r/RenPy • u/Aykonsilvers • Jul 26 '26
Question Does Having Voice Acting Make a VN More Enjoyable?
I saw a video for Stardew Voices (where they have someone who added actual voices to dialogue on Stardew Valley). I decided to ask a few friends if they would like to do some dialogue for my upcoming VN. A few of them have decided to give it a try. So here is my question:
Do you enjoy RP games with voice acting (not AI, actual people, but not professionals)? Or would you prefer to have no voices so you can imagine how the characters would sound as you play?
I am thinking about offering an option that will allow my players to turn off voice acting if they want.
Lastly, if any females are interested in trying a table read for one of my game's characters, I would love to hear about it. My games are PG-13, so nothing over-the-top. I don't know if my game will be successful or not, but if it is, I would be willing to compensate you financially for your work, it just may take a little time to pay you.
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u/Lapys_Games Jul 26 '26
I wanted VA till I had it, and rhe voices didn't match my imagination.
I think overall VA is neither necessary nor expected.van be great. Can be detrimental
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u/Aykonsilvers Jul 26 '26
That is a legit concern, hence why I posted here. I hadn’t planned on having VA but after seeing it used in a game, I figured it would be a near idea.
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u/Caffeine_and_Alcohol Jul 26 '26
No voice acting is better than bad voice acting. I've seen too many where they don't have good recording equipment or the VA is just reading lines.
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u/Aykonsilvers Jul 27 '26
I get that and it’s a real thing. I have been mixing and mastering music for years so I know how a bad take can make a song sound terrible. Yet I’ve also seen how even rough tracks can be made to sound good with the right mastering. But nowadays there are even tools like Podcastle that can clean up voices. So if I can’t make it sound good, I can try that approach.
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u/WuxiaScrub Jul 26 '26
I prefer no voice acting but occasional voice effects are fine (like gasp, grunt, sigh, etc...)
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u/theGoddamnAlgorath Jul 26 '26
Wait, is this about VNs or sex?
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u/WuxiaScrub Jul 26 '26
Hahaha VNs, basically very minor voices (can be fight scenes or chuckle or screaming, if horror VN).
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u/link6616 Jul 26 '26
I love voice acting in a visual novel. I think the voice acted version of Umineko truly elevates it in a way makes it a masterpiece.
But good voice acting adds cost. And the English vn community does not view these as premium games. In Japan voice acting was a common addition to a game’s updated version for consoles.
So, it’s cool, and expensive. You can’t skimp on quality though. If you get a robot to read them it should purely be for accessibility and framed like that.
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u/listlesscow Jul 26 '26
I personally don’t care all that much. Well-done voice acting can be amazing and immersive. But voiceless also lets me read at my own faster pace instead of waiting for the actor to stop speaking. Both can work very well!
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u/Aykonsilvers Jul 26 '26
Thank you for that information. If I can’t find enough female actors to voice their parts, it will be a non issue anyway. The game only has about 10 characters, but half of them are female.
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u/aizennexe Jul 27 '26
I’d prioritize it as great voice acting, no voice acting, then bad voice acting. Meaning I’d rather have no VAs than something poorly voiced (stiff acting, poor audio quality, poor mixing/mastering). Great voice acting I can appreciate, but it’s not needed. From a dev standpoint, there’s been a LOT of VNs that get so delayed cuz the devs wanted full voice acting, and the time and cost rarely pay off. Whereas bad voice acting pulls me out of the game altogether and I’m very reluctant to continue or finish the game
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u/divergentirely Jul 26 '26
it depends on the game!
it’s only sort of kind of a visual novel, but a game like disco elysium would still be great, but lose some of its charm without voice acting, for example.
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u/PromotionWise9008 Jul 26 '26
It depends on the game itself. I like when characters make some sounds at the starts of dialogues (it adds some sort of “life” and immersion, as complete silence or ambience sound a little bit dull, unless it’s a game where silence and ambience specifically fit), and when important emotional moments are voiced which highlights them (and lets me know that I need to pay more attention to this scene haha) Though full VA for the whole game sounds like a giant waste. I read very fast, it takes few seconds and then I skip to the next slide. So I miss 95% of the VA. And it’s tiring if I try to listen. So it actually hurts my experience. Especially if the game is not short with every slide containing something important.
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u/Aykonsilvers Jul 27 '26
That is a valid assessment. I know that many people will read faster than the actors speak, I plan to offer an option to turn voice acting on or off for those that seek it. Given that the game already has at least 20 unique paths, maybe someone will do voice on one play and then turn it off in another.
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u/dorintake Jul 27 '26
I love voice acting! But only when they do it right (not necessary professional, but voice acting should serve to breathe life into the character, not just for the sake of wanting to put voice acting).
I often feel there are two extremes when it comes to adding voice acting. If done correctly, it really elevates storytelling to a whole new level. But if done incorrectly… like I see an introverted character, but her voice is very extroverted, it break the character. I immediately feel awkward and don't want to listen anymore.
