- By releasing an album for this site, you and the other participants are agreeing to our Content Policy; please read it before proceeding.
Below are the guidelines for starting and/or running a projects of any kind on OCR. Skip to the section that directly relates to the type of project you want to start. Please read these guidelines carefully before posting!
Contents
Starting a Project
I want to start a remix album project
Before you post in any forum about your remix album project, we encourage you to consider the time commitment in running such a project. Even for experienced ReMixers, directing an album project can take years, requiring significant coordination and constant attention. If your only motivation for starting a project is to hear the music from a particular game remixed, try the Remix Requests forum instead!
If you still want to proceed with your idea, you must consider whether you want the project to be an official OCR album release. Here are a few benefits of being an official project:
- Extra attention in the Recruit & Collaborate forum
- Hosting for the entire project, MP3 + torrent
- Assistance in coordination from the OCR staff
- Your own project subforum on the OCR forums
- Promotion on ocremix.org, including ReMix posts, front page spotlight, social media and email outreach
If you do not want to release officially through OCR, you can post about your project in the Recruit & Collaborate forum. However, you will not be able to use the OCR forums to run your project, nor are you guaranteed any kind of promotion, hosting or other assistance.
If you do want to release officially through OCR, there are a few general requirements that you first must consider:
- Is the game, game series, or concept itself eligible for ReMixing under our standards? If it has a primarily or entirely non-original soundtrack (eg. Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, etc.), there may not be enough material to qualify. Eligible game music must be written for a specific title, not licensed from a movie, TV show or commercial.
- Are you already involved with the coordination of other projects? Unless you have a track record of successful album projects, you must limit yourself to coordinating one album project at a time. If you have established credentials, we may make exceptions and allow two simultaneous projects.
- Are there too many projects in progress already? Over time, OCR has seen an explosion in the number of proposed album projects. Unfortunately, the community lacks the resources to execute every potential project in a timely manner. As per the discretion of the project moderators (projects@ocremix.org), a new project may not qualify for official status solely on the grounds that there are too many projects underway already.
If you or your project idea do not conflict with the above guidelines, you must receive (and maintain) approval to proceed as an official project. To do this, you must:
- Have a clear project idea with a manageable scope. Your project should not just be a random collection of songs, but ideally, an underlying theme or concept as well.
- Create a tracklist of songs to be remixed. This can change over time, but put some thought into it even at the beginning - it should tie in with your project concept.
- Gather and maintain the support of posted ReMixers or similarly talented musicians: at least 5 such experienced musicians should be involved. While OCR site projects do not pass through the Judges Panel, we expect a certain level of quality with every release.
- Create and enforce deadlines. As a project manager, you must keep tabs on your participants.
We strongly encourage you to use the simple Project Proposal Template, as exampled at the bottom of this page, to lay out your thoughts and consolidate this information. Once you have done so, Email projects@ocremix.org. If your project is approved, you may create your thread in the Recruit & Collaborate forum with the information that it is currently OCR-approved (if you already have a thread there, you may update it with this status). It will then be moved to the Projects Subforum, and you will receive a project management subforum. If your project is not approved, you may submit it for approval at a later date after refining its scope, recruiting additional ReMixers, collecting more WIPs or finished works, etc. As your project develops, the project moderators and other site staff will check up on its progress every three months or so.
Projects can lose approval based on the discretion of the project moderators. The same criteria used for gaining approval are also used for maintaining it (creating and enforcing deadlines, having a number of experienced ReMixers on board, keeping a manageable scope) and project moderators will discuss the issue with the project coordinator(s) before taking action. Should a project lose approval, the project forum will be closed for one month. After that, the project forum will be permanently removed. While you can apply or re-apply for approval at any time (even if you never applied to begin with), projects which have already lost approval will be evaluated stringently.
When a project is completed, it will go through a quality assurance and finalization process. As a general rule, many of the final tracks should be eligible as posted OC ReMixes, i.e. they would receive the requisite amount of votes from the judges to be YESed. The project moderators, judges and other site staff may all be involved in this aspect of the process to ensure that any official project is consistent with the goals and standards of the website.
I want to start an original album project (non-VGM)
Many OC ReMixers and OCR community members have released original albums. If you'd like to find collaborators for your own project, just post a thread in the Recruit & Collaborate forum and include the following info:
- About the Album: What genre is it? What's the story or concept?
- What You Need: Do you need writers? Visual artists? A mastering engineer? Performers? Be specific.
