Should we organize a resource pack for voices?

[+ EraYachi 180]

Now, I'm putting this in Theory in Development, because I'd like to discuss this, gauge people's interest in it, to see if it would work. I'd like to know how much it would benefit this community. I'm not actively recruiting anyone, just testing the waters and opening a dialogue. I'd like to hear other peoples' thoughts and ideas.

 

Anyway. We share resources every day, and use each other's stuff all the time. But one of those things we can't easily share/distribute are voices. I mean, it is possible to have royalty-free audio clips for voice acting usage. Not easy, but possible.

 

I remember a while back, whilst paraoosing an old website dedicated to game making (non-RPGMaker), that a group of people had put together a voicebox--basically, a package of pre-recorded voice acting snippets for free and general purposes. Now when I say 'voice acting', I don't mean fully versed lines. I'm talking about amateur voice actors recording sounds, like, "Yes." "No way!", "Hmmm." "Oh, no!" Laughing. Growling. Scoffing. Sounds that characters make during conversation. Think Fire Emblem: Awakening. It's not fully voiced, but a package of like 20-30 sounds (or more), or short phrases per character can go a long way to spruce up your dialogue.

 

Pros:

 

• It doesn't need professional recording software. It also doesn't take fantastic voice acting skills. All it takes is some average person reading one or two-word phrases and sounds into their mics with Audacity. Then someone can just take the recordings and edit them. Someone.
• Voice samples can be easily edited in pitch/treble to sound like new voices.
• Makes games feel more 'modern'. Hearing a voice helps put more character into the words being spoken, especially in long dialogue cutscenes.

Cons:

 

• This needs multiple volunteers. Having say, 12 people or more. Both male and female. That way, you can have multiple voice options for various characters (old man, old woman, young man/woman, children, etc.). If there are only a few people recording, everyone and their sister will be using the same voices for their project--and that gets old.
• Obviously, even in ogg format, having audio clips for voices will increase game size. But not as much as a fully voice-acted game.
• Time. This kind of thing would take time, and patience.

 

I'm chock full of ideas to spearhead a project like this. This might come as a surprise to many, but with the use of Audacity, I make a pretty decent voice actor for a young girl (age 9-12ish). Probably not so much for an older female. I've already recorded some stuff for usage in various games, and I wouldn't care if it were used in other games as well. Here are some things I recorded:

 

• Sounds: (grunts, sighs, laughs) Sounds of disgust. Taunting. Angry growling. Whooping (joy), snoring, yelping.
• Phrases: "Yep!" "Nuh-uh." "Sure." "Nope." "Fine, whatever." "Huh..." "Eww." 

 

Believe me, I know what it feels like to sit at your computer, sounding and feeling really weird just making random sounds and saying random things into a headset microphone. 

 

Anyway. What are your thoughts on putting together a free resource  'Voicebox', a la Fire Emblem style? Imagine if we could get dozens of people involved over time;  having a greater diversity of voices would be fantastic. And it's also incredibly easy compared to other resources--custom art, logos, sprites and scripting--this is something even brand new beginners to RPG Maker can do if they want to contribute.

 

 

[+ Chaosian 617]

Fun idea, it'd be a decent community project. I'm sure there's voice actor communities we could contact too if not for volunteers, then for commissions.

[HumanNinja 144]

That is an excellent idea. I feel as if many could benefit from such a resource. I have been pondering the idea of voice clips for when a skill goes off or a character takes damage in battle. After scouring the web, there are not many resources of good quality that are free-to-use. I hope this takes off!

[Kayzee 4,032]

That probably depends on the quality of the recordings most of all really. If you can get nice clean studio sound for everyone, maybe. Then again, voices have always been to me the kinda thing where doing generic clips might not always be the best idea. I mean not that short voice clips can't be meaningful, because they can. But I mean, I think recognizing voice clips in multiple games will probably end up like recognizing sprites.

[BigBlueCar 22]

This is a really fantastic idea and we should get on it straight away in my opinion.

