Don’t use any one of these. Search for a Creative Commons song, from a real human.
Same for the voice, ask someone of your friends to speak the one sentence for you.
And you are accountable when there is a copyright strike against your game. There is a lot of movement in that space. Watch some of her videos: Top Music Attorney
EDIT:
Thanx for the motivation. Ordered one of the shirts.
All four sound like dime-a-dozen pop songs, AI-manufactured for the teen market. It’s not at all what I would associate with Fizzles… to my mind the Fizzles theme music would be playful and light-hearted, no human voice, acoustic instruments, maybe with some nature sounds in the background.
When you say “theme song”, do you mean something like the title music? If so, I think vocals are well over the top for a cute puzzle game… you can scarcely get away with it for a cinematic game like Dead Stranding
I think there is a misunderstanding in the wording “theme song”. I don’t mean this as title music or in-game music for Fizzles. The game itself already has instrumental level music, and I agree that vocals would be too intrusive during gameplay.
This was more of a separate experiment: an independent Fizzles song, possibly for a small music video or community post, not something that would replace the actual game soundtrack.
Your description of what would fit the game itself — playful, light-hearted, acoustic instruments, maybe some nature sounds — is very close to what I would also want for the actual Fizzles music.
Are vocals a requirement for that? I’m honestly not sure what would work best for that use. If yes, AI vocals are probably the way to go, in terms of price, speed and availability. Do be warned though that some people (myself included) respond very poorly to AI music, which gives an instant feeling of cheapness and fakeness. Not something you want to associate with your brand, in my opinion.
That’s a fair warning, and I’d like to understand it better.
I’m not a musician, so I honestly have a hard time telling where the line is. To my ears, Song 1 sounds like it belongs in the same broad atmospheric / Celtic / new-age family as artists like Enya, Clannad, Loreena McKennitt or Secret Garden — not on the same artistic level, of course, but I don’t immediately hear “cheap AI” in the way you describe.
What I’m trying to understand is this: are people reacting to specific audible qualities, or partly to the knowledge that it was made with AI?
I saw a Deezer/Ipsos survey with 9,000 people in 8 countries where 97% of listeners failed to reliably distinguish fully AI-generated music from human-made music in a blind test. That doesn’t prove anything about this particular song, of course, but it does make me wonder how many listeners can actually recognize AI music without being told.
Would you be able to compare Song 1 with some real-world references and describe what specifically makes it feel AI-generated to you? Is it the vocal phrasing, pronunciation, lyrics, mixing, structure, lack of emotional nuance, or something else?
I’m not asking this as a challenge, but because I don’t want the song to hurt the impression of Fizzles. I just need to understand what people are actually reacting to.
One or the other, or both.
It’s the same with pitch correction or autotune on singing voices or (some) instruments. That feels like cheating. With AI the feeling is way worse. Some people can notice it from the first notes.
Music is the most direct line to emotions. People want to hear music from humans, not machines.
The sources of the training data (all the songs that the models are trained on) are mostly “stolen” without asking the artists. And the artists are hurt the most by AI.
There was a time when you were in danger of going to jail, just for sharing an album online.. And the genAI bros can take them ALL, and sell the result back to users.
That all feels so wrong.
I’d say it’s because it’s made with AI. If you think about it, it’s really hard to point to any creative context where an AI is preferable to a human, and it’s generally used as a cheap alternative to genuine creativity. Hence, it’s associated with that.
You mention a survey, and it may well be that most people can’t distinguish AI music from non-AI, but I don’t think that changes the quality of the product.
God, where to start… the voice is instantly recognizable as AI, with the auto-tune sound and synthesized-sounding high notes. The instruments sound fuzzy and indistinct, like they’ve been mp3-compressed at a low bit rate. Worst I think is the generic production and song structure, it manages to be incredibly tiring in less than five minutes, not to mention the overuse of drops and returns (where the music goes quiet, then wow, into the chorus). The war-drum like drums are also so incredibly overused these days… it just screams generic.
