Greetings community,

I was hoping to get a clarification on the use of sound and voiceovers.  At the moment I'm part of a team of seven, which includes a sound engineer.  The game is in need of some narration and creature noises, however, we are unsure as to whether voice actors (most likely friends) employed by the sound engineer to capture his sounds count towards the official team size.  If it does, we'll need to use ourselves as voice actors.  It's not a problem, but we'd prefer a professional cut to the sound.  Thanks for your time.

I would say no. You're "hiring" them them as something like contractors, right? If you get a company to do the sounds they're not team members. If you download free sounds off the internet, the people that made them aren't team members. Say thing, IMO.

There's really no definition of what makes a 'team' other than the fact that these will be the people credited with the win and awarded the prize.... I agree with Jim... pay your friends a nominal 'beer' for their contribution. Write down somewhere that 'Fred was paid one beer for his belch sound effect' and then they are just contractors you hired ;-)

Thanks for the generous advice guys.  We would indeed be "hiring" them as "contractors", so to speak (or at least our sound engineer would be), and it's commonsense to believe that such people wouldn't be included as part of the official team for prize purposes, but I needed to be sure.  Good luck to you all.

 

A team of seven, plus outside contractors, sounds like it could do a lot for the competition! Do you have any screen shots we can get a sneak peek of? I'm getting curious!

Howdy!
I am a newb at all of this game stuff, but I have done voice over work on occasion for broadcast, and have also done extensive advertising jingles and music composition.  One thing you need to be clear on is that if you "contract" the voiceover talent, you need to be contractually clear about the pay (or non-pay) and any residual income that might be due.  Generally if you want it to sound pro, use a pro.  Pro's aren't cheap, but they are willing to work on a tiered system sometimes if it is an interesting project for them.  What I mean by that is, the voice becomes an actor in the game, and obviously the designers and all the other techies that came up with the concept and code deserve the big chunk, but throwing a bone to the peeps that make it sound pro shouldn't break the bank and it would actually be - uhhh - fair. Dare I say, you have seven people coming up with a game that could be worth nothing or a whole sh**load, so my advice is check the egos at the door, share the prize and shrink the greed glands.  And make sure you have contracts - or it will all come back and bite you, but not until you aren't expecting it and have money coming in. Good luck, and hey, maybe i could help you out if you need me to.

Your help is appreciated :)  However, this thread is a year old.

But you are right, it's very important to cover everyone who contributes with a contract.