Voiceover in your game(s)!

[Simon D. Aelsi]

Everyone is going to have their opinions on these things.

As disappointing as it may be, I have some friends that absolutely HATE VO in games with a  fiery passion and will not play your game ever if you have it. 

DON'T do that. If you stop a player from skipping/speeding through and they want to, you're not going to force them to listen to and read all the dialogue you put so much work into. You'll just piss them off, and they'll stop playing your game and possibly tell all their friends it sucks and they can't stand it.

Furthermore, I would recommend having the option to turn them off entirely.

Yes, it's very frustrating to put a lot of work and effort into a feature and then allow players to ignore it, but players who enjoy voice acting will still appreciate the game all the more for it.

Giving players the option only increases the audience for your game, but forcing them to play it the "right" way will alienate many people. 

That really makes me sad... but if you think it'll help, then i'll do it. If my game does feature VO, I'll allow a.... a skippable feature! :'(

 

[Dream3r]

That really makes me sad... but if you think it'll help, then i'll do it. If my game does feature VO, I'll allow a.... a skippable feature! :'(

VO can completely change the feel of a game though so it's risky to have such a feature, especially if you have really good voice acting.  But if it is bad VO then cutting it off might be a good idea XD

 

[plasmablade13]

Full voice acting in our game would cost thousands and thousands of dollars.  So no, but it is a good idea to find some way to prevent text skipping

What exactly are you spending to get the voices? The equipment? The software?

 

[Dream3r]

What exactly are you spending to get the voices? The equipment? The software?

The voices themselves. Actors cost money, they need to earn a living.

You don't record you're own voice unless you have the talent which I don't.

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

VO can completely change the feel of a game though so it's risky to have such a feature, especially if you have really good voice acting.  But if it is bad VO then cutting it off might be a good idea XD

Of course. I wouldn't put bad voice acting in my game.

 

[C Frost]

For me, it depends. I have no problem with others putting voices in their game, as long as they put in whatever time and/or money is required to ensure high quality, and when used well, and in the right kind of game, voices can add a lot to the experience. But it does depend. I agree with the general sentiment permeating the thread: bad voice acting is far worse than no voice acting. And even with good voice acting, I still like games that don't have any too, because it can be fun to try and figure out what kind of voice each character has in your head. I suppose I could almost say that a game with voices makes me think more of a movie, whereas a game without em makes me think more of a book (assuming, of course, that in both cases we are talking about a story-heavy game with a lot of dialog). Both approaches are valid, it just depends on what fits for the game in question.

That said, for my own projects, even assuming I had the capability or willingness to expend the trouble and expense of getting talented VAs, I don't think I'd necessarily want to. I think of my own game ideas very much as "SNES style RPGs", and I don't think I'd be happy with having voices for the characters in em. There are exceptions - there's one game idea I had that is a dark sci-fi affair with really ambitious design and plot concepts (which will, sadly, probably never see the light of day because I'm just nowhere near the level as a dev/designer that I'd need to be to make it happen - I struggle to get even my simple game ideas off the ground). I envision it as less "SNES" and more "modern but still 2D". I'm still not 100% sure I'd want full voice acting for all, or even any, of the cutscenes/dialog, but in-battle voices would definitely be pretty cool for that one.

 

[whitesphere]

I agree with Solo on this one.  If I had a completed game which I truly felt was good enough, I might do what FFIV for the DS has done.  I wouldn't want voice for every line of text, because that would make for a huge download.  

And, as a player, I would find every line of text being spoken EXTREMELY annoying.  Sometimes, especially if I've played the game before, I want to skip over the texts.  I also read fairly quickly, so I can definitely read and take in text far faster than a good voice actor will read it.  Reading is faster than speaking.  It's why I also prefer a nice text webpage to a video, in most cases.

However, having the characters speak at key plot points can add some really nice punch to those scenes.  Especially since any cutscenes I'd do would definitely not be the really impressive anime-style I've seen in the FFIV and Chrono Trigger DS ports.

Basically, I would treat voiceovers like punctuation --- as something to add emphasis and emotional content.  Like punctuation, I feel using far too many voiceovers dramatically takes away from their impact on the player.  And they take away from the player's feeling of being in control, because the player really can't skip or read through the text at his/her own pace.

 

[Dream3r]

I just realized even a game as recent as Nino Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, only had VO for certain cinematic scenes.  Those scenes were also drawn by studio Ghibly but still the VO were saved for the important parts.

