Share your MakeCode story!

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Hello folks!
This month we’re celebrating the 10-year anniversary of MakeCode!

If you are a student using MakeCode - please share a couple of sentences about your experience with MakeCode - how did you first start using it? how it has helped you learn, create, or pursue your interests in technology? What have you created with it?

We’d love to include some of these stories in our 10-year anniversary blog post. But please do not include any personally identifiable information please.

Thanks!

Jacqueline

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so i joined through an even through school and i made a good project but i had to stop :frowning: the next day i came back to it and after a while i tried to make projectiles shoot at my character but i didn’t know how so i looked it up and i saw a forum about it. somebody posted about the sprite utils extension and at the time i didn’t know about other extensions so i thought it was awesome. a few months later i was making a smash game with my custom characters, the only problem was i sucked at pixel art so i came here to ask if i could use some wizard assets from a wizard game jam.

basically i came here to steal art lol.

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I started using makecode in 6th grade in technology class when we were programming things on microbits. The my friend started programming a game in Makecode Arcade in 7th, then i decided that i wanted to do that too, and the rest is history.

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The first time I used MakeCode was through the Project Lead The Way program in elementary school. We played with Micro:bits. It was a short, maybe one week activity. Then, in middle school, one of my friends introduced me to Makecode Arcade, and I have been making games ever since.

I joined the MakeCode forum when I was 13 and posted very little for 2 years. Then, one day, I started helping people solve their bugs… and it was super fun! Helping others with their code is one of my favorite things to do on the forum now. The puzzle of finding the error, and the satisfaction of fixing it, are what have kept me solving bugs on this forum for so long, not to mention the amazing community, devs, and MakeCode Arcade itself!

The other thing I learned while using MakeCode was JavaScript. Writing code in blocks, switching to the JavaScript editor, and looking at what the block code turned into was a big step in learning JavaScript and written code in general. Reading the JavaScript code running behind each block helped me better solve peoples’ block code issues too, and now I also make extensions!

Now I’m in college majoring in Computer Science, and I owe it all to MakeCode Arcade.

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Coding has been a part of my life for years, and I honestly don’t know where I would be without it. That journey would never have started if I hadn’t first discovered MakeCode Arcade.

I first started using MakeCode through Code Ninjas, where I learned programming by actually building things I loved: games. I started with small projects and gradually began experimenting with more advanced TypeScript, extensions, and my own tools and libraries. I didn’t understand everything at first, and I definitely failed along the way. There were bugs I couldn’t figure out, projects that didn’t work, and things I had to try again and again. But that was part of what made MakeCode so important to me. It gave me a place to struggle, learn, and keep going.

Eventually, that experience led me beyond MakeCode. I explored Python, JavaScript, and TypeScript, started creating websites, created my own coding club, and began working toward a much larger game of my own. It has also encouraged me to explore new game engines and programming challenges such as USACO and, eventually, the IOI.

MakeCode taught me much more than programming concepts like variables, functions, classes, loops, and game logic. It taught me that failure isn’t the end of a project; sometimes it’s where learning actually begins. It showed me that I could take an idea in my head and turn it into something real, even when I didn’t know how to do it yet.

If my journey has taught me anything, it’s that anyone willing to struggle, learn, and keep going can turn uncertainty into confidence and challenges into opportunity.

I’m still learning, still failing, and still creating. Coding is still a winding journey, and I don’t know where I’ll end up. But MakeCode was where that journey began—and it gave me the confidence to keep going and see what I could build next.

Happy 10th anniversary MakeCode ṾṾṾ :boom::boom::boom: CodaHappSmallCodaHappSmallCodaHappSmall

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  • How did you first start using it:
    • There was some kinda Coding Camp (Penn State Valey) somewhere when I was around 6th grade. They used VEXcode and MakeCode Arcade, but for some reason, I really enjoyed MakeCode Arcade. My very first project (which I have never shared) was this (holy cow I played it and it sucks fealt supper weird).
    • Eventually, I got into js and started trying to make classes for it (and failed), but a lot later I found a really cool video. It was about about the Amanatides and Woo DDA algorithm. I would highly recommend it, as it was good at explaining! I also have made many other projects, all which can be seen on the forums here.
  • How it has helped you learn, create, or pursue your interests in technology:
    • MakeCode has helped me learn greatly. It first somehow inspired me to write simple programs, and eventually going into things like Minecraft. It also has a js view that has a similar layout of the blocks on the left, allowing me to quickly learn what does what. Because it has js, I could easily use arrays and classes and everything I wanted. I was self-taught js through the book Coding with JavaScript For Dummies.
    • I think what also was helpful were these forums. Everybody here is very kind, and can help with questions even when the question is dumb! The moderators here are also familiar with the layout of MakeCode’s code, so they can help with more complex questions.
  • What have you created with it:
    • I have created many progects- from my very first one to my best, I think they are all great.
      • First Game - Good. The physics on it were very good for a beginner, and I believe it was made before I joined the forums.
      • Colors - This was an attempt to get more colors on MakeCode, but looking back at it, it was a little failed.
      • 3D Voxel Engine - My best project. The game is here, but I am also trying to turn it into an extension. The extension hasn’t been worked on in a while, but thats intirely my fault for forgetting about it.
      • Rage Game - This would have been better if I worked on it more. It was supposed to be a full game, but I only recreated Level Devil. I might work on it more later.
      • Satisfying Button - An attempt to make art of a cylindrical button, to try to improve my art. It currently does not look great, but I may try to improve it. For fun, I might give it procedural lighting!
      • Small Game - a game that is only a sixteenth of the actual screen size. It is a game designed for hardware, and is made intirely in blocks. It has a couple bonus levels that I have never shared, but are accessable without modifying the code
      • Platform Physics - A small demo of platform physics, which could probably be updated to reduce lag. I was just messing around, trying to create something cool.
      • Undyne Attack - I was bored, and so I came up with this. This was surprisingly challenging to make, but it also helped improve my trig in the process.
      • Enums in Blocks - A small extension to get enumerations from js to blocks.
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I first started using MakeCode Arcade in 2019 (7th grade), I originally discovered it as a different way to program one of my microcontroller handheld consoles (the Adafruit PyGamer).

