# AlexK's Dev Blog **URL:** https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443 **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:** 1 **Showing post:** 39
### 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/) --- _[View the full topic](https://forum.makecode.com/t/alexks-dev-blog/18443)._