About MakeCode Arcade

Making Games

MakeCode allows you to play and code your own games using a 160×120 screen showing 16 colors at a time (you can change the palette though!), a 4-channel retro-appropriate sound system, and a grand total of eight buttons (4 directions, A, B, MENU and RESET).

Arcade comes with a 2D game engine with sprites, platformer-style collisions, tile maps, particle systems and more.

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Coding in MakeCode

MakeCode uses ‘block’ coding to create logic for your games! As shown to the right, Arcade comes with a set of block codes to make it simple to get started programming your game, including:

• Sprite physics, effects, collisions, animations and lifetime management;
• Controllers, both single-player and multi-player;
• Music, 4-channel sound, different waveforms and envelopes; no samples;
• Game updates, prompts and dialogs;
• Scene definition, tilemaps, collisions and camera position.

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Design your own game!

A major part of the fun of Arcade is designing your own sprites. To make this easier, Arcade has a sprite editor along with a gallery of specially designed sprites for your use.

The sprite editor is available both from the Blocks and JavaScript editors. Sprite sizes range from 8×8 to 32×32, with many other combinations available. A sequence of sprites is used to define an animation

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