Launch Recap / FAQ

Hey everyone! I hope you’re all getting a chance to deep dive into “Everything Comes With a Cost” – I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s projects when we hit completion in May!

Some quick FAQs for things that came up last night – this isn’t an “exhaustive” list but definitely wanted to cover a few bases for things that came up.

TPAs (Third Party Assets)

For all projects, all tasks/assets SHOULD be completed by the team members (max five per team).

For Game projects, some code/tool assets created by others may be used, but must be approved prior to submission. Advisors need to fill out the TPA request (if an advisor doesn’t have the link, they should contact Jim). Determinations usually happen fairly quick (day or two), but may take up to two weeks. General criterion for approval is:
1) Is this something that should REASONABLY be done by a student?
2) Is this something that alters the game to a point where the project is about the asset rather than the other way around? (ie., ‘easy button’)
If the answer to either of the above is a ‘Yes’, approval is unlikely. If the answer to both is ‘No’, approval is likely.

For Game, Film and Animation: Since most of our member schools do not have sound creation/editing/etc in the curriculum and doing so is far out of scope, third party audio MAY be used in those projects. This does NOT need explicit approval on a per-asset basis (no TPA requests), but all audio must be correctly licensed for our distribution (downloadable games via itch/ames website) AND must be cited in credits (even if licensing doesn’t require it). See Jim for validation on specific assets (“Is this song legal?”).
Licensing includes performance rights for covers (even if performed by a student) – student performing a copyrighted song is still pirating a copyrighted song.

Using Third Party music/sound WILL disqualify team from winning music/sound related Outstanding Achievement awards (which are intended to recognize student creators) but will not otherwise adversely affect scoring. For example, a team could hypothetically import open-source sound effects and use them in their game, they would be ineligible to win the OA for sound but still could score a 10 in the Craftsmanship Criterion in the rubric (“Game is highly polished and publish-quality in current state. Sounds complement and enhance the game experience.”)

Broadly speaking: Rules around Sound (which loops are allowed, etc) are, by necessity, looser in Game/Film/Animation and much tighter in SoundFX/Music. For more specific rulings in your situation, Advisors can contact Jim (Game/Film/Animation), Nellie (Game) or Scott (SoundFX/Music) for clarity.

Performer Rule

Although teams are limited to five members, projects may include performances outside the five team members. For example, a student film may utilize actors outside the five team members, a game team may have a friend voice act a part, a music composition may have another student playing an instrument.

To qualify: the “Performer” must be explicitly following writing and direction from a Team Member (for example, Team Member writes a set of lines for Voice Actor, who then reads them). If the Team Member wrote the script for the Actor, that’s fine, but if the actor ‘wrote’ their own dialogue (improvised, etc) that goes against this rule. Advisors should use reasonable judgement when enforcing the rule – an Actor basically staying on script but doing minor ad-libbing is probably fine, rewriting their part is out of scope.

For music/sound competitions, ‘performer’ also applies to instruments – someone playing a piano part written by a Team Member is fine, but the Team Member telling the piano player to come up with some music to go with their work is out of scope.