Garden Jam Winners!

We’re thrilled to announce the winners of the MakeCode Arcade Garden Jam! Before we get to the good stuff, we also want to thank everyone who participated — it was wonderful to see the creative and unique interpretations of the “garden” theme, and we hope you’re proud of your work. We’ve all enjoyed playing your games so much! Check out the full gallery of entries at the bottom of this page.

First Place: Potato

Click the large potato to earn points. Spend your points to develop your garden. Like a true garden, this game is a test of time and patience, and bees help a lot!

Play it here!

The judges say:

    ”Potato is a game that requires patience and rewards it richly with a bountiful harvest — and bees! The code takes advantage of the hardware to save user progress, though if you import it into the MakeCode Arcade Editor you will also be able to save your game.”

    ”Filling out my garden was satisfying and I love that it persists on hardware. The art is clean and it’s fun just to watch your vegetables animate. Keep playing until you unlock the bees, they’re worth the wait!”

    ”This incremental game starts out slow, but gains a surprising amount of depth! The gameplay is straightforward, but there are nuances in which vegetables you plant, and the ratio of vegetables to bees (which improve a vegetable’s production). There’s a small bug in bee navigation which causes them to gather at the side of the screen, but the thoughtful save mechanics allow you to reset the game without losing progress!”

Second Place: Garden Crop Duster

Fly a biplane over fields and bomb them with fertilizer! Don’t stall or crash. Controls are difficult at first, but stick with it! (Note: This game was made in Arcade beta.)

Play it here!

The judges say:

    ”This is a side-scrolling bomber, but the controls are interesting… and difficult to master. It is fun though once you get the hang of it. Excellent code quality! This advanced game is “data-driven”, using special tilemap tiles to indicate placement of buildings, farms, and the plane, and the code is nicely organized into functions.”

    ”The scoring mechanic was so addictive! I couldn’t stop trying to beat my high score. It’s possible to get a perfect score on this game, but look out for the flower patches on the left side of the final level!”

    ”Garden Crop Duster is both incredibly polished and incredibly fun! The unique plane controls are satisfying to learn, and there are no obvious bugs in the code or the gameplay. The levels are well-designed, gradually increasing in difficulty, and the game rewards precision and repeat plays.”

Third Place: Snail Hike

Use your puzzle-solving skills to help the snails get to the exit! Snail Hike is a beautiful puzzle game with interesting platformer mechanics incorporated.

Play it here!

The judges say:

    ”An ambitious, aesthetically beautiful game with a good puzzle mechanic. It’s a little unclear what apples do, but the attention to detail is evident. This is an advanced game, with lots of attention in code to getting the look and feel just right. The player’s ability to double-jump-glide required some complex state!”

    ”Snail Hike is a visually stunning puzzle game! The graphics in the game are very polished, from the environments, to the characters, to the in-game UI. The puzzles are engaging but not impossible to solve, and the world is a pleasure to explore. There were a few kinks in the game mechanics, but overall it’s a charming snail adventure!”

    ”This game was delightful from the start. It is an interesting puzzle game where you play a beetle, herding snails. The art is garden-themed, but gameplay is generic puzzler. I would have liked to see a garden-themed gameplay element. Maybe some herd control could make opportunity for garden-specific challenges?”

Honorable Mentions

These are some games that didn’t make the top three, but the judges loved! Give them a play, we’re sure you’ll enjoy yourself.

Gazpacho!!

Go to your garden, gather all the ingredients for gazpacho before time runs out!

The judges say: “What a lovely concept: Gather ingredients from your garden to make gazpacho. I liked the smile effect when I found an ingredient. I would have liked to know how many ingredients I had left, and a nice game over screen showing the character enjoying a bowl of gazpacho would be cute :) The code is clear, understandable, and uncluttered. Nice job!”

Garden Puzzle

Get the ladybug to the leaf, but don’t let them get wet!

The judges say: “Good puzzlers are challenging to build, but delightful when done well. This game has an interesting puzzle dynamic: the leaf moves with the ladybug, adding an additional dimension to the problem space. This game has duplicated code to initialize and reset the current level, which could be moved to a reusable function, but overall it was a thoughtful and well-made game!”

Garden Gnome

This garden is a dangerous place for gnomes! Help the gnome get to safety, but watch out for bees and other hazards! If you don’t mind dying a few times, this garden-themed platformer’s second level will surprise you.

The judges say: “This is a garden-themed platformer with light garden-centric gameplay elements. Hitting a flower does make a bee chase you; that happens in real gardens too! This project is a great example of how to build a game that leverages the tilemap as a level editor. When a level is loaded, the code replaces certain tiles in the tilemap with corresponding sprites, taking a lot of the work out of making multi-level games.”

HUERTO

Defend your garden from pesky caterpillars! You play an enterprising gardener trying to protect your carrots from oncoming enemies.

The judges say: “In HUERTO, the gardener drops water on the caterpillars from above, forcing the player to time their projectiles carefully. This simple twist adds a level of complexity to the standard Galaga-esque shooter template. In addition, the visualization of lives as carrots is a great touch!”