# AlexK's Dev Blog **URL:** \ **Category:** Show & Tell\ **Created:** [March 14, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443 "2023-03-14T16:30:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AlexK](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/alexk/32/33339_2.png) [@AlexK](https://forum.makecode.com/u/AlexK)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2023, 11:39pm UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/21 "2023-07-17T23:39:20Z")
Made some strong progress this past weekend! I turned the automated game off, and so now you can actually play the game! Use any of the links in the previous posts to get to the game in its current state. It’s not fully functional, and some of the more obscure _Monopoly_ rules will leave the game in a weird state, but we’re getting there! I worked on the “player action menus” that allow players to decide how to proceed. That took up most of the work this weekend, as getting the menus to appear and getting the interactions to work proved to be a bit stubborn. It’s working now, though! This coming weekend, I’m planning to work on more of the core functionality (_e.g._, trading, property auctions). It’s really starting to come together! Random screenshots: ![arcade-Monopoly](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/makecode/original/2X/8/8ff1f41e35c71ea0ec41c322bbd15639cd0bbe6d.png) ![arcade-Monopoly (1)](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/makecode/original/2X/9/9a263e5d5d34c1ea2d12c1eaa918185151ce45ae.png) ![arcade-Monopoly (2)](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/makecode/original/2X/8/873f7dbccc6db24e985d9f08856495570964ae75.png) **Immediate TODO List** - [/] Refactor game loop to use an action queue. - [/] Handle card actions. - Handle go to any space. - Handle go to space and all pay. - Handle lottery. - Handle selective tax. - Handle roll backward. - Handle skip next turn. - Handle bus options. - Handle gift options. - Handle bankrupt player. - Player actions menu (while in jail). - Player actions menu (turn). - Roll. - Bankrupt. - Build/mortgage. - Trade. - Player actions menu (unowned property). - Buy. - Auction. - Auction property. - Multiplayer. - Single controller. - Buy/sell houses + mortgage property. - Trade mechanism. - BUG: Roll after card moving to utility is not paying owner. - Show property information as a sprite when purchasing, auctioning, or mortgaging. - Remove viewing of action queue from production version. - Add subclass of action menu for starting a turn with appropriate default actions. - Trade - Build/Mortgage Have a great week, friends! ---
**Author:** ![Blobbey](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/blobbey/32/20831_2.png) [@Blobbey](https://forum.makecode.com/u/Blobbey)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2023, 12:00am UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/22 "2023-10-05T00:00:41Z")
Just curious, is this still being worked on? ---
**Author:** ![AlexK](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/alexk/32/33339_2.png) [@AlexK](https://forum.makecode.com/u/AlexK)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 5:55pm UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/23 "2023-10-09T17:55:59Z")
I sure am! I haven’t had a chance to work on it much, but I’m still making progress! ---
**Author:** ![AlexK](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/alexk/32/33339_2.png) [@AlexK](https://forum.makecode.com/u/AlexK)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2024, 3:30am UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/24 "2024-11-25T03:30:43Z")
Wanted to share some extensions that I’ve been building. First is a cleanup of the BigInteger extension, which I’ve renamed _BigNum_. I haven’t implemented floating points or rationals yet; only integers. This one was really interesting to build, as it lets me play with _really_ big prime numbers. > **[GitHub - robo-technical-group/pxt-arcade-bignum: Port of the BigInt and BigJS JavaScript libraries.](https://github.com/robo-technical-group/pxt-arcade-bignum)** > > Port of the BigInt and BigJS JavaScript libraries. To help with big sets of words for word games, I’ve built extensions to support _fast ternary string sets_ and _Bloom filters_. They provide rather efficient ways to store large sets of data. > **[GitHub - robo-technical-group/pxt-fast-ternary-string-set: A compact, fast, sorted string set with...](https://github.com/robo-technical-group/pxt-fast-ternary-string-set)** > > A compact, fast, sorted string set with approximate matching implemented for MakeCode. Based on CGJennings implementation. > **[GitHub - robo-technical-group/pxt-bloom-filters: Bloom filters implementation for Microsoft...](https://github.com/robo-technical-group/pxt-bloom-filters)** > > Bloom filters implementation for Microsoft MakeCode. The extensions aren’t very useful on their own, since you need to populate a set before using it. I’m working on a tool for your computer (it’ll be a web site) that you can feed lists of words and have it build a MakeCode extension for you. With that extension, you’ll be able to use your word set(s) in MakeCode however you like … perhaps like this: ![arcade-screenshot (11)](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/makecode/original/3X/0/5/05bb36bbe1f548155ec16668b9a360b0bd286d9d.png) You can play with the code below. The database is the word list that I used in _What’s My Word?_ and limited to five-letter words. > **[Word List Playground](https://arcade.makecode.com/32801-77926-18732-26283)** > > Made with ❤️ in Microsoft MakeCode Arcade. I’m still working on the app that will let you build your own word lists in any language. Made a lot of progress this weekend. I’ll need some help from the dev team to figure out the final stage. 🙂 Hope you all had a great weekend! ---
