Hello Scratchers! I need your help. I am looking for examples of remixing that you like. You can help by posting links or references to remixes that you think are interesting and explain why.
To organize things, I came up with these 7 remixing categories.
Could you think of examples for each category?
Could you think of other categories?
Here are the types of remixing that I’ve seen:
Incremental Remixing
A remix in the Incremental category resembles its original project quite a bit... but you can tell there are some differences such as bug fixes, improvements or changes intended to personalize the project.
Examples:
- Remix replaces costumes and backgrounds from the original project to make it personal or just different.
- Remix adds/removes a few sprites, costumes or sounds to the original project.
- Remix adds a variable to keep score for a game that did not keep score.
- Remix fixes a bug of a project.
- Remix makes a project faster, slower, easier or harder by tweaking the programming blocks.
Component Remixing
Component remixes tend to be quite different from the original because they only reuse components, such as sprites, costumes or sounds. In this category, the remixer takes pieces or components of a project to create a new one.
Examples:
- Remix reuses some of the sprites that come with Scratch, like “jetpack girl” and others.
- Remix uses a sprite someone else made and shared from Scratch Resources.
- Remix uses some programming blocks found on another project, the Scratch Wiki or elsewhere.
- Remix reuses costumes or sounds from another project.
Restructure Remixing
This is the type of remixing where it is not obvious what parts of the original project are still in the remix. Remixes in this category tend to be very different from their original.
Examples:
- Someone downloads a project and changes it completely, the code and images are almost all different from the original but it keeps some of the original ideas.
- Someone downloads a project with the goal of making a few changes but ends up recreating the whole thing.
Inspirational Remixing
Inspirational remixing happens at the idea level. Remixes in this category happen when only the idea is remixed, not the actual pieces of another project.
Examples:
- Creating a game inspired by a popular commercial video game.
- Creating a project inspired by another Scratcher’s project.
- Using someone’s art or programming techniques.
- Creating a character inspired by the style of someone else’s character, for example people who created Tokis inspired by Maki-Tak’s character.
Group Remixing
Groups or collaborations often build projects together by sharing and remixing each other’s projects as they collaborate. This type of remixing typically involves a specific group of people who have agreed to work together.
Examples:
- Remixing as part of collab project like Gray Bear Productions.
Crowd Remixing
Crowd remixes involve many people remixing a particular project. Typically the creator of the original project encourages people to remix, by giving specific instructions on what she or he expects the remixes should have. Sometimes the creator intends to start a remix chain, as in the “Add yourself...” projects, an sometimes the creator just wants remixes off the original, as in a “Coloring contest”.
Examples:
- Add yourself...
- Remix and answer the questions
- Sign if you care about X
- Coloring contests
- Auditioning for voices or characters
- Art contests
Self Remixing
A lot of us have done this. We share a project on the website and then we create a new version of it. This often says something like “Shared by X. Based on X.”
Examples:
- Remixing from a test account.
- Versioning (I still wonder why people create multiple projects for each version rather than just upload with the same name)
Clones
Some would argue that cloning or copying a project without making any changes is not really a remix, in fact, some people think this is inappropriate. In general I would agree that it does not add much but I could imagine some cases where this could be valid remix. For example:
- To learn or test the upload process. I often see newcomers that remix projects that come with Scratch without changing anything. This sometimes seems to be part of the learning process.
- As a way to preserve someone else’s project.
- To spread an idea or intersting project. We see this often in YouTube where people want to share segments of movies or TV shows. Could the same happen on Scratch?
- To annoy others? :-)
Note: The last two categories (self remixing and cloning) are not necessarily forms of remixing, but I decided to include them because they often carry the “Based on” statement and because I thought it is possible there could be generate some interesting examples that I have not thought about.
Do you have examples of any of the these categories?
I know the front page has a whole row of top remixes, but these often only include the category that I call “Crowd Remixes.” I think those remixes are great because a lot of people like them and start using Scratch that way. But those are only one type of remixing. I am interested in getting more examples of the other types I describe above. Any favorite examples you can share?
To start off, here is an illustrated story that starts with a project by Kaydoodle. If you have a story like this, please share it with us and we’ll create a similar diagram. I hope you like it!
TL;DR: Please post examples of remixes you like. We could even make illustrate it if it's a compelling story, like the one above.
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LINE seems like a good example of restructure remixing
Dragon Defense seems to fit under the group category
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Xenon fits quite well under group
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andresmh wrote:
(I still wonder why people create multiple projects for each version rather than just upload with the same name)
It's to try to get each project on Top-Viewed/Top-Loved.
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Thanks for sharing! As a creator of the first project, did you expect to get remixes? What did you think of both remixes?
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Hardmath123 wrote:
Xenon fits quite well under group
Thanks for pointing out Xenon. How do you use remixing in that group? Could you post some links to remixes in the group? Thanks!
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When we released the 'new' Scratch Resources we wanted to spread the word through a movie Scratch project so I made this (http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/JSO/1197958) and I asked everyone to re-upload it to their accounts. So that fits in cloning in a positive way!
You can check out the remix viz here
Also, I discovered darkness3560 really remixed the project and reworked it:
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/darkness3560/1223926
But I'm not sure what kind of remix that is.
Maybe it is component remixing? Because it *looks* like only the replay button and the background music is kept.
It could also be restructure remixing, because the project doesn't really look like the original anymore while darkness3560 started from the original project file (and didn't just import the button and music)
Or maybe it's incremental, because I have the feeling quite some of the scripts were reused
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No I didn't really expect it to get remixes! I made the project for the Scratch design studio and it then got front paged. I suppose that is part of why it got remixed. It seems like lots of front-paged projects get remixed (though most are cloned... Some do get fresh things put in, but not a lot). I liked the remixes (both done by the same Scratcher) as they added onto the project and made it better in some way ( like the new background).
