Visually Daunting
Project Overview
THIS IS NOT A PAID GIG, WE’RE MAKING A STUDENT PROJECT!
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Hey, this is Jo. One of the creators of Visually Daunting. Our senior capstone project published under the studio name Dirty Rotten. Visually Daunting is a horror themed visual novel, a sub-genre of interactive fiction games. Split up into four acts, the game revolves around supernatural chaos spreading in social media streams. Each act is independent of one another, the player acting as a viewer. Interactions are handled through the chat, which lead to different outcomes. Most of them grim.
Act I: Park
Two friends explore a park in search of psychedelics when they come upon a couple who’ve lost their dog. The dog turns up, but is altered by a strange fungus. It violently attacks and kills one of its owners, and chaos ensues.
Act II: Roleplay
Five friends hang out, streaming their roleplaying session. Strange things begin to happen, ending with someone being roasted alive.
Act III: Fuzz
Two women host a cooking show. One gets tired of the other undermining the other and attacks her, cutting off her head and replacing it with a pumpkin. A nod to Pumpkin Eater.
Act IV: Vtubber
A vtubber spreads the chaos around, driving obsessed fans to perform violent acts. The vtubber takes focus on the player, presenting their “sins” and chiding redemption. This leads to the game ending.
Who, what, where, why and how we need your assistance:
We’re students. I mean we’re like baby birds just hatching from our eggs. We have absolutely no idea what we’re doing, but we’re trying our best and would love it if you’d like to be a part of that. Every piece of this game is being formed by some hand or brain. We’re working with all original content. We’re also on a tight time crunch. We’ve got about three and a half more months to work on this game.
We need voice actors. Visual novels are very static games. Ours particularly is on-rails. We move the player through our stories. Voice actors add a decorative panache. Gives the characters more depth. We’re not looking to read entire lines. We’re talking snippets, in relation to the dialogue and events. Ones that we can place in conjunction with the dialogue to create a fuller experience with. We’ve got thirteen characters in our game, and would love people interested to play them.
We’ve also got an credit theme, if anyone is interested in performing it.
So please, let me know if you’re interested. If you have any questions or comments, also send them this way. Can't wait to hear from you! Thanks for giving a listen.
ROLES WILL BE UPDATED AS MORE DETAILS ARISE
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IF YOU WANNA BE A ZOMBIE DOG, COME BE A ZOMBIE DOG.
Chips is a King Cavalier King Charles Spaniel with two moms. He is a rescue, prone to running off when scared. This is how he escaped, and how his fate was sealed. The fungus that takes over Chip's body is inspired by ophiocordyceps unilateralis, which makes zombie ants. In typical zombie fashion, Chips is incredibly aggressive. Ultimately killing Wendy, his beloved fur mom. He spews out black gunk, which zombifies other.
In my head he sounds low, faint, pained, and almost nothing like a dog. A faint hint of a dog still remains, but is mostly just wind through a passageway. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.
Needed sound clips:
Chips appears (soft, low effort response to seeing others - 2 seconds about)
Chips growls (a windy,open mouthed growl. Something that sounds minuetly like a dog,but mostly is just off-putting and strange. Leads to attacks)
Chips attacks I (neck lunge)
Chips attacks II (head lunge)
Chips attacks III (a continued attack from head lunge)
Chips vomits (a continued attack from neck lunge)
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If you want to record a handful of versions of any particular line, feel free to toss them this way and we can put in the audio that fits best.
zombie dog growl
zombie dog howl
DONNA IS A BLACK FEMALE, PLEASE CONSIDER WHEN APPLYING!
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Donna is the rock of the family. She is more sociable of the two, and open to talking to strangers. She is the lead of the hunt, although she ends up breaking down after Wendy's death at the hands of Chips. She blames herself for his absence, although she doesn't actively tell anyone. She's strong, and typically less soft spoken. A week of being ground down emotionally has taken a turn for the worst on her. Everything she says has a tinge of pain to it. At least, as I see it.
