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Super-niche use-case: our game studio prototyped a multiplayer horror game where we played with cloning player voices to be able to secretly relay messages to c

Super-niche use-case: our game studio prototyped a multiplayer horror game where we played with cloning player voices to be able to secretly relay messages to certain players as if it came from one of their team-mates (e.g. "go check out below deck" to split a pair of players up, or "I think Bob is trying to sabotage us" to sew inter-player distrust, etc). Less-niche use-case: if you use TTS for voice-overs and/or NPC dialogue, there can still be a lot of variance in speech patterns / tone / inflections / etc when using a model where you've just customized parameters for each NPC -- using a voice-clone approach, upon first tests, seems like it might provide more long-term consistency. Bonus: in a lot of voiced-over (non-J)RPGs, the main character is text-only (intentionally not voiced) because they're often intended to be a self-insert of the player (compared to JRPGs which typically have the player "embody" a more fleshed-out player with their own voice). If you really want to lean into self-insert patterns, you could have a player provide a short sample of their voice at the beginning of the game and use that for generating voice-overs for their player character's dialogue throughout the game.

Terr_ 3y ago
The idea of a personalized protagonist voice is interesting, but I'd worry about some kind of uncanny valley where it sounds like myself but is using the wrong word-choices or inflections. Actually, getting it to sound "like myself" in the first place is an extra challenge! For many people even actual recordings sound "wrong", probably because your self-perception involves spoken sound being transmitted through your neck and head, with a different blend of frequencies. After that is solved, there's still the problem of bystanders remarking: "Is that supposed to sound like you? It doesn't sound like you."
- Kinrany 3y ago
  Being able to show friends your internal voice would be cool.
deleted 3y ago
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Jordrok 3y ago
> Super-niche use-case: our game studio prototyped a multiplayer horror game where we played with cloning player voices to be able to secretly relay messages to certain players as if it came from one of their team-mates (e.g. "go check out below deck" to split a pair of players up, or "I think Bob is trying to sabotage us" to sew inter-player distrust, etc). That's an insanely cool idea, and one I hadn't really considered before. Out of curiosity, how well did it work? Was it believable enough to fool players?

Terr_ 3y ago

The idea of a personalized protagonist voice is interesting, but I'd worry about some kind of uncanny valley where it sounds like myself but is using the wrong word-choices or inflections. Actually, getting it to sound "like myself" in the first place is an extra challenge! For many people even actual recordings sound "wrong", probably because your self-perception involves spoken sound being transmitted through your neck and head, with a different blend of frequencies. After that is solved, there's still the problem of bystanders remarking: "Is that supposed to sound like you? It doesn't sound like you."

Kinrany 3y ago
Being able to show friends your internal voice would be cool.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

Jordrok 3y ago

> Super-niche use-case: our game studio prototyped a multiplayer horror game where we played with cloning player voices to be able to secretly relay messages to certain players as if it came from one of their team-mates (e.g. "go check out below deck" to split a pair of players up, or "I think Bob is trying to sabotage us" to sew inter-player distrust, etc). That's an insanely cool idea, and one I hadn't really considered before. Out of curiosity, how well did it work? Was it believable enough to fool players?