No voice acting

[zhligw]

This game would have been much better as is any game with at least some voice acting
Text just totally takes the one reading it out of the game it is cold and feels solitary. Reading is something I do alone listening to a conversation is what I do with people.
The human voice fleshes it out. This is after all humans talking and interacting with one another
you need voice inflection and tone and emotion. Good writing is not enough for this medium.
I think it was either laziness or lack of funds( or both) that they didn't have voice acting not for the reason they gave about it being good for it as a graphic novel.
I just finished a graphic novel with voice acting and text. I could read much faster than the voice overs but rarely did I skip them; one needs not rush emotion it needs pause and hesitation and a certain meter for every word acted out properly. This is everything.

That said I've played the demo and I may buy it anyway for it is an otherwise decent game with interesting characters which I wish would come alive by speaking and breathing life literally into their words. I really like the graphic design and the concept.

[solamon77]

I thought the same thing at first too, but now that I'm almost at the end, I'm not so sure. This game goes into some pretty heavy subjects.

Take Aganon for instance, a rider who worships The Pain Worm and is obsessed with feeling bad... at least at first. I won't say more to not spoil anything, but I can't imagine how anyone could voice act that character and not make him seem foolish, but when reading what he says in text, it all makes perfect sense.

Or Gideon DeKalb, a young teenage girl forced by her mother to wear some kind of mechanical suit "for her own protection". There's so much heart in what this little girl is going through that I can't imagine how it could be voiced in any way that would do it justice. I'm sure it's possible, but for a small indie game... maybe not.

The developers picked correctly. This game would need some seriously talented voice actors to do it's themes justice and I'm sure that wasn't in the budget. Better to have no voice acting then bad voice acting. Especially with this game.

[taciturn(o)]

Nah... you are just lazy or you lack creativity, maybe both.

[zhligw]

Originally posted by taciturno:

Nah... you are just lazy or you lack creativity, maybe both.

Hah, you just don't understand what I'm saying at all, kid.

Why not read a book dedicated to good writing. See it isn't the same. before computers that is all I did. I had no TV. But this is a video game or graphic novel. Still there's no denying voice acting, even bad voice acting fleshes it out and makes you feel more apart of it makes it more human.

[zhligw]

Originally posted by solamon77:

I thought the same thing at first too, but now that I'm almost at the end, I'm not so sure. This game goes into some pretty heavy subjects.

Take Aganon for instance, a rider who worships The Pain Worm and is obsessed with feeling bad... at least at first. I won't say more to not spoil anything, but I can't imagine how anyone could voice act that character and not make him seem foolish, but when reading what he says in text, it all makes perfect sense.

Or Gideon DeKalb, a young teenage girl forced by her mother to wear some kind of mechanical suit "for her own protection". There's so much heart in what this little girl is going through that I can't imagine how it could be voiced in any way that would do it justice. I'm sure it's possible, but for a small indie game... maybe not.

The developers picked correctly. This game would need some seriously talented voice actors to do it's themes justice and I'm sure that wasn't in the budget. Better to have no voice acting then bad voice acting. Especially with this game.

"Or Gideon DeKalb, a young teenage girl forced by her mother to wear some kind of mechanical suit "for her own protection". There's so much heart in what this little girl is going through that I can't imagine how it could be voiced in any way " Are you kidding me! This would have been perfect to hear a sweet young girl voice act. It is quite possible and would make it so much more immersive.

Yes, Maybe it is still very good without voice attacking do to the characters and story. But don't tell me it wouldn't be a lot better with voice acting and don't tell me they devs didn't want to bother finding and paying for voice actors. That as they said they felt it would be better without it. They should just admit and be truthful they didn't have the resources the money and the time to get voice acting in the game.

[solamon77]

Originally posted by zhligw:

Originally posted by solamon77:

I thought the same thing at first too, but now that I'm almost at the end, I'm not so sure. This game goes into some pretty heavy subjects.

Take Aganon for instance, a rider who worships The Pain Worm and is obsessed with feeling bad... at least at first. I won't say more to not spoil anything, but I can't imagine how anyone could voice act that character and not make him seem foolish, but when reading what he says in text, it all makes perfect sense.

Or Gideon DeKalb, a young teenage girl forced by her mother to wear some kind of mechanical suit "for her own protection". There's so much heart in what this little girl is going through that I can't imagine how it could be voiced in any way that would do it justice. I'm sure it's possible, but for a small indie game... maybe not.

The developers picked correctly. This game would need some seriously talented voice actors to do it's themes justice and I'm sure that wasn't in the budget. Better to have no voice acting then bad voice acting. Especially with this game.

"Or Gideon DeKalb, a young teenage girl forced by her mother to wear some kind of mechanical suit "for her own protection". There's so much heart in what this little girl is going through that I can't imagine how it could be voiced in any way " Are you kidding me! This would have been perfect to hear a sweet young girl voice act. It is quite possible and would make it so much more immersive.

Yes, Maybe it is still very good without voice attacking do to the characters and story. But don't tell me it wouldn't be a lot better with voice acting and don't tell me they devs didn't want to bother finding and paying for voice actors. That as they said they felt it would be better without it. They should just admit and be truthful they didn't have the resources the money and the time to get voice acting in the game.

