Messages

Gregjazz: I doubt I'd be able to contact the author of the song (Bob Marley) , I think my best bet would be to make an original song.
Nikolas: This game is freeware. I might be able to get away with including my own version of a song, because of this (I doubt a record company is going to be patrolling the internet for freeware games which use cover songs in their soundtracks).
GarageGothic: I might try that approach as well; it just depends on what the game's 'director' thinks (I'm still waiting for feedback from him on whether I should do a cover song or not).

[take it like 95% sure]

Thing is that:

take it like 95% sure
i. Chord progressions are NOT copyrighted. I can have a chord chart from "Let it be", make a song based to THAT chords, and nobody can touch me
ii. Sounds are NOT copyrighted. I use a synth, and so do 1000s of other people. Some companies, only some, allow solo use of their instruments. The "Lost" signal (those 5 secs with the Lost logo) are an example of that. I can replicate that!
iii. Drum patterns, etc, are NOT copyrighted. I can copy the whole drum map from any song (but NOT the recording) and use it as fine...

With that said:

NONE of the above apply with RECORDINGS! Recordings are copyrighted themselves.

Example: Beethoven is dead for more than 200 years. ALL his works are public domain. Which means that I can make his 5th Symphony and pay NOTHING!

BUT BUT BUT

If I take a recording made in 1999 by... Karajan (who was dead at the time :p) and use that, I'm illegal!

In music there are 3 types of copyright:

1. The actual music. Phrases, etc. The melody is MINE! end of story!
2. The publication of score: Scores are worth a lot, no matter what people say. Do you know how much scores of Ligeti cost? I, as a composer, don't give the right to copy and use my music as you wish (never mind that I, personally, do). Why? Royalties! Everytime my music is heard I get paid! End of story! I want to control all that!
3. Recording. Any recording made is a FRESH copyright. If my work was composed in 1950, but I made a recording in 2007, the copyirght for the recording is valid for 70 years from 2007.


Copyight in most countries is 70 years actually!

Nikolas



PS. I'm sure that I've bored that thread to death now! I have a tendency to do that!

Which brings to mind a question I had about copyright issues (and since this thread is all about that, I thought 'Hey, why bother starting a new thread'). Anyways, my question is this:
There's a game I'm working on, and for the credits theme, I want to do a song (very original, I know). However, instead of just doing a tinny MIDI-style song for the credits, I'm thinking about doing a regular song (possibly recorded with my band, or else I'll use my synthesizer/instruments I have) with vocals, etc. The guy who I'm working with for the game says he wants a reggae style theme for the credits, and rather than working on lyrics and everything, I think it would just be easier to do a cover of a reggae tune (or maybe even reggae-ize a classic rock tune). Is this legal to do? I know a lot of artists have covered each other, but do they have to pay royalties or anything? I wouldn't be using any samples from the song(s), just the same chord progressions and lyrics.

This is great! The bottom picture needs some polishing, but the other two are fabulous!

I love how he just casually says 'I make with MSPaint'.

Looks like an interesting game, and if this is your first game, the graphics look impressive! The game is almost done, it seems, and I don't see that too often from the first post in a game's GiP thread- usually when there's a game in production that's nearing completion, the creator just waits until it's finished to post. Anyways, this looks cool, and I'll be looking forward to playing it.

Finished another theme! Here it is, in all of it's Chameleon-inspired glory!

http://upload2.net/page/download/IRWuNZsr3o4ttZK/Funky+Jazz.mid.html

Alternate link:
http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Funky_Jazz.mid

Mav, do you mean the music I sent you, or the music I posted on this thread?

What about the music? 

Sounds interesting! However, it would need to really be fine tuned to work for a lot of interactions. This hasn't been done in very many games, probably for that reason. It may be off-putting to some 12 year olds (and older folks who aren't good spellers), but it would be interesting to put out some test games with the module.

I'd guess he's refering to this. Guy 'samples' song without permission, gets called on it, denies doing anything wrong.

Well, it seems that most rappers/hip hop DJS and producers use 'samples' from songs without asking.

Do you need any help with this game? I can do sprites or music, if needed.

I've been secretly hoping this might get resurrected.  Consider me very interested (despite our team's spectacular failure last round  ).  Is this the wrong topic to mention the OROW too?  It always had lots of entries and good quality too, would be a shame not to see it again.  Another one seemed about to go ahead but finding a good time and host didn't happen.

I vaguely remember that.. I was about to make a game with a team and everything, but no one stepped up and hosted OROW.
But yeah, a new AGS team challenge would be great; however, I suggest we revamp the rules.

