# \[Announcement\] MakeCode Arcade Mini Game Jam #38 - Puzzle Jam Part Two!

**URL:** https://forum.makecode.com/t/announcement-makecode-arcade-mini-game-jam-38-puzzle-jam-part-two/45702
**Category:** Arcade
**Tags:** mini-game-jam
**Created:** [September 3, 2026, 6:45pm UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/announcement-makecode-arcade-mini-game-jam-38-puzzle-jam-part-two/45702 "2026-09-03T18:45:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 71

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### 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, 3:34am UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/announcement-makecode-arcade-mini-game-jam-38-puzzle-jam-part-two/45702/71 "2026-09-18T03:34:18Z")

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Introducing: _Countdown_

> **[countdown](https://robo-technical-group.github.io/countdown/)**
>
> MakeCode Arcade implementation of the UK's Countdown game show.

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 good idea of how the game works.

The host computer should be a rather beefy computer, as the project needs some serious compute power to load the word lists and to solve the numbers rounds. The word lists load during the “wait screen” at the beginning.

> **Sample load times**
>
> - On my primary dev machine (AMD Ryzen 7 @ 3.8 GHz), the word lists take between 10 and 15 seconds to load.
> - On my office machine, which is quite a bit older (Intel Xeon Silver @ 2.10 GHz), the word lists take about 30 seconds to load.
> - My laptop (Intel Core i5 10gen @ 1.60 GHz) only takes about 20 seconds.
> - On my old Chromebook (Intel Celeron N3350 @ 1.10 GHz), the word lists take a hilarious **minute and a half** to load.
> - My fairly new Android phone takes about 30 seconds to load.
> - My Xbox One X takes about a minute to load.

If the word lists take longer than about 30 seconds to load, then your machine probably will struggle a bit when solving the numbers round. It will only really affect the background music playing while the computer (and the players!) are solving the round.

You can find more information in my dev log. Have pencil and paper handy, and enjoy _Countdown_!

* * *

Full credits are provided in the code. Key credits:

- Music: William Alan Hackshaw, arranged by Leo
- Algorithms for letters and numbers rounds: Christopher Jennings
- Word lists: Game Words 2020

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