- Non-Profit vs. Profit: Will you be selling the album when it's done?
- Compensation: Will you be paying anyone for their effort, or is this purely pro bono?
I need musicians to write music for my game project
The OCR community is filled with both hobbyist and professional musicians who can write original music for you. Simply post a thread in the Recruit & Collaborate forum and include the following information:
- About the Developer: Are you a college student, a big company, or something in between? What's your website?
- About the Game: What type of game are you making? Tell us about it. How complete is it? Do you have concept artwork or game footage to look at?
- Non-Profit vs. Profit: Will you be selling the game? If so, where?
- About the Music: How much music do you need? What genres do you have in mind? Any reference soundtracks?
- Compensation: Will you be paying for this? If so, what ballpark range?
I want to start some other kind of project
You're allowed to use the Recruit & Collaborate forum to look for people to work with you on anything relating to video games or music. Just provide as much detail as possible about what you want to do and the type of people you're looking for.
Director's Responsibilities for OCR-official Arrangement Albums
While in Progress
- Keep in mind that there is a quality requirement for projects: more than 50% of all final tracks, including any tracks included in the project but not as part of the main release (known as bonus tracks), should be OC ReMix passable; ie. they would receive the requisite amount of votes from the judges to be passable as an OC ReMix. This is later determined during the evaluation phase after a project has been completed and submitted for final approval by OCR Staff.
- If your project has any songs that don't fall under your project scope for some reason, but you don't want to remove them, they can become bonus tracks only at the discretion of the OCR Project Staff. These are tracks that are included with the project but not as part of the main portion. If you need more clarification on what qualifies as a bonus track, contact the OCR project staff. Bonus tracks still count towards passable status during evaluation.
- Keep in touch with OCR project staff: they are there to help let you know that you're on track and if you have questions about running your project.
- Take into consideration any requirements you have for artwork for the project. Basic Album cover art is required, though other art is allowed.
- Begin considering how you will go about creating a website. Look for potential web designers and get an idea started. If you are unable to secure website creation, our default project website template can be applied to your project. Using the default template may extend the amount of time a project requires to be prepped for release by Staff.
- If you are planning on having some kind of physical distribution, you MUST go through OCR staff to arrange it. Notify project staff if you have any interest in this as it is an involved process.
Approaching completion
- In order for a project to be considered complete, there are a number of requirements. The following need to be complete:
- Music (in WAV format)
- Any artwork in the highest quality available (.PSD preferred)
- Website (or request to have the default template applied to your project)
- Consent Emails from contributors to the project (directors, musicians, artists, site designers, etc.)
- Any directors notes to be included
- Information on all musicians, what tracks they are arranging, and games being arranged.
- Lyrics for any songs that have vocals.
- We require consent emails from all contributors to the project. Each contributor is required to go to the following form, fill it out accurately, agree to the guidelines stated therein, and click "Submit". Contact the OCR Project Staff if yours is not listed as an option:
- Don't worry about mirrors for the songs and content - we'll take care of that.
- When the album project is complete, contact the OCR project staff at projects@ocremix.org. You will receive information on evaluation, as well as all relevant potential release information. There is typically at least a two month wait between album completion and album release, though it may be longer depending on the current amount of albums due to be evaluated or released. If a director submits multiple projects concurrently there will likely be a delay in evaluation of up to 6 months or more. If you have a specific release date in mind, speak with project staff as soon as possible.
EXAMPLE Project Proposal
GAME NAME(S): Castlevania II
ALBUM CONCEPT: "Castlevania II: The Funk of Forty-Thousand Years" - Basically, funky, disco-pop versions of classic CV2 themes. Looking to have about 6-8 tracks.
PERSONNEL: zircon (Project Director), halc (Assistant Director), OA (Album Art / Website)
TIMELINE: We plan to finish by February 2013. First WIP deadline (any kind of WIP) is April 2012, second deadline (finished arrangement) is November 2012, and final deadline
(finished tracks) is January 2013.
TRACKLIST:
- Bloody Tears
- Silence of the Daylight
- Vampire Killer
- Wicked Child
- Within These Castle Walls
- New Determination
- Ralph's Crisis
REMIXERS:
- zircon
- halc
- OA
- Gecko Yamori
- analoq
- XsephirothXXX
- 808ocrnoob
- Sixto Sounds
# of COMPLETED WORKS: None yet
# of WORKS-IN-PROGRESS:
Link 1.mp3
Link 2.mp3
