Tuesday, September 19th, 2023 has been deemed “National Talk Like a Pirate Day” and what better day for Pirate’s Boom Boom than this day? Staying on the theme of the day I wanted to talk about Pirate’s voice, where it came from, how it works and why we love it so much.
As one of the new pirate games, but also knowing that we are a small indie team, we turned to our own talents and tool bags to produce a lot of what you see and hear. While the amazing original soundtrack is created and produced by AirStrike, the voices have been curated internally. As stated in an earlier blog post, it all originated from a children’s book that Jack Kasprzak wrote and illustrated called “Captain and Crow’s ArrBCs” and pretty much from the beginning, when we were conceptualizing, Jack simply did the voice in what he thought it might sound like. Well, over time that voice stuck and captured a sort of rough/raw and innocent feel that we love and decided to keep.
Jack says, “when I do Pirate, I usually start with the classic stereotype ARR to get into character, or something like Pirate’s ArrBCs, Pirate’s Boom Boom! because the hard P gives a really nice punchy start and they all have a R sound to continue the classic pirate feel. He has a sort of childlike energy to him that we always try to capture, as if he’s ramping up and into what he’s going to say. It has a sort of rhythm to it. These subtle and tactile tones are really what may help us make this one of the best mobile pirate games.
Unlike most pirate characters that are sort of grumbly, intense, action oriented, or hardened, we really wanted you to root for Pirate, like a bit of an underdog, so he has this sort of cheerful nature to everything he says. So on Talk Like a Pirate Day, it’s fun to sit back and consider how we got here and what really sets him apart from many other stereotypical characters you may have seen or heard. But don’t get us wrong, he still loves his jaunty, folksy sayings language – and as we develop Story Mode further, we are always looking for fun ways for Pirate to describe things in his own unique and flavorful way.
We hope you enjoy this silly and fun holiday and would take a second listen to all the dialog already featured in the game, and look forward to way more Pirate!
