# Seeking More voice Volunteers for Swamp

Category: Accessible Games

## Post 1 by Wraith (Prince of Chaos) on Wednesday, 21-Nov-2012 19:07:02

Salutations.
Lately I've been hearing that people really want to record more voices for Swamp. To that end, I have (with Aprone's approval) reopened voice submissions. The acceptance window begins now, and continue till December 31st, 2012.
If you've never had your voice in Swamp and would like to be a part of this epic game, or if you're unhappy with your current recording, now is your chance to either become a part of Swamp, or to improve your current offering.
Criteria for qualification will be just as strict as before, and while I do not intend any offense upon rejecting a submission, I will not hesitate to deny entries which do not meet the below guidelines. if you'd rather have these guidelines presented in an audio form, with vocal examples for each entry, this podcast from harp will hopefully be of use to you.
1. I fully realize that few of us are good actors (I myself am a prime example of a lackluster actor), but please do your best to act the part of your character. If you're recording a line requesting a medic to heal you, don't ask for such assistance in a bland, monotone voice. You're experiencing some degree of stress and panic as a result of being injured. do your best to convey this emotional and physical trauma in your characterization.
2. Use the best possible microphone you can obtain for your submission. A good USB headset will suffice, but if at all possible, try and do your recording on a higher quality USB microphone, or indeed a low-end dynamic microphone with an XLR to USB adapter would do nicely. The better your recording, the better you're going to sound in the game.
3. Do some audio testing before you submit your final results. If you notice distortion or clipping in the file, or if there are unwanted artifacts (such as the microphone picking up excessive breaths and plosives), do your best to rectify these situations before recording, as they could contribute to the lacking quality of a submission, and thus may necessitate a rejection (depending upon the severity).
4. Record your entry in as quiet of an environment as possible. Don't record it outside where there will inevitably be intrusive noises. Try and reserve your performance for a quiet, reflection-free area. Most rooms will possess some degree of reflection, but the lower, the better, else you'll end up with a voice that has unwanted reverberant artifacts.
5. Please include roughly 5 to 10 seconds of recorded silence. This means start the recording process with your microphone on, but say nothing, do nothing. You want this silence window to be as clean as possible, as i will be using the cleanest portion of this particular section to aid in noise reduction.
6. Record your entire performance into one single, unedited file. No need to worry about mistakes and random chatter and banter in between phrases. I will be going through these files and chopping them apart, and in the process eliminating any detritus. No one else will ever see your original file, so worry not that you'll embarrass yourself with spurious material.
I've had to reject several entries from the previous offerings because they insisted on sending me separated files. I require one single take, so that I can get a reliable capture of your ambient surroundings, using such data to perform noise reduction.
7. For each phrase category, record at least three versions of an appropriate phrase. The more you're willing to put in, the more material I'll have to select from, and thus the higher your chances of having a superior voice in Swamp.
8. Do your best not to have microphone handling, keyboard handling, or other jarring noises directly overlap your phrases. Microphones are sensitive, and they will pick up these obstructions. Furthermore, such sounds are very hard to edit, and if I have to select a poorer performance due to unwanted noises ruining a better performance, I will. If you're reading the lines and then doing your performance, pause between finishing reading with your screen reader or medium of choice to make sure all mechanical devices (keyboards, headsets, etc) have come to a full rest, then start performing.
9. If you're recording a foreign language voice, you will need to preempt each category with its English name. therefore, if you're recording a set of phrases for the greeting category, you'd say "Greeting", pause, then start your performance. I do not speak every language there is, and thus require such prompts when I'm editing so as to determine where a category starts and ends.
10. Verify that you've recorded a phrase for each category! A lot of people in the last session tended to either skip one category, or to skip recording their character names. The absence of even one category is grounds for rejection, unless I am by some miracle able to salvage the offering by using data from somewhere else (which I am unlikely to attempt more than a couple times).
11. Submissions may be either left in wave format, or compressed reasonably to either MP3 or other similar formats. Either send the file as an e-mail attachment (if it's small enough), or place the file on Dropbox or another online storage service (such as SendSpace).
Files and links may be directed to:
swampaudio@gmail.com

