BioShock Creator: Why Video Game Dialogue Sounds So Unnatural

BioShock Creator Identifies The Biggest Problem With Video Game Dialogue Ken Levine, creator of the BioShock trilogy, recently shared his thoughts on video game dialogue in an interview with blogger Dan Allen. The renowned game designer believes that conversations between the player character and NPCs often feel unnatural due to timing issues. Levine referred to this system as "turn-based." During development, individual lines of dialogue are often recorded separately. Then, when assembling the game build, developers piece these fragments together, potentially leading to stilted and unrealistic-sounding conversations. In some cases, developers address this by manually editing dialogue to make it flow more organically. CD Projekt Red, for example, employed this approach while working on Cyberpunk 2077, resulting in characters who speak naturally and interrupt each other believably. Levine is a proponent of manual editing and working closely with actors, a method he's imple…