The Elephant in the Room: Let's Talk About Voice Acting

Making a video game is no easy task. The challenges of building a video game here in India today add even more unique obstacles to the process. India has many talented programmers, 3D artists, and level designers who are helping to put the Indian game development industry on the international map. Yet there is one very specific problem that nearly all Indian game studios are facing and that is the potential to sink or swim based on what type of voice actors they are able to find for their video games.

Finding the right voice actor to develop, or bring to life, the digital portrayal of a character is no walk in the park. Voice acting requires a very specific type of performer. Compared to acting on stage or in front of a camera, acting in a sound booth requires a totally different level of skill. The available space is limited, there are no props and there are typically no other actors to "feed" off of. As a result, there is still a limited supply of experienced video game voice actors in this part of the world.

The Unvarnished, Harsh Reality of Our Last Trailer

If you have been following our development process, then you are well aware that we are developing this game with the help of all of you. Your feedback means the world to us. A few weeks ago, we released our latest gameplay trailer — we were so excited about the graphics, combat mechanics, and world-building. We hit publish, sat back, and waited for your feedback to come in.

We received a ton of feedback!

Many viewers liked the overall art style and were excited about the overall game loop but the one comment that really seemed to stand out on our YouTube page, Reddit thread, and Discord server is pretty universal: "The Voice Acting is TERRIBLE! You guys need to really up your game."

You guys are right!

When you have poured your heart and soul into a project, to then have a glaringly obvious fault pointed out to you by the community is a very hard pill to swallow; and as a developer, you have two ways to respond to that type of feedback. You can either become defensive, offer rationalisations, and ignore the fans; or alternatively you can take it on the chin, agree with the criticism, and commit to doing better.

We chose to do the latter. I gathered my team and said, “This time I will not repeat my mistake; this time we will fix this — and fix it properly.”

Why Is Voice Acting Important?

Before we get into the voice act, let’s discuss why your feedback was taken so seriously. Why voice acting matters in video games is important; a lot of hard work goes into every aspect of building and developing an enjoyable gaming experience.

When you play a game, you will step into a new world with new people and new ideas. You are being immersed into the story of the game. If something like a graphic issue occurs, it may momentarily take you out of that experience. But if there is an important, emotionally charged, and cinematic moment in the game, and the character in that moment opens their mouth and speaks in a flat, emotionless, robotic, or poorly portrayed way it completely ruins that illusion. It completely removes you from the experience.

Good voice acting will do just the opposite of what was just described. It helps to ground you in the world being created in the game. Good voice acting helps you to develop emotions for the character you are playing, it gives the character who is the antagonist in the game a sense of threat, and it makes you feel that your efforts have been rewarded. It was for this one reason alone that we felt if we wanted our game to be thought of as one of the best games, we could not cut corners in the area of audio. The voice actors we hired needed to be able to portray realism, show emotion, create well-timed comedy, and act out the lines of dialogue as they would normally speak.

Casting Redo: The Search and The Dream

We went back to square one with our casting process, and made wholesale changes. We stopped settling for “good” and instead looked for “great.” We went through reels for hundreds of actors, contacted agents, and spent weeks looking for the perfect person to play the lead role.

And today, it finally happened!

The ink just went dry on the contract for a voice actor who I’m a huge fan of. This actor has proved themselves out repeatedly through their work, and when we started this project it was a pipe-dream that this actor could play a role in the game we are making. I even joked with my team, saying things like, “Can you imagine if we could get [this actor] to do something for our project?”

Well it’s not a joke anymore. It’s a real deal! I have incredible confidence that if I’m a fan of this actor, you will all be fans of this actor as well!

Play Guess What I Sound Like (with my voice).

Type 'the voice actor name' here, have the ability to show their photo and that's the end, right? Wrong! How much fun would that actually be? Your readers have helped make this an awesome change to our site. So, why not let your community help reveal them?

Instead of just telling you the voice actor's name, let's put some fun into this by allowing your community to guess the name.

Let us know below who you think the voice actor is going to be! And to calm some of your fears right now... you don't need to worry about getting 'a name' you don't already know. Your new voice will not belong to someone you have never heard of before. The voice actor will also not belong to an amateur caricature that was hired off an online marketplace. The voice actor will already be someone that I know, respect and am sure you will also recognize.