The Evolution of Text to Speech in Gaming

In 2021, the video gaming industry is estimated to total $178.73 billion.

As voice technology advances, synthetic voices are no longer a luxury feature for the gaming industry. But rather a requirement.

By providing realistic voice interaction elements, AI text to speech has brought a completely new experience for gamers. From enemy bots to neutral characters, developers leverage text to speech (TTS) for a better gaming experience.

Online text to speech is not just limited to user experience. TTS technologies are transforming the way video games are developed. As a result, tech-giants like Sony and Microsoft have begun to research and experiment progressively with AI for gaming.

Let us see how.

The challenges

It takes years to build plot, gameplay, characters, and game mechanics. Moreover, high costs are involved in a successful video game in terms of design, content, and voice.

Recording audio involves recording voiceovers with actors as well as translating everything for multiple countries. On top of standard video game localization, developers must consider accents, dialects, and even complete languages for gamers from various cultures.

There are just too many events in open-world games for game developers to run through, test, and produce the content for.

In the past, Online text-to-speech technologies could not bring the desired experience to the gaming environment. The voices of evil and silly characters were indistinguishable. TTS had a bad reputation in the gaming industry.

Even after everything is figured out, creators come to the challenges to attract and retain users. It is often contingent on the emotions and attachments a player builds with the gaming environment and characters.

Functionality and Accessibility

When you enter a game, the features, instructions, and suggestions are often presented in the form of text or speech.

A lot of games have storylines, which we consider the glue to make users stick to the game.

A natural-sounding voice, which can actually come with the right accent and expression, can create an emotional connection with the user. Needless to say, for general gamers, text-to-speech will enhance the user experience and help with understanding the game better.

According to NOVIS, over 23 million video game players worldwide are blind or visually impaired. It is impossible for visually challenged players to progress forward in the game without online text to speech.

Prototyping

Prototyping is the phase of game development when the scripts are tested. It involves first-time user experience, guides, game mechanics, animations, and player interactions, among many other things.

Before they get their hands on the actors’ version of the script, game producers frequently employ TTS to get an idea of how long phrases and sentences take to say. In order to optimize the recording process. TTS solutions bring significant financial and time savings to prototyping.

Red Dead Redemption 2’s prototype included 500-plus hours of dialogue recording. Imagine the reduction in the development cost, if they had used online text to voice.

Voice artists iterate and refine their dialogs. They come for multiple recording sessions. It necessitates a significant investment of time and money. TTS reduces the cost and can completely take over the process of recording.

Localization

As mentioned above, a game needs to be translated into different languages across the globe. Pokemon Go has been created in nine different languages. While you may think of other options like dubbing and subtitling, Dubbing is not economical, considering the charges of voice artists. While general public reviews show that people hate reading subtitles. Furthermore, it is not an option for visually impaired gamers.

Hence, for players as well as developers, text to speech is the most efficient solution.

Personalization

Gamers love their avatars. They devote hours of time and a significant number of game credits to adding a personal touch. Personalization has not been extensively targeted yet by companies. But with AI-based online text to speech, it is possible. AI TTS can capture the required voice of users and, furthermore, produce outputs in the same language and accent.

Character Voice

Unlike the tedious voices of the past, every character in a game has a unique voice and accent. Today we witness the heavy and evil voice game villains. Avatars pause and breathe at the right time. It is essential to bring adequate liveliness to the voice of avatars.

Online TTS brings a precise level of intensity to dialogues and narratives.

Voice talents come with a heavy budget. Even with just a few recordings of the hired actors, TTS can expand the dialogue and save a lot of money.

Games and their levels expand. Characters change and grow. AI text to speech is dynamic, with just a click software like Murf can create and edit a new character voice for your video games.