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Hello everyone, welcome to Chaotic Thoughts, an inside view of the development of Thoughts in Chaos, the third episode of the Antioch Chronicles.

This week on Chaotic Thoughts we're doing a bit of an interview with three of our main voice actors. Most of you will know Eric "Zeus Legion" Dieter and Ruben "Auspex Turmalis" Moreno, but we also have Bridget Maguire-Colton joining us. She's one of our new voice actors and will be taking on the role of Haley Rourke in the upcoming Episode 3: Thoughts in Chaos. We've decided to split the interview up into two parts, so below you will find part one, as well as some samples of Trench and Haley at the bottom. Without further ado, we'll hop right in.

CT: Tell us a bit about yourselves.

AUSPEX: Well, it's been 18 years since I released the first episode of Antioch, and it's been at least 16 years since the last time I actually worked on anything Antioch-related. In that time, I guess I grew up, graduated from college, got married, landed and moved on from several jobs, created and worked on a webcomic called Masked Manor for three and a half years, and started raising an amazing daughter with my wife. So, that's a lot of change. What hasn't changed? I guess I still like to wear lots of different hats. I'm a web and graphic designer by trade, but I also still do occasional voice-over work, I play and compose music and have a band, Paradigm Blue, that's coming back from the dead... and I'm still a die-hard Blizzard fanboy.

ZEUS: I think Ruben's math CPU is malfunctioning. Or mine is. If I recall correctly, I joined Ruben about a month or two after the first Antioch campaign was released in the summer of 1998 and we put out the second one a year later? 1999? Or was it 2000? Either way, I heavily co-plotted and dialogued Negative Suns with Ruben and voiced Moloch the Dark Templar as well as some minor additional voices (Bora Dalis for example). After TAC, I continued voice acting and writing, ending up at Irrational Games for a few years where I served as Community Manager, scripted and produced a 6-issue comic book miniseries for their Freedom Force games, and a wrote a series "bible" for that franchise, a who's who and what's what about everything FF. I next worked in broadcasting for about 8 years doing voiceover work, copywriting, web design, graphics, SEO, content management, and other thoroughly tech-geek things that paid the bills. These days I pretty much still do all of that stuff as well as teaching it at a local media school.

CT: What got you into voice acting, and does anything you do in your work life translate to working as a voice actor?

AUSPEX: I guess I started voice acting when I first created Antioch Episode 1. I've done voice-overs for work recently, and I do a lot of voice acting when I play D&D with my friends, since I'm the DM. But other than that, there hasn't been a lot of voice-over work. I'm really only getting back into that arena with Episode 3.

ZEUS: Watching cartoons and listening to radio shows as a kid is what got me interested in voiceover. Just for fun, I'd mimic different celebrities or cartoon characters. Eventually, I went to school for it after hearing someone tell me for the umpteenth time I had the voice for it. I've been doing paid voiceover work fairly regularly for the last decade though it's probably not as fun or as lucrative as it might be if I lived in Hollywood and joined SAG-AFTRA.

BRIDGET: I've always loved animation, but I first found out about voice acting as a career from my dad. It was a dream of his to work in radio and he passed the torch to me. From the first time I stepped behind a mic I knew it was where I was meant to be. My work life has always been miles away from VO, so I'm leaving that behind and making VO a priority in my life.

CT: What do you think the hardest part of voice acting is?

AUSPEX: Having to clear your throat every two minutes. Actually for me, it's creating a character that has a very specific vocal mannerism or timbre to his voice, and then realizing that in order to realistically portray a full range of emotions, you have to push and pull at that vocal identity and play with how far you can go to express that emotion without making him sound like someone else entirely. Keeping that emotional delivery varied and lively can sometimes be a challenge when you're trying to make sure the character's voice doesn't bleed into territory that's been established by the seven other characters you're also voicing.

ZEUS: For me its being cooped up in a booth or studio for so long. Once you get into the voiceover or editing, you’re in the zone and don’t notice how much time you’re in there.

BRIDGET: The hardest part of voice acting is doing a scene alone and imagining what the other actor is doing. Acting is reacting, after all. But I credit an excellent script and some awesome direction for helping me sound like I'm right there with the other actors.

CT: What's the easiest part of voice acting?

AUSPEX: Dropping the mic when you're done.

ZEUS: Watching someone else clean up Ruben’s trail of shattered microphones.

BRIDGET: The easiest part of voice acting is knowing I can do it in my PJs.

And now the part you really want ... some exclusive previews of the upcoming Thoughts in Chaos!

Haley Sample

Trench Sample

En Taro Antioch!