Bring Characters to Life with Video Game Voice Over

A trained and professional actor comes into the recording booth with main traits and vocal qualities in mind. Debbie enjoys the collaborative process of working on a script and characters with those in the room. She offers a wealth of experience, and can deliver degrees of subtlety and specificity so that the character is truthful and believable. She will come in with her own ideas surrounding the characters personality and depth, but will also have the ability to be malleable and receptive to what direction her clients wish to take. Debbie will play around until the character in the video game sounds just right.

Where an adept actor really benefits voiceover for a video game, is in their ability to be flexible and malleable in their delivery. Each line has to be delivered with a tone and attitude all its own. This is possible with someone who has developed great skills in improvisation. Debbie is able to think quickly on her feet, to change directions if need be and drop into various character accents at the drop of a hat. For Arafin: Return to Nangrim, Debbie had to speak truthfully and confidently in a completely made up language. Often times an actor in voiceover is required to play multiple parts. A range in emotion and acting ability is vital in ensuring that each of those characters are portrayed in a believable and engaging way. Stamina in the physical work of voiceover is also an important quality as voicing the screams and fights of characters can be taxing on the voice.

The physical portrayal of characters in video game voiceover is also important to the process of animating the game. Often times animation is not completed until after the voiceover is completed in order to utilize motion capture. An actor’s vocal quality and tone can change when they are being extremely physical, for example when they are justiculating with their hands. This is important in their delivery because it can change the emotion behind their line delivery. Unlike text to speech voiceover, for products like Alexa and Siri, where the voice needs to be tempered and precise, video game voiceover needs more color and variations in the delivery of the text.

Experienced voice over actors know their characters have to be bigger than life because their personification is not being absorbed through a purely visual medium. It is easy for someone to believe a character on film or on stage because they can both see and hear them. A performance is much more nuanced and specific when an actor only uses their voice. A skilled voice actor fully understands the importance of committing fully to the voice of their character.

Debbie is proficient in many different accents that have come in handy for video game voiceover. In LOTR Card Game, she voiced the character of an Evil British Queen the likes of Cersei Lannister, someone she is asked to emulate often. She was the voice of a german scientist Dr Klaudia Klaus in 9 Clues 2: The Ward. She is able to personify mature, confident and experienced women, but can also be adaptable to play motherly and compassionate caregiver-type characters too. She is unmatched in her specificity, like in her portrayal of a middle-class bigoted women in 1950’s New Orleans in the video game Mafia III.

Debbie can adapt to any specific characteristic in order to fully personify her characters. Her experience and acting training will shine through in the vivid, full-fludge quality of her character’s voices. She is incredibly skilled in accents and dialects and can ensure that her characters sound dramatic, vivacious, and earnest. She can even acting in other languages. As an actor she knows how to bring up the emotions of your winding, adventurous tale for your video game players.