An indie studio has been accused of planning to use AI tools to generate multiple characters from a single voice actor’s performance.
Serene Questworks’ upcoming adventure game Castle of Secrets will make use of AI voices rather than those of the voice actors originally cast, according to two performers.
Voice actor Mika Nerida posted a message on X (as spotted by Game Developer), claiming they were cast for the game but then discovered that the studio wanted to apply an AI tool to add new voices their recorded lines, essentially turning their performances into multiple characters performed by different ‘actors’.
“Hey voice actors,” Nerida wrote. “Put a finger down if you were about to be in a video game, but the devs decided that they wanted to use AI trained voices over YOUR takes for over 4000+ lines, then decided to can not only you but every voice actor they had, refusing other talent onboard? Oh ok.”
Nerida also posted a screenshot which was later confirmed to be from another of the game’s voice actors, Ian Mitchell, showing that he had been banned from the game’s Steam community forum for “personal hostility to the project and imposing their position”.
Confirming the image was his, Mitchell alleged that the AI tool being planned wasn’t “just a voice filter” but instead “makes you sound like a different person completely” and was designed ” to save on costs of different voice actors, even though the voice actors who auditioned could do a massive range of voices for them”.
“We asked [them] to just let us voice act, instead of letting the computer do it for us”, Mitchell claimed.
When submitting games to Steam, developers are now required to disclose whether their games use any form of generative AI, and risk being removed from the store if they’re found to be using it without confirmation.
The Steam page for Castle of Secrets does contain a generative AI disclaimer, which simply says: “Sometimes generated voice acting.”
Serene Questworks has yet to publicly address the accusations made against it.
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