Independent video games, popularly known as Indie, are video games developed by small groups of individuals or small businesses. They do not usually have the financial support of distributors and advertisers, but their diffusion depends mainly on the willingness of the players to share them with others. Independent video games often focus on innovation and digital distribution, so most of the time the Indie industry is quite a challenge. This is why here we will talk about a tool that might be useful for Indie Video Games Developers: Text-To-Speech.
What is Text-To-Speech?
A Text-To-Speech, also known as a text reader, or TTS software, is a technology that “reads” digital texts aloud. These tools require almost no effort on the part of the user other than copying and pasting the text they want to be read. Then, through a clever algorithm, the TTS reader makes an audio version of that text available. While each Text-To-Speech tool works differently, the most advanced technologies support a wide variety of languages and offer many natural-sounding male, female and non-binary voices.
But nowadays, there is a wide variety of TTS options to choose from. Depending on the type of software, the audio quality will be higher or lower and you will be able to modify the audio you generate to your liking or not. This decision can be quite tedious, therefore, here we will recommend Woord. It is an extremely complete software for the task, with a simple and intuitive interface that transcribes text in almost any format -pdf, txt, doc(x), pages, odt, ppt(x), ods, non-DRM epub, jpeg, png – to later convert it into an MP3 file.
Why Woord?
Woord is a free online TTS software with a variety of useful features. It contains more than 50 languages, including a variety of dialects; it also allows one to choose between masculine, feminine, or non-binary voices. All of these features are available for free, allowing you to test the service before purchasing the premium version. Premium voices, a Chrome plugin, an SSML editor, an MP3 download, and up to 20,000 characters each month are all included in the free edition. With this program, you may also adjust the voice’s pace and format.
However, we recommend that for commercial use you buy a paid subscription, as they are low cost and ready for commercial use. Also, with the premium versions of Woord, you 100% own intellectual property for all files, as well as more settings for the SSML editor.
How To Use Woord‘s Text-To-Speech As Indie Games Developers?
Since its interface is extremely intuitive, as said before, you won’t have any trouble. Once you go to https://www.getwoord.com/guest/upload you just have to follow these steps:
- First, choose the format of the file where you have your dialogues; some of the options you can choose from are pdf, txt, doc(x), pages, odt, and ppt(x). You can also write or transcribe it directly into the SSML editor.
- After that, choose some audio settings: gender of the voice, the language of the voice, voice pace, and device profiles.
- To conclude, press the button ‘speak it!’; the audio will be ready in a few seconds. You can listen to it before downloading and go back if it needs some more editing.
And that would be it. Is that easy for you to have all the dialogues for your game with Woord.
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Also published on Medium.