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In this Discussion
Bingo & Friends: Voices & Customisable Voice Sets
Bingo Bango
one-eyed willyPVKII Team
Hello everyone!
As some of you may know, as part of our growing customisation initiative we're looking into adding customisable/unlockable voice sets as part of character loadouts, alongside weapons, hats, and maybe even other cool stuff like different faces (don't take my word for it though - it's something we're looking into!).
To this end I've been doing a few recording sessions to test out how these alternative voice sets may work. Rejenorst, who did the original voices for the Pirate team did a cool alternate Captain voice a while back that I hope to show off to you all soon. I also have someone testing out a Geordie accent for our Archer (think of the Archer unit from the original Stronghold's voice) and a voice for a Viking shieldmaiden character.
Anyway, I myself have had a crack at an alt. Heavy Knight voice set. Here is a Soundcloud playlist. I'd appreciate your opinions and critique - whether you like the direction, delivery etc. Note that it's not fully mixed yet - it needs more 'muffling' to match the current HK's helmet effect, though recording with my head in a metal bucket got me pretty close to the sound I wanted to achieve. I was trying to be a pompous, proud, bellowing bastard, with plenty of gusto and yelling from the chest to make it sound like there really is a human tank under his half-tonne of steel plate armour.
Let me know what you think!
As some of you may know, as part of our growing customisation initiative we're looking into adding customisable/unlockable voice sets as part of character loadouts, alongside weapons, hats, and maybe even other cool stuff like different faces (don't take my word for it though - it's something we're looking into!).
To this end I've been doing a few recording sessions to test out how these alternative voice sets may work. Rejenorst, who did the original voices for the Pirate team did a cool alternate Captain voice a while back that I hope to show off to you all soon. I also have someone testing out a Geordie accent for our Archer (think of the Archer unit from the original Stronghold's voice) and a voice for a Viking shieldmaiden character.
Anyway, I myself have had a crack at an alt. Heavy Knight voice set. Here is a Soundcloud playlist. I'd appreciate your opinions and critique - whether you like the direction, delivery etc. Note that it's not fully mixed yet - it needs more 'muffling' to match the current HK's helmet effect, though recording with my head in a metal bucket got me pretty close to the sound I wanted to achieve. I was trying to be a pompous, proud, bellowing bastard, with plenty of gusto and yelling from the chest to make it sound like there really is a human tank under his half-tonne of steel plate armour.
Let me know what you think!
Comments
But for the HK? It's too proud and boastful, in my opinion. I think the right word is "fancy". The current HK doesn't have much of an "accent", he just uses cliche medieval words.
This guy sounds like he's important, and maybe it's okay for the HK to be important, but it's a little hard to swallow after hearing the blunt, calm, and silly HK after all this time.
Edit: While I fully welcome the idea of alternate voice sets, it is also a source of concern for me. If the newer voicesets are too much of a higher quality than the default ones, either by having
more lines, better audio, or just better quotes, I fear the default ones will eventually go out of style. Is this fear warranted?
Totally, I get where you're coming from and I've had similar feedback from others. Thanks very much!
The thing is, I wanted this so be a more 'Knightly' alternative to the current HK voice, whilst retaining plenty of the comedy that he employs that we all know and love. This guy should be a landed knight, right? So I think he should be proud of his station as a 'Sir' - and that that should go to his head.
Whereas with the Lord, I think the approach should be more stern and commanding than boastful and pompous.
Appreciate the concern and am trying to figure out the best way to implement these features. I for, one, listening back six years later, am pretty underwhelmed by my initial performances with the archer, gestir and skirmisher. Uninspired lines (I was adlibbing!), slightly sketchy/inconsistent audio quality in places, and in the case of the gestir - it was never meant to be in the game! It was just a placeholder I knocked together in a single afternoon, but we never got a convincing replacement so it stuck. That is one that I would like to replace altogether.
Should alt. voice sets be unlocks, or should they be choosable from the get-go? Maybe that's the question we should be asking.
Plus, for something as over-arching as your character's voice, it would be one hell of an unlock, one that would certainly incentivize continued play and act as a milestone for progress.
About your old voices. I would say they're fine, but then again I can't hear what they'd be like if you did them today. I'm sure you know better than anyone if you could do them more justice, and if you feel the best course of action is to just redo them, I'd be for it. But I think there's some merit in largely keeping their accents/voices/personalities the same, barring improvement in their "directions".
In reality though, TheForgotten would probably have to redo the Captain, HK, and Berserker in turn for the sake of consistency.
Yeah - all the oldies are totally 'fine'. They're usable and functional but that's about as far as it goes, I didn't put a whole lot of thought into giving them strong personalities, really. Not sure how they'd turn out if I were to go at them again. My voice has mutated a bit in the last few years. That said, I'd want someone entirely different to do the gestir, as I just can't do the scandinavian accent, nor a convincing 50-year-old. No native english speakers can imitate scandinavian properly, I think. The show 'Vikings' is proof of that (the Floki character is the only one in the main cast who sounds genuine to me - and he's Finnish, I think). That's why I went for a native Norwegian (the wonderful DragonNOR) for the Huscarl and now also for the Shieldmaiden character [who herself may end up as a simple gender swap of the Huscarl].
And yes, it would make sense for tFg to do the same if I were to do another pass on my previous sets. Lots of work involved in that, though.
These are some really good lines Bingo, personally I think these could suit either the HK or the Lord
PS I remember asking you a while back on a stream about doing the Gestir voice again, you were trying to find some one else to do the lines for him.
Thank you Jon!
Yes, still no luck finding a feisty middle aged scandinavian for the Gestir. If anyone knows of someone who fits that description, send them my way!
(What's your Steam name? I forget)
As for the new knight voice I really like it but I think the HK model then should be changed to a much more beefier one and greater stature
I think so
Well, that's the beauty of it - anyone could be under that massive helmet!
Oh, yep! That's the whole idea!
Update: I've got the plague or something and have been off sick from work. Also I fractured my foot two weeks ago so luck not on my side overall... Hopefully I can finish off this voice set this month or the start of next.
And i'd like to add aswell your voices for The Skirmisher,Archer and Gestir, are perfectly done even though it was along time ago you were able to capture the personality's of them nicely! since as i do hear people spamming the quotes you have done a brilliant job so brilliant i wouldn't want you to re-do them since it's a master piece that shouldn't be touched. But that's just in my opinion though, keep it up!
Co-Lead | Level Designer
Ex: Update for alternate Gestir voice rolls out on 04/10/16
Anyone who had the game installed before the alternate voice can choose old Gestir, but new players have to get achievements for the Gestir to unlock the old voice.
Well, if it does end up being tied to an achievement, I would imagine that a lot of current players would already have "won" the new voiceset and be given it retroactively, while anyone without that particular one wouldn't get it.
So it would pretty much feel that way anyway, is what I'm saying. But not just handing it out to everyone playing before the update. It'd be a simple achievement check, if that's the route we're going in the first place.
Though for which achievement is a different story. If the Gestir's is tied to something like "Pride of Odin" where you gotta do 1mil spear damage, I see quite a lot of people not having access to it, but it being quite a glorious unlock when you finally reach it. I largely, almost exclusively play Gestir whenever on the Viking team and am only just about to reach the halfway mark on it. But I'm sure the team will pick an appropriately difficult achievement (if not make a new one) for new voicesets if that's what they decide to do.
Rule #1: Have fun. [incredulous gasping ripples throughout the room]
That concludes Funtime Class! We didn't have the funding for a lengthy seminar. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Stop by again for our next lesson: "Heavy Knight's Heaving Heart: How to Write Poetry for Swords!"