VN Ren'Py Summer's Gone [S1 Steam + DLC] [Oceanlab]

[Frowster]

No it wasn't related to any website, just one band asked to remove their songs from the game

Correct. They originally shared their music on Soundcloud under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license, meaning it was free to use, even commercially, provided credit was given to the band. DPC still wrote to them at the time, asking if they were okay with him using their music in a game with adult content but they didn't reply so he went ahead with it.

It wasn't until a few years later that they got back to him and asked to remove their content from his game. Apparently, they misunderstood the license types and Creative Commons by Attribution wasn't what they had in mind for their music...

As for Ocean, dealing with the artists directly is definitely the safest option. Having to contact and negotiate with each artist individually is quite a hassle, but if you're upfront with them about the type of content their music will be used in and they give you the green light, there won't be any unpleasant surprises in the future. And it's beneficial to the artist as well, as normally the intermediary would take a chunk of the license fee.

Many of them actually don't mind their music being used in adult games; when Leap of Faith was hit with a DMCA claim after making it to Steam, Drifty pulled the game's entire soundtrack and went on to talk to the artists directly and in the end was able to secure licenses from most of them. It's the various music libraries' restrictive ToS that are the problem.

They can still be useful, just not for getting the licenses. Those that offer membership for a monthly fee can be used to find tracks that interest you. Then just reach out to the artist directly and see how it goes.

It pains me to see some of the brilliant tracks SG had removed from the game, especially those that had entire cutscenes built around them... I can only imagine how frustrating and disheartening that must be for Ocean. But hey, I would likely never have heard any of those songs otherwise so there's that, at least. My playlist is bigger now.

 

[Matt2012021]

So much for end of December oh well with this time of the year really can't get mad about a missed date

 

[Deleted member 327695]

I don't understand.
Dr Pinkcake uses a shit ton of licensed music from PremiumBeat and doesn't have any problems. 199$ per track.

PremiumBeat music has a hard limit of copies.


DPC must've made a deal for Steam.
But they aren't giving me the same deal. I asked them many times, and they always said "It can't be done." (It would literally take 20 seconds to change the license for me. I offered to pay up to seven times for each license.)

In general, I found the dialogue between me and the enterprise managers extremely dubious.
More than once I had the feeling that they were trying to fool me, just to make me sign the contract asap (Probably for provision) and if it wasn't for the music in Season 1 SG, I would have cut ties immediately.


I'm probably too small of a fish for the same deal.

 

[Deleted member 327695]

They can still be useful, just not for getting the licenses. Those that offer membership for a monthly fee can be used to find tracks that interest you. Then just reach out to the artist directly and see how it goes.

In 99% of the cases, this is impossible.

The music libraries own the rights to the music now. (Not the artist anymore.)


For example, Staffan Carlen, who made the songs "Sleeping with the TV on" & "Always been a Dreamer" was totally okay with me using his songs in my games.

But back then Epidemic told me to fuck off. They have the last word.


It might be different from library to library... But the big ones own the exclusive rights.

 

[soprano31]

Oceanlab

i wish you a very happy creative new year with summer's gone and where it all began,
keep up the good work.

may your new year
be filled with joy,
health and success.

 

[Mortarion]

All you need is VPN.

Thats wrong, totally. At least for the german playerbase on steam.

The use of a vpn won't change anything, because of the - let's call it "region lock" - on your steam account.
Even with a vpn, you may be able to take a look at the shopsite - if you are logged out of your account.

But any further progress like putting the game into the cart WILL be denied, because you need to log in your account and your account is tied to the german region. In the past it was possible to get the games via steamgifts or a steam key. But this was killed in the last september.

You must be registered to see the links

At least is it possible for the german players to get the game on gog.com in the future.

 

[Schattenfang]

Hi Oceanlab, I've been working on a personal music mod for SG and noticed some rather minor findings when working with the files of 4.5 beta.
If you don't mind I'll list them here.

