Why this is a problem
Featured projects significantly impact the scratch community. The whole concept of a featured project is to show the entire scratch community why this deserves to be seen by everyone, but recently, the projects have been a bit.. yk…

Ok, if you don't know what I'm talking about, recently (or ig for a long time), most featured projects have been: Unoriginal concept (despite being known as a standard trait of a featured project), low quality/not polished (Many bugs, seems like a not finished game, may have potential), etc. The main thing that almost all featured projects lack is a sense of originality.

Of course they can't ALL be original because it's very hard to find an original game concept that has never been used, but at this point half the featured projects are dress up games/make your own scratch cat or whatever (I'm so serious rn, check the featured page and you can see there are always at least 1 on the first 5).


I'm not 100% sure, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the message that the scratch team sends you when your project is featured:

I will bold the main points of the message because there is a lot of yappin going on

"Hi, there! We have recently featured a project of yours! We feature projects for a variety of reasons, including creative uses of Scratch, unique concepts, thought provoking ideas, and so much more. We really enjoyed seeing what you created, and we think it could be inspiring to others in the Scratch Community, as well! When projects are featured, it can bring a lot of attention to the project and the user who created it, so we wanted to remind you of some options you have once your project appears on the homepage. (Lists features like turning off comments, etc., but not important to my point) Thank you for sharing your awesome project, and we sincerely hope you enjoy being on the homepage. Scratch On! - Scratch Team"

As you see, I bolded the important parts of the message that describe why you are featured, but I find it extremely ironic. Why? Read this post again.



Ok, then what projects SHOULD be featured?
Here is a small list I believe should be at least the very BASICS of a featured project:

-Original concept (of course not COMPLETELY original, since that is very hard to come up with but stop using the same platform formula over and over. At least include a significant and game changing concept that no/almost no other project has used.)

-Good overall quality (Smooth gameplay, little/no bugs, obviously: fun, non-irritating to play, etc.)

-Polished game (Good animations, UI, art, little/no bugs, tutorial, etc.)

-High effort (You should be able to see that it wasn't made in 2 seconds, kinda ties in with good overall quality. The game shouldn't be created for the SAKE of being featured, it should be created because the creator genuenly wanted to create a game they like.)

-Good gameplay loop (Addicting, if it is a level based game: a wide veriety of levels, possibly level creator if you're just better, bonus gameplay sections, prestige system, not like a dress up game or platformer where you can complete the game in 20 seconds and forget about it, you get my point)

IMPORTANT NOTE:
I have NOTHING against the featured projects creators (unless they made a low quality game and begged for it to be featured) and this is mainly written for the scratch team/whoever adds the featured projects, and to bring awareness to the community.


Bonus of me complaining:
-Scratch is not for art dumps, idc if u share some art but dont use scratch with the intent to promote your art or whatever it is
-Why is half of scratch animations? I love animatinos and I have created a couple, but why? Scratch is made for (mainly) game development and to utilize its simplistic coding system.
-Add a simple system to stop spam. I don't think it's very hard to impliment but basicly if a user sends 3 similar messages in a row they should be muted for a couple minutes or something. It's annoying seeing spammed advertisements and things like that.
-Make better tutorials for scratch. I've currently learn almost ALL my coding by being self taught, but I think a tutorial would be great. There are a lot of important concept like how useful variables are (because most beginners think it's just for storing numbers or something) and things like that.
-Maybe make a more mature side of scratch? If you know what I'm talking about, you know. BTW when I say mature I don't mean swear words, 18+ stuff, or anything like that. I just meant mentally more mature.
-Listen to the community oml

(This is my first Scratch Discussion post so it may look kinda weird idk)

InfernoCyclops123 wrote:

(#1)
-Scratch is not for art dumps, idc if u share some art but dont use scratch with the intent to promote your art or whatever it is
-Why is half of scratch animations? I love animatinos and I have created a couple, but why? Scratch is made for (mainly) game development and to utilize its simplistic coding system.

How come you get to decide what projects people do and don't make?

-Maybe make a more mature side of scratch? If you know what I'm talking about, you know. BTW when I say mature I don't mean swear words, 18+ stuff, or anything like that. I just meant mentally more mature.

then what do you mean
edit: how

subjectnamehere wrote:

InfernoCyclops123 wrote:

(#1)
-Maybe make a more mature side of scratch? If you know what I'm talking about, you know. BTW when I say mature I don't mean swear words, 18+ stuff, or anything like that. I just meant mentally more mature.

idk

How come you get to decide what projects people do and don't make?

I never said that

Thanks for your suggestion. However, we have different priorities in what we want the community to see. We're happy with the mix of projects that we have been featuring.