3. And The Nominees Are...
Pratchett/Kidby/DoubledayYou've all heard the voices in your head. The voices that you subconsciously attach to the characters as you read their dialogues. But those imaginary accents and tones that you associate with these people exist only in your own version of Discworld - your Nobby Nobbs is exclusive to you, and surely sounds entirely different to everyone else's. And that's fine, it's all part of using your imagination and so on. But for a game we need things to be somewhat less imaginary. Which means that we'll need to pull in suitable voice talent to inject believable, relatable personality into these dearly loved characters. Shoddy voice work can kill a game like this, so the developer can't just pull in all their mates off their lunch break to dribble their way through the tomes of required dialogue. Even the ambient chatter that floats in the background as our character explores the city needs to suit the overall tone. Voiceovers for the central characters are of utmost importance - we can't rely on script and character modelling alone to make these interactions feel real. Since Sir Terry is English, many of us will have imagined an English accent for the various characters, but that doesn't have to be a rule. Bruce Willis in his grizzled John McClane/Die Hard guise could be a perfect Sam Vimes, for example, while a chap with silky tones like Unchartered's Nolan North would slip right into the Moist von Lipwig role. Pop old John Cleese in there as UU Archchancellor Ridcully - in fact, there would be place for all the surviving Monty Python gents - and a franchise return for the brilliant Tony Robinson should be a given. Obviously it can't all be A-list celebrities across the board, but this is the kind of project which would need to call in the big guns where it makes sense to do so.