Me: "Okay a little backstory, what got you interested in voice acting?"
Anna Castiglioni : "That's a really long answer. I did stage acting as a kid. Then a few years ago I started voicing for some PC game mods. I enjoyed it so much that I started taking workshops and classes, and learned about the business."
Me: "What was the first videogame that you ever played?"
AC: "Final Fanstasy 2 on PC. No, the FIRST were some Atari games, spelling games and such, lol."
Me: "Mine I believe was ALF for the commodore 64, it wasn't much in the education department but it was fun at least."
AC: "Ah, I also played an Alf on PC. And Tink Tonk Goes to Town or something."
Me: "Okay what genre of videogames do you feel are the most fun to play?"
AC: "My favorites are fantasy RPG, or just fantasy in general. I also really loved Assassin Creed II because it's Renaissance Italy, which is my favorite period in history."
Me: "Aside from voicing mods, you have also read for some audio books like "Bedding an Assassin" and "Diviner's Prophecy". Would you like to talk a little about those projects? Were they any more or less stressful or fun than voicing for a mod?"
AC: "It's fun to be able to voice for ALL the characters, not only females but also the males. I also enjoy the narrative parts. The challenge comes in keeping all of them consistent, and different. It gets a bit stressful if I have whole bunch of males, or from a male PoV in his voice. Then I have to rest more often."
Me: "I can remember listening to like "Heir to the Empire" on audio book back in the day and reading along with it and thinking it was just like a movie, so voicing for an audio book is really cool and inspires some of us (like myself) who are too lazy to read, to read lol!"
AC: "That's wonderful!"
Me: "So...SKYRIM, first off what is your opinion of it? Lots of Elder Scrolls fans (primarily the Morrowind & Before era) think it caters too much to the "casual" masses, but you can't deny that it is easily the one PC game with the single largest modding community in existence."
AC: "I only came to Skyrim by chance, and I had not played previous ES games. My husband bought it b/c he thought it looked interesting. Our entire household was instantly addicted. I think it appeals to so many people because you're allowed to do whatever you want very early in the game. Then with mods, there's essentially endless potential for replay."
Me: "And then of course, "Anna NPCs" a wonderful follower mod that I must admit I have never not used. Anduniel, she's a Wood Elf (Bosmer) if you notice my profile picture (Robur) is also a Bosmer (a bit more classically Kirkbride)."
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| "Robur" my Bosmer MC |
AC: "Bosmer are my favorite ES race :)
(except for the cannabilism thing...)
Me: "I have to say I'm not sucking up when I say that Anna NPCs is an essential in my load order, the followers are amusing and useful and the amount of lore used in their conversations is extremely impressive. Did you research much into the lore of the Elder Scrolls while making Anna Npcs?"
AC: "I'm so glad you're enjoying it so much, thank you! Yes I did research for some characters when creating their backgrounds and quests, like Valenwood towns, Redguard history. For Teryn I relied mostly on the voice actor Michael's expertise, as Dunmer are his favorite."
Me: "Now while playing with Anna and Teryn in my party and asking them questions and what not, I noticed that I would gain points sometimes if I said something that they agreed with and this reminded me of Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age, where your actions/comments towards your party members would affect their disposition towards you in some way."
Were you at all inspired by Dragon Age?"
AC: "Oh yes, I love DA! And yes, I said that on the mod page. The party banter is largely inspired by DA banter, though several are more original. The idea of Approval is also after DA, as well as giving gifts."
Me: "I know that whenever I start up a new game I usually always head into Riften and pick up Anduniel, I love the meadery side quest -- and playing as a Wood Elf (I'm using several Bosmer-related mods such as Bosmer Armor Pack by Maty, Green Pact Armor by ArcZeroEssentials, and ESO Bosmer Antlers) and it kinda feels like I'm running a little Bosmer gang after I get Anduniel and Vahelmin (from the Riften Misfits mod) and proceed to find a location fit for her meadery."
"I also noticed that you have created a compatibility patch for those who play "Moon & Star" so it moved the meadery over towards the Mill
Its pretty cool when mod authors make compatibility patches for other mods, so that gamers don't have to choose."
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| Anduniel, the central character of "Anna NPCs"; she is a fully interactive & marriageable follower, but like Dragon Age there some demands and prerequisites which need to be met. |
AC: "Have you played with Mareen? She's also Bosmer. And there's Daenlyn from Interesting NPCs. Yes the patch moving the meadery is for Aurora Village and Undeath, but also works for Moon and Star. I don't use any of those, though. However, the standalong Anduniel mod came out long before Aurora Village and Undeath. Shrike is the one who made the patch, as it's easy for him to do. Not easy for me."
Me: "Mareen is the sassy smuggler in Dawnstar?"
