This is a list of MakeCode Arcade extensions that I find super useful in my projects.
NOTE: This gist is depreciated! I've made a new repo for this which you can submit pull requests for extensions you want in! You can find it here.
These extensions are already built in to the editor, all you have to do is go to the toolbox, open the Advanced tab, click on Extensions, and click on the extension you want to import!
It's local variables, but for sprites! Super useful for saving certain attributes of a sprite like the health of an enemy. This will add a section full of blocks called Data under the Sprites category in the toolbox.
Official docs | Github repo | Forum post
It's literal multithreading! Setup a callback for your code or run it in a separate fiber (thread) with this extension! This will add another category in the toolbox called Timer.
Official docs | Github repo | Forum post
Save data in an easy-to-use JSON-like format, now avaliable for the block users! This will add another category in the toolbox called settings.
Official docs | Github repo for block defs | Github repo for implementation | Forum post
Want some cool fade-in and fade-out effects for your cutscenes? Or want to change the default colors at runtime? This is the extension for you! This extension goes together nicely with the Story extension linked down below. This will add another category in the toolbox called Color.
Official docs | Github repo | Forum post
The following extensions, while just as good as the ones listed above, will require some slightly different steps while importing. First go to the toolbox, open the Advanced tab, click on Extensions, and you will see a text box that says Search or enter project URL.... This is where you will paste in the URL to the extension. The URL will be posted along with the listing.
Import this extension with the URL:
A version of the Animation extension but much more easier to handle if your sprites (Ex. main player) has a lot of different movements, like moving up, down, left, and right. The character-animations extension will automatically start and stop animations depending on what the player is doing. This will add another category in the toolbox called Character.
Import this extension with the URL:
Help your sprites find their way around your tilemaps with this extension! Just provide 2 locations on a tilemap and it will automagically compute the fastest path between the 2 spots while also moving around walls using the A* algorithm! This will add another section in the Scene category called Path Following in the toolbox.
Github repo | Forum post | Wikipedia article on the A* algorithm
Import this extension with the URL:
One of my favorite extensions, it allows you to make a menu out of a list of strings! Use this for selecting options where using game.askForNumber() and game.askForString() would be unintuitive or clumsy. This will add another category in the toolbox called BlockMenu.
Import this extension with the URL:
Object-oriented programming is no doubt an important topic in prograaming. This extension will help you make objects in blocks! Attach all sorts of data to an object, like numbers, strings, images, sprites, locations, and more! This will add a category in the toolbox called BlockObject with 7 sub-categories.
Import this extension with the URL:
Need some cutscenes with dialog? This extension is for you! Comes with a variety of blocks designed to make writing stories and scenes much easier. This extension pairs great with the Color Fading extension linked above. This will add a new category called Story in the toolbox.
Import this extension with the URL:
As the name says, this extension has a bunch of utilities for sprites and more, especially anything dealing with trigonometry. This extension adds a new category called Sprite Utils in the toolbox.
Github repo | Github pages demo
Import this extension with the URL:
Simple but sweet, this extension adds the very much-need blocks to print text onto images. This will add a new section called Text under the Images category in the toolbox.
Official docs | Github repo | Forum post
Import this extension with the URL
Light up your games with this extension! It allows you to turn the lights on or off and add lanterns to sprites so that they have light around them when you turn the lights off. This will add 2 categories called Lantern and Multilights under the toolbox.
Github repo | Github pages demo* | Forum post
*Note that the Github pages demo only demonstrates the original features of the lantern extension written by @riknoll here. A more up-to-date example can be found here.
Import this extension with the URL:
Play beautiful melodies encoded in the RTTTL language in MakeCode with this extension! You can use this website to turn yoru .mid and .midi files into a RTTTL-compatible string of text! This extension adds a block in the Melody section in the Music category in the toolbox.
Github repo | Github pages demo | Forum post | MIDI to RTTTL converter
Import this extension with the URL:
Arcade games can get more realistic with shadows! This extension will add a category called Shaders in the toolbox.
Yes, this is about useful MakeCode Arcade extensions but these tools will level up your game-making experience!
This tool will convert your images (like .png files) to Arcade code! Simply copy the output, open JavaScript mode in your project, navigate to where you want the image block to go, and paste in the image code! You may need to remove some redundant characters.
Find this tool here:
https://kristianpedersen.github.io/Convert-Image-to-MakeCode-Arcade-Sprite/
Have a bunch of images you want to send to someone, but they hate exercising their pinkie and pointer finger? This will convert a set of images into a MakeCode project that, when you import, will put the images into the image gallery!
Find this tool here:
Written with StackEdit.
This is great! I love how this is easy to get to with all your favorite extensions! Yes, I found out how to comment on stuff now but I can't find the recent topics.