MakeCode for Minecraft update

Another month, another release! The MakeCode team is very excited to release this update to the coding experience for Minecraft. This release represents months of work jointly with the Minecraft Education team.

New features!

We’ve got some great new features in this update! To show you the new features and just how cool they are, we made a video for you. Click on this picture of the new in-game coding window and check it out!

Some of the new features included in this update are listed below. Note that the features that are only available in Minecraft: Education Edition are denoted with an asterisk (*).

In-Game Coding Window*

We received a lot of feedback that having two windows, one for the Minecraft game and one for the Code Connection app, was a pain for a lot of users to manage and navigate between. So, the Minecraft folks have built the coding experience in the game now! Simply type “c“ in the game to open up the code window or click on the Agent icon for touch devices – no more copy pasting of connection strings! And the coding window will remember your previous settings (preferred editor and window size/position).

Basic Toolbox category

Another point of feedback we received was, that since there are so many code blocks and API’s available, it’s hard for people new to the experience to figure out what to do. So, we created a Basic Toolbox category with some of the most common blocks that you would use in your first programs.

Automatic dismiss of chat window

Hurrah!! This was a pet peeve of mine – whenever I would type a command into the chat window, I would have to hurry to quickly press escape to see my code running. Now this happens automatically. As soon as you press enter after typing your command, the chat window disappears.

Run button*

As we were doing usability tests, we discovered that many students didn’t realize that MakeCode was constantly executing code automatically in the game. This was confusing for users, they kept looking for an explicit way to run their code. So we’ve changed this paradigm – now we only execute code when a user clicks on the Run button or otherwise enters into the Minecraft game (by closing the Code Builder window or clicking into the game).

On Item Used

This is a very fun new block that let’s you run code when you right-click with an item in your hand. For example, as you’re hoeing grass, place seeds and water for a garden.

Agent Position and Orientation

We’ve now exposed the position and orientation of the Agent. You can now teleport her to a specific position in the world and facing a specific direction.

Agent Set Inventory

Now you can programmatically manipulate the contents of your Agent’s inventory. Insert a specific number of blocks or items at a particular inventory slot.

Ground altitude

This is useful if you are building stuff and you’re not sure where the ground elevation is. It’s also nice that you can build on the ground while your player may be flying over the structure.

Effects

We actually released API this earlier this year. Because it’s such a cool block that no one knows about, I’m including it here. Give yourself or others super speed, invisibility, fire resistance, or some other effect.

Aquatic tutorials and examples

In in honor of the Minecraft Voyage Aquatic hour of code tutorial, we’ve released some new tutorials and examples using aquatic creatures and plants.

Huge kudos and thanks to the Minecraft Education team for many of these updates – see their blog posts for Minecraft: Education Edition game updates!

For those of you using Minecraft for Windows 10 – please make sure you update your game with the latest hotfix 1.7.1 to fix the Code Connection issue.

Also, want to send a shout-out to We Code MakeCode – who are doing amazing things with MakeCode for Minecraft!

Happy Making and Coding!

The MakeCode Team