Remix Culture & Credit

Learning Goals 3 min

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

1. Find the orange Remix button on any shared Scratch project and explain what clicking it does (and doesn't do).
2. Describe the two ethics rules of the Scratch remix community: keep the original creator visible, and say what you changed.
3. Compare Scratch remixing to open-source software — same idea, bigger world, same manners.

Warm-Up — "I copied it from somewhere" 7 min

You're scrolling the Scratch homepage. You spot a project called "Cat Skateboard Race" by a user named azlan_99. It has 4,000 hearts. You open it. There's a button labelled Remix in the top-right of the project page, right next to a See Inside button.

You want the skateboard sprite for your own racing game. There are three things you could do:

1. Right-click the skateboard sprite image, save it to your laptop, drag it into your own new project, never mention azlan_99.
2. Click See Inside, open the project, look at azlan_99's scripts, then go back to your own project and type the scripts from memory.
3. Click Remix. Scratch makes you a full editable copy with azlan_99's name automatically printed at the top.

Which one is the Scratch way?

Today's lesson is about that orange button, the culture around it, and the two small habits that make Scratch a friendly place to share code.

New Concept — what Remix actually does 15 min

The Scratch community has shared over 100 million projects. A huge chunk of them — maybe half — are remixes. That's not laziness. That's how Scratch is designed to be learned. You read someone's project, you change one thing, you re-share. That's the whole loop.

Where the Remix button lives

Open any shared project on the Scratch website. Above the Stage, on the right, you'll see two buttons:

• See Inside — opens the project in the editor so you can look at every sprite, script, and variable. You can also click the green flag and play with it. Changes don't save. (We covered this button last lesson.)
• Remix — makes you a full editable copy of the project under your account. Your changes save. The original is untouched. The copy has a little note at the top that says "This project is a remix of..." with a link back to the original.

You don't need permission. You don't need to message the creator. The Remix button exists because the original author already agreed to be remixed when they hit Share. That's part of what sharing means on Scratch.

What gets carried over

When you click Remix, Scratch copies everything from the original into your new project:

• Every sprite (costumes, sounds, all of it).
• Every script on every sprite.
• Every variable, every list, every custom My Block.
• The Stage backdrop and any Stage scripts.

Plus one extra thing the original didn't have: a "This project is a remix of [original title] by [original author]" banner that sits permanently on your project page. You can't remove that banner — it's automatic, and it links straight back to the source.

The two ethics rules

The Remix button handles the technical credit for you. But the Scratch community has two extra manners rules that aren't enforced by software — they're enforced by the community noticing whether you follow them:

1. Keep the original creator visible in your Notes & Credits. Every Scratch project has a Notes and Credits box below the Stage. Write something like: "Remix of Cat Skateboard Race by @azlan_99. I added background music and a high-score variable. Original idea is all his." The auto-banner says it once at the top; the credits box says it in your own words, in the place readers look.
2. Say what you changed. Don't just write "I remixed this." That tells the visitor nothing. Write the actual list — three lines is plenty. "Added a second level. Replaced the cat sprite with a turtle. Fixed the bug where the score reset on every jump." This makes your remix useful to the next remixer.

What counts as a meaningful change?

A meaningful change is one that required you to think and build — not just change a colour or a number. Good examples:

• Adding a mechanic that wasn't there (high-score list, second player, timer countdown).
• Swapping a sprite and adjusting the scripts to match (a roti sprite instead of a cat — change the collision zone, change the sounds).
• Adding a second level with a different backdrop and increased speed.
• Fixing a bug the original had (the score reset bug above).

Not meaningful: changing only the backdrop colour, changing a number from 5 to 6 without understanding it, adding your name to the title without touching any script.

The open-source parallel

Outside Scratch, in the world of professional programming, there's a thing called open-source software. Whole giant programs — Linux, Firefox, Blender, Python, the browser you're reading this in — were built by thousands of people sharing code with permission to modify and re-share. They use a website called GitHub with a button called Fork, which works almost exactly like Scratch's Remix button.

The same two ethics apply over there:

• Forks automatically link back to the original repository — same as Scratch's remix banner.
• Good forks describe what they changed in a README or commit messages — same as Scratch's Notes & Credits.

Scratch isn't a kid version of open source. Scratch is open source. You're already doing what professional programmers do — you're just doing it with a friendlier button.

Worked Example — remixing the walking-cat 12 min

Let's walk through a remix the way you'd actually do one. Pretend there's a popular Scratch project called "Walking Cat" by a user called @minatomy. It's just the default cat walking left-to-right across the Stage. We'll remix it, add a score and a meow sound, and share it back with proper credits.

Step 1 — Open the original

From the Scratch homepage search bar, search "walking cat". Pick the @minatomy version. The project page opens. Hit the green flag once — yep, cat walks across.

Step 2 — Click Remix (not See Inside)

Top-right of the project, click the orange Remix button. The editor opens. Look at the project title at the top: it's already changed to "Walking Cat remix", with a small note underneath: "This project is a remix of Walking Cat by @minatomy."

