🎙️ All our Parli Voices 🧑🤝🧑 + Build Mode Stream Next Tuesday!
What’s up everybody! Andrei here, ready to deliver my last Patreon post before the Early Access release of May 25th! 🔊 I wanted to take the opportunity to show you something special and long awaited by many of you: the different voice options that you can have for your Paras! 🔐 This post is for Patrons only, so please don’t share any of its content! Thank you!
🎥 In the video above, you saw different conversation animations accompanied by their respective voice overs. We will be going over the details of these different voice options and how they were recorded in the studio! But first, one quick announcement…
🔨Build Mode Stream on April 7th!
Hii it’s Rina! I’ll be doing a cool Build Mode challenge stream on Discord on April 7th at 11AM ET 💪This time, we’re leaving it up to fate to decide how big each room of my house will be, among other things. How will it turn out? Better tune in to see…
🗣️ The Voices
At launch, Paralives will have 4 different adult voice options (teenagers to elders), 1 child voice (children to pre-teens), 1 for toddlers and 1 for babies. More options and a slider to change the pitch might be added post-launch 🚀 You will be able to assign the voice you want to your Paras in the Paramaker.
The voices are named over an adjective that describes the tone of the voice. Their respective names are Smooth, Rough, Mellow and Silky.
🎧 The Recording Process
Many months ago, we made a contract with Montreal-based game audio company “Pixel Audio” to record 3 different professional voice actors in their studio (the remaining voice is my own, which you can check the behind-the-scenes recording in this Patreon Post). The names of our actors areeeee 🥁🥁🥁:
Voice 1 (smooth): Andrei (myself)
Voice 2 (rough): Gilbert Lachance
Voice 3 (mellow): Véronic Rodrigue
Voice 4 (silky): Angie Russo
The casting was done via the UDA (Unions des Artistes), therefore all of our talent is unionized. We recorded their voices in the Pixel Audio studio in a span of 4 days! It was such a fun experience to give directions, mostly on the Parli pronunciation 🤓
A photo of Pixel Audio’s recording booth. For confidentiality reasons, we can’t publicly show the behind-the-scenes footage we took of the actors’ sessions (yet 👀)
As for the infants, the children's voices are made by Angie Russo and the toddler and baby voices are parts of many stock sounds from online libraries that I edited together. As of right now, there are over 3000 voice over files in the game!! You can imagine how crazy our asset tracking documents can get 😵💫 I can't wait to record even more after the launch!
This was all a completely new experience for me, and I’m not talking just for the voice acting… Making a whole soundtrack, designing sounds, creating a whole gibberish language, making interactive audio systems, working with a team of artists, HAVING A FULL-TIME JOB 🫠 They’re all things I never in my life thought I would be doing for 5 years straight. And it was awesome. Especially the part of having such a cool, inclusive community and doing these posts. I had already made a cheesy goodbye in November's post so I’m gonna keep this one short.
Peace ✌️ Have fun playing the game! See you then!
Thank you everyone,
Andrei ♪♩♩ ♪♩♩♩
Comments (93)
I like the voices but the child voices sound alien. Maybe you don’t have to scrap that voice and you can just use it for an alien characters in the future but I don’t think it fits a child voice.
I want a supermarket, please developers, make a grocery store.
The toddler and baby voices give me so much life 🥹
Personally, I don't like the kid voice. It doesn't sound very childlike. I find it annoying.
I agree that the tween girl voice doesn’t fit as much, but the toddler and baby does. Still, I think it’s something you can get used to once the game comes out.
