Dialogue Blip Voice Acting?

[Katy133]

What are your thoughts on voice acting made up of a repeating audio clip that plays during character dialogue? Can you name game examples that use this well or badly? What do you like or not like about it?

Example:



15/Dec/2016 Edit: To save confusion, I also want to add that I'm referring to voice acting/vocal blips as well; not just electronic sound effects.

Here is an example of a vocal dialogue blip:

[Zelan]

Yossarian III did that with Banality Man, and I think with most of his other games as well. I thought that it worked very well there.

I might be wrong on this, but it seems to me like the main purpose that it serves is to give each character a "voice," but without the higher costs associated with full or even partial voice acting.

[KittyWills]

The megaman NT series did that as well. I'm not sure how I feel about it being using in a VN setting though, it might get annoying after a while since your "gameplay" per say is reading dialogue. =/

[trooper6]

I don't particularly like it. I find it gets irritating over long text passages. And also, often it makes no sense and breaks my immersion. What are the blips supposed to be in character?

There are some exceptions. If the text I'm reading is being typed up on a typewriter by the main character, then typewriter clacks are okay...but that is not really a realistic thing for things set in the modern day. If the text I'm reading is just a bunch of bleeps being broadcast by some robots...that's okay too. But I want my sound effects to be diegetic. Bleeps tend not to be diagetic.

[Laniessa]

I love blips!!! Especially when everyone gets their unique pitch and tone! And speed/volume varying on emotions!

Read Only Memories is a good example. The Shadows That Run Alongside Their Car does it too, without variance? Most old GBA games have it, I think. HuniePop has an option to replace voice with blips and it's pretty mild-sounding, which was nice.

I would always give an option to change volume on it, though. It's not to everyone's taste for sure. I love the, uh, responsiveness? of blips, which is why I love them so much. Makes me really pay attention, especially if the blips speed up or slow down.

I like to think Animal Crossing is sort of like "blips" since they're sort of talking in gibberish? Everyone has their own voice too, which is really nice.

I don't remember too much about Undertale blips other than some characters sounded different? Still loved it. Helped me internalize their voice.

[YossarianIII]

Yossarian III did that with Banality Man, and I think with most of his other games as well. I thought that it worked very well there.

Thanks!

I personally have always been a huge fan of blips and other gibberish character voices ever since games like Animal Crossing and Banjo Kazooie. This is probably a minority opinion, but I think for text-heavy games I actually prefer it over voice acting? (I prefer to read at a quick-ish pace, which blips can accommodate, but with voice acting I usually end up skipping ahead while the actor is still mid-sentence. For games with strong voice acting like Firewatch or things by Telltale, I always leave subtitles off because I find the combination of text and voice distracting.)

That said, I think voice blips are one of those things where no matter how well you do them, there's always going to be like 5% or so of the audience just isn't into it. So an option to turn them off or reduce the volume like Laniessa suggested is probably a good idea.

I personally use blips that sound cartoonish to match a cartoon art style. As an added bonus, they're good at filling "dead air" if there's a scene where you don't want music, but you also don't want total silence. As trooper6 mentioned, I think realism + blips is probably a bad combination, but you could still tell a stylized more serious story with blips (like the Final Fantasy VI opera house scene).

[Taranee]

Does anyone know a website where I can download dialogue blip sound effects?

[Katy133]

I've edited my original thread post above to make it clear that I was referring to voice acting/vocal blips as well; not just electronic sound effects.

Thanks for your comments on this thread. Everyone's made really good points. So far, I've gathered these pros and cons to dialogue blips:

+ It gives each character a "voice" in the players' head.
+ Less costly and time consuming than using full voice acting.
+ Can be humorous (Sims' speech and Animal Crossing speech).
+ Fills dead-air moments.
- May feel annoying to players reading the dialogue.
- May not fit well with the game's tone.

Additional Things to Consider:
* Giving each character a different blip sound (pitch, actor, etc.)
* Adding an option to mute the blip sounds or change their volume.

[YossarianIII]

Does anyone know a website where I can download dialogue blip sound effects?

If you want something that sounds like Sans from Undertale or the Phoenix Wright typewriter effect, I think most of those are created with with a synthesizer (not necessarily a real-life keyboard synthesizer -- it could be just a piece of software). Most synths have several presets with names like "vocal pad" or "choir vox" or something that sound vaguely like human voices.

If you have access to music-making software, a lot of companies offer free legal versions of their synths (kind of like how some companies let you download free versions of apps that also have paid versions).

If not, I'd check maybe Project Freesound and other free sound effect places. If they don't specifically have dialogue blip sounds, try searching in general for synth sounds that might work.

I think, with a couple exceptions, most of the Undertale dialogue blips are just one note on a synthesizer looped. So all you have to do is find one sound (either from a synthesizer or from a sound effect website), and then make sure it sounds good looped.

(Other games like Animal Crossing have a more complex fake language of blips, but I think this involves either some kind of text-to-speech software or voice actors.)

[trooper6]

For the record I don't find the Sims's simlish to be in the same category as blips at all. Simlish is done by a voice actor, it has the speed and cadence and intonation of speech...simlish I think is really cool. It doesn't get annoying because of the way it breathes. The blips, whether done by electronics or by synthesized "voices" as in the two examples you gave...they don't breathe. They come of as very unnatural. Compare those blips to the language of R2D2 from Star Wars. He speaks with blips but his blips have the speed, cadence, and intonation of speech. I'd be cool with blips that were done like that...blips that communicated.

Remember when I mentioned that I don't mind typing sounds if it makes sense for a person to be using a typewriter, well I should clarify that I do want the typing sounds to sound like actual typing sounds. That means the rhythm of actual typing with the end of line bell and carriage return sound and even the sounds for capital letters. And really I'd want the typing sounds to be synced to the speed of the appearance of the letters. If a person has never heard an actual typewriter, here is an example:

[Vegeluxia]

If it's not a fully voiced game, I generally prefer some kind of "speech" sound. Without it, everything feels a lot more dead somehow. Even the really "annoying" kind of sounds like you would find in Banjo-Kazooie or something. It's not make or break though, and if there aren't text blips, text box blips do just as good (like a sound whenever you click onto the next line.)

Unlike in Animal Crossing or Undertale or Banjo-Kazooie though, a visual novel doesn't generally tend to have a whole lot long breaks from dialogue, and having to listen to voice clips like those for four consecutive hours with little to no breaks would probably drive me insane or make me not want to play the game anymore, so an option to turn the voices off (or at least specific characters voices, which I've seen a lot), would be nice in that instance.

I think the only instance I haven't liked blips is where it's only one character that has them---like an "unvoiced" MC. I've always managed to get used to it, but it's extremely weird to me to have a fully voiced cast, minus one or two.

[Zelan]

I think the only instance I haven't liked blips is where it's only one character that has them---like an "unvoiced" MC. I've always managed to get used to it, but it's extremely weird to me to have a fully voiced cast, minus one or two.

This is a huge thing for me, and it's one of the things that usually turns me off on any sort of voice acting for VNs, since the protagonist is almost never voiced. I feel like you have to go all the way or not at all with it.