AC: "Yes."
Me: "Yea I recruit her with my Thalmor-hating Maormer
I'm sorry for the patch mixup, I've had SO many mods in my load order in the past and yea lol :P
Did you write all of the dialogue for Anna NPCs, or did you have help in some areas like with lore and what not?"
AC: "I wrote all except for parts of Teryn's story. Michael (the actor) wrote some of his backstory, and Old Book also chipped in for his Main Quest discussions. I wrote the rest. Sometimes after doing some research I would ask Shrike for an opinion, make sure my lore work, and he said sure.
Oh yes, Old book also wrote a few banter scenes for Darion and Teryn."
Me: "Darion Fleetfoot, the half Nord half Altmer pirate in Solitude"
AC: "Aye!"
Me: "I love his singing
Just listening to the song about the Twilights I could tell I was an TES nerd because I caught all of the references"
AC: "Haha! I didn't :-/"
Me: "Did Michael also voice Darion?"
AC: "Yes.
He wrote the Twilight song (the words. the tune is an Irish tune)."
Me: "It definitely sounds like a sea-shanty, and it's waaaaay better than the in-game bardic songs
I was actually joking a few days ago about petitioning to have them replaced with your versions."
AC: "Oh? Perhaps my "Fall of the Snow Elves?"
Me: "Yes! I much prefer Fall of the Snow Elves over "Age of Oppression" bleck lol"
AC: "Haha, Thank you!"
Me: "So Nadina, she's a feisty Redguard mercenary found in Falkreath or was it Morthal?"
AC: "Falkreath. Lorelei is in Morthal."
Me: "I really like Nadina, I used her when I fought a mini-Numidium in Moon & Star (the only time I used that mod) and she's an awesome combatant."
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| Robur and his "Bosmer gang". |
AC: "Thanks ^.^"
Me: "Aries :(
I cry a little whenever I see him
I avoid him unless it's my Bosmer (who is more of a dog person anyway), because I don't want him left sitting there in a pond, by himself with spriggans about."
AC: "You know he's got some banter with certain Followers: Elyndra, Anduniel, Mareen, Teryn, Darion, Nadina, Zorya
and Valyen."
Me: "Who was your favorite character in Anna NPCs to create (voice, script, background, etc)?"
AC: "I really liked creating Nadina. It gave an outlet for my own sarcastic humor. And I loved making Elyndra, my Knight :)"
Me: "Elyndra is a character I found by accident. Like I decided one day "hey let's kill everyone in Fort Greymoor" and then there she was kicking-ass next to me, her backstory was very interesting as well."
AC: ":D"
Me: "So I got just a few more questions, as I don't want to take up too much of your time."
AC: "No problem!"
Me: "Okay I have a few questions similar as to what I asked Rebecca "Burger Becky" Heineman
What are some causes that you think need more attention in modern videogames?"
AC: "I'm not sure I understand. By "causes" do you mean things like gender roles?"
Me: "Yea like gender roles, sexuality, etc."
AC: "Well, I'll use DA2 as example. From a player standpoint, it seems like the devs made it with a specific Player in mind (male straight Mage), with the other options (female, rogue/warrior) as secondary and with fewer actual consequences of actions. So female players, while we still have "options" it felt like they weren't as personalized. By contrast, Skyrim simply has all options open by way of being vague, no restrictions.
For myself, I generally don't get into those kinds of issues. Elyndra talks about it a little though."
Me: "It seems like your mod is pretty inclusive though, like anyone can marry Anduniel or Teryn if they were interested?"
AC: "Actually Anduniel will only marry a male human or Elf, and Teryn only an Elf, either gender. There are specific backstory reasons for this, and they talk about it. But some of the Followers have no restrictions, because it doesn't particularly matter to their backstory.
The only kind of play I don't offer is a gay male. And that's is simply because I can't relate, and I don't want to just wildly speculate and write a gay male character, and be wrong!"
Me: "Understandable. But all in all Anna NPCs are wayyyy more interesting than most of the vanilla followers, with an exception to Mjoll and Serana.
So....next question, is it true that you are or were working on the "Beyond Skyrim" project?"
AC: "Beyond Skyrim: Yes, I voice some characters in "Bruma".
Me: "I am sooo excited for Bruma to come out like you have no idea! Can you talk a little about Bruma?"
AC: "Lol, unfortunately I only know a bit from the voicing I did. I did an alchemist in the town of... Applegate? Something like Apple. And a few other general voices. I don't even know when it's coming out."
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| Applewatch as seen in TES IV: Oblivion. |
Me: "Applewatch? It was a farmhouse back in TES IV: Oblivion."
AC: "Yeah that could be it.
Last contact I had from the voice manager was that he still needed to finish writing and then post the rest of the lines."
