a resource website for voice and dialogue specialists working in game development and interactive media
Articles
Managing Complexity: How External Sources Could Benefit Your VO and Mix
Charles Pateman
Mixing voice in games can be a major logistical challenge, with thousands or even hundreds of thousands of lines, often multiplied by the number of full localized languages. This article explored the advantages and disadvantages of using Wwise External Sources to implement your game's VO using examples taken from Star Wars Outlaws.
April 9, 2025
Surgical Dialogue Mix: Cutting Through the Noise, Without Sacrificing the Soundscape
Michał Korniewicz
This step-by-step "how to" article describes how to set up metering structure to drive dynamic EQs in Wwise for mixing VO. Dynamic EQ is a much more effective approach for mixing voice and dialogue with other audio food groups as it allows you to carve out space for voice and dialogue intelligibility more transparently while avoiding brute force ducking.
April 3, 2025
How WeMakeAudio created a Whole New Spoken Language for "Gods Will Fall"
Jamie Finley
When WeMakeAudio took on the creative and technical audio direction for Gods Will Fall, the dark fantasy rogue-like beat-'em-up from Clever Beans and Deep Silver, one of our biggest challenges was designing the game's voice system. It wasn’t just about combat sounds — we needed a dynamic dialogue system to bring the story to life and immerse players in a world of ancient gods, terrifying beasts, and procedurally generated warriors.
March 24, 2025
Inside the Mind of Alan Wake 2: Distinguishing Dialogue
Arthur Tisseront, Taneli Suoranta
"In this first installment, Senior Dialogue Designers Arthur Tisseront & Taneli Suoranta take us into the depths of Alan Wake 2’s dialogue implementation, breaking down the interplay of spoken and narrated dialogue and how audio design helped maintain clarity in a world where reality is constantly shifting."
February 13, 2025
How the Fictional Language of Planco Speaks Life Into Planet Coaster 2's Parks
James Stant
After rattling around roller coasters for several hours straight, you’d be forgiven for speaking gibberish. Presumably while tottering gingerly toward the nearest bathroom. But the thrill-seeking inhabitants of Planet Coaster 2 are built of sturdier stuff. The noises they trill ahead of leaping into a flume or stopping for a bite at Chief Beef might sound like nonsense, but there’s genuine meaning there. That’s because Planet Coaster 2 (along with the original and Planet Zoo) is one of a handful of video games to create a fictional language. Say hello, or indeed hayo, to Planco.
December 6, 2024
Star Wars Outlaws: Defining the Sound of a ‘Scoundrel Adventure’
Charles Pateman
The Star Wars Outlaws sound team at Massive Entertainment took sonic inspiration from the original Star Wars Trilogy films, embuing the sound of Outlaws with a 'tape flavor,' choosing 'warmth over precision' and 'analog over digital.'
November 6, 2024
Behind Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora's Amazing Sound
Maria Bantin
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (developed by Massive Entertainment/distributed by Ubisoft) is an immersive open-world action-adventure game that lets you discover the world of the Avatar film franchise in a whole new way. And in this, our biggest-ever game audio story, Audio Director Alex Riviere, Voice Lead Maria Bantin, Audio Lead Mattia Cellotto, Audio Lead David Osternacher, and Technical Sound Designer Franz Bierschwale discuss their approach to building reactive environments, creating bespoke systems for foley and breaths, emitter management, acoustics, and many more.
May 22, 2024
Guidelines: Attending Voice Recording Sessions Remotely
Adam Ritchie
"A guide to attending recording sessions remotely. This guide was developed and refined between 2016-2024 with the help and support of many amazing people. It is one of many possible approaches to the challenges of working with actors and recording dialogue for games at distance. Please use this guide to develop your own workflows and tools. It is a guide, not a rulebook."
April 15, 2024
Crafting the Authentic Sound of Assassin's Creed Mirage
Isaline Marquaire, Valentin Sezeur
In Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Mirage, the player takes on the role of a Baghdad street thief named Basim (who was introduced in Assassin's Creed Valhalla). Here, the game audio team at Ubisoft Bordeaux Studio – led by Audio Director Étienne Marque – talk about the differences in their approaches to Valhalla and Mirage, how they created the sound of ninth-century Baghdad (including building believable crowds), what went into designing their ambience and foley systems, how they created the sound of the new ability 'Assassin Focus,' what went into their UI sounds, and so much more!
