T w e n t y S i d e d

I don’t typically follow trends when it comes to video games on YouTube and Twitch. If friends want to play the games and they’re cheap enough I’ll play them for a bit, but not many stick. I love Phasmophobia and TCG Card Shop Simulator for instance, but something about Choicer Voicer called to me in a way most games don’t.

It’s a common desire amongst us nerds to become voice actors. I am one of said nerds. It’s fun to do voices and riff. I frequently do impressions of my favorite characters. I sometimes will get “stuck” using a voice of a character for an hour because it feels to good to stim with. However, I’ve never actually done anything with that energy other than annoy friends. Now, I have an outlet.

Choicer Voicer is a game on itch.io in early development by YeahMaybe where the goal of the “gameplay” is to copy quotes and noises accurately. It blew up on Twitch because of the obvious appeal. People want to watch their favorite creators do silly voices and be loud. It’s a fun watch. And, while that’s a cool passive experience, for me the fun is testing my own vocal ability.

I started off by dubbing over Bill O’Reilly’s famous “Do it live!” screaming rant. It was a lot of fun. Recreating a meme with a tool disguised as a party game felt really good, so I tried moving onto something more substantial. I’m a massive Dragon Ball Z fan and have been my whole life. So, instead of picking something normal but with more substance like a Breaking Bad or Spongebob scene, I picked the show that would genuinely injure me for attempting it.

Clearly it’s amateur and so am I. I’m under no delusion that I knocked this out of the park. I recorded it on a budget headset and not my good mic so the audio peaks several times. I have an uneven tone in a lot of ways, especially when I start with Goku and do a very stereotypical anime voice. My voice doesn’t exactly have the gravitas of Chris Sabat or the polish of Sean Schemmel, but I was never expecting that. I got to experience a piece of a dream that has lingered since I was a kid in a way that was really fun and simple. I didn’t have to sync my own dialogue over the original audio. I just had to record lines until I was happy and click a button.

I highly recommend giving it a try. It’s a lot of fun. You have to embrace the cringe to have fun with it. If you go in expecting to love the end product, you’ll be disappointed. Nobody likes the sound of their own voice and what you’ll end up with is still your voice with a different tint. But, if you want to have some fun for a few hours screwing around with some audio clips and TV scenes, it’s a worthwhile purchase.

I personally only paid the minimum 5 bucks for the purchase but I plan on giving more as updates roll out. If you’re interested, here’s the link.

My throat genuinely hurts. My dumb ass didn’t do any sort of vocal warmup and recorded this all while sitting in a reclined position. Ouch.

Ethan Rodgers