• both files play the same song (by Beza): Beza - Save Myself.ogg & Grace Mesa - Save Myself.ogg (one is the watermarked version)
• both files play the same song (Resonance): Scott Buckley - Nightfall.ogg & Scott Buckley - Resonance.ogg
• meta tags say "Emmet Cooke - The Mysterious Passenger": Late Kids - Every Night.ogg
• meta tags say "Grace Mesa - Diamonds into Dust": Late Kids - Some Days.ogg

 

[луна]

You must be registered to see the links

Hello,
(I attached the new Steam/Ambient Trailer. Watch it in 4k. Otherwise, it looks like pixel-mud thanks to the YT compression.)

So... First of all sorry for not doing a Dev Log when it was supposed to be out. The last Dev Log date fell exactly on the date I moved across the country.

Then a week later, I flew back and spent Christmas with my family.

I'm currently pretty damn sick. Not sure if Covid or the Flu... But it also doesn't matter. It'll go away eventually.


I finished setting up the PCs etc. not that long ago. Got my desk, and everything that's needed for work.

One WiAB hard drive died, but I didn't lose anything game related. (I had a backup.)


I'm around 70% done with the full version of Chapter 4.5.

All that's left is the college part plus Amber/Bella.



2. Steam


Summer's Gone is coming to Steam next year. The first Season will include Chapter 1 to Chapter 5.

If you want to support the game beyond Patreon, consider wishlisting the game. (Even if you don't necessarily plan on buying it. It still helps a lot with no additional costs attached.)

You must be registered to see the links

3. Music-related stuff

So, the biggest headache in development again...


I met up with a law firm and discussed quite a bit of music-related stuff. In the future, I will never ever use a site like Shutterstock, Epidemic, etc. again.

All deals will now be made directly with the artist/label.

I mentioned before, that I was in the process of making a deal... Well, besides their very dubious actions towards me. (Promising me stuff that wasn't in the license agreement and would have gotten me into serious legal trouble, I will remove A LOT of music again for Season 2.

Summer's Gone Season 1 will keep all the music. (Chapter 1 to Chapter 5.)

But with the start of SG Season 2, I'll look for new music, far away from these fucking licensing sites.

That's why I'll work with a law firm in the future. Secure the licenses, etc.


It's very possible that music will take a place in the back for a year or two... I just really don't wanna deal with this permanent anxiety of breaching some weirdly designed line in a contract, that is open for all sorts of interpretation.

The lawyer said, that the best way would be to create original soundtracks for the game.

But it's way too expensive at the moment.


But someday we'll do it.

And Steam has the potential to be the first big step toward original soundtracks.


3. Previews

Old
View attachment 2274620

New
View attachment 2274622


Old
View attachment 2274623


New
View attachment 2274624



Anyways, I'll try to finish the rendering part for Chapter 4.5 Full in the next two weeks.

I'm currently taking it easy to recover from my flu/covid. So I'm not at 100% efficiency. (Also still have to take care of a lot of stuff due to the move. I don't even have a bed right now.)


See ya then.

- Ocean

Season 1 will have 5 chapters, it werent 10 per season ?

 

[Tremonia]

Thats wrong, totally. At least for the german playerbase on steam.

Well, if it's wrong why it worked for me? I'm from Germany. My nickname "Tremonia" is the latin name for my home town "Dortmund". All you need is a VPN and a credit card. The last time I bought at Steam via VPN was eight days ago. As a german I can assure you it's possible to buy at Steam with VPN and don't forget to set the right store location at the check out. Maybe you shouldn't use the client. I only buy via the browser version.

 

[Schattenfang]

Well, if it's wrong why it worked for me? I'm from Germany. My nickname "Tremonia" is the latin name for my home town "Dortmund". All you need is a VPN and a credit card. The last time I bought at Steam via VPN was eight days ago. As a german I can assure you it's possible to buy at Steam with VPN and don't forget to set the right store location at the check out. Maybe you shouldn't use the client. I only buy via the browser version.

As a fellow citizen I can only suggest to not do it with your main Steam account. There have been reports of warnings being handed out by Valve on the Subverse Discord. I can't confirm it (only did it myself years ago, when the restrictions first popped up), just be cautious.

Seems like even gifting the game is no longer possible. Prude Germany really needs to be protected.

 

[Frowster]

It might be different from library to library... But the big ones own the exclusive rights.

I believe that's the case. Drifty got most of his music from Artlist and even though their current ToS explicitly prohibit the use of their stuff in anything with pornographic content, it looks like the artists working with them retain all the rights to the music. I did some research just now and found this:

You must be registered to see the links

So my idea might work with them at least. I'll do more digging on this for sure and report back.

