I have been toying around with this idea for so long. Voice Acting. Is it possible to do with RPG VX, and is it worth it? I've seen voice acting fails a few times, but I've seen it succeed too. I know gathering the right people would be hard, and the timing of everything as well.

What do you guys think? Is all that trouble and hassle worth adding Voice Actors to a game?

Yes it is very possible. I do it my projects. I've actually spent the entirity of last night inputting a ton of lines into RPG Maker VX.
There are positives and negatives to having Voice Acting:
You must ensure that your characters are VERY develop, I use voice acting in two of my projects, You should always have good contact with your Voice Acting cast.

The timing is simple, I've actually got a tutorial on inputting Voice Actors Line Effectively, which helps with the timing, it very simple, as long as you use SE, and then you can stop the SE after each line.

I'm gonna move this over to Game Theory as that's probably the better place for this.

Yeah sorry. I'm not used to the forums being like this and I don't really know if a topic belongs here or there

It seems like a neat idea it's just hard to get a crew going =/

Well, You just need to look around. There are many different sites that you can used to work with other voice actors. You just gotta know where to look.
It all depends on your project, and how detailed it is.
If you DO plan in hiring people I'd suggest a small piece of software called Celtx. It gives your scripts an act of professionalism, and also get an editor, someone who reads through your scripts, before sending them. It doesn't have to be a profesional. If can just be a mate.

I might do it but possibly not cause I'm used to using text boxes

I plan to have some voice acting if I ever freaking finish a full game :|
You just play an SE before the message box comes up, and after the player clicks the space bar (after the message command), you end it. That way if they just want to play the game they can skip through all of the message boxes without the voices continuing. It helps to have message boxes too, if the player has their volume down or something. They're kind of like subtitles. Many games do this.
If you ever need some voice acting, I would be happy to do it for you I was almost in a game as a lead character, but the game got cancelled sadly. I was also almost in an internet series about Billy the Kid, voice acting for him, but a WAY better dude came in at the last second and took it :|
Anyhow, yeah, I'll do some if you want since I have Audacity, I can even modify my voice to fit different characters, like not human characters. I was going to have aliens in one game and just reverse everything I said and add a wah-wah effect to it to make it sound like an other-worldly language.
I think I'm pretty good at voices x) so yeah.
Usually you want to have tryouts for each part, and tell everyone specifically what you want the file format. The most common for RMXP is OGG with anywhere from 1-4/10 quality. Since it's just voices, the quality of them doesn't need to be that high, and it saves TONS of space in your game.

Thanks for the offer. I might do it, it's just my voice sucks and if I do voice acting I want to be a part of it DX But my voice is TERRIBLE!

Also that's gonna be so much eventing and such .3. I don't know, I'm still only in the infant stages of making the game (making a short game to help me write the real one)

It isn't that bad, really. You just name the file what the character says at the moment, insert it above there. It's not bad haha.

Holy shit that was fast o.o

Bleah, I need an eventer on the team >.<

I'll do it.
Is it in RMXP or VX?

VX, as stated in the original post I'm not really looking for Voice Actors at the moment though. I still have to get a storyline down.

Ohhh derrr. Haha xD Sadly I don't have a copy of it used to, but my old comp crashed. I've actually bought XP like 5 times.
Well, I wish you luck

Thanks I still need a musician though (case my music SUCKS). If you wouldn't mind helping with that when the time comes then that'd be great :3

I might be able to. I've got tons of other music-related stuff that I'm doing, but I can probably provide a few tracks at the least.

Right now I'm still working on the story, so it'll be a bit before a musician is needed :3

Okey dokey I'll most likely be able to do it.
I usually work with actual instruments, but I am taking a music composition class in school currently for electronic stuff working in Logic Pro, and I have Mixcraft at my house (since I'm on a budget xD) and I've been doing quite well, I believe x) I'd love to work on a game of your's though, man.

Thanks Well I'm sure by the time we get that far you'll be a pro

In the end you might want to get paid voice acting if the result is not up there. Just saying.

It is unbelievable how much a bad voice acting can ruin the good story. One Portal mod found clever way around this by using TTS. However your characters would en up sounding robotic.

If you know your voice is close to what you want you can record and modify the sound, however the trick is.. to reuse those settings each and every time they need to talk. It's an engineering process and if you got the tools go for it, I'd probably spend a lot of money on a high quality microphone and possibly a mixer(a mixer is used in just about every production these days) Also if your computer is a bit noisy, clean it out and you may have to buy quieter fans or buy a sound booth or convert a closet if you can get in there (I can't.. too many cloths)

Your looking at about a grand here but it includes protools so that's kind of a bonus, it's also pretty nice as I have a few of these.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/a...en?src=3WWRWXGP

@Rukiri: Thanks for the help man but as of now I don't think I"ll be doing VA, too much work and money right now

For an indie game, it doesn't need to be that high quality. I record most of my music with just an amp that plugs into my computer, Audacity, and a microphone. The instruments, I plug into the amp. But you don't even need that much for just voices, especially for an indie game. You can even just use the microphone that came with your Rock Band or Guitar Hero game and those actually sound perfectly fine.
The computer, if noisy, can be an issue though. You should only work in Audacity at the time you are recording, with nothing else open. I have a foam cover for my microphone, so that noise and hard letter sounds aren't detected very much... but one of my friends just puts his blanket over the mic when he sings into it.
So there are quite a lot of options available.
Keeping the settings, you just need to put them down in a Notepad document for each character you change your voice settings for. No biggie.

