Animal Sounds vs. Voice Acting

[Lotus Wolf]

My main thoughts:

Using animal sounds would keep Overgrowth true to the Lugaru sound scheme.

It makes sense that (even anthropomorphic) animals would not speak a human language, though that's irrelevant as the use of English would be solely for the players understanding.

Animal sounds adds a kind of "whimsicality" to the gameplay, making it more enjoyable at times to watch fights. (just watched the 117 update, loved the animal 'oofs' and 'hiyas')

While modding Lugaru, I've found that making a varied dialogue with the included set of animal sounds yielded good results, and was very simple.

Using voice acting kicks up the games potential for cutscenes and conversations.

In this space age of videogames, the absence of voice acting usually means reading is involved. I've spoken to many gamers who detest reading dialogues, and while it's not my opinion, many people believe voice acting is an essential feature in games.

Voice acting could be applied in dozens of innovative ways, for example; you're running Turner (or whoever) down a busy street. It's not very obvious what exactly you're supposed to be doing, however; over the din of the people moving about, you can hear someone calling for help. Whether or not it's part of the actual objective, you know there's someone in trouble nearby, maybe you should investigate... Another example; you're following a guide through a harsh blizzard or something (low visibility), and he calls out to you to keep you on track.

Voice acting takes a toll on modders. If we have to live up to a fully voice acted game, it becomes a harder and longer process to produce mods.


Anyway, I could go on but I've already got a solution that addresses all the cons.

How about both? There could be a "Animal Sounds / Voice Acting" option in the menu. That way, you don't miss out on the pros of either option, and you eliminate the con of just having one or the other.

So, both voice acting and animal sounds. Whatcha think?

[SooSiaal]

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=8434 thats what the majority thinks

[Count Roland]

but the majority doesn't know what's viable.

[Aleol]

Apparently they do because the majority agrees with Lotus.

[Count Roland]

You ever try hiring enough voice actors to fill a game, and not just any voice actors, but voice actors who fit the mood and setting of the game and who are actually skilled? how about finding a large number of talented voice actor volunteers who are also in possession of a mic that is good quality on top of having to fit the setting and the developer expectations of the characters? The fact that there's a majority means that it's viable, in your mind, for the company (by which I mean John since everyone else will most likely be busy with other aspects of the game) to go through all that?

[Aleol]

oh, right, that's what you meant. Yes, quality voice acting is difficult to find, and particularly for work like this there would have to be a fully written and edited script and a few acting coaches to get the actors to do the work.

So yes, I know it's difficult. My school has some quality recording equipment, and some people training for voice work, so that might be viable. but I understand what you meant.

[Count Roland]

my apologies if I seemed snappish I took your comment as a bit of a personal insult, probably just a lack of sleep, anyway it would be cool to have it if at all possible to do right, but I'm assuming if they don't think they can they won't, based off of the water arguments.

[Lotus Wolf]

Thanks for showing me the other thread, looks like they indeed agree. Anyway my thought when I made this thread was that if they go one way or the other then we lose features. I think that animal sounds are a must, so as to stay true to Lugaru and because I like them. I also think that OG should at least support voice acting, so that even if the devs won't tackle it the modders will.

[dra6o0n]

What's wrong with reading subtitles?
Sounds like this generation expects more out of a dialog...

While voice acting may provide the action and feel of the situation, that alone can be substituted with other elements, like body languages, facial expressions, and sound effects.

How the heck do you think the older 2D/3D RPG games made their story interesting without voices? They add sound effects and typical "animations" to allow the players to imagine it in their own head.

I guess around this generation, what's expected is that the game "has to tell" you every core aspect before you get into the game, not let your own imagination figure it out.

[Aleol]

What's wrong with reading subtitles?
Sounds like this generation expects more out of a dialog...

While voice acting may provide the action and feel of the situation, that alone can be substituted with other elements, like body languages, facial expressions, and sound effects.

How the heck do you think the older 2D/3D RPG games made their story interesting without voices? They add sound effects and typical "animations" to allow the players to imagine it in their own head.

I guess around this generation, what's expected is that the game "has to tell" you every core aspect before you get into the game, not let your own imagination figure it out.

