Designing the Great Cow Race, Part 1
TelltaleGames
Former Telltale Staff
A continuing developer diary by Telltale designer and writer Heather Logas
Hello, and welcome to this lovely Designer Diary. You may not realize it, but between implementing brilliant strategies for world domination and filling up the Telltale website's blog section with my courageous words of wisdom, I actually work at designing games. Follow me, if you will, into the deep and perilous woods of game design as I dedicate these days to the completion of Bone: The Great Cow Race.
I have just completed a multi-week stint as a consultant during voice recording sessions. I sat with the director and technician and assisted in directing the voice actors and providing context for the lines. You never realize how many legitimate ways there are to read the line "Oh no! Maude!" until you try to relate to a voice actor exactly how it should be said. Is it sincere? Sarcastic? Where should the emphasis be? What's my motivation?
The sessions are enjoyable, but exhausting.
The contrast of the bright screens containing the lines in a darkened room strain your retinas. You tire of remembering actor's names and acting cordial in an attempt to fool them into complacency. You eat way too much rich, delectable homemade ice cream at the Scoop in Fairfax and put on about 10 pounds. A difficult burden to be sure.
I'm pleased with how the voice is turning out. Of course all our favorite actors are back from last game. But we have an additional assortment of new talent to voice the like of Lucius and the Barrelhaven Boys and the motley individuals that make up the rest of our assemblage. Gran'ma and Thorn were both recast, and I think fans of the series will be pleased with the results. Oddly enough, an actor's audition tape does not necessarily reflect what the actor in question will sound like when they are in front of the mike. This makes every time the door creaks open and a new face walks in into a rather nerve-racking experience. Is this person going to be what we hoped? Is this going to work out? Will I be able to restrain myself from pulling the lever of doom which will drop them to hungry crocodiles? Fortunately for our fans and the actors, the answer for Cow Race is an absolute yes. I am really happy with the voice acting in this game, and I think even our staunchest critics will agree with me. (If not, there's always the crocodiles).
The real test of course comes when the voice is actually implemented in the game and the characters start speaking aloud. Suddenly conversations that had previously made me smirk now make me full on laugh loudly with much mirth and amusement. The voice acting takes our carefully crafted lines to a whole new level that text alone never reaches. It never ceases to amaze me how smoothly the conversations turn out when they are in the game. You see, in the voice studio we only ever record one actor at a time. Multiple actors do not crowd into the studio to act out conversations with each other. Doing this would be a logistical nightmare. Instead we must have faith that our meticulous attention to detail while directing will result in a smooth conversational flow. Strangely enough, it works!
The sound is slowly permeating the game, creating a richer experience on a day to day basis. Very soon now every location will be humming with ambience, responding with sound effects and vibrating with glorious music. This week, I'm bringing in my GOOD headphones!
Learn more about Bone: The Great Cow Race - click here.
Thanks to Just Adventure for originally hosting this diary.
Hello, and welcome to this lovely Designer Diary. You may not realize it, but between implementing brilliant strategies for world domination and filling up the Telltale website's blog section with my courageous words of wisdom, I actually work at designing games. Follow me, if you will, into the deep and perilous woods of game design as I dedicate these days to the completion of Bone: The Great Cow Race.
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The sessions are enjoyable, but exhausting.
The contrast of the bright screens containing the lines in a darkened room strain your retinas. You tire of remembering actor's names and acting cordial in an attempt to fool them into complacency. You eat way too much rich, delectable homemade ice cream at the Scoop in Fairfax and put on about 10 pounds. A difficult burden to be sure.
I'm pleased with how the voice is turning out. Of course all our favorite actors are back from last game. But we have an additional assortment of new talent to voice the like of Lucius and the Barrelhaven Boys and the motley individuals that make up the rest of our assemblage. Gran'ma and Thorn were both recast, and I think fans of the series will be pleased with the results. Oddly enough, an actor's audition tape does not necessarily reflect what the actor in question will sound like when they are in front of the mike. This makes every time the door creaks open and a new face walks in into a rather nerve-racking experience. Is this person going to be what we hoped? Is this going to work out? Will I be able to restrain myself from pulling the lever of doom which will drop them to hungry crocodiles? Fortunately for our fans and the actors, the answer for Cow Race is an absolute yes. I am really happy with the voice acting in this game, and I think even our staunchest critics will agree with me. (If not, there's always the crocodiles).
The real test of course comes when the voice is actually implemented in the game and the characters start speaking aloud. Suddenly conversations that had previously made me smirk now make me full on laugh loudly with much mirth and amusement. The voice acting takes our carefully crafted lines to a whole new level that text alone never reaches. It never ceases to amaze me how smoothly the conversations turn out when they are in the game. You see, in the voice studio we only ever record one actor at a time. Multiple actors do not crowd into the studio to act out conversations with each other. Doing this would be a logistical nightmare. Instead we must have faith that our meticulous attention to detail while directing will result in a smooth conversational flow. Strangely enough, it works!
The sound is slowly permeating the game, creating a richer experience on a day to day basis. Very soon now every location will be humming with ambience, responding with sound effects and vibrating with glorious music. This week, I'm bringing in my GOOD headphones!
Learn more about Bone: The Great Cow Race - click here.
Thanks to Just Adventure for originally hosting this diary.
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