Reusing Music from Your Other Projects

[CaesMRaenes]

Royalty free music and other forms of noncommercial free music are sometimes hard to come across. I was thinking of using music from another project that I'm working on, but at the same time, I felt like I was taking quality from my other project. I don't know. I'm kinda iffy about it but I'd like to hear from you guys.

So what's your opinion on reusing music from your other projects?

[papillon]

It's likely that people who play one game of yours will play another game of yours. They will probably notice things that are reused.

If the reused content is not very important, people will probably not care. It's not really a big deal if you've used the same picture to represent a generic park in two different games.

If the reused content is featured or has emotional significance, people will likely be annoyed. Reusing the same sprites for completely different characters in different games will either confuse people or draw unwanted attention to your lack of available content. Most music falls into this category, probably.

Try making the reference intentional? If you only have one set of school backgrounds and they're highly distinctive so you know people will recognise them... you could make your next game explicitly set in the same universe and school as the last one, and refer to the history defined by the previous game.

With music, if one game had a theme-ish song, you could use that song in the next game when trying to evoke the emotional theme of the previous game, maybe?

[LVUER]

I think it's OK to use music (and SFX) from your own other projects. I mean even a commercial big company do that. Unless if that's the special theme music (like the OP song), so perhaps you'll want at least one new song.

[Aleema]

If you used 50 songs in a previous game, no one will gripe that you reused one or two.
If you used 4 songs in a previous game, and they played constantly, then no ... don't do it.

[blankd]

If the game is a sequel/prequel or somehow tied to the previous game in some way, shape or form, story-wise, there is nothing wrong with it. *If it's to make a shout-out to the previous game for your fans, that's alright as well. XD

If they use "universal" songs like "Happy Birthday," they are perfectly alright to reuse as...really there are only so many ways to do the Birthday tune and convey the same message. 8]

But if you use several "original" tracks in one game them do it again in another you might get some frowns.

[Wintermoon]

Reuse, properly done, is good. It gives your works a signature style that sets them apart from other people's works, and your fans (if you ever get any) will love you for it. It's one of the less obnoxious forms of fan service.

Example: the Cid characters from the Final Fantasy series. Most Final Fantasy games, despite being set in completely different worlds, have a character called Cid who either builds or pilots airships. Cid has become such a recurring element that a Final Fantasy game without Cid wouldn't feel like a Final Fantasy game. Even Final Fantasy 1 had Cid retroactively added in the remakes.

[adrix89]

In my personal opinion music is 70% percent of music is reusable because the basic purpose of music is to produce atmosphere
The only music that is off limits is more or less character specific music and the theme song(like what you get in op)
For example there are allot of character specific music in fate stay night
so in that VN music like Emiya, Hurricane Fencer, The Golden King or for theme This Illusion(all versions) would be off limits with a vn that is not in the same setting
Also music that isn't that distracting and tend to blends into the surrounding is more compatible with other VNs
Example Midnight Narrow, Everyday is Calm
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p ... 5527A6A284 (something I found when I scoured on youtube)

[this_barb]

As a gamer, I actually appreciate reused (or maybe remixed music). For example: the fanfare in Final Fantasy (I would hate if they changed that anytime soon), or the Tristram theme in Diablo.

[EbonyChalk]

Hmmm, personally I find that while I prefer hearing new music, it's nice and comforting if there's at least some similar tunes sprinkled here and there. I think it mostly depends on music itself whether you should re-use it or not.

Like the other people have said already, it's probably not a great idea to re-use anything from a previous game if it's a key or dramatic element since it's just... Well, it just comes out stronger if it's new and has a distinction rather than if it's something overly familiar (unless a sense of nostalgia due to a previous game is what you're aiming for). I would I also seriously avoid re-using complete "background" music (e.g. music that you assigned for a specific place rather than for mood; like you always played a certain tune for a scene at a park or something).

But then for something like character themes (music you assigned to a specific character), I personally don't really see why not.

Yeah, in the end I think it just depends on each music piece. Of course if you used like over 25 different songs in your previous game, I think it'd be pretty difficult to get anything new so I doubt anyone would really mind if you re-used a handful of them. XD (As mentioned by someone else.)