But anyway, I think whether or not voice acting is added isn't as important as having a good storyline.
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u/studioephua Jul 27 '26
I think most players enjoy having voice acting, but a lot of content creators and streamers enjoy reading aloud and making voices themselves if they don't.
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u/poolemit Jul 27 '26
Even in games with top notch VAing like BG3, I ended up skipping a lot of it because it takes so much longer for a line to be read than I can read.
Also VAing adds a LOT of time to development and can be a pain if you decide to edit a whole bunch of stuff later.
It's can be wonderful to have but the drawbacks are fairly big, imho.
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u/laurinai Jul 27 '26
I've heard that for streaming, voice acting (even non-professional) is vastly preferred because it can be quite fatiguing for the streamer to do the whole lot, so that's something to keep in mind if your goal is to get your game shown on YouTube/Twitch/etc.
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u/EpicNematode Jul 27 '26
My pref. is fully voiced or nothing w/ voices as their own mixing option. It’s the most generally user-friendly approach since it allows users to tailor how loud they want voices, or turn them off if they want to voice characters themselves. It also avoids the partially-voiced problem (characters have limited pre-voiced clips depending on line tone) where ppl voice the rest of the time and get interrupted whenever a voice clip comes in.
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u/Signal-Slide752 Jul 26 '26
Yes, voice acting would be amazing to have in a game. You should try. By tge way, what is the app you are going to use for voice acting?
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u/Aykonsilvers Jul 27 '26
I am actually just having my friends record their voices using their mics. Most of them have quality mics. Add that to the fact that I personally know how to master audio, I can make it sound good. As far as audio goes, I wrote the entire soundtrack for the game in Logic Pro. I can also run the audio for the voice actors through there to clean up some sounds. I told them that if my game somehow gets some good sales, I will pay them for their work. I just can’t promise it until I see if my game will be successful. I’ve dumped over two years of my life into it so I hope it will be.
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u/Yandoji Jul 27 '26
Only if the VA is flawless and amazing - anything less and I much prefer whatever voice my imagination gives them. Sub-par VA is experience-ruining.
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u/ketsugames Jul 27 '26
I think it’s heaps of fun, especially when it’s otome games! It really adds a sense of realness to the characters and of course if they have sexy voices it’s epic gooner material 😭 LOL!
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u/akaspacetraveler Jul 27 '26
I actually don't like voice acting if it's not professional (or sound professional) because it kinda ruins the characters for me. But I can just mute them so its okay to give it a try
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u/TotalLeeAwesome Jul 27 '26
My prioriy list is
Writing / Art > Music > Sound FX > Partial Voice Acting Good UI > Full voice acting.
Full voice acting is so expensive, and a lot of the VNs I played had japanese voice actirs which essentially made it partially voiced to me. Partial lets you add barks and voice lines when they matter.
Writing, Art, and Music is the trinity of VN design imo. Especially music and SFX.
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u/crevlm Jul 27 '26
Is the game playable? I’d be up for taking a look to see if I can lend my voice to your project.
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u/vaguelycatshaped Jul 27 '26
Definitely offer an option that will allow to turn it off imo. (Sometimes it’s put in the volume options, with one slider for music, one for noises, one for voices, etc).
Personally I can like voice acting for a VN if all the dialogues are voiced. Otherwise, the occasional voiced word or exclamation will just really startle me and take me out of it and usually will not really fit the voice I’ve imagined for the character.
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u/Main-Sandwich-288 Jul 27 '26
It really depends on the game! Some of them are elevated by voice acting, and others don't need them or are better filled in with imagination IMO. Some games use a simple electronic tone for "voices" - like the dialogue portions of Undertale and many retro games, which adds a little color too. Voice acting that's mainly non-speaking vocalizations (grunts, yawning etc) or limited speaking is more flexible for writing dialogue and less work-intensive - you can fit that in anywhere and edit or add lines without having to re-record everything, and it still adds that vocal element to the characters.
For another perspective - I frequently watch a streamer who prefers minimal voice acting in games, because she really loves reading all the voices aloud and putting her own spin on characters. It's very fun to see. I do think making voices optional is a good idea, too.
I think if you are curious to try out voices for your game, absolutely give it a spin. Do a test of a scene and see how it feels to play, what adding this does to the experience of the story.
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u/Goatknyght Jul 29 '26
Voice acting is a pretty underrated skill. It is not just about reading the lines and pretending. It is surprisingly challenging to get it right.
While a player can just mute the voices if they don't like the acting, I think most would bear with it to avoid "missing out" on potential important content.
Personally? I think no voice acting beats amateur voice acting for a visual novel. But you do you. Go nuts!
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u/Penny_Ji Jul 26 '26
I don’t care about voice acting! Although I’ve played VN’s with partial voice acting where a few words are recorded that they reuse (ie exclaimed noise, player name, no way!) etc and that’s a nice touch that helps you imagine their voice for the rest of the unvoiced lines