Death Must Die… From Being AWESOME!
Today a video game that I recorded a few voices for is released and I am super psyched about it! I’ve been watching people with early access keys playing it, and the general consensus is that this game ROCKS! And I’m over the moon that I was able to contribute in a small way to it’s awesomeness! The name of the game is Death Must Die, a new release from Realm Archive and it is available to purchase at the Steam website.
I was first approached by Realm Archive back in September to do some auditions for several parts in the game. I recorded the auditions, sent them off and as a voice actor typically does with auditions - tried to forget about them. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED the characters and storyline, I was so excited to do these auditions, but the thing is, as a voice actor, we are always cautioned not to get too attached to any role we audition for. There are tens or hundreds or in some cases even thousands of people auditioning for a role, and the likelihood that you will get that role - even if you are an excellent voice actor - is very slim. So I was elated when Realm Archive contacted me to say I’d been short-listed for 3 of the characters and would I be able to send another audition taking into account the adjustments they’d asked for. Sure I would! Buuuuuuuut one problem - I literally got that email as I was driving hundreds of miles to spend a week with my sister’s family in Cape Cod.
Luckily my nephew is a bit of an electronics gearhead, and he had a mic I could use to record. The set-up wasn’t nearly as good as my home studio, but luckily the crew at Realm Archive were really understanding and had already hear the quality of my personal recording booth and microphone and they knew I would be able to deliver much higher quality sound once I was back home. I was able to record the follow-up auditions and sent them off with fingers crossed!
A few days later I heard back that I had gotten 2 of the roles I auditioned for! I was ecstatic! They just liked my portrayal of the characters so much they couldn’t decide which of the 2 they wanted me for most, and decided to cast me for both of them. I was happy to oblige. We scheduled a remote directed session and recorded the lines. I’m used to a lot of self direction (that’s where I perform lines and then go back to listen to them right after and personally decide if they sound right or if I want to re-record them) so it’s always fun to have someone direct me in real time as I am doing the lines. It was a very positive experience. We signed off and I figured that would be the last I heard from them until the launch of the game - but I was wrong!
A few weeks after that they contacted me again to ask if I could voice a 3rd character for the video game. Of course I said yes! Turns out they had loved the voice I sent in, but they thought it would be too much if I provided the voices of 3 characters in the game. So they kept trying to find someone for that 3rd part, but eventually decided they’d use me. Luckily I have an impressive range and strong abilities to change my manner of speaking so voicing 3 separate people in the game was no problem for me. Summer has a kind of laid-back, fun voice and I added some vocal fry to her lines to mimic the sound of fire. Winter is higher pitched with a soft, clear voice with a little whisper to it once in a while, like a crisp December day. And Lady Justice has a strong but level voice, she is literally justice incarnate, impartial and interested only in balancing the scales. I’ve been watching videos of people playing and so far no one has even suspected I do all 3 voices! So I’m pretty proud about that! I’ll pat myself on the back for that one.
