Creating Characters and Accents for Video Game Voice Over
Carl Bishop - A voice with emotion, depth and drama for the gaming world
The best and most believable character voice over starts with a truthful point of view. The accent, if appropriate, can enhance it. When creating characters, sometimes all that’s needed is a shift of perspective. You project yourself onto someone else’s situation and motivation. But sometimes it’s a dramatic turn. Being able to deliver a line with emotion and depth is key to video game voice over work.
It’s at those times that character voice over is acting at its most challenging. That’s because it needs to be larger than life but still be believable. Think of your favorite cartoon character. One of mine is Krusty The Clown. He’s crude, inappropriate, and his jokes are terrible. But down deep he has a good heart (if you don’t count his treatment of Sideshow Bob.) Strip away the accent, ridiculous red hair and squeaky shoes and you get a complex character that would work in a serious drama.
Video Game Videos
Character Voice Over for Rainbow Six Siege Video Game
Great characters have believably authentic accents
Delivering a believable accent is more than sounding British, or German or Irish or Jamaican. (Be careful, its easy to mix up those last two if not a native speaker). It’s about embodying a cultural attitude. You can make a Jamaican sound with your voice. But no one will believe it unless you are at the same time pretending to be living in a post-colonial culture. Add to that fiercely proud, values hard work, and is very religious, but also has a great sense of humor.
Take the accent I developed for Bandit, the German mercenary soldier in the video game Rainbow 6 Siege. I used a particular German friend as partial inspiration. I was lucky to have a direct reference. You can create a darn good character using cultural generalities, but it becomes alive when you can give it a detail, or a hook. That’s the key to good video game voice over work.
Vocal stamina and agility is necessary for video game voice actors
Energy and stamina are required to record the hundreds of individual prompts for a video game character. It’s a job for true professionals. Voice actors who know their instruments strengths and weaknesses and the ability to stay focused and sound great for marathon voice over sessions. The typical session is four hours straight. No breaks. Fours hours of stressful vocal production—sometimes screaming and yelling your way through pages and pages of copy can be the norm. All while staying in character. Carl Bishop’s vocal training and degree in vocal performance gives him the knowledge to manage his instrument properly and never miss a session. Your budget depends on it.