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I'm an old time gamer here.
Why are we seeing such a large increase in games made in Scratch? From what I've seen games made in such a way are usually of inferior quality to flash or unity (and even html5) and adds a 3rd interface system on top of the language itself and the kong interface, which just makes the game bulkier to deal with.
Is it being touted by some colleges as the next big thing?
Is it easier to work with?
What do you think? What are your sources?
Thanks in advance
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Are we? I must admit I did not even know what you meant on reading your message. I had to search for Scratch. When I found it I’m sure I’ve seen it before, but had never tried it, thinking it another odd attempt to do programming without writing code, which never makes sense, is always too slow and limiting.
I would think two things are happening. First web games have declined dramatically in recent years, so something like Scratch which was not significant before becomes more prominent. Second people making Flash and Unity games have had the option of porting them to desktop, mobile and console for years, but Scratch is inherently web-based. Basically while most developers have moved on to other platforms, Scratch is still being used for web games.
There might be some educational initiatives using it, but I don’t know how many. There’s a lot going on in education with Raspberry Pi and Ardunio. Or people can use Playgrounds on iOS and Mac. All of these have the advantage that you’re writing proper code, learing skills which are transferable to writing native code on a wide variety of platforms.
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about a year has passed, is it more noticable now?
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I think that it is just because the simplicity of Scratch and because of how much kids can use it if they want. You don't need to know a lot about programming in any of the major languages(defining variables, calling and defining functions, loops) as everything is being writen in blocks, by adding them one to another. Personaly, first game that I programed in seventh grade was made using blocks(MakeCode) and it worked on a Micro:bit's 5x5 led screen.
The problem with Scratch is that you are limited to premade functions/blocks, so the complexity of created video-games is limited, in addition to being slower and having an extra interface.
So the answer to your question would be that yes, I believe that number of games made in Scratch will exponentially grow, but they will probably never reach heights of 10000+ views per game just because of simplicity. Also, Scratch will probably die out in a few years when some easier language emerges.
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> The problem with Scratch is that you are limited to premade functions/blocks, so the complexity of created video-games is limited
Eh... I don't think the most limiting factor of Scratch is its premade functions/blocks. You can actually do a lot of stuff with what they give you, computationally speaking.
The most limiting factor might be the fact that it uses blocks to begin with (it's tedious when you're an advanced user), its slowness (which you mentioned), and its restrictive rendering system.
> but they will probably never reach heights of 10000+ views per game just because of simplicity.
Multiple projects on scratch.mit.edu have surpassed that number of views. Not sure about Kongregate, though.
> Also, Scratch will probably die out in a few years when some easier language emerges.
I don't think so. IMHO, Scratch is actually pretty amazing with its balance of ease-of-use and capabilities. I think there are some engines that are easier to use (like Scratch Jr.) or more capable (like any "real" programming language/engine), but I think it will be hard to design something that's easier and more capable/just as capable as Scratch. Not to mention, it has a big userbase. Maybe even bigger than Kongregate right now.
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