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After the speed of Days 1 & 2, Day 3 seemed to just create mess as a bewildering array of cables appeared from holes in walls.
 

Day 2 and all is going to plan.  Main structures are in and sealed, and studio diffusers are 2/3 in.  I guess today will be the most impressive as the main structure is up and taking shape. Day 3 will be wire and pipes as the AC, AV, audio, network and electricity all gets plumbed in and tested. Then we’ll be fine tuning the acoustics of the main studio space. We don’t want it to be just dead space as we’re aiming to be able to control levels of spark for Foley and the occasional musical instrument.  After tomorrow there’s one day build on Tuesday with the glass coming in, final AC, mez flooring then a day the following week when the doors get fixed. Hitting our 50m² in 5 days target. Then we’ll party.

As Chaos on Deponia tops 79 on Metacritic the builders start our few days of our own chaos:  the build of our new studio.

We’ve been planning a studio revolution for over a decade and today it starts.  Like welcoming a child into the world it’s nerve wracking, exciting and all fingers are crossed in the hope that the results are going to be perfect.  For studio 2 we’ve broken away from traditional design to make a recording environment to liberate the creative process for video game work. As the build progresses, we’ll start unveiling what’s under the hood.

The first productions to use the space are lined up in three weeks.  Hopefully the planning and testing prior to build mean the ride will be smooth and late nights non-existent.  

Cutting out the window to control room 1.

A big hats off to the developer, cast and crew.  Another OMUK job well done.
Here’s a few more words from the web:  "The humour is fresh, and strongly delivered by a great cast of voice actors." 
"…great cast of voice actors."   "…the voice acting is terrific."

Go check out the game: Official Site or go buy it on Steam

As a great session with Nathaniel Parker gets to the last line, he cracks.  Mark started the camera about 5 minutes in.  By the end we were all in tears and delighted that Nat was happy to share this with the world at large. Support it on youtube: http://youtu.be/m33sYvX20lY 
 

Thursday 8 Nov 2012.  Casting directors Joyce Nettles and Jeremy Zimmermann join with Mark Estdale for a special panel on casting for 3rd year students at RADA.

It has been a long standing omuk goal to encourage the leading drama schools to take voice acting for video games seriously. Young talent is always needed in games yet the skills required to perform well are frequently either missing or misunderstood. Opening a dialogue with the drama schools and introducing students to the vibrant and exciting world of video games is surely one of the most important factors in empowering and broadening  the vision and ability of young actors.

RADA has taken a lead which others should follow. This exciting panel at RADA mixing expertise from TV, Film and Video Games is a prime example.

Super Saturday’s magnificent Team GB Olympic gold rush was preceded by a completely unrelated talk at the Royal Armouries by OMUK’s Mark Estdale on sound design and the sounds of war in video games.

Contrasting realism and sound for dramatic impact Mark took the audience on a sonic journey dipping into the Foley artist’s arsenal and torturing the audience with the sound of celery and demonstrating the power of plastic bags to evoke the imagination.  Thankfully the front row was empty when he turned to swords to explore the conventions of film sound vs realism. He concluded the talk demonstrating of  the use of layering in explosions to avoid repetition during gameplay. The power of the explosions shook one of the theatre’s speakers from the wall but thankfully Game Republic’s Jamie Sefton was on hand to control the offending speaker’s excitement.  

No Team GB medals were missed. Go Team GB!

"Deponia’s tale of love, loss, and all-out comedy is a beautifully constructed piece of point-and-click heaven."  "Fantastic writing and voice acting" Writes Gamespot’s  Mark Walton.

Here is Mark’s video review of Deponia, the latest point and click adventure to get the OM treatment.

MMORPGs were slower to adopt voice than other game genres. However, advances in technology and bandwith are increasingly helping to make voice in online games the norm. Jagex recently teamed up with dialogue specialists OM to put the first voices to quests in their flagship MMORPG, RuneScape. Jagex Audio Director Stephen Lord (right) and Mark Estdale (left) of OM talk over the issues involved.

"Context is vital for dialogue so working without a main voice does add performance challenges. OM has an audio and script toolset that helps deal with this by enabling the voice director to instantly emulate gameplay in the studio. The tools enable us to get the actors instinctively into the performance sweet spot by giving them super-fast acting-pertinent context on the fly. The script is on-screen, supported by voice and audio cues, character images, videos etcetera.
How does the size of the game impact the dialogue recording process?
Whether recording 50 words or 5 million the focus is the same: every single word needs to add to the experience so the performance needs to be bang on. Meticulous preparation is key and the OM tools help minimise size being a issue. The tools lock script and recorded assets together as they are created enabling us to track, control, review and use data immediately."

Read the full article at  Article at Develop-online.net 

We’re proud to have been selected as finalist for the 2012 Develop Award for Audio Outsourcer. This is a much valued acknowledgement of the passion, vision and commitment of a great team. Thanks to everyone who’ve trusted their games to us and thanks to the amazing army of fabulous actors who make our work a joy and throw themselves wholeheartedly and continually into the creative maelstrom.