 

I'm gonna get on Audacity and have a go at recording some generic lines.

[BigBlueCar 22]

Right, firstly EraYachi is completely right; it is extremely awkward sitting there grunting at your computer, but also pretty fun. I had a crack at a kind of old knight character just to get the ball rolling.

 

Oldknight.wav

 

I think for it to work we need to come up with a kind of script, a list of what clips each character should have. I'm thinking stuff like;

 

-Hello line

-Goodbye line

-Grunt 1

-Grunt 2

-Victory line

-Injured line

-Agreeing line

-Disagreeing line 

-Special attack line

 

etc.

 

Thoughts? I think that if a few people get involved this could be a really fun resource.

[+ EraYachi 180]

Right, firstly EraYachi is completely right; it is extremely awkward sitting there grunting at your computer, but also pretty fun. I had a crack at a kind of old knight character just to get the ball rolling.

 

Oldknight.wav

 

I think for it to work we need to come up with a kind of script, a list of what clips each character should have. I'm thinking stuff like;

 

-Hello line

-Goodbye line

-Grunt 1

-Grunt 2

-Victory line

-Injured line

-Agreeing line

-Disagreeing line 

-Special attack line

 

etc.

 

Thoughts? I think that if a few people get involved this could be a really fun resource.

 

This is amazing! You've inspired me to add my own...shortly. I'll record something tonight or tomorrow after work. These were really well done. In fact, if we get two people with the ball rollin' (you and I), then who knows who'll join? I'll type up some instructions and make an official thread for the collection of voice talents. Two voices aren't much, but there's always the hope more people will come out of the woodworks and give it a shot.

 

Seriously though, well done. =P

[+ Jinumon 29]

I would love to contribute to something like this. Or even be involved in organizing it. I've been told I have a good voice for lines. But all my microphones suck....

 

Jinumon

[+ EraYachi 180]

So here's what I recorded and edited in a jiffy:

 

 

For the record, I don't actually sound like this. Trust me. Audacity is great, but it's left the voice slightly electronic in some places. It still sounds good. Recording with a headset mic might not yield professional results, but then...we're looking at generating free resources for free games.

I'll be working on a resource thread today; I've already begun to write one up so there's a place to officially contribute. But BigBlueCar's example, and mine are similar to what we'll need for the pack, just in different styles. I'll be trying to emulate other voices in the future; just not today.

[The Dragon God 34]

It never hurts to try, I would like voices in my game! Great idea! Btw, are there any free packs?

[BigBlueCar 22]

Had a few days away, that's really great EraYachi! Very JRPG. Slightly relieved that isn't your normal voice but it was nice and characterful.

 

@Jinumon Just give it a go mate, no one is expecting professional quality and the more people we have up for contributing the better.

 

@Trust in God!!! We are making the free pack! If enough people get involved and we get organised anyway.

 

So what EraYachi did was a lot of short clips that could be interspersed through conversations, I was trying for more specific but probably less useful clips. I think a mix of both would work best, with each 'voice' having a lot of interstitial clips as well as some that apply to battle conditions/specific characterisation.

 

Actually making them available will be easy, just using a blog and some MEGA links would do. The tricky part is making the voice clips useful for game makers, and easy for people to get involved in recording them. 

 

The best way I can see is to make a standarised script for each voice, compressed into a downloadable voice pack. So if you listen to the sample of EraYachi's Young Girl voice, you click download and get a reliably useful set of .OGGs. If you like Jinumon's Taciturn Ninja sample you click download etc.

 

To try and get the project moving I'm going to suggest a standard script. If somebody wants to contribute, they just record themselves speaking through it and post the file here. Then one of us can clean it up in Audacity and split it into individual clips for uploading.

 

The script I'm suggesting here has the basic line, then in brackets different ways of saying it to add more variety to the pack. Recording clips for all of them would be best, but obviously feel free to just pick one or get creative and add your own!

 

-Hello (Hello) (Hi!) (Greetings) (Nice to meet ya) (Do I know you?)

