Sound & Fury, Part 2

Most of us think of games as an almost exclusively visual medium. That's not surprising. Thanks to advances in graphic design technology we're increasingly enjoying natural facial expressions, lifelike interplay between light and shadow, and eye-popping color palettes in our favorite titles. However, while the significance of the visual is undeniable, you can't overlook the importance of words in shaping our most memorable gaming experiences.

We managed to convince James Leach, head of scripting at Lionhead Studios, to give us a behind-the-scenes look at how the innovative approach to storytelling in Fable® caters not only to our eyes, but to our ears as well.

Xbox.com: Hello James, and welcome! Please give us an overview of the role dialogue played in Fable's overall game design.

Leach: Dialogue made a huge contribution to the game design. Once we realized that there was virtually no limit to the amount of speech we could have in the game, a whole department dedicated to villager A.I. sprang up to cater for the way in which non-player characters reacted to each other and to the hero. There are over 10,000 lines of speech in the game catering for every eventuality. It can be absolutely hilarious just listening to what NPCs are saying about you. They snicker at bad haircuts, mutter at bad behaviour, and comment on all your actions and past deeds. I was recently playing one script which requires the hero to lead some lost traders through a particularly nasty woodland, and all the way through the script the traders are chatting to each other behind you, commenting on your ability to lead them to safety, etc. Amazing stuff!

Even kids have something to say.

Xbox.com: All of these NPCs, and the principal characters as well, have distinctively British voices and dialect. Can you tell us how this came about?

Leach: Early on we decided we didn't want to use old-fashioned or archaic dialogue, but wanted richness and variety, as there are over 200 speaking characters in the game. We got the voiceover actors to spend time looking at images of the characters as we explained who they were and what motivated them. Then, in most cases, we asked the actors to exaggerate the voices they came up with to provide the richness and humor.

Xbox.com: What about all the different accents we hear in the dialogue?

Leach: We played with accents a lot. British people really enjoy hearing British voices, and as Fable is set in Albion—an old name for Britain—it really did fit. For a small country there is enormous variation in the way people speak, and there are distinct regional character stereotypes which amuse us as a nation. For example, Midlands accents sound a bit glum. To those outside the Midlands, Liverpool dwellers are cheeky and willing to bend laws, and Londoners often sound like they're authority figures, like the police or army.

Xbox.com: You had to find voice actors to speak all this dialogue. Can you tell us about the voice casting process?

Leach: First, it was impossible to use a different actor for each role, so we needed versatile actors to be able to cover different voices and characters. We concentrated on getting voices for the most important characters first, because they are the core story, and they had to be exactly right. We did use actors for these which weren't used elsewhere.

What we did was provide our casting agency with pictures and video of each major character, a description of who and what the character is like, and what motivates them, and then a chunk of script the character says in the game.

This is sure to cause a gossip frenzy.

Xbox.com: Where did you find all this talent?

Leach: The agency then selects the sort of actors they think would suit [each role] and they voice-trial. We judge these and the one which naturally fits best is given more direction from us and, if they're still right, they get the job. Sometimes people just never get the right tone and, despite their best efforts, when we hear them in the game it doesn't work and they end up on the cutting room floor. For the less story-based characters we had more leeway and used a lot of actors who'd done comedy TV work and cartoons. The little bit-part characters can be really extreme and we've had lots of fun with those over the recording sessions.

Xbox.com: Did anything funny or unexpected happen during your voice recording sessions?

Leach: When you're dealing with actors, funny stuff happens all the time in the studio. When you're using actors whose work you know and admire from TV, you can't help thinking, "Go on, do the voice of that character from your sitcom!” Most actors have a wealth of funny tales, and in between sessions you get to hear a load of stories, impressions, and voices. But in terms of Fable, a lot of the villager lines, especially when they've had a drink or two, are ad-libbed, and we had hours of seemingly respectable actors rolling around drunkenly, saying the first things that came into their heads.

Xbox.com: Do mistakes ever get made in the recording process? How are they handled?

Leach: Surprisingly large amounts of swearing goes on when fluffs and mistakes occur! But voice actors are extremely professional and even though they don't always have a great idea of exactly what some of the lines they're saying mean, they are astonishingly good at hitting the right note.

Xbox.com: Thank you, James. We appreciate the behind-the-scenes look into your contributions to Fable, and we can hardly wait to get our hands on the game to hear all this great dialogue!

Interview by Jason Carl