Dragon Commander - The cost of dialogue

lar said:

>>OTH, game production is global and when you figure in all the languages that have to be used, then I guess the cost rises dramatically. If I was the developer I would probably go the local actors route (college or community playhouse) and place my trust in the game's vocal director.<<

Heheh, we tried that with Beyond Divinity and I don't think we want to repeat that experience

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Div Div one of my favs, Beyond Divinity one of my worst.

When it comes to voice acting, I don't blame the actors I blame the voice director.

While Dragon Commander isn't on my radar, I still think voice acting is an integral part for a game's success in today's market. If you want to stay niche, then go with partial VO. If you want to compete with the AAA boys, then I'd say high-quality voice overs are mandatory.

I would think developing a game like Dragon Commander would keep Larian firmly in the niche group, but I've been wrong before. I'd love to see Divinity 3 try to match what we got with Skyrim, but I don't think it's feasible. I just hope DC doesn't kill Div3!

Personally, I think partial voiceovers work a treat - like DraSa 1 and to some extent the Infinity Engine games. They establish the character but don't restrict the development too much - and I usually read ahead, anyway.

Still...I wouldn't make a modern game without VO - it's expected. I've seen people in forums asked if their copy of DraSa was bugged because they could only hear the first line!

Dhruin said:

I've seen people in forums asked if their copy of DraSa was bugged because they could only hear the first line!

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But that was very likely due to the presentation issue I mentioned earlier.
I don´t think anyone thought it was a bug in Mask of the Betrayer .

Most MMO's get away with voicing the first line of dialog (if even) and leaving the rest as text. It can't be that alien a concept to people.

I cannot wait for accurate voice synthesis so people can finally get back to complex branching storylines.

darkling said:

Most MMO's get away with voicing the first line of dialog (if even) and leaving the rest as text. It can't be that alien a concept to people.

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I don't think that MMOs get away with it as much as that it is a necessity of the massive amount of uninteresting and same-y quest text they throw on the player. I really don't need to hear "Collect 10 wolf furs" for the 20th time.