The voices are great, as is the animation, particularly the facial animation that goes with it. As it always is! BUT...ANOTHER build mode/character creator video?? Really?? I'm sorry to be negative here, as I've ardently followed this game from the outset, but we've SEEN enough of build mode and character creator. We really have. And there's nothing new in these videos, right? Because these systems were basically completed a couple years ago. How many more of those are you going to show before you decide you've shown them enough? One video of each of those was more than enough. What we HAVEN'T seen much of, and what people ACTUALLY want to see, is GAMEPLAY. We saw two VERY LIMITED gameplay videos that showed very little - a couple interactions, a little cooking and one example of buying an item. That's BARELY gameplay. We've seen absolutely ZERO family gameplay beyond a isolated clips here on patreon, but that's not gameplay - it's interaction clips. I've see you say that these are coming. When? I appreciate that you want to save some surprises. I want that too, but as a supporter who has supported this game from the outset and defended it, I'm really starting to wonder whether the negative naysayers aren't actually starting to have a point. You usually listen to feedback, but you don't seem to be listening to THIS feedback, the feedback that a lot of people are saying there is no gameplay because you're not showing it. Of course, that's a silly exaggeration, but those people are starting to make more sense when you continually only show build mode and character maker. We've seen them. They're great. Exactly when are you going to show family gameplay? More extended gameplay past the introduction of a character?
Well, maybe because they're not ready to show more gameplay or family gameplay because they might have to fix bugs and want to make sure it all works before showing us.
A voz na parte do casamento,emocionada,eu amei os detalhes estão incríveis.😊🩷
Ok wait... the baby at the end and (her?) its scream/laugh has my whole heart! I'm so ready to play this game and have my Paras have little babies, instantly 🥹
The voices are great, but I have to say I enjoyed the showcases of the new interactions even more, like the wedding or playing with children. It feels natural and touching. I think these kinds of moments are exactly the core of live mode—after all, the interaction in the trailer where a child comforted a crying mother also sparked a lot of interest. This is something other life simulation games don’t really manage, and it offers huge potential to be more than just a childlike simulator, but a more mature, slightly more serious, yet still cozy and emotional experience.
Hi Andrei. Thank you for everything you've done. You are amazing and I can't wait to play Paralives. This is actually the first game that i've been truly exited about and the only game that i've supported and I'm so fhankful that i found this game.💞💞💞
Will the stream be uploaded to Patreon after? I can’t get onto discord and would love to watch it!
Yes, Friday with the new Patreon Post 😊
You did such a good job with the voices. They sound great! That must have been so much work. The only nitpick I have is that the rythm feels a little bit unnatural. There are almost exclusively two- or three-syllable words with long pauses between each word. I think it would feel a bit better if there where longer sentences.
100% agree with you! At first we thought shorter words would sound more cozy but we are starting to lean more towards longer sentences to flesh out conversations! And they're also more fun to improvise. Once we get to record more voice overs for more conversation animations (to be added down the line) we'll bear this in mind! Thanks!
This is so good I can't wait. :)
I love their voices they are so cute, you are doing such a good job! I'm so excited to play it. ❤️❤️
The vocals are really good. You can hear the emotion in them. Jeez, I can hardly wait to look around and play when the Early Excess arrive.
I've seen in the comments Andrei telling someone that the Paras say "Balati Lofi" in the wedding vows, but at first I heard "Para ti, love," and I found it really cute because "para ti" means "for you" in my native language. Such beautiful work, the voice acting is amazing!
Andree did a great job! The female actor too, they sound so good so excited for next month
Andrei* <3
Pokie me?
OMG THE BABY SCREECHES ARE THE CUTEST!! Looking forward to the pitch slider after release, but happy so far with what you guys did!! 52 days left! 😍
A tree that thick swaying in the wind is kind of weird.
These sound so good! I'm so excited!
I am SO excited to see the behind the scenes of this!!
Okay my first post was all negative, so I wanted to say I am happy with the babies and toddlers, because The Sims has always used adults to voice them all, including children, but I always found them, mostly in TS2 and TS3, creepy, because you could tell that it was an adult ( they used a female to do the voices for the kids, toddlers and child, not sure about babies, but it still sounded like the same, like an adult female. So I am glad you are using real babies and toddler voices, instead.
Hey Clara! Sorry for the late reply! No worries, no negativity taken hehe thanks so much for your feedback! I do agree with you there's work to be added with the voices! I hope we get to add first of all pitch sliders during early access very soon and more voice options down the line! I'm glad you like the work done with toddlers and babies!
