Should Hero6 have a voice pack?

[Erasmus]

I would love to have voices launch with the release of the game, but it isn't going to happen. Doing voice acting would add many additional months to game creation. You have the following points to consider:

1. There are a lot of NPC's who need voices.--- Not many people can voice act well, its a sad reality. Those who can do voice acting oftentimes can't make their voice change significantly enough to do more than one or two characters. This means we would need to audition, in order to get a good group to work with, hundreds of voice actors. From this list we could narrow it down to those who have voices that could work in game. Generating a base of a couple hundred people willing to do voice acting for free is hard.

2. There is a lot of dialogue.--- each NPC requires pages upon pages of dialogue. To create just a single line of good voice dialogue requires rerecording the same lines at least a dozen times. When I did voice acting for the SSS project, I had appx 8 lines, and it took me a couple days to get them right. And even then, they were not up to the standard I would expect in hero6.

3. Equipment.--- very few people have access to professional recording devices and software. In order to do professional voice acting, you have to be able to use a microphone that costs a couple hundred dollars and use a program that costs twice that. Even if someone had a good voice and would be perfect, they can't pick up a mic at BestBuy and use Windows recording software to record their lines. The lines need to be completely clean.

4. Coordination.--- Normally, if there is dialogue between multiple people, they record them at the same time in the same room, that way they can respond to each other naturally. To try to coordinate, for example, NPC A interrupting NPC B, and having NPC C laugh at them, would be nearly impossible if we wanted to make it sound natural.

I would L-O-V-E to hear voices in hero6. However, If they are done improperly, they could potentially ruin the game. The only way they could be in the game is if we were able to do them to a high standard which would ABSOLUTELY add to the game and in no way detract from it. Sorry guys, I hate to bust your bubbles. This is why we decided long ago that we would only try to add voices later, and only if we could do them well enough to sound professional.

[Paladin0707077]

Well...um...um...

We could travel and meet to do it...wait, not viable for some people...

Well, OK, then how'd KQIX do theirs?

[Jafar]

IIRC, KQ9 had live auditions for major characters and online auditions for minor ones.

[Corsair5]

Yeah, but we're all scatted 'arfway across the world. I mean, Swift is on the other side of the planet from me. I imagine she's not the only one. We can't really do live auditions without a ton of trouble..not to mention money.

[Ignus_Draconus]

*takes corsair's switchblade*

there will be no killing of robin williams in this forum. or anyone else of major importance.

[Erasmus]

I classify under someone of "major importance" right?    

[Paladin0707077]

Well...let's cast a vote on that one and we'll get back to you.

Seriously, though, there has to be SOME way to do this...I don't believe that we're incapable of making a voice back, even with people scattered all over.

[Swift]

*takes corsair's switchblade*

there will be no killing of robin williams in this forum. or anyone else of major importance.

Oh man. I removed the off-topic posts only to see replies to the deleted posts.

Paladin0707077, let's see how KQ9 handles it for their NPCs first (since those will be by people from around the world, and with non-professional recording equipment).

[Ignus_Draconus]

yeah, let someone else try the minefield to let us see if it's safe. or is that a bad analogy?

[Paladin0707077]

How about "Let someone else taste the food before the royalty eats"?

[Erasmus]

Good analogy. Seriously though, if they are able to coordinate this to professional standards, then I'd be very impressed.

[Paladin0707077]

Well, I suspect they have one thing which we don't have, and that would be "number of people trying out". So they'll probably have a greater chance of finding good stuff due to probability, whereas for us, just about EVERYONE will have to be good. We need to keep that in mind.

[Swift]

Actually, it's not that difficult to get people to audition. All I have to do is to advertise in a number of forums and you'll find a decent group who'll want to try out. Lots of people love to voice-act.

[Corsair5]

Yeah. And lots of people love to do a lot of things. The problem is, 80% of them are actually terrible at it. That's the problem.

I suggest we start grabbing people off the street, tying them up, and telling them to say a specific line. If they're good, we record it and let them live. If they're bad..well, I'll just leave it at that.

 

[Swift]

You just pulled that figure from nowhere, didn't you?

Until you actually hear the people who want to audition, you can't just assume that 80% would suck at it.