I always wanted to dip my toes into game development, but Scratch felt too limiting, while Unity and Godot were too intimidating and complex. I fell in love with the combination of the simplicity of programming in blocks and being able to use JavaScript* and user-made extensions. Additionally, the fact that I could use MakeCode’s simulator while developing before downloading to my hardware made the development and learning cycle much faster!

Although I don’t plan to pursue game development professionally in the future (currently a second-year computer engineering undergraduate), all the time I’ve spent in the MakeCode Arcade editor helped reinforce my logic and programming skills - and, I still enjoy experimenting with MakeCode Arcade and making the occasional game!

* ok yes it’s Static TypeScript but it says JS at the top of the editor!

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I started because of code ninjas the end

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Oh, I forgot to add what I’ve made with MakeCode Arcade!

Extensions:

Projects:

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My experience with Makecode Arcade started in 7th grade, when I took a computer science class. It has helped me to learn how to problem solve efficiently, and I am now much better at coding. It led me to create games such as Frutris! and a game I made with my friend @Noob1235, Slime Time. Overall I have had a great time on the forums with everyone!

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i joined the forums (dont remember exactly when) becuase i needed help, my game’s code was deleted due to an AI assistant update Makecode released, and i genuinely thought i had lost everything, but then j found the forums so I made an account to post for help. Then I managed to get my game back becuase of a moderater whos name i forgot, and i cant access the old topic because thats now lost media. But thanks to that person who helped me get back my game,. I only intended to get on tne forums just for help on my game, k didnt think i would stay but here we are.

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the year was December 23 2023 (Roughly what I can remember) I loved and still love making things and coming up with ideas and fixing things and I saw it tried it and like it and then later when I thought of it because that was the first time I used it later I thought of it and tried it more and caught on fast and built a bunch of cool things later joined the Fourms on Apirl 7 2025 and shared all that cool stuff and now as of September 23 2026 (kinda funny seeing this on the 23 just noticed XD) I have made over 15 helpful extensions a bunch of cool games and am working on a home console project (more info here Can I sell my game this way) but yeah who knows what will come next

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I don’t even know where to begin with this.

I genuinely don’t even know who I’d BE without MakeCode. It has altered my life so fundamentally that trying to explain it in a couple of sentences feels almost impossible…

:sob:

help

how do I start thiss

Ok… uhm

so… like, I wasn’t even originally a “coding kid”.

When I was younger, I was actually obsessed with astronomy. That was “the thing” in my life. I wanted to be an astronomer. I’d read mostly about Carl Sagan, look up exoplanets, learn their names, find out what their atmospheres were made of, go down increasingly ridiculous rabbit holes about space, and I was pretty convinced that was going to be my future. I absolutely loved it.

Then, in my 2nd Year of secondary school in 2021 we did a coding workshop where we used MakeCode Arcade.

And it wasn’t really that cliché “I used MakeCode once and immediately knew I wanted to be a programmer” thing, even thought that’s TOTALLY valid if that happened with anyone, but that isn’t actually what happened to me.

I wasn’t instantly hooked. It was just… fun. I made something, and then I wanted to mess with it and see where that went. Then I’d want to add something and see if I could make something else happen. And I think that was the thing that slowly got me.

Because eventually I realised that you can make pretty much anything, and I mean that almost literally.

You open that little editor and there’s no real ceiling on what you can try to do. Obviously there are technical limitations, and there are things you won’t know how to make yet, but the actual idea that I could just… make something that didn’t exist before was completely insane to me.

There were no asterisks to it really.

No “well, you can make anything if you already know how to code.”

No “you can make anything if you’re a professional programmer.”

I was a kid sitting in a classroom with MakeCode Arcade, and I could make a game.

So I kept going.

I started with that first little game from the workshop. Eventually I finished it, which ended up being my very first game called Skeleton Scramble and then immediately, like INSTANTANEOUSLY thought, “okay, but what if I made an RPG out of this?”