Tbh, In a video game, I'd rather be shown not told, and in Old-school video games, really you had to tell, but in this age, I'd rather be shown through the landscapes, the interactions, the people, the world the story, but I there had to be dialogue, I'd rather it be voice acted. It would just allow more immersion.

[The Fool Arcana]

What's wrong with reading subtitles?
Sounds like this generation expects more out of a dialog...

While voice acting may provide the action and feel of the situation, that alone can be substituted with other elements, like body languages, facial expressions, and sound effects.

How the heck do you think the older 2D/3D RPG games made their story interesting without voices? They add sound effects and typical "animations" to allow the players to imagine it in their own head.

I guess around this generation, what's expected is that the game "has to tell" you every core aspect before you get into the game, not let your own imagination figure it out.

Tbh, In a video game, I'd rather be shown not told, and in Old-school video games, really you had to tell, but in this age, I'd rather be shown through the landscapes, the interactions, the people, the world the story, but I there had to be dialogue, I'd rather it be voice acted. It would just allow more immersion.

I agree wholeheartedly, older games did indeed have stories but that was often game engine limitations that delayed the emergence of voice acting. Looking back at Link's Awakening on the Super Nintendo they had the character make voice-like sounds while attacking. Older games such as the first Monkey Island game did not suffer in quality because it had voice acting, in fact it made the game more enthralling.

As for the dialog quality issue look at a majority of Square produced RPGs. They had tons of dialog of good quality, but it wasn't voice acted for years. It's hardly a new issue to be demanding of dialog.

Bringing me to the last point, I don't mind implied information about the world, in fact I encourage it. However there are limitations to it, if you really want someone to know something is important you tell them outright in dialog. Missing a key aspect of the game because you misinterpreted something implied is unreasonable for a lengthy game. Videogame dialog over the last 15-17 years would agree with me on that one (mostly RPGs at first).

[hollohill]

It could always be done "indie animation style," where there's basically no voice acting and its all told through actions and visual cues. Triplets of Belleville pulled it off nicely.

[The Fool Arcana]

I believe I saw that while in Germany. It was great because I didn't need to translate almost anything and I could just watch it. Fantastically done as I recall, with nothing too subtly hinted at. Thanks for reminding me of that movie.

If it can be implemented like that I'd drop most of the voice acting in favor of the animal sounds. It'd help in the international repackaging as less voice acting would be redone. The problem is that it worked for the movie because it was abstract and quirky, and allowed for more over the top gestures. However Overgrowth is fairly realistic looking in comparison and the story might seem awkward if presented in realistic gestures and movements. It's definitely an interesting thought though and I wouldn't be against it if it were chosen.

[Monkeyy]

Sorry if this is too zombie-like but this is the most recently used voice thread I noticed.

My point - don't most people playing games with voice acting (eg Skyrim), skip ahead using the text so they don't have to listen to characters drone on?

I think keeping it old school where the character makes a little bit of sound when their text pops up would be fine. Reminds me of BoFIV and LoZ (Even Twilight Princess which is newer just had gasps and grunts etc didn't it?). A character with a unique grunt or brief voice like sound gives an idea of what their voice is supposed to sound like without having a lengthy amount of weird sounding voice acting. Although admittedly most of the grunts in these games are from japanese people and not animals. I quite like the rabbit language sounds as alrady displayed :]

And now for some seperate rambling:

I certainly wouldn't want to have lead characters who sound distinctly American. I don't know why but it just sounds weird to me unless it's in CoD or something. People have mentioned possible various foreign accents for various races and I think that's something to explore too.

I think a mod project for if there are no voices is possibly a good idea as possible mediocre quality would be less glaring.

I know it's probably been brought up before but as the animal thing is the same flavour as the Redwall books, check out how they convey different accents through text. Moles sound like farmers (Classic British farmer accent though in case you're thinking American) "Hurr oi be thinkin you bee a roight gud 'un!" and Hares are posh "Tally ho! Wot wot!". Kinda all irrelevant but something to think about with accents.

Again I apologise if most of that was rambly or didn't make sense, I lose sight of what I'm talking about pretty quickly.