December 14, 2023
Behind the Haunting Sound of Alan Wake 2
Taneli Suoranta
Gamers are thrilled with Remedy Entertainment's Alan Wake 2. This long-anticipated sequel to Alan Wake (2010) deviates from the original action-adventure game by leaning into the darker aspects as a survival horror game. In this massive interview, the Alan Wake 2 sound team discusses their aesthetic inspirations for the game, how they created new vocals for the 'Taken' and 'Fade Outs,' how they designed Washington State and the Dark Place like two different games, how they used music to support gameplay and misdirect the player, how they designed immersive environments, how they handled the sound for teleporting, and much, much more!
November 15, 2023
Deep Dive Into the Thrilling Sound of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Nicholas Friedemann
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts – is the highly anticipated sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019), and picks up five years later with young Jedi Knight Cal Kestis continuing the fight against the Galactic Empire. Here, the sound team (led by Audio Director Nick von Kaenel at Respawn Entertainment) talks about how they built upon the foundation of Fallen Order while still creating something fun and fresh for Star Wars games fans.
July 20, 2023
Game Audio Mixing Demystified
Alex Riviere
What exactly does game audio mixing entail? In the guide below, Audio Director Alex Riviere explores what mixing means and requires in a game audio content, the unique possibilities and challenges it offers - and he outlines the key areas and processes to focus on to make your game sound its best.
July 17, 2023
Crafting The Quarry's Cinematic-Style Horror Game Audio
Adele Cutting
Supermassive Games branching-narrative horror game The Quarry lets players decide the fate of nine camp counselors who overstay their seasonal employment only to find a supernatural threat has been unleashed and is seeking their demise. Here, Soundcuts Audio Director Adele Cutting talks about the all-important dialogue (voiced in 8 different languages), their approach to creating cinematic sound that nods to classic horror films, crafting responsive ambiences using open-world game techniques, scoring interactive music and working with licensend music, designing the werewolf sounds, and so much more!
August 22, 2022
How The Last Of Us Part II's Incredible Sound Was Made
Maged Khalil Ragab, Mike Hourihan, Grayson Stone
Naughty Dog's highly-anticipated The Last of Us Part II (available now for PS4) sold over 4 million copies in just 3 days, and the reviews are phenomenal. Here, we talk with the Naughty Dog sound team about building reactive environments, designing the Infected, the crucial role of Foley, developing better accessibility features, and much (much!) more in this huge interview.
June 30, 2020
Dialog Editing: A “How To” on Which Mics to Keep
Idyll Sounds
"When editing dialog, I have found that a few key concepts are at the forefront of my decision-making process. I’m 100% certain I will miss some things, as I’ve never actually codified my thought process until now. Furthermore, this isn’t a checklist I go through on each decision. A lot of editing becomes rote. But when I have a difficult decision, or a major one that will impact the way I work on an entire scene, this is how I will proceed."
March 12, 2020
Shaping the Satisfying Sound of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Harrison Deutsch
Entering into the realm of Star Wars entertainment takes courage. Fans are notoriously exacting, scrutinizing every aspect of the project. But that high standard sets this IP apart. Respawn Entertainment nailed their first Star Wars title: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which has garnered acclaim from critics and gamers alike. Their sound team — led by Audio Director Nick Laviers — shares an in-depth look at how they designed this game’s stellar sound.
January 16, 2020
How we used AI to improve dialogue management for Pagan Online
Nikola Lukić
Current accomplishments in AI have had a positive influence on game development, including game audio. I want to share with you an example of how developments in AI have helped our team save time and effort in voice over production for our latest project.
August 6, 2019
How Apex Legends' Stunning Sound Was Created
Joshua Nelson, Victor Durling
Apex Legends - the recently-launched free-to-play battle royale game from EA/Respawn Entertainment - is a gigantic success, reaching a player count of a staggering 50 million within its first month and showing no signs of stopping. Here, they talk about their approach to creating sound for an ever-evolving game, share details on the sound design of each Legend character, discuss the strategic use of sound to help players work as a team + lots (and lots!) more.
April 17, 2019
Creative Assembly: ‘Immersion of the player is key to success in a game’
Will Tidman
"On the surface the dialogue in games can tell a story. The voiceover or dialogue on a cut scene, in-game conversation or the internal monologue of a character is all enforcing the narrative of the game. But the role of dialogue goes much further than telling stories and this is what stands game dialogue apart from other mediums."
