Why Naija speaks with an accent?

[Land Whale]

Why do you decide to have Naija speak with a British Accent? I love it!

I really love the British accent. It gives Naija that air of wisdom & experience, despite her youth. It also make sense to the fantasy milieu of Aquaria, as her accent makes her at once familiar & something we can relate with, yet reminds us that Naija is otherwise an otherworldly being. Otherwise, it's just cool, as cool as Sean Connery's brogue.

Is that why you choose her to have an accent?

[Alec]

Its kinda funny, Jenna Sharpe's website was one of the first sites I came across when looking for voice actors, and I was really impressed. I emailed her at that point too, but she didn't get back to me for some time...

We originally wanted "no accent" (I suppose a 'North American' accent?). We auditioned 100+ people. But none of them really had what we were looking for. Some of the auditions were painfully bad and sometimes hilarious. We ended up hiring a lady whose audition we were happy with - but when we had her record more, we realized she wasn't right for the part. It was a frustrating thing to go through.

Eventually Jenna emailed me back, and we had her do some auditions. Right away, she was nailing the scripts... without needing much input from us. At that point we started to realize that the accent actually brought more color to the script and helped give Naija an interesting personality. Now its hard to imagine the game without that feel.

So yeah, we kind of arrived at the accent in a roundabout way, but I'm happy we got there. Jenna's got some serious talent!

Maybe Jenna will share her side of the story too... 

[Assault]

Does the game have voice through the whole game? (Meaning more voice actors) Or is it all text and you get to hear Naija at key points of the game?

[Alec]

In place of textual dialogue that most games rely on we used voice acting to drive the story without interrupting the gameplay.

The game is narrated by Naija, its kinda like you're in her head!

[SBKT]

In place of textual dialogue that most games rely on we used voice acting to drive the story without interrupting the gameplay.

The game is narrated by Naija, its kinda like you're in her head!

I always liked the RPGish feel of the text, personally. You usually have text AND Voice, but no text kinda makes me sad, being an RPG lover and such.

[Krissy]

In place of textual dialogue that most games rely on we used voice acting to drive the story without interrupting the gameplay.

The game is narrated by Naija, its kinda like you're in her head!

So kinda like a third person feel but a first person perspective?

[stahlej]

I'm usually an advocate against VA in games since the quality in 95% of the cases are really bad. A poor performance will just derail the characters and some cases the games credibility.

But I must say the performance in the trailer is among the best I've heard. It feels natural and not forced and corky as in most cases.

[SBKT]

I'm usually an advocate against VA in games since the quality in 95% of the cases are really bad. A poor performance will just derail the characters and some cases the games credibility.

But I must say the performance in the trailer is among the best I've heard. It feels natural and not forced and corky as in most cases.

And now, you all of the sudden changed my view on the voice acting and soured it. Glah.

[Alec]

I think Jenna is perfect in the part. We're all going to head down to GDC, so hopefully we'll be able to record the final lines there. For me, good voice acting can add a lot to the game. In this case its also cool because Naija can keep yapping as you continue to swim, explore and fight stuff in the background.

But, if you're one of those people that has an "allegric reaction" to voice acting in games, or if you don't understand English (which, if that's true, you won't understand this post... but, anyways!) there'll be subtitles.

[SBKT]

I think Jenna is perfect in the part. We're all going to head down to GDC, so hopefully we'll be able to record the final lines there. For me, good voice acting can add a lot to the game. In this case its also cool because Naija can keep yapping as you continue to swim, explore and fight stuff in the background.

But, if you're one of those people that has an "allegric reaction" to voice acting in games, or if you don't understand English (which, if that's true, you won't understand this post... but, anyways!) there'll be subtitles.

Avoiding another point...  Turning off voice acting only.

[Quemaqua]

What we've heard so far sounds great.  And you know, voice acting has improved greatly in the last few years.  There's still a ways to go consistency-wise, but there's good stuff being done out there.

[Alec]

Avoiding another point...  Turning off voice acting only.

Its a game. You can customize how you play it. You'll be able to setup the controls how you want, and you can disable parts of the sound. You can mute the music and loop Ecco tracks in the background if that's what turns you on. Heck, you could hack it and replace all the graphics with ASCII characters if that's your thang.

But that's common sense. If you're not into it, don't use it.

And dude, chill out a bit. You don't need to spam every thread.

[tjam]

Its kinda funny, Jenna Sharpe's website was one of the first sites I came across when looking for voice actors, and I was really impressed.

I'm having a hard time finding her web site. Would you mind providing a link?

[Alec]

http://www.freewebs.com/jennavation/

[Zam]

A question just came to me...

If Naija has voice acting, do any of the NPC's have it as well?