Wait, so all we are getting is 2 for males and 2 for females? I asked late last year whether we would be getting more then just 3 for each gender, and my question was answered and it said we would get 6, I assumed it meant 6 each, but then isn't even that, its only 4 and only 2 each, so less then TS3 or TS4. And if we don't at least get a way to adjust the pitch of the voices, just having 2 each, is going to be annoying. I mean one of the many reasons I don't like InZOI is because they only have one voice for male and female and no adjusting of the pitch either. I just don't want to be stuck with all my female Paras having high little girl sounding voices, like InZOI has, and the one in the video wasn't much different from theirs. I for one have a more husky deeper voice, so I want to be able to have that in a life sim one day. The male sounds better then the others, especially the Sims 3 or 4 males voices, which I don't really like much. But the only problem I had was I kept picturing Andrei, even time the male Pars spoke. I do hope you are going to add the pitch before the May release and that some time soon after early access we will get more voices period, at least for the teens and adults. I do wish for at least 2 different voices for the child and preteens, also I hope that when you say 1 for them that you don't mean the same voice for both males and females, because that would be, well not at all good. I mean we just heard the child voice, on a girl, and it sounded like a girl voice, so what are we going use the same one for the boys? Hope not!
i think the voices are more purposefully non-gendered so that you could use them for any kind of Para but i understand preferring a female VA with a deep voice over a male VA entirely lol. personally, i hate pitch sliders, unless you want to go real.. "unique" with voices (all power to those) I feel like realism players don't go too high or low with em. I'm hoping they just get actors for an increase in differing voices!
My god, the voice acting is done so well!!! successfully translating emotion into a gibberish language like this, is honestly wild. :D It’s a bit saddening, tho, to hear that preteens and kids are going to share just one voice (at EA). I understand it’s extremely hard work, but I do hope in the future the team leans more toward the idea that in a life sim, every life stage should really be equally entertaining and playable. Personally, I love playing as the children, but they keep getting left behind in other games, more like an added asset than an actual stage. When in reality, the younger stages could be the most fun part. That’s where you can lean into imagination, fantasy worlds only kids can see, monster hunting, building clubhouses… that kind of thing. So yeah, I do hope we see more voice variety there in the future <3 lovely work para-team counting down the days until release!!! <3333
I LOVE THE VOICES FOR THE TODDLER AND BABIES ❤️❤️❤️
Oh god this voices are so good, i really love the little weeding animations, it's just so detailed and the voices are so gorgeous, i was a little dissapointed when i that teenagers are gonna have the same voices like adults, i mean i understand that but are u guys planning to add some lines for teenagers or are you just gonna adjust the four voices for the teenagers? Whatever you decide i'm completely in love with the voice actors and little ones voices.
Woah are those real baby and toddler voices?? I think in some games they just have an adult actor do the voices for them—like in the sims—which…. Comes across not so cute and kind of weird when you finally realize lol I love this so much more!
Thank you Taliyah!! Glad you enjoyed the voices! Yeah for that same reason we opted to go with stock sounds for babies and toddlers to get a more realistic result!
Oh my god, the voices of toddlers and babies 😍😍 My only suggestion for the future would be to include more children's voices, especially not such squeaky ones. I'd also like to see different volume levels in the voices, like the baby's voice. I think that would make everything feel more alive and realistic. Possible scenarios where different volume levels would be appropriate: during an argument, when children are talking/playing (only occasionally, of course), NPCs when they're talking to others on the street, calling out to someone, or arguing. And maybe even if there's a weekly market for groceries, Para's could advertise their wares (only occasionally, of course). Thank you so much for your hard work ❣️🤗
Thank you so much Josephin! That's some great feedback you brought right there! I'll take note of it! Can't wait for you to play the game!
Woah the voices are superb!! We can feel the emotions, it's authentic and made with heart! added to the music you created with care plus the environment sounds it's simply amazing! This game has a soul!! thank you for everything Andrei! 🧡🎶
That means a lot thank you so much Candle 🥹 It was really a pleasure to share all of this with such a cool community!
