Right now, it feels like there aren’t a lot of resources for aspiring or even working game writers, narrative designers, voice actors and voice directors, nor is there much transparency about process or the What or the Why when it comes to videogame VO. So this is an effort to publicly document and share our working methods, explain what we do and why, in the hope it’ll be of interest or use.

We have made three documents that cover off some of this process:

• Our studio’s standard Voice Over audition script
• Explanatory/director notes on the script
• And finally, our best practices guide for directing voiceover

Please take all of these with a pinch of salt: these are far from definitive – other studios and professional voice directors do a lot more of this kind of thing than we do – this is just what we’ve learned about writing, casting and directing VO across nearly two decades of game development.

Also, please don’t send us your auditions! This document is designed to be a teaching tool, not a casting call.

SPLASH DAMAGE AUDITION SCRIPT

NARRATION

“Mars, 2072. Humanity’s first, last and only off-world colony. Contact with Earth has been lost. The air recyclers are starting to fail. And someone’s day is about to go from bad to much, much worse.”

CHARACTER NARRATION; COMBAT MISSION BRIEFING

“OK, listen up, we – LISTEN UP! Here’s the plan. They know we’re coming. They’ll be well dug-in, concealed snipers, minefields, obstacles, barbed wire, the works. They’ll try to split us up, lure us into their kill zones and dead ends, and ambush us. We Do Not Let Them. We spot them before they spot us. We call in targets, put warheads on foreheads. We let THEM move, we let THEM make a mistake. We keep our heads down and our eyes open. Understand? UNDERSTAND? Good luck.”

SALES PITCH

“Dear Valued Customer / Internet Stranger, have we got a deal for you! Yes. Yes, we do.”

“Loot Crates! Hand-made by computers! And people! Probably.”

“You would be nuts to miss out on this. Like, proper foaming-at-the-mouth war-whoop underpants-on-your-head mad.”

TALKING A SOLDIER THROUGH COMBAT

“Single, aimed shots, Soldier. Take your time. See your target. Control your breathing. Squeeze off one round at a time. A near miss is no good. Aim small, miss small. Good effort, soldier. That’s the stuff.”

COMBAT BARKS