Over the past year I have been working with Creative Assembly, a gaming company in Horsham who produce a number of platform and strategy games in the ‘Warhammer’ and ‘Total War’ series.
I’m probably on an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) as to what I can say about it, but as the release day is today, I thought I’d better write up about my experience. You’ve all seen the character trailers. When they first dropped, it didn’t hit me initially that my character was actually one of the main characters! It’s pretty massive for me!
Thankfully, doing game voices is not a new thing for me, as I’ve got a pretty good history of doing game voices from Just Cause II to James Bond: Bloodstone. One is due out soon called Doragon Kuesuto XI which sounds suspiciously like something else. I wonder what that could be…? As you can see from my IMDB, it’s pretty cool that I’ve done all these character voices for video games. What’s cool about this, and working with Nick Gratwick who directed me, and Pete Stewart who wrote the script at Creative Assembly, is that it’s one of the lead characters, so the voice is going to be pretty recognisable throughout the game. That’s making me so stoked with excitement!
Have you played any of the other Total War Series? Which is your favourite?
screenshot of the trailer ©CreativeAssembly
I love this aspect of game voice acting. The changing of not just the accent I normally speak with, but also where the voice is coming from (or where am I “placing” it) in my head or chest or throat, what textures am I using? Different to much of the radio drama that I have done, but still using those acting skills. Different because you sometimes don’t get a total script, sometimes it’s just your speeches. As the person in the booth you do have to rely on your imagination. Thankfully, that, combined with the director’s knowledge of what the writer is doing with these (sometimes) disjointed lines of text, it they made it easy for me, it felt that it was really a collaborative effort. Yes, it may be my voice, the character that I’m creating, but the understanding of where these lines happen, what these lines need to do, that is the writer and director. Working with both Nick and Pete is great. It was often just Nick and myself in the studio, but usually at the start of the sessions, Pete would be in, helping more with context.
In the studio with Nick Gratwick (director) and Peter Stewart (writer)
I hope you enjoy Total War: Three Kingdoms. I’m sure the wait was worth it! Let me know what you think of the new platforms. I’d like to hear from you.
Jamie Zubairi VoiceOver Artist 