It's still a lot of work Redd, and at this point in time just too much for me to handle

That's why you hire other people to do it xD

I'm a broke man :U That and I feel the need to put my own voice in the game

There are only like maybe a dozen commercial RPGs where the voice acting wasn't so bad that it ruined the game. The chance of indie voice acting being so bad that it ruins the game is 100%.

I keep hearing references to Indie. Someone explain further on this subject?

Indie is us. The indie game makers. This ranges from people who use flash to make small games, to Amnesia The Dark Descent.
We're indie game developers. Short for INDEPENDENT. We work by ourselves or with a small team, and we don't have a giant production working on the game. Even some games you can download on like PSN are Indie. Journey, Flower, and Closure are all indie games (made by the same people actually).
Hopefully that was concise enough for you.

There are tons of people willing to do it for free too. You just gotta' make sure you don't settle, and get really good ones.

Oh, it just stands for Independent. Alright

Simply put, yes XD

*cough* I'm a voice actor*cough*
It's not as hard as it sounds, and although the content that Rukiri offered up is a really nice bit of kit. It's not necessary.

I've used alot of software in my time, including Adobe Audition( brilliant but expensive) Audacity is free but advanced enough to ensure your voice acting is crisp and clear, which is all you need really. I mean for Doctor Who fans you can even make your voice sound like a CyberMan...Yes I've done it... and that's just with Audacity.

Now-a-days I use my music software for voice recordings

It's effort, but in my opinion it's worth it.

I just don't know how to incorporate my voice for a main character =/

Does it have to be a main character? Make yourself a cameo, like the fantastic STAN LEE

First off you should try to see if you can sound like the character if you can than you're golden, most sound engineers will alter the voice to make it sound better (Now.. the Japanese rarely alter all the Seiyuu's are choses specifically for the role)

I've had to change my voice a bit with software to make it sound like Nozawa but in the end the result was pretty close but it is noticeable that nozawa isn't voicing the character.

@Redd: Yes, yes it does :U

@Rukiri: I don't mind if I have to mod my voice a bit, so long as that software is available for free.

If you have a mac I highly recommend garageband, it's excellent and superior to audacity.
Of course Cubase, fruity loops studio, pro tools, or apple logic is the way to go for recordings the equipment will cost more than the software lols.

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Microphones-Sno...blue+microphone

Blue makes some good stuff, would I use this? No, but not everyone has an excessive expendable income either.

If you can't produce quality sound within a budget you should not do it at all as sacrificing audio quality is the worst thing you can do for your game.

I also second Adobe Audition, limited experience but better than what apple has going(still prefer logic for music though).

Here's my setup and the listed prices.
Audio-Technica AT4051 $599
Audio-Technica AT4050 $699
Audio-Technica AT8449 Shock Mount $79
Audio-Technica AT8405a Snap-in Microphone Stand Clamp $9.98
Audio-Technica AT8159 Small Egg-Shaped Foam Windscreen $7.00

Now I based my kit on the AT4040SP kit that was offered by B&H audio, however the AT4050 is a superior mic so I just bought and assembled that kit. However.. you can get the AT4040SP kit with the same stuff for about half the price.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/5745...ies_Studio.html

Not going to bother going into mixing/audio boards.

Truth is, if you're making an indie game, you don't need this shit.
Hell, I make full on music with my $150 keyboard, $60 Mixcraft, a $20 MIDI to USB converter, and a $160 Microphone/Amp/USB converter/Stand/Popper stopper (foam cover to block heavy consonant sounds). For voice recording, honestly all you need, is a wind breaker/popper stopper, Audacity, and a decent-good quality USB microphone. Shouldn't cost you more than $65.
My music sounds PERFECTLY FINE with my setup, and I've done plenty of voice recordings at high quality with Audacity. In fact, that's where I always record my vocals and edit them. The music goes in Mixcraft, and the vocals are recorded and effects added, then put into Mixcraft so I can match the correct output levels.
If you are just using voice recordings, seriously. Just use Audacity and a good USB microphone. NOTHING ELSE is needed. Now if you were making an immersive, 1080p, 3D-enabled game for the PS3 or something, you would probably want to use something like what Rukiri has. Even then it would still be Indie though.
In the end, as long as your voice is clear, high quality, and looks like it is a voice the character could have, it doesn't matter in an indie game. Hardly anyone pays extreme close attention to how well the voices are recorded in professional games either. People play the games to have fun, unless they're a super extreme critic who went through 8 years of sound engineering school.
Thus, I would suggest Audacity and a USB microphone with a popper stopper/wind breaker.
I'd also like to add that Fruity Loops sucks, and Mixcraft is essentially like Garageband for Windows, and it is WAAAY cheaper than anything else you will find out there. Still high quality ;D

Redd, where the hell do you live, so I can come over and hang out with the awesomeness that is you?

Haha xD I live in Utah. Thanks xD
It's all about knowing how to jerry rig stuff x)

Damn....That means you'd have to visit me

The Mic is everything for recording, any Music PROF or audiophile will tell you this don't steer him in the wrong direction. Yes, my setup is a bit overkill but I also record music and want the best possible sound.