Alte wrote:BáiYù wrote:One of the greatest "dangers" of using CC assets of any kind, in my opinion, is that when an asset becomes popular for use, players may already have recognized it from somewhere else. It can cause confusion for some players or may make your game unmemorable. Even still, you can find some legitimately impressive pieces that are just perfect sometimes.
It does happen, for example: Incompetech /Kevin MacLeod - might
sound familiar,
overused in projects, however
it can match well with the scene.
Seconding this. Would also like to point out that even if Kevin MacLeod's music might be used quite often, it's often a select few pieces that get overused-- some of them are actually pretty underused due to the genre of the pieces, imho.
On your first question, though-- that one's answered by the others, I reckon. But yeah, good idea to always keep a copy of what the attributions are on the exact tracks you're using. Read it up.
Second, that one really, really depends on you. Admittedly this is plans for a free VN, but for one of my projects I plan not on having a commissioned main theme, but commissioned character theme songs instead. Main menu music are definitely something pretty important, though, so even if you end up going for CC things, I recommend you try to find lesser known composers. I think you can sort of skimp off on non-important pieces, though-- like moments that are slow and not much is happening and you don't need a memorable piece to carry the atmosphere. Be careful, though, because I think a lot of projects's CC music get easily recognizable BECAUSE of the prevalence of bright, non-offensive, clean music usage, and the fact that some of them are very, very very, well used and worn out. I've lost count of how many projects-- especially ones in modern setting, usually otome-- share the same "everyday" theme from Incompetech. It almost makes me miss Persona 3's school music, and I REALLY am not a huge fan of having singers on background music. Be careful what things you're using CC for. If you're lucky, your player just raises an eyebrow and carries on. If you're not, it just. GAh... please... (even worse, maybe they'll get reminded of another VN with the same music that they really liked and play that instead)
Third, I can't really help you out >>;;; Haven't checked more than Incompetech, to be honest. I'm using 3 Incompetech pieces for the demo, but so far I haven't been called out for that. Yet. Maybe.
Fourth, well. I myself started out thinking that I'm just going to use CC for most things unless I want to do a kickstarter and find a musician-- and even then I was sort of dragging my feet 'bout it, yanno. I don't really venture much into the recruitment forum, and music forum is an even bigger "UMM" for me because back then I didn't really understand how good projects can feel with the right music. Seriously, the right music in the right place makes a scene sO DAMN GOOD that I cannot recommend it enough to commission at least one piece in a moment you want standing out from the rest, should you not be able to find fitting music from the CC libraries. My friend graciously made me a piece for an area after I sent her the alpha for Of All There Is, and it changed the scene from a "this is a place where literally people do nothing, all the time, I am the worst at making compelling settings" to "holy shit I am incredibly bored of testing this damn VN but I will never skip the beginning of this section from just how PERFECT the music is with the scene". What was important wasn't that it was custom music. What was important that it was the perfect piece for that scene. You may want to splurge a bit to get that effect, I feel.
Sometimes you just can't get the money, though, and sometimes you just don't know about kickstarting the thing. But also keep in mind that reviews WILL bring up your choices of music. Depending on the size (as in content, not file size) and the price of the game, using purely CC stuffs might end up getting you more criticism on that front compared to purchasing some music for key moments like character themes or main menu. Regardless of what you might feel (I don't have the money, guys), people will still think "I paid for this, and I'm being forced to listen to a music I might've already listened to three times in three different projects already??".
