Re: Vast Horizon (new game)
Hello!
To add to what Jayde has already said here, I feel that some clarification is in order as to why we took such harsh action against this soundpack:
Typically, when a game's sounds are purported to be using illegitimate assets, we look at context when making a decision as to whether or not the discussion and sharing of it should be banned from the forum. We are not lawyers, officers or your parents, and we can't (and won't) stifle your ability to discuss a game simply because it's found to utilize sounds found elsewhere.
The issue arrives when a game contains sounds that were very obviously lifted from somewhere else. In this particular case, I conferred with the creators of the Cosmic Rage soundpack, who confirmed that multiple sounds that were uniquely-crafted for Cosmic Rage had been lifted and used in the creation of the soundpack for Vast Horizon. Some sounds were renamed and used for other purposes; others were shamelessly copied and pasted. Absolutely no credit was given to the Cosmic Rage soundpack creators, who have made it clear that they are not okay with this arrangement. That's not cool, no matter how you look at it.
Look, we're not here to step all over your fun or take away the entertainment that people enjoy. In the case that multiple games happen to use sounds from the same sound library, we're not going to hound them down to say "Hey, change this or else." We're not interested in validating whether or not everyone is using legitimate copies of sound libraries, and we frankly don't have the time to do so.
But when a game lifts unique and identifiable assets from elsewhere (Crazy Party and the Alter Aeon MUSH-Z soundpack are good examples of this), it becomes a problem. Aside from being illegal in most cases, it's also damaging to our fellow developers who take time designing custom and unique sounds for their games. As someone who has dabbled both in game development and sound design, I can personally tell you that it is extremely discouraging to me when I consider potentially releasing a game, to have to worry about the possibility that someone may decrypt my assets and gleefully copy/paste them into their own project. And while I can't speak for anyone else here, I'd be willing to bet that I'm far from the only person who is put off of releasing games here because of this reason.
TL;DR: We're not here to eliminate anything and everything that bears a resemblance to other games. If you're simply utilizing sounds from sound libraries or genericized assets (think footsteps, bips/beeps, or ambiences), then you're good. If you're taking custom-made sounds from other projects without the developers' consent and throwing them into your own game release, then we have a problem. Really though, it's much more rewarding to utilize unique and original sounds in your projects. I am certain there are many people on the forum who are happy to help out with sound design (some for free), and your playerbase will thank you for the originality later.
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