## Post 2 by Wraith (Prince of Chaos) on Wednesday, 21-Nov-2012 19:07:45

*** SCRIPT ***
NAME:
Not necessarily your name, but rather a name you'd like for your vocal character. keep the name within reason. No Sci-fi, medieval, fantastic, or other obviously incongruous monikers.
GREETING:
A simple phrase spoken to greet a fellow player upon the field.
Hello. Salutations. Greetings. Howdy. How do you do? Well met.
CONFIRM:
A brief affirmative statement, accepting a request made by another player.
Yes sir. OK. Understood. Ten Four.
DECLINE:
A brief negative statement, declining a request made by another player.
No way! Not a chance. that's a negative. I don't think so.
RELOAD:
An exclamatory statement used when one is out of ammo for a weapon and could use some cover as he/she struggles to reload.
I'm out of ammo! I'm out of bullets! gotta reload!
BATTLE CRY:
A phrase uttered as one is about to charge into battle, possibly against overwhelming odds.
Charge! Here I go! Destroy! Lets rock! Kiiilll!
BRAG:
A boastful phrase declaring victory over a zombie.
Oh yeah, I rock! Hale to the king, baby. and that's how it's done.
TAUNT:
A taunting, heckling, belittling, or otherwise demeaning statement of provocation against a zombie.
I'm over here, rot face. It's time to die! Right zombie, you're mine! I'm gonna stomp all over you!
BECKON:
An authoritative request for another player to attend to your current position.
Come this way! Hey, over here! front and center, soldier! C'mere, now!
FOLLOW:
A request for another player to follow you.
Follow me. On my mark. Come with me.
STAY:
A request for a player to remain where they are.
Stay here. Hold your position. Don't move! Wait right here.
GUARD:
A positive statement, promising defense of another player.
I've got your back. I'll cover you. Lets do this together. here's some covering fire!
COVER ME:
A request for another player to provide assistance in a fight.
Cover me! Watch my back! I need some help! Can you lend a hand?
WARNING:
A sharp statement alerting another player to danger, or to be careful.
Be careful! Heads up! Tread carefully. Look alive. Watch out!
READY:
A brief phrase uttered when you're ready to embark on a mission, task, or other venture.
I'm ready. Ready, lets go. I'm all set. What are we waiting for?
HOLD:
A brief statement requesting that team members give you some time to prepare for a mission, task, or other venture.
Hold on a second. Wait up. Hold on. Not quite ready just yet.
PRESSURE:
A sharp exclamatory statement, urging team members to hurry up and perform their duties.
come on, lets move! Hurry up! Lets get this done with! Go, go, go!
MISSION:
A celebratory statement, expressed after the successful completion of a quest or mission.
Mission complete! Now that's how that's done. Hell yeah, baby!
MEDIC:
A statement delivered whilst injured, requesting urgent medical attention due to trauma.
Heal me! Medic! I need help! I need a medkit! I'm dying' over here!
MAN DOWN:
A declaration of bereavement for a lost comrade, expressing either shock, anger, or worry.
Man down! We've lost someone! He's dead, Jim. Oh my god, he's dead!
HURT:
A range of pain grunts, groans, and other similar noises uttered when injured. Be sure to keep them fairly brief, but also do your best to act as though you're being hurt. The more, the better.
Again, send submissions as either e-mail attachments or links to swampaudio@gmail.com.
Kai and Harp

## Post 3 by Wraith (Prince of Chaos) on Wednesday, 12-Dec-2012 20:26:17

I'd like to remind you guys that there are approximately only 2 and a half weeks until the deadline for submitting a new Swamp voice is closed, and that I'd love to see a lot more submissions than we have now (currently in the neighborhood of about 4 or 5). Ladies, I'd especially like to ask more of you to step up to the plate, as the selection of female voices in Swamp is rather sparse.
If you'd like to be a part of the game you love playing, read up on the script and guidelines in post 1 of this forum topic. A link to a podcast is also provided there which has harp going through the guidelines, as well as some audio examples straight from the game to aid you in your endeavour.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kai

## Post 4 by Smiling Sunshine (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Wednesday, 12-Dec-2012 20:56:48

Oh wow, this sounds like allot of fun and I think I'd be really good at it. You'll have my submition by next Wednesday.
Awesome, I'm super excited now!

