Track this topic | Email this topic | Print this topic

Hey guys. I figured that I'd share a little something I just so happened to spy upon that instantly brought my mind to here. It seems like there's a little project being undertaken that instantly brought my mind to here, if not only for the site's origins and namesake . It's an awesome kickstarter project for an O.C. Remix album based upon our very most favorite game. Particularly exciting is that some rather professional game soundtrack musicians are being contracted for this. Jake Kaufman is of particular interest to me as what I've heard of the Milky Way Wishes soundtrack was pretty cool. I hadn't been aware he did prior work for Capcom as well.

Although the final product will be available as a free download, in order to raise funds to conduct the project, as par usual the Kickstarter page has paid pledge levels with a variety of interesting bonuses for those of us who might take more than just a passing interest in the music, that I'd encourage everybody to at least check out while they're still available.

It looks like this isn't going to be an insubstantiative project either. I'm assuming that it's going to be pretty comprehensive considering that there's going to be enough music to fill up five physical C.D.s for those who might want 'em for whatever reason. I'm assuming this is comprehensive for most of the game's soundtrack, given that the O.S.T. only had three discs.

Anybody worried about the questionable copyright implications of this project as I would be shouldn't have much to worry about since, as you'll see in the F.A.Q. and video, the would be criminals have already paid the piper after being caught red-handed by Square-Enix's stringently attentive watchdogs. . . . which makes it just that much weirder that they'd place a disclaimer that it's not an official Square-Enix product near the very top of their article but hey, when has either music or law ever been much about logic, eh?

This post has been edited by Tonepoet on 28th September 2012 04:34

--------------------

Role reversal at its finest.

Maybe I'm just dumb, but I couldn't really understand what the bonuses were. What exactly do you get, and are you guaranteed to get it?

--------------------

Praise Be To Helix!

Well, the $1 bonus isn't actually anything, just an ad for the rest of their site. Most of the other ones are addons of other soundtracks that the site has produced until you get to the big money - which, hey, if I had a grand to spend to promote CoN and I thought it would actually matter (it wouldn't), I would do it.

To answer your more general question, it's more of an honor agreement rather than an ironclad guarantee. Most kickstarters, if they get fully funded as this one has, will follow through on their promises because the bad will from not doing it is much worse than spending the money to follow through.

--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

R51's basically right. Technically speaking, I think they're obligated to fulfill their promises as the actions taken form a sort of contract implied in fact and one that's concretely demonstrable at that. However Kickstarter themselves make no direct guarantees and while I'm not 100% sure of their policies, any sort of recourse available through Amazon Payments would likely expire before benefits were due. As such, the propensity to collect upon broken promises would be reliant upon the ability of the affected backer or backers to launch a successful lawsuit, which would likely prove to have a number of risks and difficulties. Therefore it'd be wisest to scrutinize over who you'd trust.

In this case the person listing this project is listed as David Loyd, who happens to be the administrator of O.C. Remix, and the project is currently listed on O.C. Remix's front page. I've noted that many CoN members over the years have spoken in well regards of the site, if not only for their enjoyment of the remixes hosted upon the site but upon second examination it seems that sometimes their projects don't always go as planned. To be fair, that was likely a volunteer project, which are more prone to run out of steam than professional work but it's still a concern worthy of consideration.

Also, the availability of rewards at specific pledge levels are be limited as listed at the top of each pledge level. In this case it'll say ([numerator] of [denominator] left). Higher tiers generally get cooler but more limited rewards.

They're listed in the sidebar, which I'll admit is a bit haphazardly formatted with all of the redundancy and hype. For Clarity's sake, I'll relist them here:

• $1 is allegedly gratitude for supporting the project.
• $10 is a soundtrack called Imposter Nostalgia by Jimmy Henson A.K.A."Big Giant Circles" who worked on Mass Effect 2.
• $25 is both of the above plus the Super Meat Boy soundtrack and a soundtrack called Antigravity by some bloke calling himself Zircon and 2 weeks early access to the FF6 remix.
• $50 is all of the above and one of the few physical copies they'll print of the FF6 album.
• $100 adds to that a physical copy of a prior remix album Sonic: The Sound of Speed
• $250 adds an extra of the physical copy of the FF 6 remix and a physical copy of a prior remix album, Donkey Kong Country 2: Serious Monkey Business and plus a listed credit on the page's site.
• $500 adds a physical copy of yet another remix album, NiGHTS LUCID DREAMING, eight more copies of the FF 6 remix album, the ability to watch the work in progress on the FF 6 album on skype, a extra physical copy of a Final Fantasy IV Remix Album, and perhaps most interestingly, the ability to pick a song from any game and have it remixed by a random artist, in the general style of your choosing.
• $1,000 adds 8 extra copies of the FF 6 album, a physical copy of a FF 4 remix album: Echos of Betrayal, Light of Redemption and a link-back to one's site from the FF 6 remix album's page and an upgraded credit.
• $5,000 breaks the trend by including none of the above (combo breakin' cheapskates...) but if you're working on a game, they'll have people do the soundtrack for you.

After going over these again, I personally believe many of these bonuses are novel but perhaps a bit overpriced. The paid digital albums are available for cheaper elsewhere and the physical discs of OCRemix Albums are effectively just paying for the box. The Credits/Link would likely only get short lived attention before the page fades into general obscurity... The value of the commissions is hard to quantify since they each present somewhat unique opportunities, albeit it's a fair chunk of change to lay down nevertheless.

--------------------

Role reversal at its finest.

Quote

$5,000 breaks the trend by including none of the above (combo breakin' cheapskates...) but if you're working on a game, they'll have people do the soundtrack for you.

Well, working on this album is definitely one way to advertise one's talents.

--------------------

Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )