Company News Taking Care of Business - Iron Tower Studio 2021 Business Diary

[Tyranicon]

I'm all for adding voice overs, even a few lines to define characters, but it's a major project that requires a publisher.

Forgive my complete lack of understanding of how the VO business side and publisher side of things work, but is it really such a big deal to find some reasonably talented people without spending shitloads of money?

I mean quality VO doesn't just come easy, but how expensive and time consuming would it be to find a few non AAA good VO actors to do a few lines for a few bucks but alot of prestige and rep?

Nobody would be expecting AAA VO anyway, just something half-decent would do imo.

Is the implementation of said voice work also time consuming as fuck to implement?`

I'm genuinely curious of how it works in games and how it gets "made"

It costs a metric shit ton of money and adds untold amounts of work if you want your VO to be better than fiverr quality. I looked into it and noped out just as fast.

 

[elverkongen]

About the same. Last 10 refund reasons:

- The writing is poor. 20 words are used where 5 will fit better.

Classic

Just wait till all dialogue is emojis.

 

[luj1]

Fuck VO

 

[luj1]

even a few lines to define characters

Nwn 1 did it best. Think Aribeth/Aarin Gend. They also had mini musical themes.

 

[Rewrite]

In the first month we sold 14,271 copies.

Damn, I hoped it would flop.

Was AOD discounted in EA? I dont think so, it was 30 USD.
>>> 3300*30
99000
>>> 14000*20
280000

 

[Iskramor]

Vault Dweller
Does Steam show you a number of refunded copies?
If yes, how CS compares on that front with AoD?

About the same. Last 10 refund reasons:

- The writing is poor. 20 words are used where 5 will fit better. This makes every interaction with an NPC feels like I needed to take notes to make informed decisions. Instead it's slog of boring text after slog boring of text.
- this game came out early access but it literally has 00.1% content
- The text is way to small and hurts my eyes to read
- think a book will replace the game just fine.. There is no voice acts its all text to read ... It will give me a headic in a few hours of this.
- The overall visuals of the game gives me a headache and it's difficult to figure out the different places you can walk. On top of it the fact that there's no voice overs further adds to the headache as you're having to read a novel. Mechanically and story wise, seems interesting but just can push through the visuals and need to read everything
- Thought it would be more like Shadowrun. gameplay was slow and difficult
- I understand its early access but not even having partially voiced dialog makes the game world feel empty.
- point blank and i miss with a sub machine gun? Come on this is just stupid mechanics. This game is not fun at all to me, too archaic for this genre.
- Game too hard. Unable to progress through the game
- The game is an early access, but i died way too many times for the tutorial section, or beginning, for me to have any type of fun. Needs lots of work and balance fixes

Reading these, I have a feeling this game will be a fantastic RPG which we will enjoy.

They are right about text though its smallish.

 

[Harry Easter]

- The writing is poor. 20 words are used where 5 will fit better. This makes every interaction with an NPC feels like I needed to take notes to make informed decisions. Instead it's slog of boring text after slog boring of text.

Hmm, this is an old criticism from AoD too, isn't it? A good editor could help with that or a co-author for some rewrites. Is that in the budget or do you want to keep the writing as it is?

Nwn 1 did it best. Think Aribeth/Aarin Gend. They also had mini musical themes.

You're right. As did the romances in BG2. Or Largo LaGrande in Monkey Island 2. This is actually a very good idea, that's worth revisiting.

 

[Vault Dweller]

- The writing is poor. 20 words are used where 5 will fit better. This makes every interaction with an NPC feels like I needed to take notes to make informed decisions. Instead it's slog of boring text after slog boring of text.

Hmm, this is an old criticism from AoD too, isn't it?

Some people didn't like the writing but it wouldn't make the top 10 list.

A good editor could help with that or a co-author for some rewrites. Is that in the budget or do you want to keep the writing as it is?

We'll keep it as is. First, I don't think the dialogues are too wordy or full of fluff. Second, most dialogues already went through either Scott's or Mark's revisions/edits.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

It costs a metric shit ton of money and adds untold amounts of work if you want your VO to be better than fiverr quality. I looked into it and noped out just as fast.

SAG is almost entirely to blame. Plus if you hire one SAG VA, you have to hire only SAG VAs. I've heard, but no idea if it's true, that Bethesda games actually have a better, more diverse cast in non-English VOs than English VOs because they don't shell out enough for more SAG VAs.

By the time VD makes their next game AI VO will probably be fairly standard.

 

[Tyranicon]

It costs a metric shit ton of money and adds untold amounts of work if you want your VO to be better than fiverr quality. I looked into it and noped out just as fast.

SAG is almost entirely to blame. Plus if you hire one SAG VA, you have to hire only SAG VAs. I've heard, but no idea if it's true, that Bethesda games actually have a better, more diverse cast in non-English VOs than English VOs because they don't shell out enough for more SAG VAs.

By the time VD makes their next game AI VO will probably be fairly standard.

It makes you wonder what Bethseda actually spends their money on if they end up cutting so many corners. My guess is marketing and porting Skyrim to fridges.

I both like and fear the advancement of AI tech. The practical fear is that its going to change the workforce in unexpected ways. The other fear is that the technological singularity might not be that far away.

 

[MRY]

- The writing is poor. 20 words are used where 5 will fit better. This makes every interaction with an NPC feels like I needed to take notes to make informed decisions. Instead it's slog of boring text after slog boring of text.

Surreal criticism of ITS. I haven't played any RPG in 20 years more economical with its text than AOD, and CSG is quite economical, too. (Has nothing to do with editorial feedback.)

 

[rusty_shackleford]

It costs a metric shit ton of money and adds untold amounts of work if you want your VO to be better than fiverr quality. I looked into it and noped out just as fast.

SAG is almost entirely to blame. Plus if you hire one SAG VA, you have to hire only SAG VAs. I've heard, but no idea if it's true, that Bethesda games actually have a better, more diverse cast in non-English VOs than English VOs because they don't shell out enough for more SAG VAs.

By the time VD makes their next game AI VO will probably be fairly standard.

It makes you wonder what Bethseda actually spends their money on if they end up cutting so many corners. My guess is marketing and porting Skyrim to fridges.

I both like and fear the advancement of AI tech. The practical fear is that its going to change the workforce in unexpected ways. The other fear is that the technological singularity might not be that far away.

Bethesda games probably have a much smaller budget than people would think considering how well they're known. Any figures thrown around are bullshit though, maybe next time now that they're no longer a private company.