 

[Chaos Avian]

What about partially voiced games? Like Fire Emblem Awakening which have a few pre recorded lines to help convey a character's current emotion (the word/ grunt doesn't always match the written dialogue), or like Brave Story: New Traveller which only have voices strictly for battle.

 

[whitesphere]

What about partially voiced games? Like Fire Emblem Awakening which have a few pre recorded lines to help convey a character's current emotion (the word/ grunt doesn't always match the written dialogue), or like Brave Story: New Traveller which only have voices strictly for battle.

You could also do what The Sims did.  They had actors use a made-up language, so they didn't need to record a ton of phrases, and kept the characters at a certain level of abstraction.

 

[amerk]

DON'T do that. If you stop a player from skipping/speeding through and they want to, you're not going to force them to listen to and read all the dialogue you put so much work into. You'll just piss them off, and they'll stop playing your game and possibly tell all their friends it sucks and they can't stand it.

Furthermore, I would recommend having the option to turn them off entirely.

Yes, it's very frustrating to put a lot of work and effort into a feature and then allow players to ignore it, but players who enjoy voice acting will still appreciate the game all the more for it.

Giving players the option only increases the audience for your game, but forcing them to play it the "right" way will alienate many people. 

Especially if it's a particularly long cut scene they've already been through, died, and had to repeat. As much as I love Xenogears, I'm still haunted to this day. There was a really long scene (about 1 hour, I think) and when I finally had to the chance to save my game froze. At least I could speed through the dialogue the second time around (but a skip option would have been better). Not being able to skip or speed through anything might have made me rage quit.

And yes, please include subtitles as well, with or without the voice. Some people are a tad deaf when it comes VO's. Heck, I even find it better for me to watch movies with subtitles while listening to it at the same time. I absorb so much more that way.

 

[whitesphere]

And yes, please include subtitles as well, with or without the voice. Some people are a tad deaf when it comes VO's. Heck, I even find it better for me to watch movies with subtitles while listening to it at the same time. I absorb so much more that way.

Subtitles are very important.  I've found also really helps if the character is speaking with an accent that you don't understand that well.    Or if someone is using slang expressions you don't understand.  And my best friend watches TV with subtitles when people have gone to bed.

So I think subtitles for voice overs are a must.

 

[captainproton]

I rather like voice acting, if it's done well. Or, if it' going to be lame, it needs to be so cheesy as to be entertaining (think Plan 9 From Outer Space).

Two games stand out to me for this : Kingdom Hearts and Bravely Default. I think the KH games handled it well, partially because some of the characters were toons, and could sound silly. Plus they did get an almost all-star cast for those games. (And I thought Lance Bass was actually great as Sephiroth). In BD , the VO is sometimes spotty. Chairman Profiteur is especially cheesy. It's pretty clear the actors do double duty for different characters, and a lot of the dialogue is spoken reeeealy slowly compared to the text speed. I love this game but I usually just read the dialogue and skip ahead without waiting for the line to be spoken.

I've done some voice acting in the past, but was never really trained. I think the problem a lot of amateurs have is that they somehow get the idea they should use a different way of speaking when in front of a mic, like they were giving an oral book report. It's usually stiff, awkward and unnatural, completely different from the easy, natural speech they exhibit when just gabbing with friends.

I thought about doing VO with my current game, at least for battle (all the "oof s and "ow"s and "take that!" stuff) but not for regular dialogue. For one thing, I use a lot of localized dialects for the different kingdoms (a la Dragon Quest) which I'm sure would sound ridiculous if spoken. (Mind you, a bit of ridiculous is alright.) I have another game in the planning stages, for which I may only go as far as battle-grunts for VO.

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

The game I'm working on is pretty much fully voice acted (except for scenes that don't require it). I don't understand that the whole accent bashing thing. Unless specified, I welcome all accents, especially if I want to portray different regions of a world. Remember how Fang and Vanille from Final Fantasy XIII and Australian accents because they were from Pulse?

You can also find plenty of voice actors willing to voice in your game over on the Voice Acting Alliance, by making a casting call, and most of them will be willing to do it for free as long as your game isn't being sold. This, along with networking (and being able to scout talent directly) is how I've done it.

Also, addressing the skipping text thing, using "Stop SE" after every text line that's voice works. Without this, a player that skips text will hear louds of voices and dialouge playing on top of each other which is a bad thing.

How did I not see this before? THANK YOU!  You've helped solve a very VERY old problem.  Thanks, McTricky!

