What is this project?
7Smoke Tennis 2018: Red Edition is one of two products from the 7Smoke Tennis Project 2018, the other being 7Smoke Tennis 2018: Blue Edition. Each Edition is a game mod for one of the entries in a first-person shooter game called Serious Sam. The mods each consist of a custom campaign, ten levels long, but the unique aspect of them lies in the mod's name. Each level is created by an entirely different person - and when one level finishes production, it's up to the next creator in line to make a continuation to that level keeping in mind the story, setting and the gameplay. You may have guessed that this idea has taken direct inspiration from YouTube Tennis videos - where two or more people continuously take each other's product and make some changes to it until it is finished.
7Smoke Tennis as a whole started out in 2015 as a very small project - consisting of just six people. By 2016 we had already made three iterations and our fourth one was just coming out - this time 14 people took part in the levelmaking! However as time went on, it was clear that our idea of quality was going in the wrong direction. When we decided to make a fifth mappack, we were able to remove previous limitations we set on our mappers thanks to upgrades to the game's engine. Now we could prioritize quality over speed. Eventually we announced the 7Smoke Tennis Project 2017, later to be rebranded into 2018, and with 20 volunteer mapmakers wanting to take part, we cut the workload into two groups - from which came forth a Red Edition and a Blue Edition.
Last December, we finished and released the Blue Edition to the Steam Workshop, which was one and a half year in the making. Initial reactions to the campaign was very positive and a large step up from previous iterations of the 7Smoke Tennis project. Beforehand, we also came to this site with a casting call in hand - in order to increase the quality of our mod even further, we opted to drop the subtitle-like text popups we used in our first iterations (we had no budget at all!) in favour of fully-featured voice actors.
What is the story about?
The 7Smoke Tennis 2018: Red Edition is loosely based on the story of the game which the mod is for - Serious Sam. In a not-that-distant future, archealogists discover a warning left behind by a civilization preceding the Ancient Egyptians - that total annihilation by an alien invader would be inevitable if mankind ventured into space.
And yet, mankind encountered no such threat. Somehow, the threat had already been taken care of by a hero from the past. Instead humans became the dominant species in the galaxy and reverse-engineered all kinds of spacefaring equipment to quickly expand their reach beyond Earth. Soon after spacefaring came space warfaring - the Earth Defense Force became the strong military extension of the human galactic domain.
What was left of the supposed alien invaders were scattered monsters wandering their home worlds, looking for battles that were not being fought. A non-profit organisation known as the Redeemers took it upon themselves to give these lost creatures a new purpose - a chance for redemption - under the tutelage of the species they were originally trained to kill. Although the ethics of this were soon called into question - who are we to boss around those who have already given up? As such the Redeemers became one of many prime targets for the EDF to hunt down.
Another such prime target are the Zalgruds. When it was discovered they were giving refuge to the survivors of a species that gave the EDF a hard time, so to speak, they didn't take very kindly to that. However the EDF's solution to this problem was overkill - to a point where the Zalgruds were all but extinct. This controversy sparked a massive debate in humanity's galactic government. And a lone Zalgrud survivor is taking full advantage of this as he prepares for the largest act of revenge in history...
What are the requirements for auditioning?
Requirements are fairly minimal:
- A microphone of sufficient quality is a must for every character. Try to minimise background noise as much as possible and use any sort of equipment you have (such as pop filters) to mitigate anomalies in your recordings.
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Do not provide an audition with any sound effects applied! The SFX editing will be left to our team. Cleanup filters like noise gates are fair game.
- You must be able to be contacted via either Discord or Steam, as our team members are most readily available on these platforms. Once you have been cast, we will immediately DM you here on CCC to ask for your account handle on either of these platforms. If your preference lies in another platform, please let us know beforehand. E-mail correspondence will not be an option.
- We ask that you deliver your lines within a month of being cast. If you do not believe you can finish your character within this timeframe, you must let us know as soon as possible! We do not wish to delay the release for any reason, so if there is a possible impediment, we can prepare for it.
What sort of payment is there?
All roles with the exception of one are paid. These prices are loosely based on the amount of lines, the importance of the role and the skill we believe is required for the chosen character.If you are cast, you will be paid for your role only after you have recorded and submitted all your lines.
Payment will be done through PayPal. If you do not wish to use PayPal, please let us know at the time of payment. Keep in mind that we may not be able to accommodate for any given alternative.
All prices listed are in US Dollars ($). Please keep conversion rates in mind if you are using a different currency.
Who are you?
I'm here on behalf of the Seven Different Kinds of Smoke community, shorthandedly known as 7Smoke, the group behind the idea for this project. We are, above all else, a community focused on Serious Sam, a first person-shooter series best known for adrenaline-fueled mayhem and headless screams. The game was presumably made in a garage somewhere in Croatia. We've been around since 2012 and we closely follow the work of the developers of the Serious Sam games. We also host weekly events on the Sam games (and other ones too), and occasionally you'll find us hosting a contest or a giveaway. More importantly, we are just a cozy community - we may not be quite the largest around, but the future looks bright for us.
You can learn more about 7Smoke through our website. You will also find links to our most active part of the community here - on Discord!
Is there anything else I should know?
Should you have any questions, please do not hesistate to drop me an private message here on Casting Call Club.
As you may notice, the amount of lines for many of the characters are not entirely final as of yet. In the current pre-alpha version of the campaign, dialogue is written by the modders for each of their levels - since everyone has their own writing style and idea of the story, inconsitencies are bound to arise. We are still working on refining the script for all the characters in this project to ensure that all dialogue is consistent, realistic, and used in the right moments. We have already roughly determined which characters we want to modify the dialogue for and the estimates you see at the end of every character description are indication of this. As such, when you audition, you should come in prepared to voice the amount of lines listed, in the case you end up being cast for a role. On our end, we will do our best to change the estimates as well as final amounts as we work on the script behind the scenes - and stay as close to the estimates as we can.
We will also be keeping frequent contact with the auditioners on this page. Since there are high expectations for this mod, we believe that in order to have our voice actors excel, we need to be in good contact with all auditioners. As such, everyone who delivers an audition will receive specific feedback on their delivered lines pointing out what we like and dislike about the audition. You are free to submit a second audition based on this feedback - and naturally, you are most encouraged to take a peek at what others have sent in so far and what our thoughts on it are. On our end, we will do our best to reply to every audition within 24 hours. (EDIT: See the latest update announcement for an important change to this statement.)
We're looking forward to everyone's auditions!
(Thanks to Armpitcore420 for the character drawings!)
