We’re Idiots

Well, I lost my Ludum Dare weekend to processing voice acting lines yet again. We had 20 characters voiced by 12 voice actors (13 if you include @alexrose’s stream of consciousness vocals in the soundtrack). I auditioned, processed, and exported ~875 separate voice files. Not all of that made it into the game, but all of it got processed. All for a little game called #RIZZFEST2K25.

Compared to Seance (which was a massive undertaking in its own right), we basically doubled the complexity and raw output (Seance included 400 lines from 7 voice actors playing 7 characters).

A lot of effort for an incredibly dumb game about being really bad at pickup lines and failing to hit on chicks. You know. Art. Speaking of art, huge props to @klaiis for absolutely killing it. There were so many different assets that went into this game, and his art ties the whole thing together.

Prep Work

With complex processes like this, prep work goes a long way. Alex wrote a script fairly early on, with voice lines identified for each character (or space carved out for people to ad-lib). We went to work defining how to properly tag and identify lines of dialogue in a way that would allow us to ensure everyone’s takes could be properly referenced. The core gameplay gimmick relies on the main character hearing lines from multiple other characters and turning them into his own. Ensuring that all the dialogue felt natural in a plug-and-play kinda way was a bit of a logistics leap.

Additionally, we had to track down voice actors, get them to record all their parts, and make sure we didn’t miss any necessary lines. Which is inevitable when you’re dealing with this many variables. We only had a handful of times where we needed to go back and fill in some gaps.

Acting Notes

Super huge props to @coleslaughter for voicing our main character (Chad the Collector). He gave such a great unhinged performance. We told him he needed to act like a guy at a party trying to talk over loud music and he just ran with it. His voice acting stream is one of the best things to happen to the internet. He was a champ through some of the most unhinged lines. Here’s a Safe For Work, non-blackmail material clip below.

Are you buried treasure?

For the Rizzers, we had all 5 of the actors deliver all the lines and then handled casting/divvying up the actual takes after the fact based on whose deliveries we liked the most. Everyone had a different take on every line, and it was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle. But, in the end, it felt like 5 distinct characters being differently creepy. I call it a success. And any time we have a chance to sneak @sheepolution into one of our games, I call it a win.

For the girls at the party, they had a lot more freedom to ad-lib and react in appropriately disgusted ways. Huge props to all the actresses, but especially @chrissiecodes and @rincs for sending a TON of character options our way. And big apology to @pomo for not using his takes as one of the party girls. I laughed a ton at his takes, but logistics won out and we weren’t able to include them in the game (but he at least made it in as one of the Rizzers).

Process This

When dealing with turning a couple of hours’ worth of audio into discrete audio clips that are linkable via game logic over the course of a weekend, efficiency is your best friend. I set up a basic signal chain in Audacity to clean the signal, gate, EQ, and compress any audio I’d export. I was able to get audio from different sources to sound APPROXIMATELY equal. Although by the end of the weekend, I was far more concerned with getting things exported than getting things completely matched.

From there I was able to go file by file and flag the “keeper” takes from everyone’s VA. Audacity has a convenient “Label” feature that lets you define and name regions. After labeling the whole file, you can export all labels in one pass, automatically running it through the signal chain and naming the files to match the labels. Outside of a handful of items where I let some typos through, I could pass through the resultant files to Alex to match our Script schema.

Music

I made one of the dumbest songs I’ve made for an LD in a while. And it took a while for us to figure out the right level of stupidity that the game required, but eventually everything meshed. I came up with the core vibe and elements (including throwing in a few different musical easter eggs) and then Alex came in with a very meaningful rap verse about the nuance of the dating world. Or something like that, I just tune him out. See for yourself.

Alex added some dynamic processing (low-pass when you’re outside, reverb inside) to make things feel more engaging. And then also slowed the track during the dialog sections, which just makes it sound more unhinged. Embrace the chaos.

Rizz Rizz Rizz Rizz

So, there it is. Overcommitting to dumb ideas is one of my favorite things. And we DEFINITELY did that for LD58. Give it a play. Go get arrested. Party hard.