The first wedding voices were so beautiful. It really sounded like the bride was choking up with emotion
Thank you Aidan! I really love that interaction too 🥹
Hi Andrei ! It is so bittersweet that this will be the last we hear from you before release. What a delicious treat to hear the comparison between voices saying the same things. I would also have loved to take a look at that tracking document but oh well, I understand it'd reveal too much. "(yet 👀)" Hopefully we'll see more someday, because this is really something I'm curious about when it comes to directing people about a language that you sometimes workshopped while recording yourself. It's a great idea to have chosen "names" for the voice that not only are not gendered (though the voices for now are, until the pitch slider is added at least), but also without associating them to existing traits in the game. And of course the icons are so cute ! ;) Right off the bat, I'm in love with the Mellow voice. It's deep and I love how Véronic Rodrigue (holy sh*t she was on Unité 9 ?!) pronounces "barati" in the wedding scene, it almost sounded like she was speaking Parli with a slight accent. It makes Parli speakers feel diverse somehow ? I don't explain it well. But anyway that's a nice perk, and I hope there'll be a more diverse cast in the future, to expand on that with additional voices. The stock sounds for the babies work really well. For something that was not intended to be Parli, it sounds like it anyway ! I'm not sure if that means irl babies speak Parli ? XD But that's now headcanon. "all of our talent is unionized" ✊ (I have made a suggestion last week, about maybe potentially if it is at all possible holding a mini-concert livestream in May, I hope something will somehow be doable !)
Hey Ladyteruki!!! I'm not gonna lie, I' gonna miss your comments on these posts, you always bring great insight! I'd definitely love to share the tracking document in the near future just to scare you guys a bit hehehehe. It was so fun directing the actors. Of course it wasn't just me, we had a voice director from Pixel also giving them directions. I also LOVE Véronic's voice she just has that right beautiful, cozy tone I always wanted in the game. The actors do have a slight accent, first off cause they are primarily french-speaking (after Parli 🙂↕️) and also cause it was their first time figuring out the pronunciation. And I really do want a more diverse cast too for the additional voices. I'm thinking a non-binary voice and actors from more diverse ethnicities too. We'll see post-launch!! Not gonna lie the stock sounds took a bit to edit into the animations and edit with Isotope RX but it worked 😅 I just hope I dont run out of sounds soon with the future baby and toddler animations. As for a livestream mini-concert for the release I'd be super down to do something in my home studio! We'll see hehe Thanks again ladyteruki!! Can't wait for you to play the game!
« Barati Lovi » so that’s how our wedding vows are exchanged🥹
Yes!! Lina did the animation for that and ALSO wrote the Parli line herself. The whole thing is "Fibi, Balati Lofi"
TEARING UP there is so much emotion in the voice acting and they all sound like actual people. Thank you for choosing unionized voice actors. I'm amazed also with what you did for the toddlers and babies with stock audio...so freaking cute.
Hey Rosa! Thank you so much! Yeah I'm glad too on our voice actors performances! Can't wait for you all to play the game soon!
Omg i was like where are the little ones voices and BOOM!! They played and I jump for joy hearing those cute giggles!!! Oh i can't wait to play this game!! And Andrei I absolutely loooove all the music in this game its so relaxing and i even went back to old vids just to play in the background and listen for relaxation!
That means a lot Jasmine thank you so much 🥹 Glad you enjoyed the voice and the music. Can't wait for you to play the game!
Hahaha love the biblical accurate baby screech
Hehehehe we're probably gonna tame it down 😆
THIS IS SO AMAZING! All of the voice actors have done such a good job and the babies and toddlers sound soso cute, i love all the laughter! I wasn’t expecting marriage footage!!! the outfits are gorgeous and the exchange is so beautiful ❤️
I absolutely love the ring exchange interaction too it's so wholesome! Thank you anneliese!
Why did I start to feel what they were feeling while listening to them? ☺️ These are the real deal. Wonderful work! 🥰
Thank you Del! 😁 Glad you enjoyed the voices!
Wow!!! Amazing work, Andrei! What else can I say? I am really proud of what you've achieved. I also loved the exchange of rings and the guy with the baby.
HEHEHEHEHE gracias pa 😁
This is SO COOL. And seeing the animations they match up with - the ring exchange, the child playing with the plushie, playing with the babies and toddlers. It's so cute I could cry. I can't WAIT for May 25th!