"Hello" (Said a bit stand-offish yet strong. Upon appearing walking around after dark)
"Hey..." (Trails off as if occupied, an alternate introduction.)
"Have you seen a dog?" (Still stand-offish. Firm)
"We're looking for Chips." (Firm) "I'm Donna." (Said friendly yet soft.)
"Up here!" (Hopeful yet still soft - said after the guys agree to help look for Chips. She takes them to the last place he was seen.)
"That's us." (Soft statement.)
"Would you help us?" (A firm question. Hope put in the back of this question, a social expectation of assistance.)
"Donna, Wendy, Chips." (Said as a quick introduction. Soft as always.)
"We'll show you." (Said softly) "Hahaha" (Soft short laugh, an uplifting soft memory of Chips.)
"People break the rules." (Said in anger, this is why Chips got lost.)
"He's a rescue." (Said in frustration, trying to do good when only bad happened.)
"He got scared!" (Said in frustration, a follow up - with urgency in the voice.)
"He ran!" (Even madder, mostly at herself.)
"We looked for him..." (An attempt to make it better.)
"We lost him...!" (Said with overwhelming gloom, as if she herself was the source of this misery.)
"Huh!" (A breathy, shocked noise. At the sight of zombie Chips.)
"That's not Chips!" (Said trying to snap her partner out of a fugue state.)
"Oh God!" (Said in disbelief as Wendy gets attacked)
The last bit of dialogue I need is of Donna being mentally shut down. That can be portrayed however you'd like. When I recorded some test audio it was just her saying "Oh my god, oh my god" over and over again. It can be guttural noises. It can be panicked breathes. I don't really mind, as long as it feels like someone who's completely physically and emotionally shut down. She ends this part in a fetal position.
"Oh god!"
"We lost him."
WENDY GETS ATTACKED AND YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO PRODUCE A NON-EAR SPLITTING SCREAM FOR THE GAME!
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Wendy is the partner of Donna and fur-mom of Chips. She's passive aggressive by nature, and her lack of emotional soundness has made her more snippy. She sort of shifts between being aggressive and distraught. She's not the most likeable of characters, but still she is a person hurting. That's the biggest takeaway. In my head she's got a bit of a wobbly medium pitch voice. Higher than Donna's but not baby doll saccharine.
"He's missing." (Said matter of factly, yet standoffish.)
"He's scared and hungry!" (Said aggressively, emotionally. Wavering voice, very upset.)
"You'll help?" (Said surprised.)
"Our dog." (Said upset)
"You have?" (Said surprised.)
"That's our baby!" (Said emotionally, wavering voice.)
"Wendy" (Introducing herself, softly.)
"We were around the lake." (Said matter of factly, a bit rushed.)
"He was so scared." (Said a bit lovingly, reminiscing of their time together with their dog.)
"A fucking skateboard." (Said bitterly, with scorn.)
"I couldn't stop him." (Turns into crying as Wendy breaks down over losing Chips.)
"Chips?" (Said shocked upon seeing him, even if he's gross she doesn't care. She just wants her dog back.)
"Chips, Chips. Come on!" (Said optimistically and sweet, like you do when you talk to your fur-baby.)
"Chips!" (Said one last time before being attacked)
"Ahh!" (Death scream, please don't blow out any ears.)
"[Gutteral noises]" (From choking on gunk/blood.)
Post-mortem
Zombie moan I -(Sitting up,Wendy now is dead)
Zombie attack I - (Bites Ethan's cheek)
Zombie attack II -(Bites Ethan's throat)
Zombie moan II - (Standing back up to attack Donovan)
"He's scared and hungry!"
"Chips. Chips, come on!"
Act III isn't written yet, so I've just dubbed this character "Miss Perfect." Basically anything and everything she does is wonderful. Everyone loves her, and she can draw in with a smile. She's angelic-like. A great face for streaming. She gets murdered at some point, and will have to create a death scream that isn't ear splitting. She laughs a lot too.