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veggieman001 wrote:
andresmh wrote:
(I still wonder why people create multiple projects for each version rather than just upload with the same name)
It's to try to get each project on Top-Viewed/Top-Loved.
To expand just a bit...if you release the new version as a new project, it gets more exposure to people through the "Newest Projects" and "My Friends Latest" projects features of the front page. If you just overwrite the old version, nobody is likely to notice, unless you manually go out and spam the project to people that liked the earlier version. It would be a nice enhancement if people that left a loveit on a project got a message when a new overwrite version was released.
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Paddle2See wrote:
veggieman001 wrote:
andresmh wrote:
(I still wonder why people create multiple projects for each version rather than just upload with the same name)
It's to try to get each project on Top-Viewed/Top-Loved.
To expand just a bit...if you release the new version as a new project, it gets more exposure to people through the "Newest Projects" and "My Friends Latest" projects features of the front page. If you just overwrite the old version, nobody is likely to notice, unless you manually go out and spam the project to people that liked the earlier version. It would be a nice enhancement if people that left a loveit on a project got a message when a new overwrite version was released.
+1 I like that idea as well
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There is a type of remixing that is worse than cloning: Ripping
Ripping is where a scratcher downloads a game, removes the original authors name, replaces it with their own, and uploads. No other changes made.
I've had this done to my games before.
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Here's an example of cloning if you need one:
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/JSO/1197958
to
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/Lucario621/1198749
It is used to spread the word about a particular subject, such as in this case, Scratch Resources .
EDIT: It seems JSO already posted that xD Sorry.
Last edited by Lucario621 (2011-07-06 10:57:47)
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Anyway, that's a pretty cool visualization you have there! I love those kinds of "graphs", as you would call them.
andresmh wrote:
(I still wonder why people create multiple projects for each version rather than just upload with the same name)
For history's sake I would say! People might want to see how it improved and how you built the project to where it is at the current time. At least when I am working on a project offline, I like to keep multiple versions so if I blunder something up that's difficult to undo on a project, I have something to fall back on.
I'll look into finding more "remixing stories" -- they're quite interesting.
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Oh. Here's one that I think is good.
Merry Smashmas
via restructure remixing(?) to
Sprite Movement Done Right by archmage
AND via restructure/inspirational remixing to the third to last project in this list.
Super Smash Bros. Ball! by keroro645
via component/incremental remixing to
Super Smash Bros. Ball! by Lucario621
via incremental remixing to
Super Smash Bros. Halloween Version by Lucario621
AND via incremental remixing to
Super Smash Bros. Restaurant Version by Coco1001
Additionally you might want to say that these are all based off of the console games in the "Super Smash Bros." series.
The type of remixes might be a bit off -- I tried to use my best judgement.
If wanted, other remixes can definitely be added -- many other remixes have been made onto all of our projects. One I added was a restaurant version which I thought was particularly creative. Also who knows - maybe keroro645 was also inspired by archmage? I don't really know .
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BoltBait wrote:
There is a type of remixing that is worse than cloning: Ripping
Ripping is where a scratcher downloads a game, removes the original authors name, replaces it with their own, and uploads. No other changes made.
I've had this done to my games before.
I might call that "cloning as trolling" :-) I imagine people do this type of cloning to either gain recognition at the expense of someone else's work or to annoy the original creator. Do you think there might be other motivations? Do you have some examples?
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andresmh wrote:
BoltBait wrote:
There is a type of remixing that is worse than cloning: Ripping
Ripping is where a scratcher downloads a game, removes the original authors name, replaces it with their own, and uploads. No other changes made.
I've had this done to my games before.I might call that "cloning as trolling" :-) I imagine people do this type of cloning to either gain recognition at the expense of someone else's work or to annoy the original creator. Do you think there might be other motivations? Do you have some examples?
Once, someone cloned my project (though they still had "based off of lilacfuzz101's project" at the bottom) because they were frustrated that others were doing it to them... At least that's what they said.
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Hardmath123 wrote:
Xenon fits quite well under group
*collabs
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scimonster wrote:
Hardmath123 wrote:
Xenon fits quite well under group
*collabs
They're basically the same scimonster .
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Lucario621 wrote:
scimonster wrote:
Hardmath123 wrote:
Xenon fits quite well under group
*collabs
They're basically the same, Scimonster .
I guess.
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andresmh wrote:
BoltBait wrote:
There is a type of remixing that is worse than cloning: Ripping
Ripping is where a scratcher downloads a game, removes the original authors name, replaces it with their own, and uploads. No other changes made.
I've had this done to my games before.I might call that "cloning as trolling" :-) I imagine people do this type of cloning to either gain recognition at the expense of someone else's work or to annoy the original creator. Do you think there might be other motivations? Do you have some examples?
My Hangman game has been ripped many times. Usually, fans of my game make comments on the rip and they take it down.
Here is the original: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/BoltBait/463279
Here is one example of a copy: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/HW5260/792207
As a member of the Scratch Team, you may have access to some of the deleted projects to see how bad the problem was.
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Here is another type of remixing:
Localization - Where one remixes a project to change it into their native language.
Example:
Original project: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/lizzy_1_year/695954
Localized project: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/cnd/717277
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Here is an illustrated remix story for my latest game:
Add in a bunch of original code and get Forum Tower Defense!
I wonder how you'd classify that.
Last edited by BoltBait (2011-07-06 17:38:32)
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