1 Topic by Ninjamuffin (edited by Ninjamuffin 2008-12-27 11:14:29)

  • Registered: 2008-12-27
  • Posts: 5

Topic: Question to the Devs: Lucasarts, modding and copyrights

Hello

Let me first wish you all a Merry X-mas, Happy New Years and also offer my BIG THANKS to the Devs for an EXCELLENT Star Wars Mod!!!

Ok, so a friend of mine is thinking about starting a Star Wars mod. Its set in the Prequel timeframe and based on another 3D-engine, so if it ever came to be its concept would be quite different to First Strike. I told him there might be possible copyright issues but he didn't think so. When I Googled on the subject, I came up with some indications that Lucasarts can be very strict about copyrights, even when it comes to 3rd party fanmade stuff. I figured I'd ask the First Strike Devs...if anyone would know about this, its them.

Anyways, my questions are as follows:

- I've read about possible issues with regards to 3rd party/fanmade material (story, concept, characters etc) having to be true to the Star Wars unsiverse (I believe the term is "canon"?). Do you know what Lucasarts policy is on this?

- I'm also wondering about the soundeffects in particular. I know you create maps, models and textures by yourself (and you did and excellent job btw!), but I suspect most of the raw material for the soundeffects must have been ripped from other commercial Star Wars games? Do you know what Lucasarts policy is on this as well?

- Is it necessary, recommended or just considered good form to contact Lucasarts and "ask permission" or just give them a heads up about your work? Perhaps this is a silly question and also considered extreme, but please forgive my ignorance.

I understand if anyone of the Devs don't want to or do not feel the need to answer these questions, but judging from the high quality of this mod, they seem to be a very serious team which leads me to believe they have a pretty good understanding of these things. I'm hoping you still might be willing to help, as one Star Wars fan to another.

Any information on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again to the Devs for a kickass Star Wars mod!!!

Regards

N

  • Gwynzer
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Re: Question to the Devs: Lucasarts, modding and copyrights

I know that once upon a time, LA would never permit a modteam to continue development of a SW mod once they caught scent of it.  However, I do belive that the Galactic Conquest (FS's prequel) bent this change, after having a bit of a discussion with LA and GC ended up giving up something like content-copyright rights, but got to keep the publishing rights.  I know that LA is NOT happy with mods using their "Hero" characters, such as Luke or Han.  That is one of the reasons why they never show up in FS tongue

Since then, LA have been very lax in letting mods start and continue development.  I actually heard in IRC last week that this mod has been submitted thru official LA channels numberous times, but has been ignored. I'd still submit the file to them on LucasFiles or wherever it is, just incase LA do come down on you and you can say you DID ask for permission and sent the file thru official channels but was ignored.

Your content does NOT have to be lore accurate.  First Strikes founding ideas was to be a lore accurate game.  Yeah, there are one or two things which you won't find in the books/films here, but they at least *fit in* with the canon.

I do belive that FS made most of its own sound effects.  Don't quote me on this but I think we got hold of a 3rd party sound company (and/or did some of it ourselves) to do alot of stuff for us.  You won't find our ingame voices anywhere else tongue

As I stated above, its best to submit your mod thru LA official channels even if they seem to be ignoring everything lately, just so if they DO want you to stop work on your mod you can say that you sent the mod thru them ages beforehand and never received a response to stop working.



Good luck with you mod, mate wink

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3 Reply by Ninjamuffin (edited by Ninjamuffin 2008-12-27 12:13:56)

  • Registered: 2008-12-27
  • Posts: 5

Re: Question to the Devs: Lucasarts, modding and copyrights

Hi Gwynzer

Wow, thanks a lot for your reply, much appreciated. smile

Good to know stuff, I'll let my friend know that he probably should get in touch with LA then.

Are you sure about the soundeffects not being ripped from other Star Wars games? I can understand creating the voices yourself, but I mean more Star Wars specific sounds like firing lasers and vehicle sounds etc. If the team did all the soundeffects from scratch then the quality and accuracy just incredible IMO.

I think my friend was planning to rip sounds from existing LA games (thats apparently what most fanmade Star Wars movies do if I understood it correctly). I think his motivation was that even though the gamedeveloper might be someone else, LA still holds the rights to the used Star Wars soundeffects, which would make them ok to use in a fanmade/non-profit context.

If Lucasarts is now ok with people making Star Wars mods (and not even having to be lore-accurate), then being able to use existing Star Wars soundeffects is probably the most critical question...since I doubt anyone would usually have the means nor skill to create them from scratch themselves. If the sounddesigners of FS did exactly this, then they are insanely talented indeed. However, if its ok for fanmade movies to use ripped sounds (which I'm pretty certain Lucasfilms must know about), then shouldn't it also be ok for game modders to do the same?

If any Dev (or tester that might know details and is at liberty to reveal them) can offer more info on the seemingly crucial question about the use of ripped soundeffects I would be very grateful.

Thanks in advance and thanks once more to Gwynzer! smile

Regards

N

4 Reply by FSDev| TALON (edited by FSDev| TALON 2008-12-29 11:42:08)

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Re: Question to the Devs: Lucasarts, modding and copyrights

No, the sound effects were created by our own guys as well as the voice work. Though it is  most likely possible that they sampled sounds from the movies and mixed them with them with their own sound effects, nothing was ripped directly from another Star Wars game. You'd have to ask our sound designer for a more detailed idea of what he did.

Another thing to note if you plan to do a Star Wars game is that the tone has to be in line with that of the franchise itself, paramount amongst this, an element which is definitely a deal breaker is blood. You can't have blood in a Star Wars game, mod or not (yeah, I know there was blood when Obi-Wan slices off arms in the Cantina in A New Hope, but I don't write the rules wink). So make sure you don't have that or gore in your game and you should be alright. This is something that Lucasarts specifically stipulated in the rules that allow fan made product, another obvious one is that it has to be a non-profit organisation that produces the product. If you make any money via the product Lucas' lawyers will hang you out to dry.

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  • mechag2
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Re: Question to the Devs: Lucasarts, modding and copyrights

Ninjamuffin wrote:

- I'm also wondering about the soundeffects in particular. I know you create maps, models and textures by yourself (and you did and excellent job btw!), but I suspect most of the raw material for the soundeffects must have been ripped from other commercial Star Wars games? Do you know what Lucasarts policy is on this as well?

I always wondered about this myself, because A LOT of the sfx in FS are inaccurate and really need to be corrected, if possible. I thought it might have something to do with LA's iron grip with which they rule the Star Wars modding community. lol tongue

All joking aside, it would be awesome if all the proper sfx were implemented because, as it stands, all the fan made sfx greatly detract from the whole "Star Wars immersion level". hmm wink

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  • Irichanu
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Re: Question to the Devs: Lucasarts, modding and copyrights

mechag2 wrote:

I always wondered about this myself, because A LOT of the sfx in FS are inaccurate and really need to be corrected, if possible.

All joking aside, it would be awesome if all the proper sfx were implemented because, as it stands, all the fan made sfx greatly detract from the whole "Star Wars immersion level". hmm wink

What are you talking about? FS is perfect, all other opinions are wrong. Except mine. FS needs to be more like PR. Out.

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  • Gwynzer
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Re: Question to the Devs: Lucasarts, modding and copyrights

Irichanu wrote:

FS needs to be more like PR. Out.

Take the last word of that quote and follow it plz.

BlackIntel Game Leader
DUKE815: Teamwork's complicated.  I've found that ramming a Lambda with a Y-wing at full boost is most effective.

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