**Author:** ![AlexK](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/alexk/32/33339_2.png) [@AlexK](https://forum.makecode.com/u/AlexK)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2024, 3:15am UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/25 "2024-12-02T03:15:52Z")
Here’s a sneak peek into a project that utilizes all of the extensions mentioned above. Have fun! [https://alex-kulcsar.github.io/countdown-solo/](https://alex-kulcsar.github.io/countdown-solo/) [![arcade-Countdown-Solo (6)](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/makecode/original/3X/6/2/626b44c02b9eb295dc86bd8cddb46605e574b0cf.jpeg) ](https://alex-kulcsar.github.io/countdown-solo/) ---
**Author:** ![AlexK](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/alexk/32/33339_2.png) [@AlexK](https://forum.makecode.com/u/AlexK)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2024, 4:13am UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/26 "2024-12-02T04:13:54Z")
Next steps with _Countdown_ include entering and verifying player responses, making it multiplayer, and then making it Blocks-friendly. But, if you want to practice your _Countdown_ skills, then the current version of the project is just for you! If you’re not familiar with _Countdown_, it’s a popular game show that originated in France as _Des chiffres et des lettres_. Several countries have their own versions of the show; my version is based on the British version that is broadcast on Channel 4. ---
**Author:** ![AlexK](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/alexk/32/33339_2.png) [@AlexK](https://forum.makecode.com/u/AlexK)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2024, 6:05am UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/27 "2024-12-06T06:05:23Z")
I updated _Countdown_ so that it verifies the player entries and allows you to play infinite rounds. It does _some_ scoring; I’ll implement full scoring in the multiplayer version. As a solo option, though, the project is complete. Don’t try to play it on a phone or an underpowered tablet. It runs fine once it loads, but it will take a _long_ time to load. It runs fine on a desktop or laptop, though. Have fun! ---
**Author:** ![AlexK](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/alexk/32/33339_2.png) [@AlexK](https://forum.makecode.com/u/AlexK)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 2:29am UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/28 "2025-03-23T02:29:37Z")
Hee hee hee… ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/makecode/original/3X/8/f/8fb61d38ff7de88ff51d329a4f13a842f8a7524c.png) ---
**Author:** ![ChimbroDaPro](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/chimbrodapro/32/15852_2.png) [@ChimbroDaPro](https://forum.makecode.com/u/ChimbroDaPro)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 4:02pm UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/29 "2025-03-23T16:02:43Z")
OH OH OH I KNOW THIS GAME! WE PLAY IT ALL THE TIME IN SCHOOL! What’s it called… like each number gives you a question and the question’s difficulty is based on how large the number is, and you get that amount of points for your team if you get it right, but it removes that amount from your points if you get it wrong, and you’d always end up in the negatives… ---
**Author:** ![AlexK](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/alexk/32/33339_2.png) [@AlexK](https://forum.makecode.com/u/AlexK)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 4:08pm UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/30 "2025-03-23T16:08:12Z")
I’m glad your teachers let you play it in school, @ChimbroDaPro ! You have good teachers … which is precisely the audience for whom I’m writing this. I will post these projects after ArcadeCon. More sneak peeks over the next month or so! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![WoofWoof](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/woofwoof/32/32523_2.png) [@WoofWoof](https://forum.makecode.com/u/WoofWoof)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 4:31pm UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/31 "2025-03-23T16:31:43Z")
Jeopardy! It’s a very old game show, and each column has a question theme, and the harder questions are more points, and at the end there’s a round when you can bet an amount of points, and if you get the question right you get those points and if you get it wrong you lose them! Usually you have opponents, so I hope this game gets a multiplayer mode! I don’t remember ever losing points. I thought that if you got it wrong you let the other groups guess, so if you get it wrong you basically give away your points. ---
**Author:** ![AlexK](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/alexk/32/33339_2.png) [@AlexK](https://forum.makecode.com/u/AlexK)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 4:32pm UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/32 "2025-03-23T16:32:31Z")
It would be a sad version of _Jeopardy!_ if you couldn’t play with your friends… 😁 ---
**Author:** ![AlexK](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/alexk/32/33339_2.png) [@AlexK](https://forum.makecode.com/u/AlexK)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2025, 1:51am UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/33 "2025-04-23T01:51:25Z")
😄 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/makecode/original/3X/8/4/8435e6b845e85ec22a5c541497100b2a3e8b1367.png) ---