## Post 5 by Wraith (Prince of Chaos) on Sunday, 23-Dec-2012 21:12:40

Just a friendly reminder that the deadline for Swamp voice submissions is in about a week. You can safely assume this will be your last notification on the subject.
After the 31st, voice submissions will be closed, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, it will be permanent this time; I really don't feel up to the headache of advertising and debating all over again.
Original submitters: If I once allowed your entry through simply because we didn't have very many people, I am not making the same exception twice. Old voices will also have to meet the new guidelines in order to be implemented into future Swamp releases. (I've already excluded about two original voices because of this.)
Though I did not make it clear in my original posting: we are now using 3 phrases per speech category, rather than just selecting the best line out of the three. Where before I selected the best even if you only submitted two phrases for a category, this time the system is changing, and if your voice does not meet the spec, it will either have repeats (if the rest of the voice is deemed good enough to keep), or it will be excluded altogether.
A lot of people have expressed interest, only a few people have delivered. come on folks! this is your final opportunity to become a part of the epidemic that is Swamp. Let your voice be heard!
Kai

## Post 6 by Wraith (Prince of Chaos) on Sunday, 20-Jan-2013 6:54:37

The processing phase of Swamp's voice update is complete. Here is a Roster of all 56 voices.
Any rejections that may have resulted were the product of either poor quality, intrusive background noise, subpar microphone behaviour, or failure to follow the guidelines. To the best of my ability, I've tried to incorporate everyone who has submitted a voice, but there were a few submissions that just could not be made to work passably enough to include them in the update.
Poor Quality and intrusive background noise: If the microphone or sound interface's noise level is such that it drastically impacts a voice in such a way that the voice becomes too digitally marred after the noise reduction process, that submission is deemed unusable. In some instances this is repairable, but in a couple cases, the background hiss and hum of a submitter's file was so loud that you could hear it quite clearly without turning up the volume. Worse, their voice was then so low that, post noise reduction, they became little more than barely intelligible speech, lacking vocal definition or realism.
Subpar microphone behaviour: In a couple cases, a submitter's microphone would tend to cut off the beginning of phrases, so that "happy" became "appy", or "need to reload" became "eed to reload". Where possible, I attempted to address this with the submitter, but if a corrected file was not sent, I was not able to accept the flaw. When possible, if a file only has one or two problems, I could correct them, but in select cases, the file(s) were rife with such issues, so much so that I did not feel up to the task of repairing all the damaged phrases.
Failure to follow the guidelines: I believe I'd crafted the submission guidelines thoroughly enough that there would be few questions as to the proper method of performance or submission. Despite this, I received a couple entries which appeared as though the individual(s) in question were sending a voice they themselves processed according to old Swamp voice rules: 1 phrase per category. Beyond the fact of not following the guidelines, their voice is also unusable since the new voice model requires 3 useable phrases per category, so that the game may randomly select one upon execution. In cases where I received such entries, I will admit to not following up with the submitter, since they apparently didn't read the guidelines.
Characters are no longer sorted alphabetically. Instead, a voice is placed in the numbering scheme according to a scale influenced by microphone quality, acting ability, creativity, and perceived enthusiasm. Furthermore, male characters are placed on odd intervals, and female and specialized voices on evens. This is to facilitate the old default Swamp voice, so that it may still remain the first item.
I do not conceive of ever updating voices again in the future, as, with 56 voices, Swamp now has more than enough variety to negate the necessity to make any further additions. Furthermore, I no longer possess the inclination to contend with the myriad difficulties involved, so (barring my replacement by someone else) consider this part of Swamp sound development closed.
Kai

## Post 7 by UniqueOne (I'll have the last word, thank you!) on Tuesday, 22-Jan-2013 18:00:26

wow, I don't even know how to play this game but it sounds awesome! Way to go you guys!