Fractal Softworks Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Author Topic: voice acting  (Read 3607 times)

snooze

  • Ensign
  • *
  • Posts: 35
    • View Profile
voice acting
« on: April 26, 2017, 03:12:50 PM »

will this game ever feature any voice narrating? i think that could be cool to have various voices telling the player important facts and stats that are happening, perhaps even elsewehre in the galaxy as you are playing? and then the player could connect via ipx to another player and talk about those changes they make on their trade and mission runs. the mission runs are still there, right???

don't forget about narration!!  ::)
Logged

Alex

  • Administrator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 23986
    • View Profile
Re: voice acting
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2017, 03:16:23 PM »

Ahh, that's exceedingly unlikely - pretty much just not an option. That stuff is quite expensive and really hard to change later, so a no-go for several reasons.
Logged

StarGibbon

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 334
    • View Profile
Re: voice acting
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2017, 03:50:12 PM »

Waste of financial resources better spent elsewhere for an indie game.  In my opinion, obviously. ;)
Logged

David

  • Global Moderator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 909
    • View Profile
Re: voice acting
« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2017, 05:31:06 PM »

I directed voice acting for like one game trailer, ever. Asked around a lot, got lots of great info from a member of the team that directed voice work on Gone Home and ended up using a voice actor who was super helpful in explaining how everything works AND had his own recording studio and software which he knew how to use.

So yeah, it's very expensive to do it properly. (You can't do it improperly, of course, because then you'll get those cringeworthy moments where it's clear they had the dev team come in and pitch in for minor characters.)
Generally a recording studio has to be booked, you need a technician to run things, you need a voice director (maybe that's the producer/creative director), and of course you need the actor. But you have to call them "the talent" because that's a thing in acting. So you gotta book them at least a few weeks ahead of time, maybe months, and you'll usually have to book a full day of work. If you want to change any lines that your voice director doesn't catch in production, you gotta redo the whole process. It's pretty standard to schedule some time for redos, too, because once you have the voice work in the final form you just know someone is going to want to change something.

I'll say again, I was super lucky to work with a guy who was willing to book just an hour or two and could run all of his own recording equipment -- and that's just for a 90 second trailer!

(Okay, one more story: Was at the pub and talked with a guy who thinks he worked on some Call of Duty-like game; he had to grunt a lot and shout soldiery things. Would you believe that they get voice actors in to the studio and don't even give them the name of the game? Not even a lot of context, just like "you're a rough and tough soldier guy, now let's do some lines". Makes sense why VO can sound a bit disjointed sometimes.)


Ahem, back on topic: I would only see this being a worthwhile option for a game the scale of Starsector for doing like a 1.0 launch trailer or something, but that's up to Alex and if it's appropriate at the time!
Logged

StarGibbon

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 334
    • View Profile
Re: voice acting
« Reply #4 on: April 26, 2017, 06:09:08 PM »



So yeah, it's very expensive to do it properly. (You can't do it improperly, of course, because then you'll get those cringeworthy moments where it's clear they had the dev team come in and pitch in for minor characters.)


This. It's an investment in game development where not going all out is worse than not implementing the feature at all. Good voice talent is expensive, and bad voice acting is worse than no VA at all--it actually diminishes the game. Add that to the fact that most seasoned players don't bother to actually listen to the VA you just shelled out for because humans simply read faster than they speak, and it's a luxury feature better left for big budget studios catering to a much larger niche than Starsector is. Anyone who buys this game wont be doing it because their mission dialogue was voiced.

I dont want to sound like Im knocking the OP at all--I realize voice acting is de rigueur in triple A games and it's a natural thing for some, but I'd honestly rather have three additional ships--comparatively cheap--than every line of text in the game voiced.
Logged

orost

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 436
    • View Profile
Re: voice acting
« Reply #5 on: April 26, 2017, 06:23:39 PM »

Maybe by the time 1.0 comes around voice synthesis will be good enough to use in a game  :D

(I'm only half-joking - have you seen how good these things have gotten in recent years?)
Logged

StarGibbon

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 334
    • View Profile
Re: voice acting
« Reply #6 on: April 26, 2017, 06:35:45 PM »

Maybe by the time 1.0 comes around voice synthesis will be good enough to use in a game  :D

(I'm only half-joking - have you seen how good these things have gotten in recent years?)

Now *that's* something I wouldn't mind hearing. Strangely synthetic voices and aural uncanny valley is a fine tradition in spacefaring video games. For me, that would actually be a feature.

"PLAYur wun...YOR ShieldZ arr OVurLoDENG "
Logged

Megas

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 12117
    • View Profile
Re: voice acting
« Reply #7 on: April 26, 2017, 07:26:48 PM »

Ah, voices.  Remembers playing Wizard of Wor, Gorf, and Thayer's Quest in arcades during the '80s.  Synth-like voices gave Wizard of Wor charm.  Oh, and Berzerk!  "Intruder Alert!"  Maybe not quite as scary as the Sinistar.
Logged

xenoargh

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 5078
  • naively breaking things!
    • View Profile
Re: voice acting
« Reply #8 on: April 26, 2017, 11:06:57 PM »

Oh, but the VA on Smash TV made the whole thing come together, lol...

I'm in total agreement that this isn't terribly important, although some sound work on certain things would be nice; for example a little sting when we initiate a Comm call with a fleet, etc., might be nice to set the mood.
Logged
Please check out my SS projects :)
Xeno's Mod Pack

Megas

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 12117
    • View Profile
Re: voice acting
« Reply #9 on: April 27, 2017, 05:26:07 AM »

Smash TV is a bit over-the-top.  I like playing Robotron 2084 more.  No voices there though.
Logged