Look, I'm not here to debate the honesty of the devs. Maybe they thought it would be better, maybe they didn't have the money, maybe both, but the fact is, good voice acting is very expensive and very time consuming. This game didn't have the budget. It was smart to stick with none. It's the only guaranteed way to not piss all over your finished product.

[S.Spiff]

Please keep in mind that this is an indie game. I got a chance to play it at IndieCade (It's like E3 for indies only.) I was impressed that the artwork was so well done. Many of the other showcased games had fast paced gameplay but used basic sprites, so there seemed to be sort of a trade off.

Also keep in mind that voice acting costs a ton of money. Especially for this game with the numerous characters and large amount of dialogue choices. Voice actors generally like to get paid. Also consider that these lines would then have to be synced up to mouth animations for the hi-res art which would require more animators to complete, who also like to get paid. So, basically mountains of money at this point. I highly doubt the devs had that kind of financial backing.

This is a niche game that's not for everyone but I enjoyed enough that I'll probably buy it for $7.50 at the next sale. It was also a big award winner at the showcase for whatever that's worth.

[solamon77]

Originally posted by S.Spiff:

Please keep in mind that this is an indie game. I got a chance to play it at IndieCade (It's like E3 for indies only.) I was impressed that the artwork was so well done. Many of the other showcased games had fast paced gameplay but used basic sprites, so there seemed to be sort of a trade off.

Also keep in mind that voice acting costs a ton of money. Especially for this game with the numerous characters and large amount of dialogue choices. Voice actors generally like to get paid. Also consider that these lines would then have to be synced up to mouth animations for the hi-res art which would require more animators to complete, who also like to get paid. So, basically mountains of money at this point. I highly doubt the devs had that kind of financial backing.

This is a niche game that's not for everyone but I enjoyed enough that I'll probably buy it for $7.50 at the next sale. It was also a big award winner at the showcase for whatever that's worth.

Exactly, it would have added an needless and untenable amount of money to the budget. It's already hard enough to turn a profit with indie games these days let alone if you're going be risky with your money.

[They call her Big Tesco]

Voice acting is really expensive. If they'd voiced it, they wouldn't have been able to branch the narrative as much as they did. Branching soaks word count, yo.

[Hoverbird]

Thanks, gang, for being so supportive of our choice to leave the game unvoiced. There are a couple of big reasons we made this choice, and y'all hit the nail on the head(s).

First is scope- we wanted to make a massively branching game with a big cast of characters, where each line in the game can branch on choice OR emotional state. To make this possible as a small indie team, you have to recognize the tradeoffs. We chose having a bigger, more reactive story with a large cast.

Second is the medium itself- in some games, I listen to every single line of dialog. In others, I want to move forward at the speed I can read at (which is much, much faster for most people than the speed of a V/O). I worked on Firewatch, which was a great example of the former type, but I knew I wanted Neo Cab to feel more like a visual novel, where I (personally) find myself skipping V/O so I can get more "story per second". I also love in visual novels (or traditional novels, comic books etc.) that player/reader imagination plays a bigger role in terms of fleshing out the vibe and emotional tone of each moment.

Hope this helps explain why our team decided to go un-voiced. To be honest, even if we had had infinite time and money to make this game (lol) I don't think we would have chosen voice acting for this project. It fits some games/stories much better than others.

[Battlekruse]

I tried the demo and so far Neo Cab looks good.

Its just a really a shame there is no voice acting the game . I know you have to save money as a small indy company somewhere and the best way was to cut voice acting. However if you had hired prober voice actors then this game could really been a big hit on the market.

[Seff]

I get it. Voice acting would cost too much- especially taking all those languages into account. True, sometimes I miss a few words (perhaps you could put in rewind or slow-speed buttons). but all in all it's fine.

Congratulations on making a game where conversation matters- something you definitely don't see every day.

[shalaryai]

By using my imagination all the characters got much more character for me, than if their dialogue would have been spoken by a voice actor.

[Seff]

Originally posted by shalaryai:

By using my imagination all the characters got much more character for me, than if their dialogue would have been spoken by a voice actor.

True, that! And then there's when your favorite story gets a movie adaptation, and the characters don't sound anything like you imagined.

[Biotic Geth Prime]

Originally posted by Seff:

I get it. Voice acting would cost too much- especially taking all those languages into account. True, sometimes I miss a few words (perhaps you could put in rewind or slow-speed buttons). but all in all it's fine.

Congratulations on making a game where conversation matters- something you definitely don't see every day.

You mean, as if subtitles for movies were not a thing for foreign audiences?

You can see that even games such as the old Baldurs Gate that arent fully voiced would at least offer SOME voices for crucial dialogues and introductions, to set the mood and personality for each character.

I would have gladly traded the unnecessary animations for just still images, the long, bloated dialogues for a more concise version of the story, and then adding voice actors.

[Biotic Geth Prime]

Originally posted by shalaryai:

By using my imagination all the characters got much more character for me, than if their dialogue would have been spoken by a voice actor.

By this same reasoning, the game should have lacked graphics, and work just like a book, employing only text. So you could have imagined them in your head in terms of appearance.

Good writing will make one ponder and wonder about was viewed.

Lazy production will make people people try to compensate for the insufficient exposition, and try to fill the blanks with their own expectations.

And people are speaking that voice acting costs an arm and a leg. Totally untrue.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/794540/discussions/0/3127164056436648445/