Obviously you should make the decision you want, and I understand the allure of cheap and easy (perceived) production quality, but I personally wouldn’t go for it on this occasion. Whether the songs are recognizable as AI or not, I still think they’re generic-sounding, and don’t fit the game at all, even if people made them.
Is there an AI service that lets you to make vocals for an existing track? You could use the Fizzles music, and at least avoid some genericness that way, as well as tying it in with the game.
Thanks, I understand that some people feel very strongly about AI-generated music, and I respect that.
At the same time, I do use AI as a tool, and it has become an important part of how I work.
I understand that AI music is a dealbreaker for some people. But I don’t want to hide the fact that I use these tools, and I also don’t want to reject them only because some people are categorically against AI.
The in-game music of Fizzles will remain instrumental and focused on the gameplay. This song is a separate Fizzles piece, more like a music video or community experiment. I will be transparent that AI tools were involved, and people can judge the result for themselves.
I take the branding concern seriously, but I will most likely still use the song and video if I feel they fit the world of Fizzles.
Thanks, that is much more useful to me, because now I understand the concrete issues you hear in the song.
I can separate two things here: the general objection to AI as a creative tool, and the specific production criticism. I understand that some people reject AI music on principle. I don’t share that position completely, because AI has made me much more productive. As a solo developer, it helps me move faster, test ideas earlier, and finish things that would otherwise take much longer. For me, it is another tool in the workflow.
But your concrete points are helpful: the synthetic-sounding high notes, fuzzy instruments, generic production, too many drop/return moments, and the war-drum feel. Those are things I can actually listen for and try to avoid in future versions.
I still see this song as separate from the actual in-game music. Fizzles itself will keep instrumental gameplay music. The song is more like a separate community/music-video piece, not the core soundtrack of the game.
Your idea of using existing Fizzles music or at least musical motifs from it as a base is interesting. I’m not sure yet whether the current level music would work as a vocal song, because it was written as gameplay/loop music, but using the same atmosphere or themes could make a future version feel less generic and more connected to the game world.
So I’m not dropping the idea of an AI-assisted Fizzles song or video, but I do take the specific production criticism seriously. If I continue with it, I’ll try to move it away from generic trailer/pop structure and closer to the actual mood of Fizzles.
The inspiration from classic guide-and-rescue games is definitely visible, and Lemmings is an important part of that history. But for Fizzles I want to be careful not to copy too much of the original tone, including the music.
The goal is not to make “Lemmings with different characters”, but to build an original Fizzles world with its own mood. I’m aiming more for a calm, magical, slightly fairytale-like atmosphere: soft, friendly, a bit mysterious, and suitable for a mobile-first puzzle rescue game.
So I may look at classic puzzle games for broad inspiration, but the music direction for Fizzles should become its own thing rather than follow Lemmings too closely.
Still, I agree that the music is important for setting the right tone, and I’ll keep experimenting with that as the game grows.
thank you very much for taking part in the song poll for my Godot game Fizzles.
Song 1 received the most votes. There were also some doubts and critical comments about using an AI-generated song, and I understand those concerns.
Despite those doubts, I decided to continue with Song 1 — not as gameplay footage and not as a direct representation of the game, but as an artistic music piece for the Fizzles project.
I have now uploaded the selected song to YouTube in the original Suno video format:
A separate music video for the song is currently in progress. It will not show actual gameplay, levels, puzzles, or final game content. It is only meant to accompany the song visually.
Thanks again for your votes, feedback and honest opinions. They helped me a lot.
thank you again for taking part in the Fizzles song poll and for sharing your thoughts about the different versions.
Song 1 received the most votes, and despite the doubts and concerns about using an AI-generated song, I decided to continue with it as a separate artistic piece for the Fizzles project.
The full music video is now online:
Important note: this is not gameplay footage and does not show actual levels, puzzles, or final game content. It is an artistic music video meant to accompany the song and capture the general mood of the Fizzles world.
The music and visuals were created with AI tools, then manually selected, edited, arranged, and assembled.
Thanks again for your votes, feedback, criticism and encouragement. The discussion helped me a lot in deciding how to handle this.
