Wednesday, March
15th

Hello, and welcome to
this lovely Designer Diary. You may not realize it, but between
implementing brilliant strategies for world domination
and filling up
the Telltale website’s blog section with my courageous words of wisdom,
I actually work at designing games. Follow me, if you will, into the deep and
perilous woods of game design as I dedicate these days to the completion of
Bone: The Great Cow Race.

I have just completed
a multi-week stint as a consultant during voice recording sessions.
I sat with the director and technician
and assisted in directing the voice actors and providing context
for the lines. You never realize how many legitimate ways there are
to read the line “Oh no! Maude!“ until you try to relate
to a voice actor exactly how it should be said. Is it sincere? Sarcastic?
Where should the emphasis be? What’s my motivation?

The sessions are enjoyable,
but exhausting. The contrast of the bright screens containing the
lines in a darkened room strain your
retinas. You tire of remembering actor’s names and acting cordial
in an attempt to fool them into complacency. You eat way too much
rich, delectable homemade ice cream at the Scoop in Fairfax and put
on about 10 pounds. A difficult burden to be sure.

I’m pleased with how the voice is turning out. Of course all
our favorite actors are back from last game. But we have an additional
assortment of new talent to voice the like of Lucius and the Barrelhaven
Boys and the motley individuals that make up the rest of our assemblage.
Gran’ma and Thorn were both recast, and I think fans of the
series will be pleased with the results. Oddly enough, an actor’s
audition tape does not necessarily reflect what the actor in question
will sound like when they are in front of the mike. This makes every
time the door creaks open and a new face walks in into a rather nerve-racking
experience. Is this person going to be what we hoped? Is this going
to work out? Will I be able to restrain myself from pulling the lever
of doom which will drop them to hungry crocodiles? Fortunately for
our fans and the actors, the answer for Cow Race is an absolute yes.
I am really happy with the voice acting in this game, and I think
even our staunchest critics will agree with me. (If not, there’s
always the crocodiles).

The real test of course comes when the voice is actually implemented
in the game and the characters start speaking aloud. Suddenly conversations
that had previously made me smirk now make me full on laugh loudly
with much mirth and amusement. The voice acting takes our carefully
crafted lines to a whole new level that text alone never reaches.
It never ceases to amaze me how smoothly the conversations turn out
when they are in the game. You see, in the voice studio we only ever
record one actor at a time. Multiple actors do not crowd into the
studio to act out conversations with each other. Doing this would
be a logistical nightmare. Instead we must have faith that our meticulous
attention to detail while directing will result in a smooth conversational
flow. Strangely enough, it works!

The sound is slowly permeating
the game, creating a richer experience on a day to day basis. Very
soon now every location will be humming
with ambience, responding with sound effects and vibrating with glorious
music. This week, I’m bringing in my GOOD headphones!