With so many unique and quirky characters in the world of Rockbeasts, we knew early in development that we needed an incredible cast of voice actors to bring them to life! In this Backstage Pass Dev Blog, we'll be pulling back the curtain on our voice acting process!
Plus, we've released two more tracks from the Rockbeasts soundtrack! Head over here to give them a listen on the music streaming platform of your choice!
The Casting Process
We knew early on in development that Rockbeasts was going to have a strong narrative focus and that we needed to a talented roster of voice actors to bring the diverse and quirky characters to life. So we reached out to PitStop - a casting and voice direction studio. PitStop have worked on lots of games you've probably heard of, including Baldur's Gate 3, Helldivers 2, and Metaphor: ReFantazio!
Our lead voice director, Josh Weeden (who also worked on Baldur's Gate 3) helped to guide us through the process. First, we created detailed character bibles and sent them over to PitStop along with the full Rockbeasts script. They then worked along voice acting agencies to gather a list of potential actors. For each role, they received around 70 to 100 audition tapes, which were then narrowed down to a shortlist of 7-12 final candidates!
Sometimes a role had a clear standout, but other times we debated back and forth between three or four equally great performances! The team at PitStop highlighted their top picks, and more often than not, they aligned with ours, making the process quite smooth! At the end of the day, our team made the final calls, but PitStop's expertise was invaluable!
In the Recording Studio
Each of the voice recording sessions was led by Josh and two other amazing directors, Tilly and Keith, at PitStop's studio! Back at Rockbeasts' base, we were able to monitor the sessions and provide occasional pieces of feedback. Most of our feedback focused on complex branching dialogue or scene set-up. We really trusted the directors and generally left it up to them to steer the actors' performances. The whole process was so smooth, it honestly felt like magic!
Working with the actors was a joy too! For the most part, all of their performances were on point for what we were looking for. One of the most satisfying parts of the whole process was dropping the recorded voice lines into our engine, synching them up with the characters' animations in-game, and seeing everything come alive! That was really special for us - that realization that these weren't just written characters anymore, but full living breathing personalities in the game!
Getting in Character
Our lead writer, Kuba Szamałek (who previously worked on The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077) has an amazing talent for creating all of these vivid and authentic characters! Whilst writing the characters' dialogue, he put a lot of focus on their energy, tone, attitude and overall vibe. This meant that even if Kuba didn't have a specific accent or voice in mind for each character, it was still really easy for us all to imagine what type of person they would be. And this also made it easier for the voice cast to embody them.
Each actor bought their own flair, of course. There was a lot of improvisation and ad-libbing in the recording booth, with actors tweaking the flow of lines to feel more natural. Even small changes like these helped to add extra depth to the dialogue.
Our main takeaway from the recording process was that it wasn't just performance, it was a massive collaborative effort from our side, the directors, PitStop's team, Kuba, and the actors! If anyone part of that collaboration had failed, the whole thing would have been much tougher!
Musical Crossovers
Rockbeasts is so deeply rooted in music, especially 90s rock music. Because of this, we initially planned to hire a band to perform the game's soundtrack. However, once we cast the actor for Vernon, Hyoie O'Grady, we found out that he was also a real-life vocalist just like his character!
Hyoie asked if we were creating original music for the game and then sent us some samples of his vocals. His singing absolutely blew us away and from that moment, we knew we had to let him handle the vocals for the game! He went on to record 17 original tracks - six of which you can listen to on streaming platforms right now!
Having Hyoie do the vocals added such a level of authenticity that would have been impossible otherwise! The same voice actor doing both the dialogue and performing the music? That's rare and unforgettable!
Stories from the Recording Booth
One of the stand out voice performances - among many others - came from Safiyya Ingar, who voiced Karen Hernandez (pictured above), a club owner you meet in-game. Safiyya's voice performance was so compelling, that we actually created a whole new side quest around their character! They gave Karen a charisma and depth that we hadn't anticipated, and it was a gift that we had to run with!
However, the most unforgettable moment from the recording sessions has to be working with Iggy Pop! The rock and roll legend himself! Having Iggy in the game felt and still feels so surreal! Just hearing his iconic voice saying the lines we'd written for him gave us goosebumps! Kuba tailored the dialogue to Iggy's natural rhythm and phrasing, and from the very first line, we knew it was perfect!
There were four of us in the studio listening to Iggy Pop's recording session live, all quiet, stunned and in awe! That session is definitely a moment that will stay with us forever!