MakeCode.com - Fun With Minecraft:Education Edition

I've been doing a fair amount of different things in Minecraft:Education Edition recently, including recording a 'how to get started' webinar that will go to air shortly. I've also been exploring coding examples using the MakeCode.com Code Connection companion application and Richard from the MakeCode team has helped me out with a fantastic example of coding a real life building directly within Minecraft:EE.

Firstly, I do want to point out that Richard does a live coding session once a week on Microsoft's Mixer.com platform that you can check out here. It's a fun hour where Richard and a guest jointly code (and then share) a project of interest to them.

For an upcoming presentation I'm doing, I really wanted to show off the coding component of Minecraft:EE through the automated building of a famous New Zealand building. Richard encouraged me to keep it simple and reasonably geometric in shape so I queried him whether the New Zealand Government's "Beehive" would be acceptable - he thought it a great project! If you have ever been to Wellington, New Zealand then the chances you've seen this iconic building are pretty high. Some love it, others .... not so much! Richard got to work and quickly coded up an automated building of this using the block-based coding tools from MakeCode.com:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exr2e-Le108

(You may want to watch at 2x speed)

If you would like to download the source code for yourself and run it you can do so here (disclaimer: Richard coded this very quickly and did not optimise it - he told me it could be improved for elegance and speed of execution):

 Build The Beehive in MakeCode Source Code

[gallery columns="2" size="medium" ids="9345,9355,9365,9375"]

During the construction as the code was executing, I took some photos in the game using the Camera and Portfolio features - helpfully, I even got atrocious rainy weather in one of them which, if you've ever been to Wellington, you will know is pretty accurate!

I hope this is a good example to inspire you with how you can use coding within Minecraft:Education Edition to automatically built impressive structures.