"Tada!"
"How lovely!"
Act III isn't written yet, so this character is currently saved as "Miss Jealous." She is a co-streamer of a cooking show. Who can't seem to get a word in edge-wise. She attempts to take a fair share of the attention, but never seems to be able to. An individual in the chat begins to talk to her, suggesting retribution. Other members in the chat join along, and suddenly it's flooded with people encouraging violent acts. No matter how much people try to stop the subversive voices, they take hold. Miss Perfect is too occupied with how cute her creation is to notice the chat. Suddenly Miss Jealous attacks, hacking madly at Miss Perfect's head. After it completely falls off, she places a pumpkin on top of her shoulders, and shows the camera. The feed ends.
"Hmm."
"Yes."
Hey, you're a roleplay chick! Be whatever you'd like. I am writing the character, but if you join before I write them, I can write them with you. Gotta pick a d&d character though, as your persona. I will update this as I write the information. If no one is found for this, I will replace the roll.
"Hyaa!"
"I charge the castle!"
You're a stuffy asshole and you don't care who knows it or what anyone thinks about it. You're cagey, defensive and sarcastic. You can't even be bothered with changing the tone of your voice. This character isn't written yet, so we can write him together. He's going to need a D&D persona. I'll update if this character gets written.
"Hmm."
"Yeah, whatever."
You're basically the do-gooder paladin happy-go-lucky most agreeable teammate. You're basically the happy go lucky paladin. You move the team forward, and talk about how any challenge can be overcome with the right attitude. You get your face burned off in one reality, and in other you have to run out of a burning house. Must be able to scream in a non-ear splitting way. This character isn't written yet, so more updates as they come.
"Come on guys!"
"We can do this together."
You're the group mage. Your well wished spell becomes reality during this game session and either fries someone alive, or sets the entire place on fire. Haven't fleshed this character out yet, but open to fleshing them out with anyone who wants to play them. If this character gets written, I'll update this listing.
At some point you're going to have to sound as if in incredible disbelief.
"I cast fireball!"
You finish the game off. You're an evil individual who chides people into violent acts. Then commit your own violent act. Then attempt to persuade the player to follow suit with madness.
*Evil chuckle*
"Hi!"
We've got a handful of individuals working on the soundtrack for the game. A purely ambient affair, with songs that start calm and shuffle towards urgency and madness. They've got to be songs you could leave on in the background for an extended period of time and not go insane from listening to. An average of a minute to a minute and a half. You'd be supporting student developers, and it'd be much appreciated. Each Act needing 2-3 songs. This is a collaborative position, in which some songs are already being produced by others.
Say something you think would fit
Are you super-fantastically good at integrating sound effects? Or do you have an ear for the subtle things, and have always wanted to apply that to a project? If so, we need someone who's looking to put some sound effects into the game. I am going to cover as many as I can, but I by no means am an audio engineer. I know what a difference some solid audio can do for a horror game. In turn, if you fit the bill above an want to help us with our capstone project it'd be much appreciated. Let us know!
Say something you think would fit
One of our producers wrote up a song. We'll be producing it if no one steps forward. The concept behind the song is a unseen force that uses individuals as play things, marching them towards their chaotic hold. This song will be sung to electric guitar. Which will be pieced together after the lyrics have been recorded. The writer is open to a shift in lyrics, as am I. The theme is pretty hard set. I've been singing different renditions of it, trying to get a feel for it. I also am an amateur who lives in a nunnery. So I don't mind if someone else takes over. The full lyrics are:
Receive my transmission
Demonic possession
I’m leading you home
Follow my voice
You don’t have a choice*
Fall into my gloam
Madness is my desire
Chaos, torment, and fire
Spread my will across your globe
Sink your world into stygian depths
Open the doors to my house of abyss
Prepared is your place
There is no escape
I bid you come home
Come home
Any questions, ask away!
Receive my transmission
Demonic possession
I’m leading you home
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