Which voice for the trailer?

Hi everyone,

I need your help. We have been working on a new trailer. It’s going to be used for the Steam coming soon page. Once we’re closer to release, this trailer will be discarded, so it’s meant as a temporary “sneak peek trailer”.

Initially I did the voice-over myself. However once I received the trailer, I didn’t like it. Instead we ordered a professional voice-over.

Here’s the issue: I like the professional voice-over. The rest of the team likes the version with my voice.

Which one do you think is best?

First, the one with my voice:

Next, the one with the pro voice actor:

Please ignore the lower quality footage in the first trailer. It will be updated if we go with that.

Really looking forward to your feedback!

Thanks!

@trust_level_0

2 Likes

As your in early access and you stream some bits of dev etc my personal feeling is to agree with the rest of the team and say your voice is the better choice. Both are good.

I did feel the trailer, while comprehensive, was a little long. Felt like each feature was a little lost in other words, but maybe I just prefer snappy trailers lol

Keep up the amazing work!

Honestly I see why the choice is hard. I see myself unable to choose, I like your voice a bit more than the pro one. But only because I don’t think the dictation or the voice itself of the pro fits quite in the trailer. So I would also go with you team’s decision.

Personally I like the personal touch of your own voice because I’m familiar with it.
I do however think that since this is aimed at people that are not familiar with hovgaard games and big ambitions the pro voice is better suited.

And I totally get not liking your own voice-over over someone else’s. I too hate my voice whenever I hear it in a recording. You’re your hardest judge!

1 Like

I like the professional voice-over the best. It conveys better energy and a better rhythm. It also matches the quality of the rest of the game production, which your delivery didn’t. But don’t get me wrong, I do think that yours is okay, and it gives a personal touch, but, I also personally think it would put me off if I came across the game on Steam, just because the quality seems subpar to the rest of the game production.

(I’m not referring to the recording quality, but the speech delivery)

3 Likes

I had the same feeling as a lot of people here ! I’m familiar with your voice ! So i wanted it to be the voice over.

Then i took more time and i felt that your voice is more informative, than the professional.

The pro voice over is more enthousiast and take it more personnaly to live the speech. But i don’t like the “too deep” of it.

Your voice has a good color, but not the right intention into the speech.

Guys. This is soon the time to have Big Ambitions ! Cheers to you all :sunny:

Unlike, some of the other replys, I’m not familiar with your voice.

I’m danish too, so I can spot your danish accent in your voice over. But I thought it was great, maybe lacking a bit of energy to make it interesting throughout the trailer. But it’s sincere, and I think it fits the fact that a small indie team is behind the game.

Regarding the proff voiceover:
I must admit, I didn´t like it at all. I’m getting the vibe of an exaggerated TV-Shop commercial: It feels dishonest, and allthough it is presented with a sense of rythm and power, it just doesn’t fit the story of an indie-team.

Well, that’s my opinion. I’m excited to see which version you choose :slight_smile:

2 Likes

I think I like the voice actor’s voice better for the trailer.

It is a tough choice though and I think either one would work.

1 Like

I think it’s a decision whether you want to highlight it being an indie development (then your voice is better) or presenting it as something big (then the professional voice suits better).
Actually I would love to hear a real “tycoon” voice - a deep, ruthless voice telling with every word “I want more money and power!”
A bit like Christian Bale here (he might be out of your price range though :smiley: ):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSGFt6w0wok

1 Like

I prefer the one with the pro voice actor, because I find it more understandable

Hi everyone!

Thank you so much for your feedback, I really appreciate all the replies.

I think we can all pretty much agree that this is a hard one to decide. Including votes from my live stream we ended up with 9 votes for my version and 12 for the pro one. Not a big difference.

However, some of your replies really hit me. The part of “my voice being more indie friendly and the pro more suitable for … pros”. I feel Big Ambitions really is a professional production, even tho I personally keep it down to earth on purpose. The budget is also higher than what I would call indie.

At the end, the signal I want to send to potential players is “this is a high quality game”. So the pro version it is. I hope it’s the right decision.

Gonna be interesting to see what we do in the future for the actual release trailer :smiley:

Thanks again for all your help :heart:

The Steam Coming Soon-page is out tonight at around 19:00 CEST. Can’t wait!

2 Likes

I think it comes down to peoples views on what counts as Indie. Personally, I like the sound of a creator talking about there project. You just released an awesome roadmap which shows your by no means winging it!

Indies can be pros too :slight_smile:

I would go for the actor voice is more natural English and there for beter to understand for no native speakers.

Also it sounds so F*** profesional :slight_smile: just my opinion

Edit: And realizing that me having acces to this community dosn’t mean everything is recent :stuck_out_tongue: sorry for this late late post :wink:

:joy: Well, it’s not our last trailer, so I appreciate the feedback!

I would like to suggest some social commentary rather than a particular opinion for one or the other. I really think that it depends on what you consider your audience. Your voice over provides a decidedly international flavor and will appeal to the world market as a whole. However, if your target audience is in America, the professional voice will probably be better at targeting that demographic.

Hmm… it’s close, but I think @Jonas definitely wins that one! You get my vote!

I think you should use your own voice at this point.

#1 - The ‘professional’ version just did not sound that professional. It seemed to me that he was trying to give it that extra emphasis like a radio advertising announcer but didn’t quite make it. So, rather than being conversational or ‘full on’ advertising, it fell somewhere in between.

#2 - Your voice was fine. It is clear that you are European but that is not a bad thing. You were understandable at all times (IMO). It will appeal to those who support independent game studios without alienating those who are just looking for an interesting game.

If you choose to do a professional voice over in the future, find someone other than the one that did this, IMO.

I think down the road you can voice over some tutorials In game or have some our experienced gold supporters give it a shot. be interesting to have our own players show additional support for the game. I think adding dialog tests could help. I like to see if we can have a voice actor for Uncle Fred. Maybe one our members has the right speech to match Uncle Fred.

I liked your voice-over, I liked the pro one as well… I leaned towards your voice-over but I agree with your final decision and the reason behind it. @Jonas you are breaking the pro barrier and you should feel that way.