Next up in the Warp Frontier Voice Actor spotlights is Ivona Kustudić!
Ivona Kustudic plays Blanka Simovic. From Locus, the Locan homeworld, Blanka works as a Federation agent providing security and weapons support.
When casting actors to play the Locans I wanted an Eastern European accent, but didn’t want actors to put on an accent, so I wanted to cast people from this region. All the actors that play Locans are based out of Serbia. Special thanks to Kristina Drzaic and Luka Barajevic for helping me with casting.
Next up in the Warp Frontier Voice Actor spotlights is Angela Tran!
Angela plays Jet Young. Hailing from Zeta Centauri, Jet works as an Agent of the Federation, serving as tech security, with a bionic arm that arm packs a punch!
Angela plays four characters in Warp Frontier, the most of any other actor. Angela was referred to me by Aimee Smith for the role of Dahlia, as I was looking for a Vietnamese Australian to play the part. Angela subsequently connected me with Dom Dinh, who ended up with the role of Titus. Angela’s first audition was for Dahlia, but since I’d sent the entire character set she tried out for Jet and the Rust Kids too.
I had not expected to cast an Australian for the role of Jet, who I expected to have a West coast American accent, but Angela had such a convincing accent, which I validated with some of my American friends, that I was happy to cast her in the role.
Angela’s recordings are clean and levelled, so almost go into the game as is, which saves me a ton of time. When I find an actor like this, I’m happy when I can give them a lot of lines.
Next up in the Warp Frontier Voice Actor spotlights is Colin Cassidy!
Colin plays Colin Gyngell. Resident busybody in The Rust, Colin lives across from Trish and seems perpetually outside his apartment, waiting to talk your ear off.
I was looking for a bit of comic relief with this character and was influenced by Aussie comedy actors in the 80’s and 90’s. I need a big personality to play this part and Colin Cassidy exploded into my audition with his over-the-top take on Colin, and who better to play Colin, than another Colin. Colin.
There’s so much outtake audio I could provide for this character, and maybe someday I will so you can hear how Colin crafted and stayed in character. This character was a delight to direct and at times had me laughing out loud.
Next up in the Warp Frontier Voice Actor spotlights is Wolf Williams!
Wolf plays Thomas Bishop. A 180 year old Federation Agent, investigating the Cetan disappearances. One of the few to survive Earth’s Singularity – ‘The Reset’.
As I’ve mentioned before, we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to actors from the US, which is a blessing and a curse when it comes to making a casting decision. However, I was not able to cast the role of Thomas via my local network, so had to look further afield.
I posted this job on Voice123 and had several applications that were pretty great, but I decided to go searching for profiles on my own. I asked Wolf to put in an audition after listening to his reel, and I believe he responded in under 12 hours with an audition that landed him the role.
Wolf has a voice like rolling thunder, and was the only voice actor I had to turn my headphones down a bit for. There’s so much presence and depth to his voice that I worried I wouldn’t be able to balance him with the other actors, but luckly, once I added him to the game, with the addition of some accoustic effects and positional audio, he fit right in!
Next up in the Warp Frontier Voice Actor spotlights is Sarah Ruth Thomas!
Sarah Ruth Thomas plays Barbara Jenkins. From Regus, Barb left a religious conservative family to find home on Cetus. Joined the resistance effort, and co-founded the Rust PD.
When casting US-based female roles we’re spoilt for choice, not just in breadth but the level of professionalism. I cast for this role via my local network and Sarah was a recommendation. She nailed the role early on, which was a vocal variation on Bo Peep from Toy Story. It was honestly hard to keep casting after that. It was SO easy to work with Sarah on the role of Barb, she gave me more than what I asked for in terms of performance and I hope to continue her role in any sequels I am lucky enough to make.
Next up in the Warp Frontier Voice Actor spotlights is Dom Dinh!
Dom plays Titus. A member of the resistance, Vince’s best friend and father to Dahlia. Titus has been MIA for 10 years, disappearing at the same time as Juliet Cassini.
When I put the call out for a Vietnamese Australian voiec actor, Dom’s name kept being recommended by multiple voice actors. She really nailed Titus’ character and was super easy to work with. The only flaw, if you can call it that, was that she can’t whistle! This was called for in one of the lines and I provided the whistle in her place. Titus is planned to appear in future episodes of Warp Frontier, if I should be so lucky to persist with the series, so making the right casting decision for this role was important.
Next up in the Warp Frontier Voice Actor spotlights is Daniel Goulding!
Daniel, my oldest son, plays Sam. Vince and Trish’s older boy, Sam has spent his entire life in orbit. A somewhat reserved boy, he retreats to art to work his emotions out.
While only voicing a minor role, I decieded to bump Daniel’s spotlight up to today because today he’s performing in his first play since the pandemic started. Last year kids missed out on so many experiences that they’ll never get back, from camps, to excursions, to participating in sport, and the arts.
At one point I did not think Daniel had enough of an Australian accent to play this part, having lived in the US between the ages of 4-8, and having developed an accent that proved very tough to lose when moving back to Australia. But I gave him a shot and liked his delivery, then I decided that considering his character had grown up in orbit, I’d give him a pass.
Next up in the Warp Frontier Voice Actor spotlights is Reshma Martin!
Reshma plays Areela Gupta. From a wealthy family in Zeta Centauri, Areela escaped to live a bohemian lifestyle as a transhuman artist in The Rocks, Cetus’ planetery ring.
For Areela I was looking for an actor with an Indian background, but with the kind of international accent that comes from living in multiple places. As with all the actors I cast, I am looking for inflections and tones that come through naturally, to give a consistent performance. Reshma was not the first to audition for Areela, but her read instantly put her in another category as exactly what I was envisioning for this role.
Next up in the Warp Frontier Voice Actor spotlights is Aimee Smith.
Aimee plays Patricia ‘Trish’ Cassini. Trish was part of the war resistance, and now lives in the orbital slums of their ruined planet with her and Vince’s three kids.
Aimee instantly captured Trish in her first audition, and delivered a powerful performance, which she consistently nailed on the first take.
The next Voice Actor spotlight is… me. Honestly, I just need to do this for my completion bonus.
MAC is Vince’s robot partner, and observer. MAC has an up and down relationship with Vince, due to his unflappable positivity and strict adherance to protocol.
I play MAC as a somewhat androgynous mashup of HAL and C-3PO.
I have created lots of placeholder VO before, and even got to record at Bad Animals Studio in Seattle while working on a prototype for Amazon Game Studios, which is where some of my favourite bands have recorded, including Soundgarden, Nirvana and Pearl Jam! Putting myself in my own game was mostly a cost saving measure, but I would be remiss to say there isn’t a little ego in there, and both a question and challenge to myself as to whether I could sound okay alongside seasoned professionals.
