Voice Acting Question.

[Jezni]

I have an adventure game in production. I believe that voice acting for all the characters would make the whole story much more tangible, and make it overall a better game. But... there are 19 speaking roles. NINETEEN, in varying degrees of screen time, a wide assortment of male and female, ranging from age 7 to 67.

So, my question is, under these circumstances... would it be better to start auditioning now, when I'm still spriting, so I can have as many voice clips as possible when I start coding? Or wait until an undetermined time when the game is fully playable?

[Calin Leafshade]

You can start casting parts as soon as the characters are finalized but you shouldn't start actually recording the lines for them until you've signed off on the script.

So yea, cast asap.

[Azure]

Cast when the script is done and locked down. There's nothing more annoying to me to get cast then have to wait to record, or have to keep doing retakes as the creator changes stuff.
Get the script done, and  enough together to be able to show potential VAs what you are doing. Then cast, and whilst you are waiting for lines to come in finish up on your end. With up to 19 VAs you may have trouble getting everything recorded, so I suggest you keep the deadline for final lines close-ish to the casting point. I will only audition when I know I have recording time coming up, and it's frustrating if there's a delay which puts deadlines in busy points for me. On the other hand you're right to start planning now as good voice over shouldn't be rushed.
Hope that helps!

[Calin Leafshade]

Azure makes a good point.

The delay between cast and recording is annoying for a VA.

[Dave Gilbert]

I'll throw my hat in the "finish the script, then cast" ring.  Also, one handy trick is to find actors who can do two or three roles at once - most actors can, if they are any good.  It will save you a ton of time and money.  Juggling 19 individual actors will be hard.

[Radiant]

a wide assortment of male and female, ranging from age 7 to 67.

I think this right here is the problem. Almost all people who volunteer for voice acting are somewhere between 16 and 30 years old. Getting really old or really young voices is not as easy as it sounds.

(incidentally this is why ATOTK doesn't have voice acting; we couldn't get a convincing voice for the 60-ish Vortigern, nor for the ageless Sidhe)