Scratch-off designers are masters of the "near miss." A ticket that shows two cherries and a bar (instead of the third cherry) feels like a win. It triggers the same brain regions as a win. During a feeding frenzy, no one stops to analyze the ticket. They see almost-matches and assume the next one will connect. The near-miss keeps the frenzy burning.

The HMS Reprisal drifted in the ink-black shallows of the Kepler-186f trench, its hull groaning like a dying beast. Captain Elara Vane watched the sonar screen, her knuckles white. The mission was simple: extract geothermal core samples. But the planet had other plans.

The most popular projects on Scratch often include features from the original sequels and fan-made expansions: