Voice Actress Hunting and Beginning Tummy Poking

The past few days I felt like a producer, contacting several places for quote estimates regarding available talent to voice my Shinobu. I wanted to make sure it was authentic Japanese talent so I can really satisfy my dream waifu game. Of course I would probably not be able to hire a voice goddess like Maaya Sakamoto (Shinobu's actual VA), but I still wanted something close to it. I wrote a 5 minute long script which includes voice lines required for all 100 animations of my game (roughly 120 different short to long sound clips). The catch is that there is not a single Japanese word, it is purely sounds and actions that need to be performed with emotion (being poked, headpatting, laughing, angry noises, etc.). I do not trust myself to write a full Japanese script. I can read Japanese but I can't write it well and I don't know enough to write manga quality voice lines. As fun as it would be to hear her speak in Japanese, I always imagined a cute and "mute" version of her. This also solves the "WHERES THE SUBS" for you guys. Regardless, 4 days ago I took my script and dived feet first into the industry of voice acting production.

First I inquired an LA based company named "Edge Studio" who fulfills requests here and there. My requirements were relatively very simple. 5 minute script and 1 character. What could go wrong? Well they gave me a quote of roughly $1700.

Then I found a Japan based voice actress who sounded like Shinobu. I looked at her rates and as it turns out, the Japanese voice acting business is rough because there is a lot of supply and demand. Japan has over 100 voice acting schools with all students eager to break into the industry. All ranked from F to A (A list get paid on average $450 per anime episode, F list probably get bugger all). But back to the voice actress in question, she charged 1 yen (less than a penny) per kanji character which is like a dollar per 40 words (2 yen if the request was R18). And therein lied the other problem that my script literally does not have any words. And so I offered a far far more generous rate and waited for a reply. Unfortunately, she does not do business with foreigners.

Moving on I found a great website full of voice actresses. I stumbled upon another Shinobu-ish voice actress whose voice is attached to this post. I sent a formal letter to her manager and WAPAM. We're in business! That's right, I hired a Japanese voice actress. Well at least her manager said yes and agreed to the pay rate ($250). They need to check her schedule. The formal letter business was done through a translator I hired. The business conducted and translator have been paid with the hard earned Patreon money!

Perhaps if if this project goes well, I'll hire a Japanese editor who can work with me to write lines with actual words for Shinobu. And then go back and hire this VA again.

Tummy poking has been going swell. I am currently creating assets for the logic. They are not complete but you can see what I have here. They are a little rough on the edges:

This next animation is when you are constantly poking her stomach. There is going to be a dynamic element which will allow her to block the part of her body you most recently poked.

On a final note, I have hired the same Japanese composer from the indoor/outdoor theme songs again to produce another song. This is in preparation for v0.5's bathing update. You will be able to bathe Shinobu and wash her hair. But more on that way later. Stay tuned.