Having been in game development, I'm pretty sure that the sequence of events would have been something like this: * Writer: "Hey, do we have all the player voices have *exactly* the same dialogue? I think we can get some nifty individual characterization unique to each voice." * Distracted Programmer: "We're already playing individual sound files, so yeah, that wouldn't require any extra tech work. Just make sure that they're close enough in content that you don't have to change any NPC dialogue, and we'll be fine."
Months later, after player dialogue has been written and recorded... * QA: "Hey, guys, the subtitles don't match the player dialogue if he's using a voice other than Male 1." * Programmer: "Oops. I hadn't thought about subtitles when I approved dialogue variations. We *can* get the subtitles varied as well, but it'll take 2 man-days of Programmer time." * Producer: "We don't *have* 2 spare days in the Programming budget, we're already over-scheduled. Further, we don't have the spare man-*weeks* of QA time to *test* a new feature like that. Hey, Writer, these differences are all subtle variations, right?" * Writer (frowning): "Technically, yes." * Producer: "Mark that bug Known Shippable."
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Date: 2013-09-16 12:11 pm (UTC)* Writer: "Hey, do we have all the player voices have *exactly* the same dialogue? I think we can get some nifty individual characterization unique to each voice."
* Distracted Programmer: "We're already playing individual sound files, so yeah, that wouldn't require any extra tech work. Just make sure that they're close enough in content that you don't have to change any NPC dialogue, and we'll be fine."
Months later, after player dialogue has been written and recorded...
* QA: "Hey, guys, the subtitles don't match the player dialogue if he's using a voice other than Male 1."
* Programmer: "Oops. I hadn't thought about subtitles when I approved dialogue variations. We *can* get the subtitles varied as well, but it'll take 2 man-days of Programmer time."
* Producer: "We don't *have* 2 spare days in the Programming budget, we're already over-scheduled. Further, we don't have the spare man-*weeks* of QA time to *test* a new feature like that. Hey, Writer, these differences are all subtle variations, right?"
* Writer (frowning): "Technically, yes."
* Producer: "Mark that bug Known Shippable."