The Scratch ARG community (SARGC) has experienced a significant decline in quality, which, while unsurprising, is not something ARG Solver likes to see. There are several examples that he would name, but will not, out of respect for The Creator. ARG Solver, however, will not be one to take it face down, and has created a list of dos and don'ts for creating an ARG on Scratch. DOS: ARG Solver can not speak on many dos, to be completely honest, but will still try his best. Firstly, before you even think of making something, ensure there is a story. For example, Sigil of the Bliss is an ARG that ARG Solver enjoys very much precisely for its story. A story does not have to be a beginning-middle-end structure, either. To look back at Sigil of the Bliss, it is only really looking at one specific point in time, and going into detail about it. If you could not tell, ARG Solver is biased for this ARG, for good reason. Though a story does not need to be traditional, ARG Solver still suggests that most people do this for most ARGs. Other ARGs that do this would be The Party Man and Zeniff_Archives. Another piece of advice to be given in the dos is to keep in mind the differing levels of skill around Scratch. While ARG Solver would like to call himself good at solving ciphers and piecing stories together (despite what some people may claim, he supposes), most people who will see the ARG are not going to be very good. This is not a situation of "you can't make something difficult," but of "if you are making an ARG, stick to one difficulty, and stay with it as much as possible," as it will make the ARG much more fun and satisfying to solve. DON'TS: Let's get right into this one, as it is the main reason ARG Solver created this. This section will look into many common pitfalls seen throughout ARGs on Scratch. Let us start with Scratch Cat (which will be referred to as just SC from now on). The inclusion of SC is a very alluring thing, but it is very oversaturated. ARG Solver finds character design to be an important part of telling a story, as it speaks about the message of the ARG (another "don't" being "don't forget stories have messages"). When including SC, especially as a protagonist, it removes that small bit of characterization found. That isn't to say SC as a character or even a protagonist can't be done right, just look at @GeeeeeeeeeetDunkedOn's antivirus ARG. While there is not much of a story, it is well-designed while having SC as an important character (this time as an antagonist, similar to Sonic.exe in that regard). Another don't is regarding ciphers. Keep in mind what the cipher is doing, or if it even needs to be a cipher. Don't put something into a Caesar Cipher just because it can, make it make sense. For example, for the ARG (discontinued, by the looks of it), most information is not in ciphertext, but there are still smart uses of ciphers. ARG Solver wishes the ARG were to continue, as it really did seem to be going somewhere. Moving on, when making audible Morse code, please keep it to about thirty seconds maximum, as it gets very annoying to decode, and stops being fun. The same goes for any ciphertext that cannot be copy-pasted. When creating an ARG, give something to do in the project itself. If you look at most ARGs off Scratch, they are not still images, yet a large majority of Scratch ARGs are, and it gets quite boring. Have fun, make animations, make a game, it is what the G in ARG stands for, after all. It may seem tempting to use a still image, but ARG Solver can assure you it is not worth it.