-Goodbye (Goodbye) (See ya!) (Until we meet again) (Missing you already) (Just go)

-Agreement (Yup!) (Sounds good to me) (You got it) (We'll do it your way. For now.) (Fine by me)

-Disagreement (Nope) (No way!) (Absolutely not!) (Not what I would choose) (Are you insane?)

-Confusion (Huh?) (What the-?) (Hmmm....) (What!?)

-Grunts of pain (Oof!) (Ugh!) (Argh!) (Ow!)

-Injured (Ow, that hurt!) (I'm in trouble here!) (Is that... all you got?) (I need help!) (I'll enjoy killing you for this)

-Start of a fight (Bring it on!) (I'm not afraid of you) (I wish it didn't have to be this way..) (I'm going to enjoy this!) (I don't back down from a fight!)

-Victory (Glad that's over with...) (Easy!) (They should have walked away) (We're all still standing) (Is everyone OK?)

-Special Attack (Take this!) (Raaargh!) (I will never give up!) (Huah!) (Taste my blade!) (Prepare to die)

-Magic Attack (Feel my power!) (Magic, help me!) (Must stay in control...) (Flame!) (Light!)

-Joining the Party (I guess I'll tag along) (Your cause is my cause) (So long as it pays) (Where next, fearless leader?) (Lead on)

-Just useful phrases (Are you buying, or selling?) (You need gear, you came to the right place) (Halt! This is the guard!) (You looking for a place to sleep?) (You look like you need healing)

 

I'm completely open to suggestions about what people would find useful making their games, consider this a beta script, but if someone recorded those lines that voice would be very useful.

 

And there is one massive Pro I want to point out, which is that as a community project game makers can just straight up ask for dramatic moments to be voice acted. If someone asked EraYachi to do some specific lines for their game, as it's a community project she easily could, and then add those lines to the Young Girl voice pack for others to use. I think this could be a great resource, and anyone unsure about their mike or their voice should just give it a go.

[+ TBWCS 953]

This is a nice idea really. Which reminds me, I need a voice for my game "The Girl with Her Familiars" and this project could help me a lot.

[Jonnie91 1,149]

I'm happy to help with the editing process once we get a few more bits and pieces, that way we can bring it all together and have it all as a similar quality  

[BigBlueCar 22]

So I got two other people to sit in front of the mic with me and go through the script thing with me, but as it was 2AM and we were in a state of, ahem, 'advanced refreshment' there's a significant amount of talking over each other, laughing etc. 

 

I'll see what I can get out it, or if someone thinks they can have a go taking out/editing the best bits I'll just post the raw.

[Guyver 65]

 

 

Pros:

 

• It doesn't need professional recording software. It also doesn't take fantastic voice acting skills. All it takes is some average person reading one or two-word phrases and sounds into their mics with Audacity. Then someone can just take the recordings and edit them. Someone.

 

I don't mean to be "that guy" but as someone who has a degree in sound engineering and works in a recording studio, this isn't entirely how it works. You could do it on audacity yes, but you would need a good quality mic and you can only do so much with editing tools for voice overs done at home in front of a pc. That said, I would be willing to edit anything you have in my free time.

[+ EraYachi 180]

 

 

Pros:

 

• It doesn't need professional recording software. It also doesn't take fantastic voice acting skills. All it takes is some average person reading one or two-word phrases and sounds into their mics with Audacity. Then someone can just take the recordings and edit them. Someone.

 

I don't mean to be "that guy" but as someone who has a degree in sound engineering and works in a recording studio, this isn't entirely how it works. You could do it on audacity yes, but you would need a good quality mic and you can only do so much with editing tools for voice overs done at home in front of a pc. That said, I would be willing to edit anything you have in my free time.