And Epidemic can go suck a dick. I'm really going to miss the tracks by Humble Hey in particular. They are brilliant.

 

[Tremonia]

As a fellow citizen I can only suggest to not do it with your main Steam account. There have been reports of warnings being handed out by Valve on the Subverse Discord. I can't confirm it (only did it myself years ago, when the restrictions first popped up), just be cautious.

What should they do? In the European Union we have the right to freedom of movement and several decisions of the CJEU has declared this applys to the Internet as well. If I made my holidays in Spain I've the right to buy from the spanish Steam store. Of course I buy only in the netherlands Steam store if I'm in the Netherlands.

 

[Schattenfang]

What should they do? In the European Union we have the right to freedom of movement and several decisions of the CJEU has declared this applys to the Internet as well. If I made my holidays in Spain I've the right to buy from the spanish Steam store. Of course I buy only in the netherlands Steam store if I'm in the Netherlands.

The VPN part is the problem.

When joining Steam you sign their agreement (

You must be registered to see the links

) which states:
"You agree that you will not use IP proxying or other methods to disguise the place of your residence, whether to circumvent geographical restrictions on game content, to order or purchase at pricing not applicable to your geography, or for any other purpose. If you do this, Valve may terminate your access to your Account."

The whole situation with Steam came up because Germany/an EU law wants to ensure 18+ content is only seen by adults verifying their age through more thorough methods than a single drop down menu. Valve did not want to jump through those hoops for Germany so they simply blocked it. That also means that Valve is now responsible to not show/sell 18+ content to people staying in Germany. If you'd use a VPN and buy 18+ content through Steam while being in Germany somebody could sue Valve as they did not abide law. I can totally see Valve banning users (as is their right by the user agreement) to avoid this risk.
How often that actually happens is a whole other question as we are paying customers and rather small fish.

 

[Matt2012021]

The whole game rating system has never made since to me as far music in VN I see why alot don't use music feel bad for those devs having to deal with that headache

 

[LuckyLara]

When the Oceanlab's tweet pop up i instantly checked if the Steam version is live. Cant wait for the Steam release, i already wishlisted it and 100% getting it there.

Get well soon, greetings from Croatia.

 

[Tremonia]

"You agree that you will not use IP proxying or other methods to disguise the place of your residence, whether to circumvent geographical restrictions on game content, to order or purchase at pricing not applicable to your geography, or for any other purpose. If you do this, Valve may terminate your access to your Account."

That's the good thing to live in the EU. VPNs are legal and using them can't be forbidden through contract terms. Terms contradicting law aren't legal. At least this special part, not the complete terms of agreement. The rule is: law above terms in every case. The next thing is that you have in the EU the freedom of contract. That means every dealer must give you the opportunity to reject individual parts of the contract before concluding a purchase contract or to negotiate them separately. Now Steam only offers the possibility to agree to the terms by ticking the box or you cannot buy. Valve has thus ensured that the disregard of the "terms of agreement" is permissible for the buyer in all points where the buyer's actions do not violate applicable law because disregard by the private(!!!!) buyer is a mild means of protecting an original legal interest before the law. All in all, this means that if Valve ever decides to do anything wrong with my account, a single letter from an attorney will suffice. But they won't do anything because they know the legal situation very well themselves. They are just not so stupid that they would openly communicate this and rely on the fact that 99.9% of their customers have no idea of their rights and accordingly do nothing. The few hundred customers from Germany who act like me are tacitly accepted by Valve as long as all bills are paid correctly and no distributor/developer of a game starts to complain.

 

[Arch12]

So what are we expecting with the full 4.5 release? Is it just fixes for things found wrong in the beta? Is he adding in more of the story?

 

[idontdreamwhenisleep69]

So what are we expecting with the full 4.5 release? Is it just fixes for things found wrong in the beta? Is he adding in more of the story?

First half of a chapter 2 rework as well.

 

[BeingADikDik]

So what are we expecting with the full 4.5 release? Is it just fixes for things found wrong in the beta? Is he adding in more of the story?

Mila's assets grow with each update.

 

[Bluee7]

Guys do you knows other games like this. I mean strong character building.