Okay, so this time we did do it again - (pirate) radio silence since March, and with our biggest show to date in this timeframe, no less!
Actually, this is a large part of why we've been so quiet. Make no mistake, it was a great show (and we do intend to get something up on here about it, promise!), but what we learned there has forced us to put the brakes on somewhat and rethink a number of our plans. We're still on course for launch, albeit a bit later in the year than we had hoped - it's a few of the things that happen between then and now that we are having to re-evaluate.
One of the key issues we face is that we are entirely self-funded. This leaves us very little wiggle-room for how we use what reserves we have, and often puts us in a position where a bit of extra creative thinking is required to get the result we want... which sometimes leads to unexpected amusement.
This particular case relates to voice acting: we realised a while ago that we needed to re-record the vocals for Silverside. Since he has a big, loud, piratey voice, it was suggested that gameplay coder Ben take on the role, and that way we save ourselves a bit of our tiny budget, so it was arranged that while he and Paul were in London for the WASD show (which we swear we will cover in the next post!), they would meet up with our audio engineer at the hotel and record the required vocals. And along the way, it was decided that we could double up on the saving if Paul became the voice of Beefy Stu.
Unfortunately, it turned out that the hotel room backed onto a railway line... and thus came a golden moment of both creative improvisation and hilarity. Ben picks up the story...
'... so we're in the hotel room with trains constantly rattling past, Heather - our audio engineer - is in the bathroom, and Paul and I are both thinking "what do we do now?" - Paul's on limited time as he's got a family commitment that he needs to get to before coming back to the show, and we're wracking our brains trying to figure out how to salvage the situation. Then Heather comes out of the bathroom and she says "you know what guys - it's really quiet in there, you can't even hear the ceiling fan...'
You can see where this is going. Yup - in short order, the hotel bathroom was converted into an improvised recording studio:
When you gotta record, you gotta record... |
A dedicated headphones holder... |
Ben continues...
'... we've got almost all the bedding in this bathroom to prevent echo and that sort of thing (I don't pretend to understand audio!), and since he has to be elsewhere in a couple of hours, Paul's gone in first to record Stu's lines, along with Heather so she can coach and direct him to get the result she wants. So all I can hear outside is a woman's voice shouting instructions like "Say 'Mercy'! Louder! More annoying! Now moo for me!", followed by a man's voice complying... I am literally biting on the one remaining duvet, tears rolling down my face with laughter as I imagine what the people in the next room must be thinking!'
Of course, Ben got his comeuppance when it was his turn to record Silverside's new vocals... but it was agreed by both our humiliated coders that the embarrassment was a small price to pay for two characters' voices... and an entertaining anecdote for the blog!
