MakeCode Arcade Tour

The MakeCode Arcade editor is a full-featured coding platform for creating games using Blocks, JavaScript, and Python. It includes both Blocks, JavaScript, and Python editors with access to code elements to build any console style game you can think of. The editor is comes with a game simulator to test, play, and debug the game code you create.

Along with the editor, there are resources on the Home Page to create projects, try tutorials, explore examples, do lessons, and more!

Home Page

The Home Page is where you begin your game coding experience. It offers selections to work on a project, try a tutorial, explore some examples, start a coding lesson, or watch an informative video.

• MyProjects: Create a new project to start fresh with a blank slate.
• Tutorials: A selection of step-by-step tutorials to introduce you to game programming.
• Game Examples: A wide selection of examples for coding games and learning game design concepts.
• Import: Import projects from your computer or elsewhere on the web.
• Open a project: Open one of your recent projects and continue building your game.

In the Editor

In the Editor you create your Blocks, JavaScript, or Python code. There’s a Toolbox with the code functions and methods to use for building your game. You can save and share projects, and even put them on GitHub. There’s a complete game simulator so you can try your game at any time while you build it.

• Share: Share your game in the Cloud and get a share link to give to others.
• Game Simulator: Run, test, and debug your game code in a fully functioning game board simulator.
• Game controls: Move your player or press function buttons. Toggle the menu or restart your game.
• Simulator toolbar: The Simulator toolbar has buttons to run, pause, restart, turn on debugging, and control the display of your game.
• Download: Download your code to the Arcade hardware.
• Toolbox: The Toolbox has all of the game code elements you need build your game. The game functions and methods are contained inside their related category drawers.
• Workspace: The Workspace is where you make your game. You drag out your blocks from the toolbox and snap them in place where you want them to go. Once out on the Workspace, Blocks are copied, moved around, or have their properties changed.
• Editor toggle: You can switch between the Blocks, JavaScript, or Python editors by just clicking the editor toggle at the top of the screen. It’s the same code but one view is Blocks and the other is JavaScript or Python!
• Assets: View, add, and edit your game’s sprites and tilemaps.
• Workspace toolbar: Undo or redo changes to your code. Zoom in or out to see more or less code on the Workspace.
• Save Project: Save your game project to a file, you give it the name want. Also, the GitHub button if you want your game in a GitHub repository.
• GitHub: Create a GitHub repository for your game project.