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Project: A Man With a Monocle
Project Started: 11th August, 2009 Last Update: 14th September, 2010
Project Owner: Johnny Look Project Members:
Project Type: Adventure Platformer game Project Progress:
More Info: http://amanwithamonocle.neogen2.com Faves: 14

Bad News and Good News
Posted 4th Apr 10, by Johnny Look  
I'm sorry to announce this, but we decided not to feature voice acting in the game.

Even though the actor we hired for the job did a decent work, having voices just didn't fit the game at all. I've spent several hours mastering the voice lines he recorded (which was around a quarter of the entire script), but it was hopeless.

I was warned before that voice acting and the more retro looking games rarely go well together and I got the proof.

In addition, even though I thought the work of the actor was pretty decent, it would be hard to please everyone and most of the time bad voice acting can be much more immersion-breaking than bad graphics. To really add something to game, I think the voice acting should be truly great. As it was, it wasn't bad, but didn't fit the game at all and didn't really add anything.

Another of the issues we ran into was the huge file size. The around 20 minutes long voice clip we recorded was already over 200 Mb and that was only about 25% of the entire script. With some compression the size was reduced to 45 Mb, but the differences were noticeable.

Summing up, I finally realized why so very few indie games feature voice acting.



But there are good news too: the game can now be played with gamepads and joysticks. I haven't tested the game with a Xbox360 controller yet, but in theory it should work.

As I was playing the game with my PS2 controller, a huge grin appeared in my face. I'm pretty sure everybody dreamt of making a console game at some point, and the fact that AMWAM is being developed using C++ makes it possible to port to virtually any console, so while the dream is still far away, it has never been closer.

Posted by OMC 4th April, 2010

You should release the voice acting as a special bonus or something. I'd like to hear it!
 
Posted by Marko 4th April, 2010

Have to say this is a very brave decision and from what you have said, also the right decision. Saying that, my curiosity says that i would still like to hear it even though it isn't in the game!
 
Posted by W3R3W00F 4th April, 2010

I agree with the above post!

Sorry to hear there won't be any voice acting, though. It really depends on what type of game it is and how it's made to make the voice acting sound good. Like you said, very few indie games have voice acting because it just doesn't fit very well. Oh well, it's okay; AMWaM will be awesome with or without voice talents.
 
Posted by Johnny Look 4th April, 2010

Thanks a lot people, I'm glad you understand my decision.

By the way, I think you guies just gave me an idea for an unlockable
 


 



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