Recording voice-overs is both easy and complicated. It's easy as one can - theoretically - do it with household gadgets. A phone and a blanket over the head are sufficient to create a low-budget studio atmosphere. To add in, I have actual and longstanding radio experience hosting talks hows, so there should be nothing easier.

Yet there are several catches. Some personal, some general. On a personal level - I am not an actor. Yes, I have no fear of microphone and hearing to my own voice does not send shivers down my spine as it can happen to someone not customized to listen the recordings of the very own voice, but I am accustomed to talk like me and although every radio host takes in a certain way a role when sitting in front of the microphone, it's still not the same thing.

So, when I started making voice-overs for Man Off Mars I really didn't know how to speak, which intonation to use, should I do some kind of accent and/or emotion or not. Weird... There are altogether seven voice-overs in the game and I'm pretty sure they are not equal when it comes to the emotion and tone of the spoken text. It may not be a bad thing, but it's nevertheless a thing to think about...

On a more general level - the end result is dependant of the used equipment. I recorded all the VOs with my phone and edited them with Audacity. It really is a fantastic programme! Who hasn't used it or has no experience with working with audio files - have no fear! Audacity simple, quick, self-explanatory and there are also tons of tutorials out there (check YouTube).

So, I recorded with my phone, uploaded the M4A files on Google Drive, downloaded them on my computers hard drive and used freeconvert.com to convert them to WAV files. After that I edited them in Audacity - deleted unnecessary parts, added a bit of reverb, compressed them slightly and exported them to my Sound folder in the Unity projects Asset folder. Easy.

Well, but what about the quality of my recordings? Yeah, what about the quality? :D Actually, I'd say, the quality suits the games atmosphere: dusty wind of Mars howling with melancholic music in the background play along and even if I didn't want to edit the sound to crackle or sound like something out of the Apollo-landing documentary, I think the slight unevenness of the sound levels does certainly not disturb or ruin the experience but vice versa.

Funny, but I got a more or less pro microphone just days after finishing Man Off Mars. Just out of curiosity I also recorded couple of VOs anew and although the quality is better, I felt no need to go and change the in-game soundscape. Why? Because the first ones have a more authentic feeling. Even if my voice is sometimes weird and I intonate wrong words in a sentence, it's something what people do. Especially, when left all alone on a lifeless planet.

The third really important - and also fun - catch about VOs is the story-telling aspect. I really enjoyed the chance of not just telling the story via VOs, but telling it the way player can or has to fill out some gaps. I don't want to give out spoilers, so I just say that the VOs do tell a little bit of backstory, but they don't explain it overly. At first I thought of giving player more information and explaining the stuff in a more detailed way, but then I understood it's not really necessary as not everything is clear and understandable to us in our lives as well. So why should a game serve all the information on a silver plate? Some things are meant to remain mysteries.