March 12, 2018
Overwatch - Game Audio Using Wwise (part 2/2)
Scott Lawlor & Tomas Neumann
During Audiokinetic's Wwise Tour, Project Audio Director Scott Lawlor, and Senior Software Engineer 2 Tomas Neumann, presented their work. The considerations, successes and lessons learnt are demonstrated in a series of very educational Wwise Tour videos from the event. (Part 2)
September 13, 2016
Overwatch - Game Audio Using Wwise (part 1/2)
Scott Lawlor & Tomas Neumann
During Audiokinetic's Wwise Tour, Project Audio Director Scott Lawlor, and Senior Software Engineer 2 Tomas Neumann, presented their work. The considerations, successes and lessons learnt are demonstrated in a series of very educational Wwise Tour videos from the event. (Part 1)
September 13, 2016
Surviving Audio Localization
Le Dour
Screen/Play is a regular feature that discusses best practices for storytelling in games. This article, the first in the series, discusses how to properly document voice assets in a flexible, intuitive spreadsheet, with an example extract from the fictional game King Arthur Up In This Piece.
February 15, 2007
Screen/Play: Documenting Voice Assets
Rafael Chandler
Screen/Play is a regular feature that discusses best practices for storytelling in games. This article, the first in the series, discusses how to properly document voice assets in a flexible, intuitive spreadsheet, with an example extract from the fictional game King Arthur Up In This Piece.
June 8, 2006
Organizing And Formatting Game Dialogue
Rafael Chandler
Red Storm writer/designer Rafael Chandler (Rainbow Six: Lockdown) discusses processes and systems that will help a game writer minimize dialogue change during production, and analyzes some of the dependencies that a writer can account for along the way.
November 18, 2005
The Seven Secrets of Voice-Over Production
Matt Case
This article focuses on the latest Hollywood production methods being adopted by game producers to create better voice-over assets. From getting the right start by ensuring that you have a well-polished script (because paring the world's best actor with a poorly written script leaves you with nothing more than bad entertainment), to securing the ideal actors at below-market rates, dealing with the unions without dealing with the unions, directing professional actors to capture your characters' personalities, all the way through to systematically managing the dialogue files.
March 7, 2003
Wikipedia
"The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling..."
"In humans, vocal cords, also known as vocal folds or voice reeds, are folds of tissue in the throat that are key in creating sounds through vocalization..."
"The field of articulatory phonetics is a subfield of phonetics that studies articulation and ways that humans produce speech..."
"The cocktail party effect is the phenomenon of the brain's ability to focus one's auditory attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli, such as when a partygoer can focus on a single conversation in a noisy room."
"In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation."
"In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract..."
"Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together..."
"The precedence effect or law of the first wavefront is a binaural psychoacoustical effect. When a sound is followed by another sound separated by a sufficiently short time delay (below the listener's echo threshold), listeners perceive a single auditory event; its perceived spatial location is dominated by the location of the first-arriving sound (the first wave front)."
"An idiolect is the variety of language unique to an individual. This differs from a dialect, a common set of linguistic characteristics shared among a group of people."
"Isochrony is the postulated rhythmic division of time into equal portions by a language. Rhythm is an aspect of prosody, others being intonation, stress, and tempo of speech..."
"In speech communication, intelligibility is a measure of how comprehensible speech is in given conditions..."
"The Lombard effect or Lombard reflex is the involuntary tendency of speakers to increase their vocal effort when speaking in loud noise to enhance the audibility of their voice..."
"In articulatory phonetics, the manner of articulation is the configuration and interaction of the articulators (speech organs such as the tongue, lips, and palate) when making a speech sound..."
"The McGurk effect is a perceptual phenomenon that demonstrates an interaction between hearing and vision in speech perception..."
"The motor theory of speech perception is the hypothesis that people perceive spoken words by identifying the vocal tract gestures with which they are pronounced rather than by identifying the sound patterns that speech generates..."
"In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose.
"In phonetics and linguistics, a phone is any distinct speech sound or gesture, regardless of whether the exact sound is critical to the meanings of words..."
"Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign...
"Phonology is a branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds (or constituent parts of signs, in sign languages)..."
"In linguistics, prosody (/ˈprɒsədi, ˈprɒzədi/)[1][2] is concerned with those elements of speech that are not individual phonetic segments (vowels and consonants) but are properties of syllables and larger units of speech, including linguistic functions such as intonation, stress, and rhythm..."
"A vocal register is a range of tones in the human voice produced by a particular vibratory pattern of the vocal folds. These registers include modal voice (or normal voice), vocal fry, falsetto, and the whistle register."
"Speech perception is the process by which the sounds of language are heard, interpreted, and understood..."
"In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence..."
"A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. It is typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants)..."
"A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract.