Let's talk about Letter Sounds

[UgyBoogie]

Hello
For those of you who don't know what Letter Sounds are, it's basically this: If you have a piece of text in your game, for example a conversation, for every few letters that are displayed a small sound gets played. A pretty common example used in games and movies would be a Typewriter sound that goes along with displayed text. Of course you can use any kind of sound. I've used this method in the past to give my actors "voices" without actual voice acting. So, a big, rough guy gets a deep knocking sound for speaking, and a petite woman gets some sort of high "cling".
I'm really on the fence if I want to use this method again or not. While it could be a great addition to the game, cause it gives the characters more personality, it could also annoy the player.
What are your opinions?

 

[Farr]

Personally I think it`s great.
Games are suppose to bring up the players imagination and giving a "sound" for how would their voices be are great.
I guess it can get annoying sometimes but it`s just like a game with too much conversation and voice acting.
You just have to find the right amount for it.

 

[Jonforum]

Personally in my memory, nintendo has to find the best systems.
Remember banjo kazooie text vocal.
It is exactly the vocal system that I apply in my project.
it a cartoon project, so is easy to make funny vocal implementation..

 

[UgyBoogie]

@Jonforum True, if I think about Letter Sounds, I always think about Banjo-Kazooie as well. Great childhood memories

 

[mlogan]

If you decided to implement this, it may be best to have a way to turn it off if the player chooses. Because personally, I think I would get highly irritated by that very quickly.

 

[Jonforum]

My Options Menu is not 100% operational, but yes, i make case, for turn off the vocal engine sound.

Spoiler

Besides, I'm going to substitute by a simple sound,maybe , at the beginning of the bubble.


.

 

[umbralshadows]

As long as tha sound ya use isn't ear grating I think its a good thing. An I'd rather have letter sounds than bad types a voice acting.

 

[mogwai]

The first time I saw it was PS2 Okami and I thought it sounded goofy.
I think Undertale did it just right though.

EDIT: Actually the first time I saw it was NES Punch Out. Forgot about that one.

 

[Jonforum]

or better idea lol !
This saves a lot of time and allows to generate random vocal sentences.
Personally I love this vocal concept.

 

[umbralshadows]

+1 to simlish. I love Sims and simlish style althouh simlish is not all random gen. Their different words mean different things in simworld.

 

[UgyBoogie]

Oh yeah, simlish is a thing While it fits in the Sims universe, I don't think that is something every game can get away with. It's just too goofy. I couldn't think of a serious cutscene and the big bad guy talks with a simlish voice... while that thought is very amusing, I don't think it's very atmospheric

 

[Frogboy]

When I read the title, my mind went straight to this.

 

[kirbwarrior]

It pushed just enough voice into Final Fantasy Tactics that I can't imagine the game without it. And it's subtle enough that I've yet to hear anyone not like it.

 

[UgyBoogie]

It seems to me, if you don't directly think about the letter sounds, you hardly notice them at all. But if you concentrate on them, they can get annoying. But players normally don't play with a mindset of "Let's see which noise the letters make". It's either there or not for them.

 

[Nicz]

Another interesting take on the topic: "instrument voices" from Dont Starve.
Instead of accenting single or couple of letters, characters just play semi random distinct sound of their assigned instrument, while text appears on the screen. It surprisingly adds to the (already good) climate of the game.
On the other hand, dialogues are not that frequent, and mostly consist of short sentences, so it doesnt really have time to get really annoying or repetitive.

 

[UgyBoogie]

@Nicz Oh yeah, that's also a thing. While I really liked the graphic design of Don't Starve, I wasn't a fan of those instrument voices. Sure, they were charming for the characters and the overall aesthetics of the game, but they were more on the annoying side for me personally.

 

[Tasmaniac]

I tend to find that they add a lot to the game. Even if you just shift the pitch of the default sound used by Yanfly, lower for male characters, higher for female and faster for young kids then it gives some texture to the words. You can also ramp it up when the characters are excited

 

[kirbwarrior]

faster for young kids

ramp it up when the characters are excited

FFT does change pitch, but I never thought of faster or emotion changes. Thanks

 

[Tasmaniac]

FFT does change pitch, but I never thought of faster or emotion changes. Thanks

All good. I put this down as my first non-sponge moment on these forums!

 

[Wavelength]

It's always annoyed the hell out of me - but some people really like it!

Definitely a "your mileage may vary" thing, so I recommend giving players the option to turn it off, like @mlogan mentioned.