If you've been spending any time in Studio lately, you've probably realized that getting a reliable roblox elevator script working is honestly a lot harder than it looks at first glance. You'd think moving a platform up and down would be a simple task, but between weird physics glitches, players sliding off the floor, and the complexity of multi-floor systems, it can quickly become a headache.
The good news is that once you understand how Roblox handles movement and CFrames, you can build a system that's smooth, bug-free, and looks professional. Instead of just grabbing a broken model from the toolbox that was made in 2016, let's talk about how to actually build one that works today.
Why TweenService is Your Best Friend
In the old days of Roblox, people used to move elevators by changing the position property in a loop or using BodyVelocity. While that works for some things, it's usually pretty jittery. If you want that buttery-smooth movement you see in top-tier games, you need to use TweenService.
Tweening basically lets you tell the engine: "I want this part to go from Point A to Point B over five seconds, and I want it to start slow and end slow." It handles all the heavy lifting and math for you. When you're writing a roblox elevator script, using tweens is the difference between an elevator that feels like a teleporting brick and one that feels like a real machine.
Another huge benefit of TweenService is that it's highly customizable. You can change the "EasingStyle" to things like Sine, Quart, or even Bounce if you're making a cartoonish game. For a standard elevator, Linear or Quad usually feels the most natural.
Setting Up Your Elevator Parts
Before we even touch the code, you need a decent setup in your Explorer window. I usually recommend grouping everything into a Model named "Elevator." Inside that, you'll want a few specific things:
- The Platform: This is the part players stand on. Make sure it's Anchored. If it's not anchored, TweenService won't work the way you expect, and physics will take over, which usually ends in disaster.
- The Floors: I like to use invisible, non-collidable parts to mark where each floor is. Call them "Floor1," "Floor2," and so on. This makes your script way easier to manage because you can just reference the position of these parts instead of typing in random coordinates.
- The Buttons: Whether they are ProximityPrompts or ClickDetectors, you need a way for the player to tell the elevator where to go.
A common mistake I see beginners make is trying to move the entire elevator model at once. It's actually much easier to move one "PrimaryPart" and have everything else welded to it, or just move the platform and let the walls be separate (if they don't need to move).
Writing the Core Logic
Now, let's get into the actual roblox elevator script logic. You're going to need a few variables at the top to reference TweenService and your platform. You'll also want a variable to keep track of whether the elevator is currently moving. If you don't do this, players can spam the buttons and break the tween, making the elevator fly off into the void.
The logic flow should look something like this: - Wait for a button press. - Check if the elevator is "Busy." - If not busy, set "Busy" to true. - Calculate the distance or just grab the target floor's position. - Fire the tween. - Once the tween finishes, set "Busy" to false and maybe open the doors.
One little trick I've learned over the years is to use task.wait() instead of the old wait(). It's more precise and plays nicer with the modern Roblox task scheduler. Also, don't forget to use Tween.Completed:Wait()—this is a life-saver. It tells the script to pause and wait exactly until the elevator reaches its destination before moving on to the next line of code, like opening the doors.
Handling Multiple Floors
If you're just going between two floors, a simple "if-else" statement works fine. But what if you have a skyscraper with ten floors? You don't want to write ten different scripts. That's where tables come in.
You can store your floor parts in a table and use a single function to move the elevator. When a player hits the button for Floor 4, you just pass "4" into your function, look up the position of "Floor4" in your model, and tell the tween to go there. It keeps your code clean and makes it way easier to add more floors later if you decide your building needs to be taller.
Making Sure Players Don't Fall Through
This is the number one complaint people have with a roblox elevator script. You're going up, and suddenly the player just clips through the floor and falls to their death. This happens because when you move a part via CFrame (which TweenService does), the physics engine doesn't always "push" the player along with it perfectly.
To fix this, you have a couple of options. The "pro" way is to use a PrismaticConstraint. Constraints actually use the physics engine to move the part, so the player stays firmly planted on the floor. However, constraints are a bit more annoying to set up than a simple script.
If you want to stick with the script method, try making sure your platform is thick enough. A paper-thin floor is way more likely to let a player clip through. You can also manually set the player's CFrame to move with the elevator, but that gets complicated fast. Honestly, for most games, a thick platform and a smooth Sine easing style will solve 90% of your clipping issues.
Adding the "Juice" (Doors and Sound)
A silent elevator is kind of creepy, and not usually in a good way. Once you have the movement down, you should add some sound effects. You'll want a looping "hum" while it's moving and a "ding" when it arrives.
For the doors, you can use the same TweenService logic. When the elevator reaches its destination, trigger a function that tweens the left and right door parts apart. If you want to get really fancy, add a Touched event or a Region3 check to make sure the doors don't close on a player's head, although in Roblox, usually people just let the doors clip through the characters since it's less of a headache to code.
Troubleshooting Common Issues
If your roblox elevator script isn't working, the first thing to check is the Output window. Seriously, keep that window open at all times. If it says "TweenService: Create failed," you probably passed a property that doesn't exist or misspelled "Position."
Another common issue is the elevator "jumping" back to the start. This usually happens because you have conflicting scripts or you didn't anchor the part. If the physics engine is trying to pull the elevator down while the script is trying to pull it up, the physics engine usually wins, or the whole thing just starts shaking violently.
Also, check your RemoteEvents if you're using a GUI for the floor selection. Remember that the client (the player's computer) can't move the elevator for everyone else. The button press has to tell the server to move the elevator, or else you'll be the only one seeing yourself go up while everyone else sees you standing on the ground.
Wrapping It All Up
Creating a solid roblox elevator script is a bit of a rite of passage for many developers. It teaches you about CFrame, TweenService, and the importance of organizing your Explorer. It might take a few tries to get the timing of the doors and the smoothness of the ride just right, but it's worth the effort.
Don't be afraid to experiment with the easing styles and speeds. Sometimes a super-fast elevator feels better for gameplay, while a slow, clunky one adds a lot of atmosphere to a horror or roleplay game. Just keep your code clean, use ProximityPrompts for a better user experience, and always make sure your parts are anchored before you start tweening them!