My MSBuild 2020 experience: serverless, community & creativity
Published: 2020-09-16 12:54:28

---
title: My MSBuild 2020 experience: serverless, community & creativity
published: true
date: 2020-05-22 00:00:00 UTC
tags: 
canonical_url: https://blog.marcduiker.nl/2020/05/22/msbuild-serverless-community-creativity.html
---

![8-bit MSBuild wallpaper](https://blog.marcduiker.nl/assets/2020/05/22/Build_Wallpaper_DarkTheme_DesignA_8bit.jpg)

Microsoft just finished its 48-hour live online event, [MSBuild 2020](https://mybuild.microsoft.com/), and I enjoyed it immensely! I was fortunate to be invited for two sessions: a panel discussion on _building serverless APIs_, and a _connect with the community_ session. I also threw in some pixel art just for fun, more on that later.

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## Build and Secure Serverless APIs panel discussion

My first appearance was during a serverless panel discussion (Session BDL146) together with Rajorshi Ghosh Choudhury (Hasura) and Guy Prodjarny (Snyk). The session was hosted by ☁ 🥑 Simona Cotin. We talked about our definition of serverless, state management, GraphQL, security aspects, and common pitfalls. We covered a lot in just 30 minutes!

![Build and Secure Serverless APIs panel](https://blog.marcduiker.nl/assets/2020/05/22/serverless_panel.jpg)

_Build and Secure Serverless APIs panel_

You can view the [recording here](https://mybuild.microsoft.com/sessions/e477304a-6de3-4714-a1f3-cc955da82b1a).

## Community Update

The second session I was part of, was _Connect with Microsoft Western Europe and your local dev community_ (Session COM178). During this session, many community members took part in panel discussions and gave updates on projects they are working on in their own time.

I got the opportunity to talk about the [Azure Functions Update Twitter bot](https://blog.marcduiker.nl/2019/03/03/creating-azure-functions-updates-twitterbot.html) that I made with Azure Functions & Durable Functions. I explained the reason why I built it, shared plans for future updates, and mentioned that I’ll be helping out Suzanne Daniels (Microsoft Dev PMM) with [meetupgemist.nl](https://meetupgemist.nl/).

The recording is not available yet, but here is [the session page](https://mybuild.microsoft.com/sessions/0063cc6a-b3f9-439f-b67a-ccf3dbe11b59).

## Creativity

My other contributions to MSBuild was not planned upfront at all. They just happened throughout the event.

### Digital Swag

On the first day of MSBuild, just before it started, I read [this tweet](https://twitter.com/livelovegeek/status/1262849878943653889) by Morgan Mitchell who announced [this GitHub repo](https://github.com/microsoft/Build2020_DigitalSwag) with digital swag for MSBuild. I really liked the desktop wallpapers and decided to make an [8-bit version](https://twitter.com/marcduiker/status/1262719249203597312) for one of the designs (see the header image of this post). I made a pull request, which got merged very quick, and my first creative contribution to MSBuild was a fact! 😀

### Pixel art portraits

By the end of day one, I wanted to do a funny take on my highlight of that day. And since I LOL’d about Scott Gu his appearance in pyjama pants and dino slippers, I decided to make an 8-bit version of that and [posted it on Twitter](https://twitter.com/marcduiker/status/1262851019865763843?s=20). It got some likes but nothing crazy.

During the next day, I thought it would be nice to show my appreciation to the hosts, because I know from experience it is a demanding task. I created 16x16 pixel portraits for them. I started with the UK/EMEA hosts of that day, Asim Hussain and Simona Cotin, and [posted that on Twitter]((https://twitter.com/marcduiker/status/1263065949164441601?s=20)). This got quite some traction, and it became clear to me that I should make more of these, so all the hosts would have one. I continued made pixel portraits for:

- [Christina Warren](https://twitter.com/marcduiker/status/1263123133843808258?s=20) (US)
- [Seth Juarez & Don Sarkar](https://twitter.com/marcduiker/status/1263185437226647553?s=20) (US)
- [Amy Kate Boyd & Dean Bryen](https://twitter.com/marcduiker/status/1263410707460218880?s=20) (UK/EMEA)
- [Sonia Cuff, Aaron Powell & Rick Claus](https://twitter.com/marcduiker/status/1263436663553916928?s=20) (APAC)
- [A quokka](https://twitter.com/marcduiker/status/1263454743407529984?s=20) 🤷‍♀️

I received lovely responses from everyone 😊. The Microsoft Developer Twitter account did a shout-out with an illustrated & 8-bit version of myself 😂.

![Hilarious shout-out from the Microsoft Developer Twitter account](https://blog.marcduiker.nl/assets/2020/05/22/illustrated_marc.jpg)

_Hilarious shout-out from the Microsoft Developer Twitter account._

During the final minutes of Build, I even got a shout-out from Dona, Seth, and Christina for this. This really made my day! 🎉😃

![My thank you tweet with the 8-bit collage.](https://blog.marcduiker.nl/assets/2020/05/22/twitter_thankyou_message.jpg)

_My thank you tweet with the 8-bit collage._

I receive quite some requests for 8-bit portraits now 😅. I hope you understand I can’t do all of them. I make them by hand, pixel by pixel (using a tool called Aseprite). It takes quite some time to create a recognizable pixel portrait for someone. If you want to support my creative work, please buy me a coffee: [ko-fi.com/marcduiker](https://ko-fi.com/marcduiker) and let’s get in touch 😊.

### Retro game

I really enjoyed one of the last sessions of the third day titled _Inspiring Next Gen Coders with Make Code_ ([session INT157C](https://mybuild.microsoft.com/sessions/a1638103-16a8-4059-90ac-54c7e0dda8a2?source=sessions)). Scott Hanselman and Louanne Murphy demonstrated _Make Code_, an open educational programming platform backed by various organizations. It allows you to create games or do IoT projects with hardware components from micro:bit and Adafruit, for instance. Programming is done in the browser with visual blocks or in Javascript. Since I was really eager to try _Make Code_, I decided to create a small retro style game using [arcade.makecode.com](https://arcade.makecode.com).

![The Cheez-It Deth Match game](https://blog.marcduiker.nl/assets/2020/05/22/cheez-it_deth_match_game.jpg)

_The Cheez-It Deth Match game_

I only used the visual blocks and the built-in sprite editor to make this game called _Cheez-It Deth Match_. The game refers to a social hour during MSBuild day 2, where Dona Sarkar and Seth Juarez were ‘cooking’ Cheez-Its 🤔. _Deth_ refers to the combination of Dona and Seth ([see this tweet](https://twitter.com/donasarkar/status/1263305140200632321)).

It’s a local two-player game, best played with a keyboard. One player plays Dona, and the other Seth and whoever eats the most Cheez-Its wins. Play it online at [makecode.com](https://makecode.com/_CPJKJtiR5dz4) 🕹. The game is definitely not perfect, but I built it in just 1.5 hours! The development & playing experience is incredibly smooth and fun.

## Build Complete

Due to all the interactions (live and on Twitter) with the hosts and attendees, I really felt part of the event, even part of the team. I had so much fun during my speaking opportunities, and I really hope it helped and inspired other developers. ❤️

I’m also thrilled my creative contributions were so well received, and I hope it made the event even more engaging and fun. I’m looking forward to the next MSBuild!

Cheers,

Marc