$12256 / $11500
Looking through https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Recommended_practices_for_attribution I wonder what are the best practices to credit a large number of assets. By large number I mean 2000+ items used under CC0, CC-BY(-SA) and similar licenses in a computer game, with most of those 2000 originating from very few authors, maybe a dozen total. This includes every UI image, every in-game asset be it textures of walls or monsters, every sound, every music track, every single bit. On one hand, putting 2000 lines in Credits screen makes it kinda unreadable copy-pasta, and in turn defeats the purpose of the attribution - nobody is going to read those attributions. On the other hand, jsut writing that "Music by northivanastan and Wolfgang" (totalling 12 tracks) doesn't follow the "recommended practices" (Title-Author-Source-License). So, I wonder what can be the best practice for computer games that will achieve goal to mention the author in appropriate way, without defeating this very goal by cluttering Credits screen and thus guaranteeing nobody will ever read it.
As I understand that the "Recommended practices" is not the official license text, which in trun says "You may satisfy the conditions in Section 3(a)(1) in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means, and context in which You Share the Licensed Material. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy the conditions by providing a URI or hyperlink to a resource that includes the required information." So, what is the (the consensus on) the "reasonable manner" in relation to computer games?
Having a clean Credits screen and directing players to "Credits.txt" if they want to learn more? Might be problematic on some targets, like mobile which don't ship "additional files" in user-readable way.
Having pages in Credits screen with one page being "overview" and the other - wall of text ain't nobody will read?
Having a button in Credits that will take the player to a website where the additional information is located? E.g. Credits.txt at the game repository at GitLab?
Of course there is always an option to cut down on use of "individual items" and don't use 300 icons from game-icons.net which will result in 300 lines in Credits, each including information on who and how modified those to fit the game (another 300 lines). Or use art assets only licensed under CC0 - so that they can be credited according to the "spirit of the law", not the "letter of the law". But apparently it's a solution that will eventually either hurt the game quality or development time.
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it's really up to you in my opinion. if i download your game, i am just as likely to not read your super long credits screen as i am to not read your super long credits.txt
it's a condition of your use of cc-by stuff to give credit, but with that many assets needed crediting, the end result is going to be skipped by most people anyways. in that case, i would just do the bare minimum to satisfy the letter of licensing requirements. that's just me tho.
In my games I have long credits list. I see it if someone has used their free time to make free assests at least I can give each of them proper credit. I tend to add credits immediately to AUTHORS.md (So I don't forget who did what...) and game just packs that and shows it as a credit screen. Yes those are credits texts are long, but so what? So are credits in movies very long. No body forces players to watch them. (Well, so games show credits at the end of the game and no possibility to skip, which is annoying...) Also if game is open source and it has separate file it is fun to find your name from different projects by searching it.
Well, credits in movies are not THAT long :) they list the participants - and this is what I mean by "shortened version" of the Credits screen. They don't give every actor a credit like "This Cool Guy appears in 0:13-0:17 with his face licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 downloaded from https://opengameart.org/forumtopic/best-practices-on-crediting-a-large-a... a filter "Make Squiggly" was applied in GMIC plugin for GIMP software which is a free software licensed under GPL but does not constitute a part of the current project, the changes are made by EugeneLoza and licensed under Creative Commons Zero license, 0:26-0:33 with his face licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 downloaded from https://opengameart.org/forumtopic/best-practices-on-crediting-a-large-a... a filter "Make Squiggly" was applied in GMIC plugin for GIMP software which is a free software licensed under GPL but does not constitute a part of the current project, the changes are made by EugeneLoza and licensed under Creative Commons Zero license and 1:12-1:16 with his face licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 downloaded from https://opengameart.org/forumtopic/best-practices-on-crediting-a-large-a... a filter "Make Squiggly" was applied in GMIC plugin for GIMP software which is a free software licensed under GPL but does not constitute a part of the current project, the changes are made by EugeneLoza and licensed under Creative Commons Zero license, phrase "I'll be back" is authored by This Cool Guy licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 downloaded from https://opengameart.org/forumtopic/best-practices-on-crediting-a-large-a... trimmed, cropped and normalized by EugeneLoza with changes licensed under Creative Commons Zero license, phrase "I changed my mind, I won't be back" is authored by This Cool Guy licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 downloaded from https://opengameart.org/forumtopic/best-practices-on-crediting-a-large-a... trimmed, cropped and normalized by EugeneLoza with changes licensed under Creative Commons Zero license, phrase "I've had a change of mind" is authored by This Cool Guy licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 downloaded from https://opengameart.org/forumtopic/best-practices-on-crediting-a-large-a... trimmed, cropped and normalized by EugeneLoza with changes licensed under Creative Commons Zero license, phrase "Ain't nobody reads credits anyway" is authored by This Cool Guy licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 downloaded from https://opengameart.org/forumtopic/best-practices-on-crediting-a-large-a... trimmed, cropped and normalized by EugeneLoza with changes licensed under Creative Commons Zero license .... (and so on for dozens of pages, just to mention all assets created by This Cool Guy)
I'm absolutely 200% up to giving credits to all authors who helped in making of the game. Be those people who created significant assets, authored a single sound used in this game, or simply supported me with a kind word. I'm only talking about TALS format (especially the "T" as in "Title" part of it), required (recommended) by CC-BY style licenses and how to put it into game Credits without beating the original goal of saying a "huge thank you to all who made this game possible"
Asset Credits:
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Assets used under the terms of the specified licenses:
CC-BY 3.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
CC-BY 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CC-0 - https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
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2D tileset 20x20 [Project Helena] sketch by eugeneloza, CC-BY 3.0
https://opengameart.org/content/2d-tileset-20x20-project-helena-sketch
[cge] Low-poly books by eugeneloza, CC-BY 4.0
https://opengameart.org/content/cge-low-poly-books
Circuit Tileset by eugeneloza, CC-0
https://opengameart.org/content/circuit-tileset
======
that's enough. you are credited, the terms of the license have been met. if that txt file has 2000 entries like that, so be it. i think, when including them in the game itself, it's better to put your credits screen as an option in the main menu instead of a scroll at the end of game, but thats just my opinion.
CONTINUE
NEW GAME
OPTIONS
CREDITS
QUIT TO DESKTOP
Exactly what I'm talking about. Add 2 more lines for "modifications made" to each asset. Multiply that by 2525 assets currently used in the prototype of my game (ok, around 1/3 of those are made by me, so 1500-2000), with final version most likely including twice more than that. 2000x5 = 10000 lines, just for current version. With default font (14pt)/line spacing (1.5) for "regular documents" we get 30 lines per pages or a book of >300 pages. So, what I'm asking about is where to put this book?
i would say put the book in a text file along with the game, or in the game in a "credits" menu option. the point is that you have to do it, so you just do it. at that scale, noone is going to read them all anyways, so just do what you have to.