Audio - Video Game: Storytelling - page 201

The next step, of course, is selecting a single, ideal “take” for each line:
the one you actually want to hear in the game. Sometimes this selection
process happens on the spot, during the recording session, as the favorite
is marked for delivery—and the developer only receives one audio file per
line. Other times, though, all the takes are delivered to the developer, for
someone there to sift through and ultimately make selections.
The “someone” saddled with this daunting task is usually a member of
the Audio team, and often a junior team member at that. In my experien-
ce, it's a person with audio expertise but no way to know which take was
preferred by the narrative expert—who may very well have stepped in to
ensure that take actually got recorded. In other words, even if the perfect
take was captured, it might get lost on the cutting room floor because the
person making the selections has limited insight and context.
It's a waste of time and effort to involve your narrative expert in the re-
cording process if you're not also going to include her in the takes selec-
tion process.
Does this mean that every instance of dialogue in a twenty thousand-
line console game needs to be hand-selected by the lead narrative de-
signer? Probably not. But for the most prominent lines spoken by named
characters—probably so. The more important the line, the more important
it is to get the best version of it into the game.
As a fallback, keep all the outtakes handy and give the narrative expert
access to them, in order to go digging for a better take if she hears
something amiss in the build.
Scripted (Mission) VO
Mostly applicable to console games with campaign/story modes, scripted
mission VO is one of the primary areas where Mission Design, Narrative,
and Audio come together. VO lines that play at very specific, pre-determ-
ined moments during a mission can be critical to fulfilling important func-
tions, such as:
▪ Communicating design-related information to the player, such as
objectives and hints
▪ Narratively contextualizing in-mission scripted events
▪ Moving the story forward
▪ Contributing to character development