Sorry, I can't play it. Backgrounds taken from photographs mixed with paintovers of the default AGS sprites just aren't for me, as well as the fact the game looks glitchy, with poor english. Sounds like this game could be a contender for the P3n15 award.

A word of advice, Bigote de Gamba: Unless you're making a superhero game or something, characters don't walk on buildings/float!

buloght's not just a man. His art skills are almost.... supernatural.. but that's getting off-topic.

I hope to be posting a track from the game's soundtrack before next week.

http://www.woofiles.com/dl-68806-rj8kdIEu-MainTheme.mid

Here is the main theme of 'The Trinity'. Enjoy!

Hi! I'm the lead music designer for The Trinity. I've felt the need for some ambient style tracks- however, I'm not proficient at that kind of thing, I'm better at sequencing 'themes'. If you'd be interested in collaborating with me to do some ambient music tracks (in midi), that would be greatly appreciated. So check out the game's GiP thread, if you'd like to help, PM me and I'll see what I can do.

It certainly meets my 4 crieteria bullet points, but it's a short game. Help me out here! Discussion also gives me encouragement that we're going to have some honest voters.

I think any game that meets the criteria should be eligible for entry- the short games however, wouldn't have as much a chance of winning against larger games (for example, something like Mordy 2). La Croix Pan was extremely polished and it was received well. I for one, think that it should be strongly considered for entry.

Wow I think I will share this enriching audio tool with all of my children and grandchildren for generations to come. It's almost as enlightening as Ninja School. It's people like you that bring hope to this world, Obi!

Good to hear that the game is almost finished. It seems we've had a barrage of great AGS games lately, and I doubt this will be any exception. However, there's something I'm curious about; why are you mixing FoA and LC? The GUI and some of the backgrounds are taken from the former, and the sprites are from the latter. I don't think the game looks crappy, I just think it's a weird mix, considering how FoA was so realistic, and LC had some sort of lo-res, low colour thing going on. There is especially a contrast between environments like Macchu Picchu and the most recent screenshot you posted. However, I'm sure this will be a great game because you've not only taken sprites from Indy LC and done paintovers for some of them (as well as create new sprites), you've also done brand new animations for all of them, and created all new backgrounds. This game has been on my 'waiting to play list', for a long time (as well as LotLL, FoY, LoLE, etc). It looks like this game is probably going to be finished, seeing as how it doesn't include the word 'Legend' in its title.

Looking good, Mav! But why this screenshot is a higher resolution than the other ones?
Is auriond doing backgrounds as well, or are those by you? Either way they look great, some of them almost have a 3D-like quality to them. 

UPDATE:
I've made/am making significant progress with the music, just waiting to get some direction from Maverick as to some questions I had about the music. I can't really estimate how complete the score is, but I'm working on several songs at the moment and the score seems to be coming together nicely.

In the near future (if Maverick says I can do these things):
1. I'll release a sample track from the game
2. (not really something I'll do, but a request) Maverick has only told me to do a few tracks, and these seem more like themes- i.e.: most of them are too intrusive to work as background music. I am far better at doing 'themes' than doing ambient background music. I'm wondering if anyone would like to step up and collaborate with me for some ambient tracks for the game's soundtrack. Maverick, if you don't need this sort of thing, let me know and I'll remove the post.

Why not try making a midi of it (if you're into that sort of thing)? I know it would be hard to do with hip hop but it's easier to decipher than random humming. 

Hang on... that rap video sounds like a hip hop version of 'Saw'- you mentioned jigsaws (the movie's antagonist is called Jigsaw), and you also mentioned a wooden doll (I recall seeing a doll like that in a Saw movie).

Everyone is blowing this penis thing way out of proportion. If you haven't seen the film, you won't understand the context and you don't really have a place telling us how your virgin eyes will explode if you see three curved lines of cartoon. I don't really care about spoilers, because this has gone along for too long.

This is what happens in the porn scene of the movie: Homer and Bart are playing dare. Homer dares bart to skateboard to the kwik-e-mart and back totally naked. What ensues is a long and very funny sequence where bart skateboards along having everything possible coincidentally covering his genitalia (very similar to the Johnson-scene in Austin Powers). So after a while of genitalia-covering mayhem, Bart passes a bush that covers everything else than his genitalia. His penis is shown for a fraction of a second, end of story.

So yeah, if that kind of thing makes you die inside, go check out something you can rely not to have such violent acts of porn. Perhaps the new Harry Potter? Oh no, that's not good, Harry kisses a girl in that. Hmm, maybe you should just avoid cinemas and stay indoors. I'm just left to wonder how you manage through diaper commercials on TV.

So the penis shot is kind of one of 'blink and you miss it' moments?