 

 

I'm not saying it's that simple. I'm saying that, for a free resource pack with no paid professionals with reason to own good quality mics and equipment, organized by a bunch of regular people on regular-to-low budgets making free video games, it's perfectly fine to have a headset mic and Audacity. Literally, we're going with 'low-to-medium quality is better than nothing at all', seeing how a free voice sample pack like this doesn't exist yet. If people don't mind having lower-quality audio recordings, they're welcome to use these free resources created by volunteer voice actors. If they want crisp, clear-sounding voices that sound amazing, people are going to have to commission them elsewhere to purchase them from resource site A, B, or C, the kind that do this kind of thing for a living. I don't think anyone playing a free indie RPG game with voices are going to discriminate against it if the recording quality sounds like it did in 1997.

 

Thank you for the offer on the editing. When I get the official thread going, we'll probably need people to both edit and provide voice samples. Myself, I'm not a very good voice actor, but I'll try to do a bit of both, personally.

 

On another note (this is to everyone); regrettably, I am incredibly busy in my very last week of a 2 year diploma college program, so I'm delayed on getting this project started. But once I'm home next weekend, I'll have a trillion times more lax hours to pull it together.

[BigBlueCar 22]

@EraYachi actually the sample you posted was great, don't do yourself down!

 

@theguyver thanks for offering to help! Getting a professional to help edit and clean up the voices would be fantastic.

 

But I will echo that you've missed the point a bit, we aren't trying to have AAA level voice acting, just like RPG Maker games don't try to have AAA particle effects or ipad companion apps. We're talking about building a resource so that if someone wants some voices in their games, they can. And Audacity and a laptop mic is more than good enough for that. I totally respect your professional perspective, but I think it would be more productive when we are honing and improving the resource rather than now, when we're still trying to get people involved. Right now enthusiasm and inclusiveness is more important than quality.

 

I've been sorting out my recording from last night, pretty sure I can get three useable voice tracks out of it, but want to stress that it's really fun and simple to do. Something I noticed was that as we all have english accents it isn't as varied as I'd like. This forum has a pretty international community, The more different accents and inflections we have the better in my opinion. 

 

Edit: Good luck with the diploma EraYachi! Immediately stop wasting time on the forum and study.

Edited April 26, 2015 by BigBlueCar

[Guyver 65]

I got your point, and I didn't mean to come off in a negative light. It's really fun to do stuff like this, and a good idea to provide something free for the community. Let me know when you have some material that you would like edited and I can see what can be done with it.

[+ TBWCS 953]

I really would like people from this community to push this idea. I like it, and to be honest I am looking forward for a list of voice scripts maybe we can ask for or do, so when we figure out a game we want to make with a voice, we would be able to use it in the future.

[LordSquirrel 150]

I wish I would have noticed this place earlier. Anyway. i started a little thing over in the resource showcase for character voice packs and this is what I'm doing for my first pack Greenhorn Soldier pack.

[Monkey.D Luffy 6]

looks like a great idea, Making the voices will be fun . will add my voices later at some point

Edited April 28, 2015 by Monkey.D Luffy

[+ Sughayyer 163]

I'm awfully swamped in work, but since I work as a voice-actor I suppose it'd be a nice contribution to the community. I just can't promisse anything time-wise since I've been having a hard time organizing my schedule...

[Karsh 6]

I'd be down to help out as well. Not a professional voice actor but I'm willing to try!

[BigBlueCar 22]

@Monkey.D Luffy, Sughayyer and Karsh, that's fantastic that you are all willing to put your voices in.

 

It feels a bit like we're all waiting for the proper thread to be made, but when it is if the three of you, LordSquirrel, EraYachi and myself are all involved with recording that would be a great start.

 

It would also be useful for game makers to say the voice clips or voice types they would find most useful.

[Karsh 6]

@Monkey.D Luffy, Sughayyer and Karsh, that's fantastic that you are all willing to put your voices in.

 

It feels a bit like we're all waiting for the proper thread to be made, but when it is if the three of you, LordSquirrel, EraYachi and myself are all involved with recording that would be a great start.

 

It would also be useful for game makers to say the voice clips or voice types they would find most useful.

 

I've got a fairly deep voice so I can voice act someone who's bigger or maybe half beast...Fun times