#general-asks

i absolutely LOVE your visual novels so much. i've played mindmindmind, karamu and kanau, and all of them were spectacular. as a new game dev your work is extremely inspiring and it truly makes me wanna keep going and get better at game development, story writing and art, so thank you for all that you do! <3

i wanted to ask if you've shared your process for hiring voice talent for your games. the visual novel i'm working on right now is extremely reading heavy, and i think it would be much more enhanced if voice over was added at some point. the vas you have in your visual novels are so talented, and i was wondering how you discovered them/hired them! if you don't feel comfortable sharing this process, that's okay! to be honest, any tips that you have at all for a new visual novel game developer is appreciated :)))

again, thanks so much for putting out such great work. keep it up and i'll definitely be playing your future projects! <33

Hello sugarrchaii!!

GOSH you're too kind 😭 I still have quite a long way to go as a dev myself but it makes me so happy to know there are other new devs looking up to my work 🥹 I know that you'll do FANTASTICALLY, I'm rooting for you!!

And of course, I don't mind at all!! (I asked around and got a lot of help from kind developers when I was first doing VA, in fact!) I basically looked for VAs on Twitter/X, as well as Casting Call Club. Most of the people I eventually worked with were from Twitter/X, but people on CCC are quite talented as well! Admittedly I did this before the Twitter/X exodus, but I do know a lot of VAs are on Bluesky now.

You can see an example of the post here:

Here's an example of the most recent casting call that I posted! It has most of the basic information you should include in a CC (project info, compensation, timeline, expected workload, etc.)

I found it particularly useful to have people fill out a Google Form rather than emailing auditions since it made things a lot easier to organize, especially if you're fielding hundreds of auditions! And, of course, if you're paying VAs, make sure to include the details as well. There are a lot of talented VAs who are willing to work with a wide variety of workloads and budgets, just make sure to be clear in your CC!

In terms of reviewing VAs, I typically do a pass for audio quality (make sure to listen on high for noise or things like that, and make sure you can clean up the lines of the VAs you hire), then another for "character fit," and then another for emotional range. I would also make sure that your VA read your CC and properly included all the information you asked for, just to see if they'll be a good person to work with.

And lastly, I try to make sure that I have a script ready for my VAs by the time my CC ends, so they're not waiting too long for it!

[P/s : I used the translate tool, hope I didn't make any mistakes TvT]

Oh gosh this is such a sweet comment, thank you so much 😭😭😭 To think that you played all three in a single night!! (Shows that I need to make more games!!! 🤣) I really hope that you enjoy my future projects too!!! 💕