Voice acting (in videogames); notes and advice

(Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vancouverfilmschool/3650728107/ Creative Commons, attribution required license. )

Some helpful links about voice-acting in videogames, more after the jump…..

People behind the Video game actors (Unreality Magazine)
 
5 video game voice actors (Edmonton Journal)
 
Faces behind the Videogame voices (Meodia)

Voices of Video game (Montreal Gazette)

 Behind the Voice Actors (Great website for matching up characters with their voices)

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Some more technical articles discussing production and legal concerns
 
 Article on blog discussing dubbing versus subtitling (Dubbing versus subtitling)
 
http://blogs.voices.com/voxdaily/2009/08/95_podcast_resources_for_voice_actors.html
Resources for voice actors
 
http://blogs.voices.com/voxdaily/2008/12/voice_overs_tough_legal_questions_answered.html
Great post from this online voice blog; legal questions answered… dated… but still very specific and useful.

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Personal commentary… if you add a voice actor instead of static graphics or word overlays, then you have an additional person to pay, as well as probably another Non-disclosure Agreement(NDA).  It all depends upon your budget; and if you must have voice actors supervised or work live with another voice actor; you should probably have an appendix to your employment agreement stipulating the range of dates you might require from him/her.

Jay Moffitt is a Tennessee attorney. This blog is for entertainment and educational purposes only and does not consitute legal advice or create an attorney/client relationship. Jay Moffitt is not certified as a specialist in this area by Tennessee and Tennessee does not certify specialists in this practice area. All comments will be answered promptly and courteously as long as they are germane to the discussion and do not contain specific game names or incidents.

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2 Responses to “Voice acting (in videogames); notes and advice on “Voice acting (in videogames); notes and advice”

  • Thank you for looking into this Jay. As a gamer I’m in two minds. The Warcraft and Diablo games were mostly done by the development team and the quality was superb (especially the Secret Cow level!). On the other hand the introduction to Oblivion where Patrick Stewart plays the Emperor Uriel was pretty wonderful too.

    It will be interesting to see Star Wars: The Old Republic in all its voice acted glory.

    jaymoffitt Reply:
    July 14th, 2010 at 9:04 pm

    Thanks for the compliment. It really takes another blogger to know how much work (i.e. links/posts/story-ideas) is thrown out on the way to just a regular post. And I agree that for some people, me included, the audio portion of a game is appreciated and greatly underrated.