# Why is MakeCode Arcade Not Known? **URL:** \ **Category:** Arcade\ **Created:** [January 14, 2026, 7:05pm UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/why-is-makecode-arcade-not-known/41514 "2026-01-14T19:05:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 24
**Author:** ![UnsignedArduino](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.makecode.com/unsignedarduino/32/592_2.png) [@UnsignedArduino](https://forum.makecode.com/u/UnsignedArduino)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 2:19am UTC](https://forum.makecode.com/t/why-is-makecode-arcade-not-known/41514/24 "2026-02-04T02:19:38Z")
> [@Kikketer](#): > > Maybe because it’s a web page and not a “desktop IDE”? After reading this thread, I didn’t see any mentions of the [MakeCode Arcade VS Code Extension](https://arcade.makecode.com/vscode), just wanted to put that out there that it exists! (I haven’t personally used it yet, but it looks well done, then again, I prefer Webstorm…which is [now free](https://blog.jetbrains.com/blog/2024/10/24/webstorm-and-rider-are-now-free-for-non-commercial-use/)! So maybe an extension for Webstorm would be cool as well…but that’s a different tangent…) > [@Kikketer](#): > > There’s then some who’ve tried to create a unified experience but that’s fizzled on the vine (eg: [https://awesome-arcade.vercel.app/](https://awesome-arcade.vercel.app/) which hasn’t had an update in over 2 years and requires an awkward PR experience to add things) Yeah…although I have been quite busy with my studies these past several years I realize that I essentially abandoned that website due to the fact I’d always tell myself that eventually I’d revamp the site, as I did have plans and notes, so that’s why I’ve been “procrastinating” on updating the website, as I keep telling myself one day I’ll make a new version of the website. Google Analytics also suggests that there is still _some_ traffic to the site, so losing all that SEO with a new website (I definitely don’t plan on deploying on Vercel if I were to redo Awesome Arcade) is unfortunate…although who knows how much of those are just ChatGPT and Gemini crawling the web to answer user queries… I planned that you could sign up with a GitHub account, suggest extensions and tools to be added, and you could post to a dedicated games section with ratings…kind of like Steam but for MakeCode Arcade. Unfortunately, moderating content (even if I were to not implement comments on games, and force people to link to the MakeCode Forums if they wanted to comment) is I believe one of the most difficult parts of building an online website, and finding the time to review all public facing changes (e.g. someone edits the description of their game, or they change an image, or they suggest an edit to an extension’s description) to the website is hard. Additionally, hosting this website would also involve either 1. more time and maintenance to self-host on my part, or 2. money lol (both of which are quite scarce as a university student lol) > [@Kikketer](#): > > 1. **Export to “Real” Game** - Mentioned in my first post, I think the difficulty to simply say “release to steam” or “release to the app store” is one of the holdups for some of the more advanced students/adults. The parts I love about MakeCode is having the hard constraints (see scratch mention above) but doesn’t have TOO much limit on depth. Could you create Final Fantasy? YES as long as it looks like an NES game (which is cool in my opinion). > > - I’m not sure what it would take to improve this arena, maybe something as “simple” as having the download button have Windows, Mac, whatever options! (brain is stirring thinking about that). Yes, although there are tools that have been developed to create executables of games such as [MakeCode-Arcade-to-App](https://forum.makecode.com/t/convert-your-makecode-arcade-games-to-executables/37719) (self promotion I guess) they are obviously not official and essentially just a bunch of scripts to cobble things together, which isn’t ideal. An official MakeCode-Arcade-backed solution, although would be very cool, would require a lot of work from the developers for a feature not many people use (especially supporting different OSes and configurations and even code signing and similar; and I’m not even considering the Google Play and Apple App stores). But last I checked, Scratch doesn’t have an official executable feature either… --- _[View the full topic](https://forum.makecode.com/t/why-is-makecode-arcade-not-known/41514)._