Step 3 — Confirm you can see the original scripts

Click the cat sprite. There's the original script — something like a forever loop with move and turn blocks. Don't delete it. We're going to add to it.

Step 4 — Add your change: a meow sound

Click the Sounds tab. Pick "Meow" from the library. Go back to the Code tab. Find a sensible spot in the existing script and add play sound [Meow v] until done wherever you like — say, every time the cat touches the edge.

Step 5 — Add your second change: a score variable

Variables palette. Make a Variable called score. Add a script that grows it each time the cat bounces.

Step 6 — Test the whole thing

Click the flag. The cat walks, hits the edge, meows, score ticks up. Good — your additions work on top of @minatomy's original code, not instead of it.

Step 7 — Fill in the Notes & Credits

Click See project page at the top to leave the editor. Below the Stage there are two boxes: Instructions and Notes and Credits. In Notes and Credits, type:

"Remix of Walking Cat by @minatomy. I added a meow sound when the cat hits the edge, and a score variable that counts bounces. Original walking script is all theirs."

Step 8 — Share it

Hit the orange Share button. Done. Your remix is now its own project on the Scratch site, with a permanent link back to @minatomy's original. If someone remixes your remix, the chain continues — they'll link back to you, who links back to @minatomy.

That's the remix chain. Some projects have been remixed thousands of times — you can click the remix tree on any project to see the whole family.

when flag clicked
set [score v] to (0)
forever
  move (10) steps
  if <touching [edge v] ?> then
    play sound [Meow v] until done
    turn cw (180) degrees
    change [score v] by (1)
  end
end
        

What you just did: you used the Scratch community the way it was designed to be used. You stood on someone else's shoulders, you added something, and you left a trail so the next person can stand on both of yours.

Try It Yourself — three remix-ethics drills 15 min

Mini-Challenge — "Aisha's sprite-rip problem" 5 min

Spot the etiquette bug

Aisha really likes a project called "Penang Hawker Stall" by @cikgu_sue. She wants the food sprites for her own cafe game. She does this:

1. Opens the project, clicks See Inside.
2. Right-clicks each food sprite and saves them to her laptop.
3. Opens her own new, empty Scratch project.
4. Drags the saved sprite files in.
5. Names her project "Aisha's Cafe Game" and shares it.

The food sprites look great in her game. Her code is all original — she wrote new scripts from scratch. But something is off. What did she break, and how would you fix it without losing her code?

Recap 3 min

The Scratch community runs on remixing — clicking the orange Remix button on a shared project to make your own editable copy with a permanent credit link back to the original. The button handles the technical credit automatically. Your job is the two manners rules: name the original creator in your Notes & Credits, and say what you changed. This is the same loop professional programmers use with open-source forks on GitHub — Scratch is open-source software with a friendlier button. Remixing isn't copying; it's the designed way to learn from real code.

Remix

The act of clicking the Remix button on a shared Scratch project to make a full editable copy under your own account. The copy is yours to change; the original is untouched; a permanent banner links the two.

Notes and Credits

A text box below the Stage on every Scratch project page. The place to write what your project does, what you remixed it from, and who made the original. Empty Notes look lazy; full Notes invite collaboration.

Meaningful change

A change that required you to think and build — adding a mechanic, swapping a sprite and adjusting the scripts, adding a level, fixing a bug. Not just changing a colour or a number.

Remix tree

The branching family of projects that all descend from one original. You can view any project's remix tree from its page. Some popular projects have trees with thousands of branches.

Open source

Software whose code is published with permission to read, modify, and re-share. Scratch is open source. So are Linux, Firefox, Python, and most of the tools professional programmers use. The remix culture you're learning is the same culture they use.

Fork (GitHub)

The grown-up equivalent of Remix. On GitHub (the website most open-source projects live on), clicking Fork makes your own copy of a project with a link back to the original. Same idea as Remix, same two manners rules.

Homework 2 min

The First Real Remix. Pick one project on Scratch you genuinely like — not just any project, one you'd actually play. Then:

1. Open it. Read the Notes & Credits the original creator wrote. (Take a screenshot or write down what they said.)
2. Click Remix. Don't change anything yet — just observe the banner that appears at the top of your new copy and the auto-renamed project title.
3. Make one meaningful change. Anything that required actual building. Add a sound. Change controls. Swap a sprite and adjust the scripts. Modify the difficulty. Keep it achievable.
4. Fill in your Notes & Credits using the two-rule format: "Remix of [title] by @[user]. I changed [one thing]."
5. Save (you don't have to Share yet — that's lesson 5). Take a screenshot of the project page showing both the auto-banner and your Notes.

Bring back next class:

• The screenshot of your remix's project page.
• The working remix saved and ready to polish or ship.
• Your answer to: "How would you feel if someone remixed your project and wrote a thoughtful one-line note about what they changed? Now — write that same note for your remix."

Heads up for next class: SCR-L04-05 is the final arc lesson — The Look Inside Button. We'll use See Inside one last time to do any final reading and polish, then ship the credited remix to scratch.mit.edu. Arc 5/5 = shipped.