**Author:** ![AlexK](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/alexk/32/33339_2.png) [@AlexK](https://forum.makecode.com/u/AlexK)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2026, 5:06am UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/34 "2026-06-01T05:06:41Z")
Sneak peek at a new project: > **[GitHub - robo-technical-group/makecode-arcade-rpi-kiosk: Building a MakeCode Arcade Kiosk with Raspberry Pi...](https://github.com/robo-technical-group/makecode-arcade-rpi-kiosk)** > > Building a MakeCode Arcade Kiosk with Raspberry Pi devices. ---
**Author:** ![AlexK](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/alexk/32/33339_2.png) [@AlexK](https://forum.makecode.com/u/AlexK)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2026, 3:30am UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/35 "2026-09-07T03:30:30Z")
Cooking with gas this weekend! ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/makecode/original/3X/8/e/8ee37059b5d45ffe626875b23503a29bd26c995c.png) Also, this is the first project I’m doing in Visual Studio Code. It’s different from working in the Monoco editor in the web version, for sure, but I’m liking it. ---
**Author:** ![TheEarth](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/theearth/32/34579_2.png) [@TheEarth](https://forum.makecode.com/u/TheEarth)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2026, 5:41am UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/36 "2026-09-07T05:41:41Z")
How do you even name assets in that ---
**Author:** ![AlexK](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/alexk/32/33339_2.png) [@AlexK](https://forum.makecode.com/u/AlexK)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2026, 5:42am UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/37 "2026-09-07T05:42:25Z")
We don’t talk about Bruno. 😆 It’s possible but fussy. ---
**Author:** ![TheEarth](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/theearth/32/34579_2.png) [@TheEarth](https://forum.makecode.com/u/TheEarth)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 3:33pm UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/38 "2026-09-08T15:33:58Z")
1. vscode uses Monaco editor for the text editing thingy 2. what happened to @KIKIvsIT 3. why is this causing an error still it told me to add ignoreDeprecations and it still causes an error ---
**Author:** ![AlexK](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/alexk/32/33339_2.png) [@AlexK](https://forum.makecode.com/u/AlexK)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 3:59am UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/39 "2026-09-18T03:59:40Z")
_Countdown_ has dropped! > [@\[Announcement\] MakeCode Arcade Mini Game Jam #38 - Puzzle Jam Part Two!](https://forum.makecode.com/t/announcement-makecode-arcade-mini-game-jam-38-puzzle-jam-part-two/45702/71): > > Introducing: Countdown While the link will work for either solo play or local multiplayer, you also can play over the network … and multiplayer is much more fun! [MakeCode Arcade Multiplayer](https://arcade.makecode.com/--multiplayer?host=S15833-26854-36199-43103)[https://arcade.makecode.com/--multiplayer?host=S15833-26854-36199-43103](https://arcade.makecode.com/--multiplayer?host=S15833-26854-36199-43103) This project is based off the U.K game show. If you’re not familiar with Countdown, then please play with tutorials turned on. They will walk you through each phase of the game. The Quick Game has four rounds and will give you a goo… I used the solo version previously posted here as a starting point. Adding multiplayer, as the game is meant to be played, posed some interesting challenges, but implementation was fairly straightforward. The most challenging part was the screen layout during the truly multiplayer portions, where all four players need to share the screen. I’m looking forward to refining the underlying mechanics behind the game. I ported algorithms written by Christopher Jennings[1] to MakeCode. They’re good algorithms, and the algorithm for solving the numbers rounds uses recursion in a very nice way. I want to redo those implementations, though, so that they can be paused and resumed, essentially pre-empting them so that the game update routines run in a timely fashion (which should get rid of the stutter while the background music is playing). I also probably should rewrite my typed arrays implementation to take advantage of MakeCode’s builtin Buffer data structure. It may help with the performance of loading the word lists. Have fun! * * * [1] [https://cgjennings.ca/articles/countdown-numbers/](https://cgjennings.ca/articles/countdown-numbers/) ---
**Author:** ![AlexK](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/alexk/32/33339_2.png) [@AlexK](https://forum.makecode.com/u/AlexK)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 4:07am UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443/40 "2026-09-18T04:07:11Z")
My version uses a U.S. dictionary from Dana Bell.[1] If you would like an adaptation of _Countdown_ for a different language, then let me know where I can find an equivalent word list, and I’ll be happy to build it for you! * * * [1] [https://www.tylerhosting.com/gamewords/index.html](https://www.tylerhosting.com/gamewords/index.html) [Previous page](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443.md?page=1) [Next page](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443.md?page=3)