Community Event / Creation Elite voiceover demo

bitsixteen

B
Hello all, I'm new to this forum, but I'm an old fan of Elite. I bought it for the Spectrum in summer 1986 and thought I would never play another game again. I also later bought it for my Amiga and then thought I would never play another game again. I've played others in the genre, like X2, but none come close and I cannot wait for Elite Dangerous.

I am now an audio engineer in Dublin with about 14 years' experience recordinig and directing voiceovers and recently, I started creating audio demos. I have written three demo scripts for Elite to demonstrate how voiceover audio could sound in either cut-scenes or interactions. This is the first one I've recorded and produced (more will follow) and happens to utilise two US voiceovers I have on my books, but I've lots of others from different regions. I added sound effects just to give an idea of context.

The preamble to this is that we have the 'green' Jameson docking at Reorte to collect yet another shipment of textiles when he's called into the textile company manager's office. All comments welcome.

https://soundcloud.com/bitsixteen/sets/video-game-demos-1/s-2MLg1

Many thanks,
Paul Fegan
Dublin
bitsixteen.com

P.S. Some anachronisms. e.g. The year of the Cobra's manufacture doesn't fit in with the Elite timeline. :-(
 

bitsixteen

B
Thanks, Allen, will check out that link.

Gutted about 'Deeso'. Had no idea. Maybe Americans pronounce it differently? <clutches at straws> ;)

Cheers,
Paul
 

Gimi

Gimi
Well, please keep going. Eagerly awaiting a continuation of your demo.
Very nice.

Edit: Listened to it again using a headset. Some very nice background sound effects there. Impressed!
 
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bitsixteen

B
Thank you, kindly, Gimi. I hadn't really produced it as a series; it was really just to demonstrate what could be done. Though someone else just asked me what happens next so who knows?

Very grateful for your comments, though.

Cheers,
Paul
 

psykokow

psykokow
I love the quality of the recording, the voice acting is excellent and interesting...

What would you like to do???

Is it technical, would you rather help in the technical aspect or are you looking to create a story and another audio drama? You clearly have good skills in this area... so please keep us posted in your plans and ideas..
 

Minti2

Deadly, But very fluffy...
Minti2
Whats in the god damn crate!?:p

That was good my friend, great background noises and clear speech, you def need to finish that story off, i want to know what happens next! :)
 

bitsixteen

B
Hi Psykokow,

Wow! Thanks a mill for the compliments. I've been recording voiceover audio for eLearning, adverts and online promos for years and I'd love to get involved in recording voiceover audio for games.

Hadn't really thought about an audio drama as I didn't know there'd be any interested. Hadn't heard about Lave Radio until today and it's excellent.

I will be releasing two other demos. One will demonstrate how Elite ATC might sound. The other is based on the salvage video Frontier released during the Kickstarter phase. Will post as soon as they're ready.

Thanks a million,
Paul
 

bitsixteen

B
The Lone Gunman, thank you very much. Really appreciate you taking the time to listen to it *and* comment. Might have to do a sequel now. :)

Cheers,
Paul
 

psykokow

psykokow
Agent P's adventures... not sure theres enough variance in fart sounds to facilitate the telling of the tales of the thargoid and Fer-de-lance...

IF there was, I would want John Hurt to be the narrator!
 

bitsixteen

B
Ahhh... now, John Hurt. *There* is a narrator. Not to mention the late Richard Burton (War of the Worlds album). Also thought Christopher Plummer did an excellent job on Skyrim.
 

fozza

fozza
bitsixteen said:
Thanks, Allen, will check out that link.

Gutted about 'Deeso'. Had no idea. Maybe Americans pronounce it differently? <clutches at straws> ;)

Cheers,
Paul
Click to expand...

Americans and 2nd Technicians alike! Don't worry about it, this lot have been giving me flak for weeks ;)

Loved the demo really really good dialogue really well delivered.

Out of interest how many people have you got working over there at bitsixteen?

Please tell me you are going to continue the story .
NEED TO KNOW WHATS IN THE BOX! ;)

Fozza
 

bitsixteen

B
Hi Fozza, thanks a million for the comments. Very encouraging. I'm just delighted that fellow Elite fans like the demo.

As for bitsixteen, that's really just me. I'm a sole trader (no Elite pun intended). But I have a pool of 70 actors and voiceovers with whom I work. This pool is growing all the time. So clients usually come to me and tell me what they need to record. They'll give me an idea of the age, gender and nationality of the characters they need and we go from there. I've been working with many of these actors for years, Susan and Mark being the two in this demo. They're great actors and so easy to work with. I don't know their full CVs, but Mark was the warden in Lockout and Susan has done voiceover for various projects such as the Zombie Hotel and Galactic Football cartoons, which I think ran on Children's BBC for a time.

I genuinely made this demo as an isolated 'cut scene', to demonstrate an ability to produce game-worthy voiceover audio, but maybe it would be worth running with the story. :)

As for 'Deeso', maybe you're right. Besides, I think it adds to the depth of Elite that some names even have different pronunciations. Tolkien would also have approved of such depth. Well, that's my defence anyway.

Thank you very much for your comments.
Paul
 

Aewarin Jameson

Aewarin Jameson
bitsixteen said:
The preamble to this is that we have the 'green' Jameson docking at Reorte to collect yet another shipment of textiles when he's called into the textile company manager's office. All comments welcome.
Click to expand...
Guess I have to ask the same question as the others - "What's in the box ?" :D

Really enjoyed that ... thanks for sharing. ( "You absolute !" :eek: )

Very professional quality.

It would add a different dimension to ED if something like this could be slipped in but I fear repetition would sink in too quickly - for a storyline driven game it's top notch but I don't think it would work for a sandbox game. Maybe as an intro to ease new players into the game ?

ETA: Bah! Now you've excited my imagination .. imagine an Elite movie ... *dreams*
 
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bitsixteen

B
Thanks insanephoton and Liqua. I have two more Elite 'demos' to record: one involving five actors and the other using six! When they're completed, I'll have to write a follow-up to the one above. :)

Liqua, I know what you're saying about repetition, but Skyrim is a sandbox type game and it has tons of mission-related dialogue. And sure, there are staple pleasantries and sometimes companions repeat the same old tales, but I've been playing it for over a year now and I still meet characters who have something new to say, be it a request for you to go on a mission for them, or just some local gossip. I think it works really well and could add to the expansive interaction we hope to see in Elite Dangerous. Also, common phrases could be spoken by tens of actors so that, while you're hearing pretty much the same lines, you're hearing them from different characters with different tones of voice. I would also *love* to see 'Air Traffic Control' in Elite Dangerous. This was present in the last few versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator and really added to the depth of the game. Actually, one of the forthcoming demos is based on this.

Thanks a million for the compliments.
Paul
 
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