Views. Loves. Favorites.

How do you get them? The truth is: there's no way to guarantee your projects will be popular - no matter what you do. However, there are some ways you can increase your chances of success. This guide will give you some tips that you can use to hopefully create popular projects.

Note: This is a guide contains tips on how to create popular projects. If you'd like more general tips on how to become more popular overall, check out this guide by bubble103.



⨀ The Biggest Thing ⨀

What's the biggest factor that determines popularity? It can be summed up by the old saying “quality over quantity.” What do I mean by that?

When you click on Scratch's Explore page, what's the first thing you notice about all of the projects on there? It's probably how almost every one of them are really high in quality. High-quality projects are much more likely to be noticed, because they stand out from the crowd. So, what should you take away from this?

Make good, inspiring projects instead of a large number of 2-minute projects. Work very hard on a project and make it good. Like, really good. Spend weeks, or months in some cases. Which would you rather have: One or 2 projects with 500+ views, or 50 projects with 2 views? Using that logic, make good projects! Here is a description on what makes a good project:



⨀ Make It Original ⨀

Originality. You'll need a lot of it. Why is that?

Let's say you really liked another popular project, and you want to make a project like it. If it's a nearly exact copy of the popular project, what reason do people have for checking out yours instead? Make things that no one has thought of to make on Scratch! Those projects are usually the ones that get featured! If you would rather iterate on some else's ideas, make sure to add your own unique spin to it.



⨀ Work Hard at Programming ⨀

Programming. It's what brings a Scratch project to life. How can you use programming to set your project apart from others?

The easiest way is to just get better at programming. This will naturally happen the more you create things. The better you become at programming, the more advanced your projects will be able to be. Of course, you don't have to be a master coder to create good projects, but Scratch is a programming language. If you would like to get help when you get stuck trying to program something, check out the Help with Scripts section of the forums.

when green flag clicked
forever
Make project::custom
change [Programming Skill v] by (1)
end

⨀ Make Great Art ⨀

This tip is especially important. Having the ability to create good art is another thing that will set your project apart from others - maybe even more so than good programming. If you go to the Explore page again, what can you tell about all the projects that are in the trending section? They all have very attractive artwork!

It's very important to understand how to create good-looking art in Scratch. It'll take time to learn. If you'd like a head start, I'd recommend learning another vector art program like Inkscape or Affinity Designer. They have many more features than Scratch's art editor, and make it much easier to create good-looking art.



⨀ Present Yourself ⨀

After you finish your hard work, you'll want to present it well. What are some ways you can do that?

Choose a good title

A good project title should be catchy, easy to remember, easy to spell, and something that describes your project well. The easier and catchier a project title is, the easier it will be for people to find it. Which do you think is catchier: Crazy Gravity Singularity Platformer With Cool Planets, or Singularity Platformer?

Use a thumbnail

The thumbnail is the image on your project that is shown in search results, on your profile, and everywhere else people can find your project. Having a good thumbnail is especially important for standing out, since it's really the only way a person can get a taste of what your project is like before they actually play it. Here's a few examples of really good thumbnails:


Paper Airplane by LuckyDuckLife Tetracal by –HyperZ– Aria | Advanced Chatbot by hemppapro Rolling Skies by Riddle_5

What if you're not good at creating thumbnails? That's okay! There are people on Scratch who will create amazing thumbnails for your projects… all for free!

Add tags

This aspect of presentation is often overlooked. Tags allow you to add your project to relevant searches, even if they're not in the title. Using the example above, if we have a project named Singularity Platformer, and someone searches “space platformer,” our game might now show up. To fix this, the tag #space could be added to the project's Notes and Credits. Make sure to remember to add relevant tags to your project, so it reaches as many people as possible.

However, also be careful not to add irrelevant tags or spam the same ones over and over again. That could get you in trouble.



⨀ Extra Tips ⨀

Here are some extra tips that could help your project:

Add it to studios

Studios are a great way to gain exposure, especially if you're not already popular. Add your project to as many studios as you can. Also, remember to check out the Front Page and the Explore page to see what studios are currently popular. Finally, make sure not to add your project to irrelevant studios, or to spam the studios.

Use the SDS

The SDS, or Scratch Design Studio, is a themed studio, featured on the front page, that is hosted by the Scratch Team and changed once every month. These themes can range from time travel to underwater scenes, sports, living objects, and much more.

If you have a project that fits the theme of the SDS, be sure to add it! When one of my projects fit in with the theme of an SDS, I added it. Later, it got so popular that it made it onto the Front Page! Projects that are added to the SDS usually get a couple hundred views really quickly.

Listen to feedback

When others play your projects, chances are that, eventually, someone will find an issue with your project or have a suggestion for you. Make sure you listen to the feedback others give. This helps you build a loyal following of people that come back to play your project multiple times - and your project gets better in the meantime! Win-win!