 

[Super Seabass]

VA is really, really hard to do right. There's a lot of areas where money/time is better spent if the project you're working on isn't a big one. Personally I don't really think VA fits very well with 2D style RPG's, but that could just be that I'm not used to it. Still though, if you decide to use VA then subs and an option to turn them off should be implemented into the game.

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

VA is really, really hard to do right. There's a lot of areas where money/time is better spent if the project you're working on isn't a big one. Personally I don't really think VA fits very well with 2D style RPG's, but that could just be that I'm not used to it. Still though, if you decide to use VA then subs and an option to turn them off should be implemented into the game.

VO is pretty hard to do right, but not if you know what you're doing.

And if it's worth the time/money, then why not? 

yeah, VO in a 2D RPG isn't common, but when done well it can be a nice touch.

Option to turn VO on or off simply isn't an option as I don't have the skills for it. However, erasing SEs will be a thing so if a player wanted to s/he could do that.  

That reminds me... *goes to edit OP for more discussion options*

 

[Ms Littlefish]

I think there are a lot of ways that voice acting can go wrong. And actually, I love heinously bad voice acting because it's hilarious. But that usually is not someone's intent.

I tend to not really care for full voice acting for that reason. It's usually, just--off.

Now if the voice acting is excellent, I will probably notice.

But I tend to prefer games that have minimal use of it. I like voice acting like described earlier, that are more akin to sound effects. I also think that a narrator part can often have a lot of charm, and in some cases, can make the game. 

I like to read dialogue at my own pace, and actually, sometimes I like to do the voices with my friends out loud as we play RPGs "together" a lot. Doesn't have to be one player if you don' want it it be!

 

[Simon D. Aelsi]

I think there are a lot of ways that voice acting can go wrong. And actually, I love heinously bad voice acting because it's hilarious. But that usually is not someone's intent.

I tend to not really care for full voice acting for that reason. It's usually, just--off.

Now if the voice acting is excellent, I will probably notice.

But I tend to prefer games that have minimal use of it. I like voice acting like described earlier, that are more akin to sound effects. I also think that a narrator part can often have a lot of charm, and in some cases, can make the game. 

I like to read dialogue at my own pace, and actually, sometimes I like to do the voices with my friends out loud as we play RPGs "together" a lot. Doesn't have to be one player if you don' want it it be!

That's very true. I do it too!

I may search for a way to turn "vocals" on or off at any time during a game. More incentive for players to play the complete game twice!

 

[Dragnfly]

I've actually had battle voices (grunts, shouts, yelling out progressively more absurd special attack names) by some now-decently-known VA's for ages. Yay for storing things in .wav format. So versatile. I plan to incorporate them in my current project. With the exception of bosses, which I now have significantly more of, all the playable characters haven't changed enough to warrant new voices. Despite having many theatre connections I doubt I'll have full voice though. Likely only for combat.

My views on VA is generally like this:

-Good VA is better than no VA. No VA is better than bad VA.

---Remember that bad VA can also be attributed to writing, direction and implementation too. Evil Zone comes to mind. Absolutely amazing voice casting but the implementation is pretty spotty.

-If you're going to use voice, allow a skip or a disabling function. If that cuts down on "the way it's meant to be played" then I'd remind the person that there's an infinite sea of free or cheap good entertainment right at our fingertips.

---Is you telling a story more important than people playing your game?

-Having just a narrator is fine, so long as he's got a smooth interesting voice. Bonus points if you meet the character who has the narrator's voice. Freedom Planet and Bastion were cool for that.

---Possible free/cheap resources for narrators can also include radio, a church group and your local library.

-Non-english is fine. Most of the games I play have asian voices anyway and I can only just barely understand some Japanese and Korean. Conveying the emotion in a non-annoying way is what matters.

---Make sure you're superbly good at faking an accent before trying to use a fake accent. A friend of mine's faux German for a mad scientist character sounded more like a snake was biting his nuts.

-Not a real language is also fine. My project has an extremely robust fictional language for one of the species but thus far there's no voice for it save for a few words. That makes me a bit sad.

---Games like Brothers worked well for this. But you still need good voice acting. Arguably better voice acting since it's very hard to sound convincing when you're making stuff up.

-I will absolutely never go Skies of Arcadia style and just have the characters make noises to represent dialogue. I loved that game but that annoys the heck out of me.

---By extension, the worst thing that ever happened to my gaming world was when Nintendo started using voices.

-Computer generated dialogue can be used ok if it fits your setting, like if they're all robots and the story isn't too serious.

---I do have Vocaloid with a few voice packs LOL. Though I only use it for woops and doowahs in songs.

I think I covered everything. LOL