When we create a character, we start to sketch his personality and imagine how he talks, how he moves, what he thinks. And in our mind we also tend to imagine how he or she sounds.
After two years of development with daily interactions with these characters, everyone in the team has unconsciously defined how a particular character should sound.
And that's when the challenging task of finding the perfect voice actor begins.
An actor might have a great voice, but not a good pitch. Or maybe it sounds good, but it doesn't have that level of emotion that we need. Maybe it has emotion, but it doesn't sound like what we envisioned.
We had to go through dozens of actors until we were happy with the results.
Edward, the main character, was the hardest. Edward has gone through some really bad things in his life, and when the game starts, he's just living in "autopilot".
He doesn't care about anything, he doesn't even care if he lives or dies. As the story progresses, Edward changes, and the voice reflects this change in his tone and emotion.
Edward is voiced by Joe Bianco.
Joe has a lot of experience in voiceover, drama and classics, which is probably why he got into the character with such ease. Almost no direction was needed.
Seriously, Joe's first take sounded exactly like what we were looking for.
You can check his bio and resume at his website: www.actorjoebianco.com
Another lead character is Rosie, a teenager that shows up early in the game.
We can't go into much detail without spoiling, but Rosie is also a challenging character in terms of voice acting.
It's usually harder to find suitable actors for female characters, and this wasn't the exception.
But again we found someone that really got into the character. That someone was Nola Klop.
Nola is bilingual, and she's worked in several other videogames and cartoons. And she also has her own YouTube channel where she brings her awesome voice to life.
And if that wasn't enough, she also sings!
Check her channel, she has great stuff there: www.youtube.com/user/oonolaoo
The third lead character is a mysterious figure that we call "The masked man". He's also a demanding character, as he has a strong personality that's not easy to get into.
But we got the perfect guy to do it: Brandon Fague.
Besides being a great guy to work with, Brandon also gave us his input regarding the direction of the characters.
He's also gifted with a really deep voice, which was exactly what we needed.
Brandon was on the waiting list to make a cast for over one year. Seriously, one year.
And he waited until we were ready to cast, as we would not start recording until all the dialogs in the game were locked and closed.
Brandon has worked in several videogames in the past, like Observer and Remothered: Tormented Fathers.
You can check all his work on: www.imdb.com/name/nm8045625
Three great actors that were great to work with.
There are other characters and actors, of course. All together, they all gave a new life and depth to the game.