That became Dark vs. Light, my first proper game series. I spent roughly a year messing with it, learning as I went, constantly finding something else I wanted to add.

And somewhere during that process, I logically got completely hooked, started making more games, and then more, then I joined the MakeCode forums, started entering game jams, started meeting people all of that. And then I started learning JavaScript and TypeScript and HTML and CSS because I wanted to do more things with the stuff I was making.

Then I started making websites, making bigger and more ridiculous projects.

And very slowly at some point MakeCode had gone from being “this cool coding thing I did at school during class” to basically being the foundation of almost everything I was interested in.

I ended up making games for my hospital school, worked on the TMF series, and of course, I got to actually work as part of a development team with Luke and InvalidProject on TMF3, which is still probably my favourite project I’ve ever released so far.

I’ve made games that took months to finish. I’ve won game jams. I’ve spent ridiculous amounts of time experimenting with things that absolutely did not need to be experimented with.

And somewhere along the way, things just changed… I was kinda just like oh.

I want to do this for the rest of my life.

So I’m now studying Computer Science and Software Engineering at university.

And I am genuinely, completely serious when I say that I am doing that because of MakeCode Arcade.

I genuinely mean that if that one coding workshop had never happened, I would not have the behemoth of a career plan I have now.

My entire interest in Computer Science, which I intend to be my future career, was forged from that one little introduction to MakeCode Arcade. Really let that sink in.

And I’m actually going into university already knowing things I learned entirely because I wanted to make more stuff in MakeCode. I’ve taught myself (from earlier) JavaScript/TypeScript, HTML, CSS, some Java, a bit of C++, some game development concepts, and a ridiculous amount of other things that I originally had absolutely no reason or interest in learning.

So yeah, uh… don’t wanna make this too long…

Happy 10 years, MakeCode.

You kind of changed my entire life.

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better-better-settings and better-better-achievements? /j

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Ok so you all know who I am and if not than I’m not surprised but basically, I started with Makecode because I thought it was a real game engine like Godot or unity so I learn it for 4 years than in year 5 at school we had to make A Makecode game and from then on I excelled like I was using Makecode like the year it came out I’m an og ok so fast forward to high school and I was like done with Makecode but then I get introduced to the form and then I went crazy I started doing ai physics real games my FIRST game jam!!! snout out robovac I have talked to so many cool people her dude its been a dream and I’m just getting started and I’m not stopping but also thank you to richard and every one behind Makecode arcade for getting me in to coding and making games you have shaped my life I now go to events becouse of my game and coding so thank you!!!

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Man, my memory’s kinda foggy, but here’s all I can remember.

I was randomly scrolling the web till I randomly found MakeCode. I was surprised that Microsoft would make this. I decided to check it out. And for some reason, I stuck with it. Although I didn’t know how to use Makecode, I tried some stuff, it was pretty bad lol.

Now my school didn’t use Makecode to teach coding or anything. They don’t even teach coding. I practically just played around and… only understood a few blocks.

Then I discovered the forums through the settings tab in the editor. Seeing this might help, I singed up right away.

Apparently I didn’t learn a thing or two, but instead a buncha stuff. Like how variables were used (not what they were exactly) and how to use functions and all that stuff. An all of that came from looking and analyzing users’ projects. And in a couple of months, I got the hang of Makecode and achieved intermediate status.

I’m proud I got this far. But I can’t stop there. My online coding classes (who didn’t teach Makecode) cleared up some block-coding stuff and some of that learning has been applied here. I also viewed tutorials and read user help posts.

My first game was Bird Run- a remix of Raptor Run, and, yes, it was an remix. But doing remixes taught me more Makecode and eventually I was able to make my own game from scratch like Duck Hunters (scroll till you find it). And I guess I was able to make it good.

With learning makecode stuff, it made me feel like I can create other stuff beyond just retro games. What about a website? An app? Maybe a robot vacuum? Who knows?

It really got me interested in retro stuff. I literally started emulating old operating systems because of Makecode! Funny how making pixel-based games makes you hungry for retro nostalgia. Or for me, I guess.

I’m really loving Makecode now, aside from Scratch. It got me a great head-start on working with other block-based coding languages. I definitely feel that schools or others who teach coding should use Makecode for their coding lessons.

Overall, if anyone asks, how, is Makecode, and is it great? My response is YES. Learn it and do it if you want to get a good foundation in coding. That’s how I got mine.

Happy anniversary to Makecode!!!

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Four years bro do you use MakeCode js/ts like me(kinda)

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In 7th grade which was about 4 years ago, my computer science class used Microbits, and while I was coding that, I was curious if there was a software similar to Microbit, but just for games, and then I found this! I didn’t really make anything cool or make it that far, cause at that time, I sucked at coding. I actually started my PVZ demake back then, but I got nowhere. After I got bored of that, I switched to godot, where I made my first published game, and 2 abandoned ones. I got a bit burnt out from making those games, and while I was looking through my old stuff, I came across my old projects here! So I resumed working on the PVZ demake, and then discovered the forums shortly after, where I then made my account, and the rest is history.

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I tried ur first game and i kind of suck at it lol

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It was @AlexK who helped you.

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