NPC Voice vs. Text dialogue for Indie RPG games POLL

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This poll has to do with RPG adventure games that inspire to be like like the Bethesda series or the gothic/risen/arcania games where there is a massive amount of dialogue. While I think anyone will agree voice acted dialogue can sound better than just having text dialogue in game, implementing the voice dialogue can have limitations.

Think about how much more in depth an rpg adventure game could be if it uses text only. Is it so bad to fill in some gaps with your imagination when playing? I remember playing Morrowind and imagining the orcs talking in a gruffly voice and high elves having a very arrogant tone.

With voice acted games, unless you have a huge AAA studio you arn’t going to do very well and many of the voices recording will be chopped up and reused. Should Indie developers stay away from voice acted RPGs?

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Depth has nothing to do with the amount of words presented, but how they are presented.

3

At a certain point, quantity has to come into play. If you talk to an NPC who says in the most brilliantly acted voice “Go kill some boars and I’ll give you gold” that sucks compared to a detailed text story explaining the boar problem maybe about how boars break in the NPC’s house and raze his pantry.

For an indie dev, you might have to choose between a little voice acted dialogue or as much text as you want.

4

There are other ways to present this image other than just text. You present it through the gameplay, environments, overall behaviour of the people in the area, that sort of thing. It’s a game, not a book.

5

You make a valid point.

6

The only game I remember whose voice acting was incredible was Star Control 2, and that was done by its programmer-producer. It fitted the characters extremely. Ur-Quan speak

I remember other games had voice acting, but I always found them unneccessary. I read faster than they speak, and it is annoying trying to read while you hear what you just read.

7

To an extent, it depends on the game. Consider the two following games, if you will:

Riki-Oh: The Game of Ricky A game where you play the part of Ricky.

Doing Time: Surviving in a Privatized Prison A game where you create your own character.

The developer had best not give my character a voice, because they will never get it right. By not giving my character a voice, but giving NPCs a voice - you can end up with some of the silliness seen in The Secret World. Still, I prefer that silliness by leaps and bounds to the outright nonsense as seen in The Old Republic.

In adding voice, you also have to consider how you are going to present text as well. People that play without sound, deaf players, or even those that are visual rather than aural…will want text as well. Of course, you’d also have to make it so the folks that do not want to see the text, do not see it either. Hell, to be blunt, you’d have to set the voice on it’s own volume channel or present players with the options to disable it if they did not want it interfering with their reading of the text.

Another item to consider is how you are planning on adding it. Will it just be random NPCs talking? Are you talking about cutscenes? Will there be options to disable that? What kind of replay thing are you going to have? Each time you talk to the NPC, do you have to listen to the whole thing again? Can you kill that NPC to shut them up?

There is little doubt that there are those that crave voice in their games. I generally ask them the same thing - hey, it’s like when you read a book and then go see the movie…how weak that movie feels compared to the book, am I right? The usual reply is…there’s a book?

So yeah…different folks will want different things. Consider your market - are you making a game for X people, Y people, Z people, or some sort of thing to attract X, Y, Z?

Personally, I can’t remember a game where I did not take issue in some form with voice in it. It’s kind of funny, because if some of them were to get together and use the various parts…it might not have been that bad. But, it tends to be just that bad…meh.

edit: btw, you can watch Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky over on Crackle…

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I think, its far better to have text if you can’t have high fidelity professional voice acting(Most indie developers dont have a 20,000 dollar recording studio and professional voice acting). But if you have the resources/talent then good voice acting can really bring out the characters and make a far better connection with the player. I am fortunate that I do have these resources. I have been running a recording studio for 4 years now.

9

I was considering buying the materials and building a sound booth, then just finding my most verbally talented friends and forcing them to read lines.

The never-winter nights games let you choose your character’s voice from a selection. I always felt it was too limited.

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For NPCs, it can work great - because that is how the character is “supposed” to sound. If you’re playing a pregenerated character, even there - one can easily make the argument that the character sounds like he/she is “supposed” to sound.

When it comes to “your” character though…it definitely gets rough. He/she’s not “supposed” to sound like that. Admittedly, the more customization options you give a player for the character - the worse this can get, as they go through customizing everything only to end up with a one of a few choices that just do not fit how they think their character should sound.

A curious thing, so to speak, that I was thinking about - would be something akin to a vocal mod kit. An editor with various vocalFX, filters, etc, etc, etc - where a player could tune the sound of the character’s voice - and - that would be applied to the character’s voice throughout the game. Of course, that gets into what kind of resources that would require - would you do it during the game or would you have it go through and save a copy of the character’s custom voice for all dialogue that will be played…so to speak.

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They already have sliders for facial features and body type, I think voice would be a cool next step, but that is defiantly an AAA thing that would require some R&D, although don’t underestimate what some indies can cook up. Would be cool to have a voice wizard where it just reads a paragraph as you push sliders around, Male/Female, Age, nasally level, deepness etc…

But, voice is only apart of how a character sounds, there is also dialect.

12

Less text. No voice. Think smaller.
Gigi

13

I haven’t looked, since Audio Filters are a pro feature - but I wonder if there are any assets out there along those lines, that you could drop in the sliders and change the sound of the voice along those lines. It looks like something that should be doable…

14

k tnx. wll cnsdr.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Prg6pjGMCg

It could be revolutionary…

…just make sure that nobody that buys your game knows where you live. :slight_smile:

16

Voice… A lot more work involved. much bigger footprint. 90% of players will skip it.
Text. Less work. smaller footprint. 90% of players will skip it.

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I think if you can’t find good voice actors, then text is a better choice. I’d rather read the dialogues instead of listening to some poor voice acting.

18

I personally like voice acting in games because it adds immersion, but I generally play games that involve story and characters talking that aren’t necessarily speaking to the player. Text is good for RPGs and quest-based games, though. Also anything trying to emulate a retro style. In general, voice acting vs text really depends on the quality of the voice acting and kind of game. Voice acting can fit most categories while text does not cover as many.

EDIT: Voice also fits better than text in games that involve constant focus on the game and the action rather than halting the gameplay to read a message.

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This is the sad truth. The solution? just have no dialogue at all!

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Welcome to Indie RPG.
This version created December 21, 2012.
Front of House.
You are standing on the porch of a big white house.
The door is open.

GO IN
Living Room.
You are standing in the living room.
GO WEST
You can’t get there from here.
GO EAST
You can’t get there from here.
GO NORTH
Office.
You are standing in an office. There is a man sitting at the desk.
On the desk is a book.
LOOK MAN
The man looks back at you and shrugs.
TAKE BOOK
You take the book.
READ BOOK
You can’t understand anything it says.
GIVE BOOK TO MAN
The man takes the book and hands you a bag.
LOOK BAG
Inside the bag you see a gem.
TAKE GEM
You already have the gem.
USE GEM
How would you like to use the gem?
ATTACK MAN WITH GEM
The man falls to the ground with a bloody gash on his forehead. In the distance, you hear police sirens.