Generic platformers. The square-shaped player character, the aggressive EDM music, and the easy levels, Start to finish in 5 minutes.
These seem to get popular FAST. In most conversations about platformers, the record 259 likes in 3 hours is often brought up. That kinda gives you an idea why these projects dominate the explore page.
Dominate the explore page. Therein lies the rub. Most people hate these games for a reason.
These actively push out REAL projects made by people who aren’t aggressively fame-hungry, with actual creativity.
Heck, even I don’t like them.
[2022-06-07 12:37:42] <LandonHere> how most of the scratch community feels about generic platformers: https://assets.scratch.mit.edu/get_image/.%2E/2fa631b9930247962015f8f928084569.png [2022-06-07 12:37:49] <Penguin_> hahaha yes [2022-06-07 12:37:51] <craM02029> yes [2022-06-07 12:37:58] <craM02029> actually [2022-06-07 12:38:07] <craM02029> thats 40% of the scratch community [2022-06-07 12:38:11] <LandonHere> ok [2022-06-07 12:38:24] <craM02029> 60% is always like: EPOC NEW GAME!!!1111 [2022-06-07 12:38:55] <LandonHere> the remaining 40%: [no comment] [2022-06-07 12:38:57] <Penguin_> i've taken to calling generic platformers "cloutformers" and the cube character "the clout cube" [2022-06-07 12:39:04] <craM02029> ok [2022-06-07 12:39:05] <LandonHere> ok
In all honesty, these projects aren’t the best of the community. And for that, they receive a lot of hate.
And therein lies another rub. Some community members tend to hate on these projects. And there’s another major problem with generic platformers. The hate they get.
Hell, even the term “generic platformers” is a derogatory term for what their creators call them, which is often just “platformers”.
The core of the problem is that we hate on these projects because they get popular and the Scratch algorithm plasters them over the Explore pages and the “What the Community is Loving” row on the front page.
And where’s one of the places people go to find inspiration for their next project? The Explore and Trending pages. Creators see these platformer projects, think “Hey! I can make that too!” and see how insanely popular these things can get. Then, they make their own, and release them into the world.
Here’s why platformers don’t deserve as much hate as they do: They are made, by real humans, who want attention. It’s human nature to want to be seen, and that’s amplified up to a trillion on online platforms. People like these projects, and they also like supporting up-and-coming creators.
And, what about the people who don’t like these platformers? Well, don’t be a damn troll and make comments toward these projects and their creators. MAKE YOUR OWN GAMES! The whole point of Scratch was to make coding more accessible and easy to learn. You could easily make your own platformer or puzzle game, with your own unique gimmicks and features. Maybe you’ll have some luck and get popular, and make it onto the explore page. Maybe if enough people do this, someday, people will realize originality is the way to go, and ditch attempting to make what’s popular, and make what they want.
Maybe someday.