Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups
Register | Login
MMC

Microsoft MakeCode Arcade VS Blockly

Compare Microsoft MakeCode Arcade VS Blockly and see what are their differences

IsDown.app
Monitor all your cloud services with our status page aggregator. IT teams choose IsDown to monitor all their vendors and get alerts whenever an outage occurs. Integration with Datadog, PagerDuty, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and a lot more. featured
Contents:
  1. » Base Details
  2. » Videos
  3. » Reviews
  4. » Alternatives

Microsoft MakeCode Arcade logo Microsoft MakeCode Arcade

Drag n drop code to make and play games online and on various hardware

Blockly logo Blockly

Blockly is a library for building visual programming editors.
Not present
  • Blockly Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-18

Microsoft MakeCode Arcade features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

Blockly features and specs

  • User-Friendly
    Blockly offers a highly intuitive and visual interface. Users, especially beginners and non-programmers, can easily drag and drop blocks to create programs without needing to write code manually.
  • Educational Value
    Blockly is excellent for educational purposes. It simplifies the learning curve for programming by abstracting the complexities of syntax, allowing learners to focus on understanding logic and computational thinking.
  • Cross-Language Support
    Blockly can generate code for multiple programming languages (JavaScript, Python, PHP, Lua, Dart). This makes it versatile and useful for teaching and transitioning to various languages.
  • Customizability
    Blockly is highly customizable. Developers can create custom blocks and define their own rules, making it adaptable to various projects and domain-specific needs.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source project, Blockly provides the flexibility to modify and extend the toolkit to fit specific requirements. This open nature encourages community contributions and improvements.

Possible disadvantages of Blockly

  • Limited Complexity
    Blockly is designed for simplicity and may not handle very complex programming tasks efficiently. Advanced users might find it insufficient for sophisticated or large-scale projects.
  • Performance Overhead
    The visual programming model can introduce performance overhead. Converting blocks to executable code and running it can be less efficient compared to hand-written code, especially for performance-critical applications.
  • Learning Transition
    While Blockly is great for beginners, transitioning from block-based programming to traditional text-based coding can be challenging. Users may need additional guidance to adapt to the intricacies of syntax and coding best practices.
  • Limited Debugging Tools
    Blockly does not offer advanced debugging tools. Debugging issues can be more challenging compared to traditional IDEs that provide sophisticated debugging capabilities.
  • Scalability Issues
    For large projects, the block-based approach can become unwieldy and harder to manage compared to traditional text-based code which can be more neatly structured and maintained.

Microsoft MakeCode Arcade videos

+ Add

Microsoft MakeCode Arcade Overview

More videos:

  • Review - Beginners Review: Microsoft MakeCode Arcade || Lilithium

Blockly videos

+ Add

Blockly: Using Block Based Coding in your App

More videos:

  • Review - Fable Blockly Review
  • Review - Trying Out Blockly, Google's New Programming Language [DiceTV]

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Microsoft MakeCode Arcade and Blockly)

Microsoft MakeCode Arcade

Blockly

Game Development
33 33%
Game Development
67% 67
Web Frameworks
0 0%
Web Frameworks
100% 100
Kids Education
30 30%
Kids Education
70% 70
Game Engine
100 100%
Game Engine
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using Microsoft MakeCode Arcade and Blockly. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Microsoft MakeCode Arcade and Blockly

Microsoft MakeCode Arcade Reviews

We have no reviews of Microsoft MakeCode Arcade yet.
Be the first one to post

Blockly Reviews

Top 20 Javascript Libraries
Blockly, a creation of Google, is a web-based visual programming editor. When added to the code, the library adds an editor to the app that represents code snippets like loops, expressions, variables, and more as blocks. The best part is that you can create custom code, and the output is syntactically correct in your choice of the programming language. Blockly has no...
Source: hackr.io

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Blockly should be more popular than Microsoft MakeCode Arcade. It has been mentiond 31 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Microsoft MakeCode Arcade mentions (4)

  • Isometric Projection in Game Development
    Alternatively, get her an emulator of an old 8 or 16 bit system, I started coding at the age of 10 in these systems, with books that were oriented for kids. https://www.atariarchives.org/ http://redparsley.blogspot.com/2016/08/input-magazine-retrospective.html https://archive.org/details/input-hi-01 Or if you prefer something more up to date, https://arcade.makecode.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Ask HN: Yo wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
    Https://arcade.makecode.com/ Is great fun to use and made for kids. The forum (forum.makecode.com) is well moderated and safe too. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Copying Angry Birds with nothing but AI
    I'm not sure how this reduces the barrier to game developement. There are already lots of free assets and game engines designed for making arcade games that are a lot easier then say Unity or Unreal. Like https://arcade.makecode.com/ or https://microstudio.dev/ or https://scratch.mit.edu/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: Whats the modern day equivalent of 80s computer for kids to explore?
    For the game angle https://arcade.makecode.com may be more of a fit. You can even build a cabinet. Disclaimer: worked on both. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago

Blockly mentions (31)

  • Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?
    Scratch is fantastic. There are also a number of similar (block-based) tools that let you create your own custom blocks and see the code behind them - e.g. Blockly (https://developers.google.com/blockly). - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Ask HN: Modern Day Equivalent to HyperCard?
    If your kid is already doing Scratch, Blockly is a really easy next step. https://developers.google.com/blockly Critically, Blockly can emit JavaScript and Python, plus it supports plugins for extended functionality. So the kid can stay inside the blockly universe for as long as they like, but easily peer under the hood and get into Python or JavaScript as soon as they like. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • A shortage of teachers for computer science classes in California
    The issue with Alice is that graphical, block based coding is not at all an ergonomic way to code. Sure, C++ probably isn't the best for an intro CS courses, either, but even just Python with some wrappers over SDL to draw sprites is not only a better teaching tool it's also forms a more useful springboard to build other projects. Graphical, block based coding seems to be a common attempt to make coding more... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • ⚧︎ Super Smash Siblings Trans
    Unless it would contradict canon, every stage is very bright, highly interactive, full of pre-placed items, and so huge that you can usually run from your NPC opponents and enjoy exploring the stage in peace while they catch up to you. All buildings have Linux computers with actual internet access that allow you to program and print out your own projectiles/books/flags/UNO reverse cards/shinigami eyes/soupcans/cis... Source: over 1 year ago
  • Scratch is the world’s largest coding community for children
    If your kids tinker with Scratch, try out TurboWarp[1], a Scratch mod that compiles projects to JavaScript. Other alternatives to tinker with are Blocky[2] and Snap[3]. 1. https://turbowarp.org 2. https://developers.google.com/blockly/ 3. https://snap.berkeley.edu. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Microsoft MakeCode Arcade and Blockly, you can also consider the following products

Scratch - Scratch is the programming language & online community where young people create stories, games, & animations.

BYOB (Build Your Own Blocks) - BYOB extends Scratch to a full-power language for computer science students.

Spring Framework - The Spring Framework provides a comprehensive programming and configuration model for modern Java-based enterprise applications - on any kind of deployment platform.

Snap - Snap (formerly BYOB) is a visual, drag-and-drop programming language.

Grails - An Open Source, full stack, web application framework for the JVM

Gandi IDE - Gandi IDE is a Scratch mod, it's a simple but powerful online game engine. An editor, interpreter, compiler, assets market, and MMO server are built inside. Realtime code, create and learn together right in your browser.

Loading...