Video games have long been known for creating immersive worlds and captivating characters, yet to create an unforgettable experience takes more than stunning graphics and gameplay.
Find the ideal voice for your game’s characters or narrators is essential to creating a quality product. Here are some tips to help you discover an appropriate match.
1. Find the Right Voice
Video game voice acting can be an exhausting job, requiring lengthy recording sessions that involve screaming out lines for many characters. Therefore, finding a professional who can manage this strain and protect your vocal health is vitally important.
Finding the ideal voice actor can make all the difference to the production quality and overall experience of a video game. From superheroes to pirates to dinosaurs, your voice must reflect each character’s individual characteristics and emotions accurately. To assist in finding just the right one for your project, use a voice search engine like VoicePickUp to search voice actors with reviews on previous works they have performed.
Consider versatility when looking for video game voice actors. An experienced voice actor can deliver multiple voices and styles at one session, saving time and money while guaranteeing consistent final products. For example, your RPG may need both its main character and additional characters with unique voices to ensure its success.
An experienced video game voice actor can also offer multiple versions of the same script to accommodate different platforms or languages, which is especially helpful if your game will be available both console and PC or with multiple languages. A knowledgeable voice partner may even bundle voice roles to minimize budgetary concerns and save recording sessions time by consolidating projects into bundles.
2. Make Sure It’s Online
Video game voiceovers are an integral component of today’s immersive gaming experience, from character voices that bring virtual characters to life to narration and instruction within games, voice acting makes an immersive gaming experience feel more humane and authentic.
When selecting a professional voice actor, your goal should be to find someone who will accurately portray the character’s emotions. Furthermore, their voice must sound natural without sounding forced; to achieve this result it is advisable to work with an actor familiar with voiceover work for video game titles of which you require narration.
Once you’ve identified a professional, you should arrange your recording session. Plan to arrive 15 minutes early so you have enough time to settle and become comfortable before starting to record. To ensure an effective result, when breathing deeply during recording you should focus on keeping it natural as much as possible.
Dependent upon the type of video game, multiple takes may be needed. This is normal and will allow the audio team to select the best take after editing is completed. Once audio production is complete, you will receive notification that it is ready for use.
Although becoming a professional video game voice actor isn’t impossible, you should expect a long journey ahead. Passion is essential to ensure a great performance from you as working in video games can be demanding and can sometimes have its challenges. By prioritizing passion over anything else in your career endeavors you will remain dedicated and committed to each project and deliver excellent performances.
If you need video game voice over talent, Voice123 makes finding them easy. Simply submit your project and fill out our simple form – which includes script details, language preference, gender and age options – before we find you suitable professionals.
4. Make Sure It’s Female
Video games have come a long way since their early beginnings in the 1980s. Today’s PC, console, and mobile games provide immersive experiences featuring cinematic cut scenes and character dialogue, as well as voiceover work that explains gameplay mechanics or highlights frenetic action.
Female video game voices have historically been overlooked, but that is beginning to change. As more women take lead roles and find roles for female voice actors in video games, more opportunities are emerging for these voice actors. But to secure one in such an intense industry as gaming requires more than talent or training alone; female video game voice actors must possess an insatiable passion for gaming as well as be dedicated to hard work.
Mastering cold reading is essential to video game voice acting. Unlike on a movie set where artists have ample time to prepare their lines prior to recording them, video game scripts may only arrive minutes before their recording session begins, making it hard for voice actors to find the ideal delivery for every scene without enough rehearsal.
Adaptability is of utmost importance for video game voice actors, especially when localizing. Excited exclamations might work in America but not Germany – to avoid miscommunication between languages, voice actors must remain flexible enough to modify their style accordingly for each project.
Finally, video game voice actors must ensure they’re healthy and prepared to meet the challenges of their profession. This includes warming up before sessions, minimizing straining sounds and getting enough rest between sessions – otherwise their recordings or vocal cords could suffer irreparably.
5. Make Sure It’s Professional
Video game voice acting is one of the key components to an engaging video game experience, making the player feel immersed within its world. But it can be challenging for even experienced and well-known actors like Peter Dinklage (Destiny’s alpha release fiasco is testament to this).
Video game voice overs should be approached collaboratively for optimal results. Producer and director should provide all of the resources that enable voice actors to do their job with excellence – this includes full script, character breakdowns (including any group/ethnic background information), screen shots or portraits of characters and any screen shots/portraits of them that might help the actor visualize and bring life to their performance.
Producer and director should provide voice talent with an overview of what the project entails and their goals for it, in order to narrow down audition options and feel secure about selecting one role as their audition option – thus freeing them up to focus on acting and making their character come alive!
As with any form of acting, video game voice actors must possess strong imagination and be capable of working quickly and at a rapid pace. Since directors and video game developers may provide vague instructions during recording sessions, it is crucial that voice actors can adapt quickly as necessary and alter their performance when necessary.