It’s All About the Dialog (Now)

August 9, 2024

Last time, I covered how the dialog of the Sleuthhounds: Cruise game is now 100% written. A major milestone indeed, but one that marks the beginning of a journey in sound. With the dialog all written, the next major goal is to get it all recorded. Of course, there are several lesser goals that must be completed before recording can begin.

Goal Number One: Edit the Dialog

It’s not a particularly exciting part of the process, but having all the dialog written it then followed that it needed to be edited. A pass through to correct sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, all that sort of thing. I’ve completed one such pass now and have the dialog to a state where it could be recorded.

Later, once the recordings are done and all the audio files for them are properly integrated into the game, at least one more editing pass will be required. This is because when dialog gets recorded, occasionally the voice talent gives a reading on a line that’s worded slightly differently or a better line comes up. An editing pass is needed to then bring the subtitle text in line with the spoken words.

Goal Number Two: Prepare Recording Scripts

In the course of developing the various Sleuthhounds games, I’ve made my own tool for extracting all the dialog into a format that’s more conducive for people to come in and record it. With the exception of Homes and Ampson, there aren’t any characters who appear in every -- or even the bulk -- of the dialog exchanges. It would be a pain in the recording booth to have the full script of thousands of lines for a bit part that maybe only has a couple of dozen.

With my tool, I can specify a character’s name and the tool will pare down the dialog to the lines for that character and a number of adjacent lines from other characters in order to give the recording script more context than would be provided by the one character’s dialog alone. However, this process isn’t perfect and there’s still a lot of excess lines from other characters that can be removed. Removing as many unneeded lines from the recording script as possible is helpful, as it helps emphasise the lines for the given character that is to be recorded.

I’m currently in the process of generating these final recording scripts and manually filtering out lines that aren’t needed for each part. I’ve completed the scripts for all the characters at this point except for Ampson, for whom I’m about 80% done, and Homes, for whom I haven’t started yet. The recording scripts I’ve generated so far cover fifteen prominent secondary characters, each with a few hundred lines, and twelve background characters, having maybe a dozen or so lines at most.

Goal Number Three: Build the Recording Booth

Before I can record the scripts from goal number two, I need a place to do said recording. I previously had a makeshift recording booth in the basement made from some hanging drapes and a foam-lined storage bin. However, I’ve undertaken a reno project for the basement and have had to tear that setup down. Now I’m working on building an actual, four-sided recording booth. When done, it will be straightforward to break it down into its four sides for relatively easy storage, then bring it out and reassemble it whenever I need it. There’s quite a bit to say about the recording booth, so I’m going to hold that over for next month’s blog, by which point the booth should be done.

Goal Number Four: Casting

Once the recording scripts are in order and the booth is built and working, then I’ll have all the pieces I need to begin recording. Except for the people to supply their voices. I’ve been holding off on putting out a casting call because I want to make sure I have everything in place first. It’s not fair to the voice talent to keep them waiting if I suddenly stumble into a problem with the dialog or the recording booth fails to perform as I believe it will. That said, I expect the casting call will go out late August / early September. I need to pull together sample lines and bios for each of the characters to provide for audition material, so that’s maybe goal 4.1.

I’m super excited to get everything organized! That’s when recording can begin and that’s always a fun experience, hearing the words I’ve written be brought to life. But that’s yet to come. For now, the focus remains on the goals above.