S'up gamers? I'll be hosting some listening sessions for the demo reels submitted to Maxi's roster sheet (Mon/Tues/Weds @ 1 PM PST in DevTalk). If you're looking to add voice acting to your game, I'll be there to answer some general questions and have a cheat sheet here with some important tips:
>Every VA signed up for a reason. They know what game jams are, and are interested in some shorter unpaid work.
>Voice acting is often the last element added to a game, because you need the lines to be set in stone before they start working. When you reach out to one, make sure you have something for them to do
>With partial voice acting, you'll have flexibility to alter parts of the script that aren't fully read out by your talent
FULL VOICE ACTING:
Every line is read out loud by the VA
PARTIAL VOICE ACTING:
Some amount of voice acting. It could be a handful of lines, like in Phoenix Wright, or important scenes only, like Danganronpa
>"Voice acting" also entails "chirps:" The little generic voice lines in DR1 that emotionally paint the dialogue. Things like "Hmm" or "No way!" that get frequently repeated instead of reading out the whole line
>Please remember the jam deadline is December 31st! There's plenty of time to reach out to a VA later once you're further along in your development process. Even if you're not ready to cast now, and you find out you're not ready to cast later, this experience can be used for next time, whenever 'next time' happens to be
When looking to contact a VA, here's a nice generic message template for when you go to recruit:
Hey! I'm a game developer in DevTalk's Winter Jam and recently checked out your demo reel. I'd love to have you voice [NAME] in my game, [GAME]!
[Pitch your game here]
[Description of the character here]
[What's the workload? Partial voice? Full voice? How many lines? How far along are you in getting the game done? (hopefully very very close)]
Let me know if you're interested. Thank you for taking the time to read this!
Good luck on your games! Happy devving!