Happy you enjoyed the post Cathy 😁 Thank you so much!
So you do all the voices? Even children?
Hehehehe no 😬
I didn't know it was possible to love the making of this game more. I love that the voice actors are part of a union and the adjectives are perfect for starting out. I'm so excited we're nearly there! P.S. The soundtrack for this game is simply sensational. My partner wants to play now because they've heard me listen to the soundtrack and Life Sims are not their thing lol
Wow that's one of the best things I've ever heard 🥺 Thank you so much Syrene!! Really glad you enjoyed the post and your partner likes the music! Can't wait for you to play the game!
OMG THE LITTLE'UN VOICES ARE SO CUTEEEEE! AAA and the way the adults talk to them, so sweet and the animations. gosh what an adorable post!!
Thank youuu Cece! 😁 Glad you enjoyed them!
Bebes voices are so cute 🥺
Thank you Ellis!
I absolutely love this!In the wedding scene I could hear the emotion in their voices! And the baby screech and giggle made me jump with joy hahaa
Hehehe we have pretty good actors!! Thank you so much!
OMG! The baby laughs were so cute! 🥹 The voices sound so natural! The ring exchange was also top notch! Great job!
Thank you so much!! I love the ring exchange too 🥹
Ohmigoodness the baby sounds!! 🥰 absolutely perfect!
Thank you Kristen!! 😭🙏
I love all the new voices and the effort that you guys put into creating things like this ❤️❤️. For a future update I was thinking about making the tone of para voices more in depth but adding little quirks with a para’s trait/vibe e.g. A para that has voice 1 and trait/vibe is being energetic they would speak more faster as they have golden retriever energy and people listening to then would get confused or lost cause they can’t keep up with them (adding para’s reaction could be apart of some emotion card or something like that). Or a para with voice 4 and is social akward would mumble, stutter and trail of when speaking because of their trait/vibe. And more little quirks like these so it more in depth!
Also for teens and pre teens I think adding little voice cracks, stuttering and things like that to display that they’re going through some hormonal changes and growing up!
That toddler giggle! OMG I got so much joy when I heard it. All the voices sound great too. The vow exchange was perfection too. Love the animation on it as well. Thank you so much for everything Andrei! I have loved getting to explore the music, sounds and now the voices in the game with you and I can't wait to see what else you'll be adding in the future.
That means a lot Trisha thank you so much 🥹 It was a pleasure to share all of this with y'all. Super excited for the release!!
Awww such a good post. I love, love, love the voices!! And that exchange rings animation is so sweet 🥰
The ring exchange is one of my favorites too 🥹 Thank you Jan!
It's so cool that the artists are part of an union. Knowing these tidbits is really nice
Yes! We're really happy to have them onboard ❤️
Maybe I already said something similar last November, but thank you, Andrei, for all the amazing work you put into Paralives!! The soundtrack and sounds play such an important role in video games and your music really shapes the atmosphere and vibes. I'm so excited for Paralives to finally come out, but the music-related posts really were my favorites and I'm going to miss the weekly updates :')
Thank you so much Danny! 🥹 That really means a lot! Not gonna lie, I can't wait to get back into making more music for the soundtrack. I just have so many ideas popping and want to get to show them to yall
Oh very very beautiful This section! I love it!!!👏🏻❤️👏🏻❤️👏🏻❤️👏🏻❤️👏🏻
Thank youuu Serena!! 😁
So cool amazing 👏 Im watch the video about the build mode but im going to be in my doctors for a checkup and bloods test, Addison Diease is a gaint pain
Thank you Slaine! Good luck with your doctor appointment 💪
AHHH love you guys- thank you so much for all of your hard work. I can’t wait to experience this game!!
It's our pleasure!! 🙂↕️ Can't wait for you all to play the game!
I love all the new voices and voice clips
Thank you so much Connor! 😁
😍😍😍😍!!! And it’s only next month!!!! Arghhhhh hehe 👏🏻
I KNOW RIGHTT???? AAAAHHHH 🫠