Hello Stalkers!
The end of the previous week was full of emotions. Not only we’ve miraculously delivered the Friday report on time (we deserve a medal, or at least a cake!), but we also informed you about something very important.
We’ve postponed the PC premiere of Chernobylite to a later date. Thanks to this, we’ve got more time to polish the game, translate it into more languages and add additional content, which was originally supposed to be released as DLC. Everything can be summed up by the slogan "bigger, better, stronger"!
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1016800/announcements/detail/3043838585268106022
We hope to present you the progress of our work soon. In the meantime, you can read this report, where you can find our talk with Igor Khymynyuk, who told us about his work on the game... Wait, what?!
Little talk with Igor
Recently, we were proud to unveil the news about re-recording all the dialogue lines of key Chernobylite characters. We even showed it on the gameplay we recorded. The response was largely positive, for which we thank you. It’s great to see that players like what we’re doing. In case you’ve missed it, have a look now!
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1016800/announcements/detail/3043838585267170745
But this is not the end of surprises on our part. We decided to show you what the magic of voiceovers is all about. And who can do it better than a professional voice actor.
Meet Ian Russell - award-winning voice actor, audiobook narrator, and most importantly, British. It is his voice that accompanies us throughout the entire game of Chernobylite, because Ian plays the main role of Igor Khymynyuk.
Ian began his adventure with The Farm 51 almost two years ago. As he says, for him, it has been challenging but an enjoyable and rewarding one.
‘The horror/survival genre is one in which I have some experience (eg: Remothered-Broken Porcelain, The Haunting - yet to be released) so having been cast in Chernobylite I could tell, early on that it was going to be a wonderful project with which to attach my name. I loved the mystery, the atmosphere and the music’ says Ian.
His first contact with the game was during the early trailer in which he provided a Russian / Ukrainian accent.
‘I thought that would be my only input into the game. But as the months went by, I was asked to voice a second trailer with the Russian accent and then some early access trailers in my natural British accent. All as Igor, the main character in the game’ recalls Ian. ‘Then came the Beta work, in which I was asked to provide the game voice for Igor. I took this as a real honor. It was clear to me, following the progress of the game, that a great deal of thought, dedication and commitment had gone into the environment (mapping Chernobyl), the storyline and the characters. The scripts were also beautifully written and dramatic.
‘In the Beta, I also voiced many other characters including Tarakan (watch him - he is a bit unhinged!) and various British, Russian and American NPC’s. I think it was 23 characters in all. I wanted the voices to be sufficiently distinct that if a player is in an encounter with two or more of my characters that they would not immediately know it was the same voice actor. I feel that can become distracting and even irritating if two characters are interacting and they sound the same. As an established gaming voice, these are the challenges I relish.’
One of the most important questions we asked Ian was how he was preparing for the lead role, Igor. He admits that Igor's voice in the game is close to his natural voice.
‘This means I can focus on his personality and storyline, which have evolved through the Beta and into the final version of the game. I can’t really say what has and evolved because I don’t want to spoil, too much changed for the players that might read this!’
At this point, we are giving a very important piece of advice to anyone planning a career in voice acting: stay hydrated!
‘You can lose a lot of water during a session. My recording booth has 3-inch-thick walls and is lined inside and out with sound treatments (foam, felt and in the case of the one window quadruple glazing) It can get extremely hot! In fact, during one particularly energetic session (for Tarakan) I had to take a break to shower and change my clothes’ says Ian.
Often, actors are asked if they identify with the characters they play. We asked the same question to Ian who answered like this:
‘Igor is a unique person; he is intelligent and has some survival skills, but the characters he meets along the way can help him, or hinder him, depending on the choices he makes. It was important for me (and will be for a player) to understand his motives and his relationships with other characters in the game. I am indebted to Wojtek and Lucasz for their time and insight into the inner workings of Igor's mind. Indeed, outside of the hiring process, we connected for about an hour just to discuss and practice his voice and character’ says Ian. ‘With a large role like Igor, it’s important to ensure your performance remains consistent. Like any muscle, your voice and vocal chords get tired so we tried to spread the workload across several days and weeks and had our sessions at similar times of the day. We typically kept sessions to a maximum of 2 hours. For the final game I think we had 10-12 sessions’ he adds.
How does the voice over recording look from his perspective?
‘It was a very refreshing decision for Farm 51 to bring multiple Voice Actors into the session together, albeit remotely, allowing the dialogue to evolve organically and the characters to interact. I feel the performances will be better and more realistic for it. In most cases, Voice Actors record game characters in isolation and are therefore ‘performing’ the other person too. That will almost always be a different interpretation than the one given by the other actor, so working in pairs and threes will benefit the game experience.’
At this point, we have to pay attention to one thing - 2020 brought a global pandemic that made our work very difficult. Especially in terms of organizing recording sessions. Ian felt the effects of this as well.
‘I’ve committed a lot of time and effort to ensuring my recording environment is excellent for my clients and consequently was ahead of the curve when in early 2020 the pandemic hit’ he says. That is why it was important to organize work on your own and in the privacy of your home. ‘Suddenly game makers needed talent with home recording capabilities. I have, for several years, had a dedicated 6 'x 4' recording booth in which I work. The main impact of the Pandemic for me, has been my ability to carry on when others that needed to go to a remote studio, could not. It certainly made working with Farm 51 easier, avoiding the need to travel to a studio. That said, I do enjoy the opportunity to work in a studio where you don’t have to be concerned about recording levels and whether local Gardeners or my dog might interfere with sessions.’
Of course, the work of a voice actor, like any other, involves various unexpected situations. One of them was attended by Iana's daughter herself.
‘Chernobylite has also been significant for me in a couple of other ways. In an enormously 'proud father' moment, I had a recording session with my daughter, who also plays a character in the game, and her character and Igor have a lengthy dialogue. I think performance was wonderful, and it was such a highlight to work with he’ he recalls. ‘There was one session in which we needed to record what we call 'effort sounds' Typically these will be sounds a character makes when they are hitting something, being hit, running, walking and so on. Igor had the honor of being the first character for whom I needed to record vomiting sounds. The sound engineer was delighted with my efforts describing them as 'world class' We all had a good laugh and I hope players who experience this part of the performance agree.’
At the end of the conversation, Ian has a message to you
‘I hope playing Chernobylite gives you as much pleasure as I had working on it.’
That's it for today!
Take care, Stalkers!