Jay Britton, Voice of Quill, Heeltoe, Stan Haw, and many more!
Jay is an award-winning, videogame voice actor and motion capture artist with over 260 credits across 50+ titles including Divinity Original Sin 2, Total War: Warhammer 2, Elite Dangerous and Frostpunk. He’s currently working on titles releasing this year including The Spectrum Retreat, The Tale of Du Lac and Fey and Bards Tale IV
1. How did you get involved with the development of Forgotton Anne?
I’ve worked on several titles in the last 12 months but most prominently Elite: Dangerous, Total War: Warhammer 2 and Divinity Original Sin 2 which were all great fun, it’s not every day you get to play a sexy Lizard (I’ll let you guess which game that is!). I saw Forgotton Anne at EGX in 2016 and completely fell in love with it. I spent some time talking with Alfred about the project and that insanely gorgeous artwork. We kept in touch after that and I joined the cast for recordings throughout 2017.
2. Can you tell us a bit about the characters you are playing in Forgotton Anne, and how you approached the roles?
I play 24 characters across Forgotton Anne and they are all as crazy and loveable as each other, the team have done a fantastic job of creating unique, funny, heart-breaking, emotive characters. All of them, no matter how big or small have their own story to tell in their own way, there isn’t any filler, every character feels real. One of my favourite characters is Quill, the Scottish document forger who is quite simply a loveable rogue. His story absolutely hit me right in the gut and I can’t wait to see players' reactions to it (assuming they make the right choices of course 😊) There’s also a drunk barrel and an old suitcase I’m quite fond of. The train manager, Melewe, was also one of my favourites to play, he’s just so innocent and frightened yet has his moment to shine, it’s lovely. I also can’t forget Wade, the Australian boot as he was the first one we recorded….. who am I kidding, I love them all!
In terms of approaching the roles, the usual way it would work would be receiving the scripts and any character art through from Alfred which I’d look over prior to the session, then once we got on the line Alfred and I would play with the voices and style until we found one that felt like the right fit. The artwork for the game is so wonderful that it really helped the characters jump off the page, finding a voice for them was a pretty quick process as they were right there on the page ready to go.
3. What do you think of Forgotton Anne and the project?
I absolutely adore this game and even if I wasn’t working on it it’d be straight on my steam wishlist. Where I can I prefer to work on games that I have a passion for and believe in and Forgotton Anne ticks both those boxes. From the artwork to the music, to the story it’s just wonderful (I’m listening to the soundtrack as I write this!). I’m really looking forward to seeing what players make of the story as well, as I think the narrative direction will be a nice surprise for most. If there isn’t an artbook for the game I think I might cry, if any game needs an artbook it’s this one!
4. What's next for you?
After the release of Forgotton Anne (and playing it to completion of course!) I’ve got a busy summer of releases which I’m looking forward to! I play the Hotel Manager in The Spectrum Retreat due to release in the summer and I’m then in Bards Tale IV and Du Lac & Fey: Dance of Death releasing later in the year. There are a few more titles this year which I unfortunately have to keep under my hat….. for now. After that I might just take a holiday!
5. If you were an object in the Forgotten Lands, what would you be?
If I were an object in the Forgotten Lands I’d likely be a slinky (a very grey and uniform one). I need a little push to get going, but once I do it's fun, hilarious and keeps going. I also find it difficult to stop... until I end up in a tangled heap on the floor in need of assistance.