Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Now let's see the technical side of the game. Of course, in ideal cases, all the
phrases in the game are sound based; recorded voices of humans, reading scripted
lines of text is the most natural approach that gives excellent results. But it is not very
realistic, especially if this is your first adventure game and you working on it alone
or with a small team. Despite the fact that media technology is almost accessible for
everyone, it is easy to get a microphone and some software for sound editing; an
amateur voice will not sound great because you will not recognize your own voice,
thinking that it sounds pretty strange. There are many important nuances both in re-
cording (such as a correct microphone, sound-friendly room, and minimum level of
noise) and in voice acting. As far as this goes, it is not about reading a text from
a paper but expressing some emotions, acting and using the correct pronunciation
of words, and so on; narrating something is a real art. Without proper experience,
sound files will be unconvincing.
But hiring real voice actors (remember that you have more than one talking char-
acters) requires some extra budget, which can become even bigger if some addi-
tional recording is needed during the beta-testing stage of the product. Since for a
first period of time, it is better to be more modest and use only text for phrases in
form of subtitles or speech bubbles. In the meantime, to express some vocal tone
of the characters, you may record short sessions of mumbling speech. It includes
some portion of inaudible talk, such as the sound of a faraway conversation where
only unrelated parts of syllables are heard. There should be several types of mum-
blings—versions for female and male characters—and several types of vocal range
to illustrate characters of different age and temper. Because of the lack of a specific
sense in them, such sound files are universal and can be attached to any conversa-
tion of a corresponding character.
Dialogues
Dialogues play two important roles in adventure-based games. Foremost, they are
narrative tools that help to tell a story, expressing details, which are hidden from the
player's eye. A dialogue can easily describe events which took place in the past or
in another location not shown in the game directly. It may also explain connections
between things, giving the player some directions. Thus the graphics, animation, and
the level of design meet the audience with a superficial layer of a plot but dialogues
reveal deeper layers, making the story more complex and multidimensional. Such
an objective can be achieved by using other methods, as the narrator intervenes in
the form of text-based diaries speared out on game levels or cutscenes, but the dia-
