build in Construct 3, and choose whether they're free, paid or pay-what-you-want.
- The web. Many 2D games can simply be shared as a link, which is often the quickest way to get the first few players: classmates, cousins and friends.
Some platforms have age rules for accounts, payments and cashing out, so for younger children it's normal for a parent to set things up or manage the account alongside them. That's worth checking on whichever platform your child chooses.
Get Players First, Then Experiment With Pricing
The order matters. A brand-new game with no players doesn't need a price. It needs players, and feedback from them.
So the first goal is traction: people who play the game, come back to it and tell their friends. Start small. Share it with friends, post it where other players hang out, listen to what they say and keep improving it. When a game has a steady group of players who enjoy it, that's the moment to start experimenting with money, for example:
- On Roblox: game passes (a one-off purchase, such as a special ability or a VIP area) and developer products (items that can be bought more than once, such as extra coins). Players pay in Robux, and the creator earns a share.
- On itch.io: keeping the game free with an option to tip, setting a small price, or offering a pay-what-you-want minimum.
- Anywhere: keeping the base game free and charging for extras, such as cosmetic items or bonus levels, so new players can still try it.
"Experiment" is the key word. There's no perfect price to calculate in advance. Kids try something, watch what players do, and adjust. A price that's too high and a game pass nobody wants both show up quickly in the numbers, and those are useful lessons in themselves.
Can Kids Make Money on Roblox?
Yes, and it's where most kids' dreams of earning from games begin. When players buy game passes or developer products in a Roblox game, the creator earns Robux. Roblox also pays creators based on how much time Premium subscribers spend in their games.
Turning Robux into real money is a separate step. Roblox runs a programme called Developer Exchange (DevEx) that converts earned Robux into cash, but it has its own requirements, including a minimum age, a minimum amount of earned Robux and account verification. These rules change from time to time, so check Roblox's current DevEx terms before promising your child anything. For most kids, earning Robux from their own game is already a huge thrill, and a big step up from only spending it.
Why Making Money on Roblox Is Harder Than It Looks
Here's the honest part. Roblox is a brilliant place to learn game development, but it's one of the harder places to earn from it. The games that make real money on Roblox aren't simple projects. Compared with a small 2D game, a Roblox game that players stick with usually needs a lot more:
- It's 3D. Every world has to be built in three dimensions: terrain, buildings, lighting and a camera that behaves sensibly. That's far more work than drawing a 2D level.
- There's a lot more stuff. Successful games are full of models, animations, sound effects, menus, shops and inventories, and every one has to be made or found, then scripted to work together.
- It's multiplayer by default. Roblox games run on servers with many players at once. Saving each player's progress, keeping things fair and stopping cheaters all take careful Luau scripting.
- Players expect updates. Popular games add new content regularly to keep people coming back, which means maintaining a game, not just finishing one.
- The competition is huge. Your child's game sits alongside millions of others, many built by experienced teams. Standing out takes a genuinely good idea, polished well.
None of this means kids shouldn't try. It means a first Roblox game is a learning project, not a business, and that the way to earn later is to get really good at building. A smaller 2D game on itch.io or the web can be a more realistic first step towards real players, because one person can finish and polish it. Our guide to game development for teens covers that 2D path.
If your child is just getting started with Roblox, our parent's guide to Roblox coding for kids explains how it works, and what is Luau? shows the code behind every Roblox game.
We Teach the Hard Part. The Rest They Can Learn.
I want to be clear with parents here: our classes don't teach monetisation. We don't run lessons on pricing strategies, marketing or how to cash out Robux.
That's deliberate. Publishing a game, setting up a game pass or putting a price on an itch.io page is genuinely not that hard. There are clear guides from the platforms themselves, plenty of tutorials online, and the tools are designed so creators can work them out on their own. A motivated teen can learn the business side in a weekend.
What they can't pick up in a weekend is how to make the game. Designing levels that are fun, writing code that makes the game behave the way they imagine, debugging it when it doesn't, and polishing it until players want to come back: that takes real skill, built up over time. It's the part that stops most people, and it's the part we focus on.
Once your child can build a good game, the rest is very doable. Without that, no amount of pricing knowledge will help.
Is It Worth Encouraging?
I think so, with realistic expectations. Most kids' first games won't earn much, and that's fine. Most adults' first games don't either. But aiming at real players changes how kids work. They playtest more seriously, they listen to feedback, they finish things instead of abandoning them halfway, and they start thinking about what other people enjoy rather than only what they find cool.
Those habits are valuable whether or not a single Robux comes in. And if a game does take off, your child will have earned it by making something people genuinely love. Need a first project to aim at? Our list of coding project ideas for kids includes several small games they can actually finish.
Learning to Make Games at DotCode Campus
We teach the hard part: how to build games that are fun to play.
Roblox Game Dev (ages 7–12): kids build 3D worlds in Roblox Studio and bring them to life with real Luau code, finishing with a published Roblox game they can share with a link.
Game Development with Construct 3 (ages 12–17): teens design, build and playtest their own 2D games, finishing with a game published on the web, ready for real players. Our guide to choosing a game development course in Singapore explains why we use Construct 3.
Not sure which fits your child? Our age-by-age guide to game development courses walks through the whole path.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can kids make money making games?
Yes, if the game is fun enough that people want to play it. Kids can publish games for free on platforms like Roblox and itch.io, build up players, and then earn through in-game purchases, paid downloads or tips. Most first games earn little, so it's best treated as a goal to grow into.
How do kids earn Robux by making games?
By selling game passes and developer products inside their Roblox game, and through Roblox's payouts for time Premium subscribers spend in it. Converting Robux into real money goes through Roblox's Developer Exchange, which has its own age and eligibility rules.
Is it hard to make money on Roblox?
Harder than many kids expect. Roblox games are 3D and multiplayer, need lots of models, animations and scripts, and compete with millions of other games. It's a great place to learn, but earning usually comes after a lot of building experience.
Does DotCode Campus teach kids how to monetise games?
No. We focus on the hard part: designing, coding, debugging and publishing games people enjoy. Publishing and pricing tools are simple enough for motivated kids to learn on their own once they can build a good game.
What age can kids start making games?
Around 7. Our Roblox course runs for ages 7 to 12, and teens aged 12 to 17 move on to Construct 3. Our guide on what age kids should start coding has more detail.
Start Game Development Classes in Singapore
Classes run in small groups of up to 6, in person at our Jurong East studio or live online. Every course starts with a free 45-minute trial class. Book one and let your child start building the kind of game people want to play.
