Along with the story, I wrote and voice directed virtually all dialogue for the 'endgame' storyline of Payday 2, including much of what came afterward when development was restarted on a few 'prequel' heists.

Trivia:
The performance of the character Vernon Locke (of partial South African descent), heard prominently in this video, won the voice actor Ian Russel Best Gaming Performance at the One Voice Awards, where he graciously credited my work in helping him win. 

The character of the Dentist (played by master thespian Giancarlo Esposito) wasn't initially conceived to be the  'ultimate foil' for the Payday gang. While compiling all the lore, I found a lot of things that I thought would work perfectly for a main antagonist, if I could connect them. As originally written, the character was a little too close to Esposito's 'Breaking Bad' character. I had to find ways of making him deeper and larger than life, so I took a little inspiration from 1960s Bond Villains, but kept him from becoming too cartoony. (He is, after all, an immortal being who may or may not be a demon from ancient Sumeria!)

Trivia:
I directed Esposito's voice over performance for the endgame. After we were done, I calculated that every word we had recorded cost something like $35 each, making them the most expensive words I have ever written to this day! 

The catalyst for kicking off the Payday endgame was a tie-in with Quentin Tarantino's movie Resevoir Dogs. 

Unfortunately, the license didn't allow us to "create new stories" in QT's movie universe, so after clearing with Lionsgate Pictures and our legal department, I had to come up with a lot of connections that made it kind of an alternate reality.

After pitching it to management and legal reps, I decided to write the tie-in story in the 'answers first' style of Tarantino's films, and use that as a tool to give our players a BIG, SHOCKING TWIST. It was a gamble, but it paid off tremendously and I view it as one of my proudest achievements.

Trivia:
In the clip, our 'alternate' Mr. Blonde is played by actor Glenn Wrage, who brought his best old-school gangster to the recording session, which I directed.

Payday doesn't have 'cutscenes' during gameplay and relies much more on VO feedback to set the mood and present the story. 

Often, it would not be decided far in advance what upcoming heists would be about, so I developed a system where I wrote and directed 'random-seeming' lines that could be assembled in different ways into working banter at a later date. 

This allowed me to maximize usage of certain actors when I had access to them (thus saving money) and still tell a very complex story without having to hand-hold the audience.

This method also illustrates a type of dialogue technique where characters are having conversations and interacting, without directly answering each other. This type of dialogue makes it easy to avoid situations that feel 'dumbed down' or too obvious for an audience. It opens up the narrative and creates a 'larger world'.

Vlad Kozak, played by actor Ilia Volok is a fantastic, versatile character. I was able to take him from acting dead-serious and creepy, to being somewhat of a 'trickster clown', turning on a dime. 

Having characters that the audience can't 'nail down' is sometimes a great way to create a sense of anticipation or urgency. 

In this clip, Vlad has been captured by a Chinese Triad that are enemies of the Payday Gang. Since torture scenes can be pretty horrific, this one keeps it a bit lighter by having Vlad not give in.

With scenes like this, I really try to stay away from 'mustache-twirling cliché villains', even if that would be the natural go-to. There's no need- we know these guys hate each other, so why not have them be friendly at first, then follow as they descend into open derision?

Even though I try to minimize the need for exposition, sometimes it must be dealt with when it comes to complex narratives. If possible, I always try to bake it into other events or the environment, but here is an example of straight-up delivery. 

The character of Duke was the first one I helped create for Payday 2, as he became part of the game with my first milestone. From the start, he was conceived as a simple art thief, with some background traits chosen by Payday fans. However, I recognized the potential for him to play a pivotal part in the overall story, so I fleshed out his character a great deal, with a deep (and secret) history. 

As I directed the voice actor, I was inspired by the late Adam West's portrayal of Batman in the 1960s for his personality, and thought it would be fun to have a articulate, old-fashioned gentleman in a den of violent and crazy thieves. 

Trivia:
For his voice, we cast theater actor Nicholas Colicos , son of the late John Colicos, famous for playing villains in Science Fiction TV shows!

This is an example of 'bare bones' dialogue in terms of budget and actors. 

Sometimes we had to make due with small budgets for background actors, using 'cheap' VO service pools.

I wrote a few different background characters who would appear regularly in levels. They would have their own stories (usually absurd and comedic) going on in the background, played out through extremely long conversations. Astute players could hide nearby and listen to them if they wanted, like following a soap opera. 

The characters in this clip are low-level b-movie producers from Hollywood, working for a 'big shot' movie-mogul "Bruck Johns". They are always running his errands, looking for financing and an 'edge'.

These actors were both amateurs, recorded on their own equipment, with only written direction. But the end result is still OK. They 'ham it up', for sure, but since they are not part of the main narrative and used as a fun spice, it works within the Payday universe. 

As development neared the end, the developers of RTS game Ancient Space no longer had anyone on staff able to edit VO audio, so I had to pitch in. I edited all the dialog, processed the radio filtering and effects.

When it came to things like 'radio breakup', I spent a lot of time adding subtle details- I didn't just want to add the usual 'distortion effect'.

I also oversaw the casting and handled voice direction, casting an array of genre alumni from shows such as Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Dark Angel, Firefly and Starship Troopers.

During recording, I pushed very hard for a 'neutral', dispassionate tone in the delivery, as if the characters were undertaking a NASA mission. (We even had NASA recordings in the studio for the cast to listen to as reference.) Some gamers were surprised at the lack of emotion, until the forums were joined by a real life fighter pilot who witnessed at how authentic the VO was! 

Trivia:
Actor Dwight Schultz (A-Team, Star Trek TNG) actually did the voice of three characters in the game- two of which can be heard in these videos! Can you spot them?