Me: "Do you have any plans for future Skyrim mods?"
AC: "Nothing huge. I made a Brynjolf overhaul and Follower mod but haven't released it yet. I have a few other small tweaking mods I made for myself.
I was thinking of doing something like a Follower male that re-vamps one of hte vanilla voices, like I did with my Fenris mod from DA2."
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| The infamous Anti-Mage follower from Dragon Age 2; you either loved or hated Fenris as there was no in-between with him. |
Me: "I tried out your Fenris mod, LOVED it. He really is like DA2 Fenris, and I love how you were able to use what was given in the game files (Gideon Emery's imperial voice lines) to make him."
AC: "Thanks! My Brynjolf is like that, all the functions. plus romance and marriage."
Me: "Have you played any of the Fallout games?"
AC: "I only played F3 and FNV briefly, the intro and a couple hours in."
Me: "I play New Vegas whenever I'm not playing Skyrim, in fact believe it or not I just barely go introduced to the Fallout world like 5 months ago. I've been using this great mod called "Niner" (by Mishaxhi), and "Willow" (by llamaRCA) and I keep thinking something's missing like a touch of Anna"
AC: "Aww.
I've heard of Willow.
You should try out the Panser Follower for F4"
Me: "I think fans of FO3/NV & Dragon Age could greatly benefit from some Anna Npcs-esque mods even if it's just one follower"
AC: "Well, I'll think about it. I have had people asking.
Oh, I tried to mod DAO, but oh my god, the modding system is so hard! Not the kit itself, making a character is easy. The hard part is the programming, getting your character into the game."
Me: "I guess that explains why there are only a handful of follower mods for DAO (I don't have DA2 or DAI for PC)."
AC: "I chatted with the author of the Gilmore mod, who recommended teaming up with a programmer, that's what they did."
Me: "Have you ever played any of the King's Quest games?"
AC: "Kings Quest! Only number 7, many years ago. I loved it!"
Me: "Yes! VI was my first, but VII was a favorite in my home. It was like my first actual PC game
before I became a "serious gamer" (still not that serious)."
AC: "LOL."
Me: "I also played Torin's Passage, created by Al Lowe (whom I interviewed very briefly years ago) loved it, also Leisure Suit Larry (though more for adults)."
AC: "I don't know those..."
Me: "Almost done, what goes into creating a mod the size of Anna NPCs?"
AC: "Anna NPCs... A LOT. A lot work.
First I create the character concept and write the script. I voice it any time between that and finishing the mod. I write banter, get ideas for quests. Make the Follower in CK, do the unique programming. Then add the special programming Shrike made to have them interact with the world."
Me: "So is there a lot of back and forth with fellow modders?"
AC: "Some of them have uniqe outfits. Shrike created Mareen's and Nadina's outfit. I retextured Elyndra's Elven armor. The making of cells and player homes takes a lot of time. Writing the recording the songs too.
Yes, with Shrike, and some with modders who give me permission to use their assets."
Me: "What would you recommend to aspiring modders? Because I know the creation kit and getting custom followers to work can be a hassle, but you've tried it and wound up creating one of the most beloved follower mods on the Nexus."
AC: "Aww *blush*
Well I did write a book on beginning modding!
Newbies Guide to Modding Skyrim: Tips and Tricks for the Creation Kit on Amazon, print and Kindle."
Me: "Oh I'm gonna have to check that out!"
AC: "https://annafollowers.wordpress.com/books/modding-book-review-by-urshi/
Amazon links and review there."
Me: "What's your opinion on the controversy surrounding paid mods, mod picker, steam/valve, Bethsoft, mod piracy, etc?"
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| The Symbol for the "Forever Free" project, paid mods were a controversial subject when they were introduced and subsequently removed years ago and remain a "hot-button" issue today. |
AC: "Ooh. I'll be honest. I would LOVE to be able to make money on my mods. But for that, they would have to be all my material (no extra armors etc.). When Steam did that paid thing I had mixed feelings. I liked the idea, but I hated that they would take 60% of the money. I felt the mod author who actually made the mod should get at LEAST half. It's similar to ACX, the audiobooks platform I work with, they also take 60%. However, a modder buddy on steam loved the idea. He did the numbers and predicted he could make thousands off his mods. Everyone else I've talked with hated the idea of paid mods.
Sometimes people donate to me, and to those I say THANK YOU!"
Me: "Any advice for those of who want to pursue a career in voice acting or who just really love videogames and would like to mod our own stuff (but are extremely amateurish)?"
AC: "If you want to pursue voice acting, I suggest reading some Voice blogs, get an idea of what the job actually entails, and dispell any misconceptions you might have. And practice!"
Me: "Excellent! Thank you again Anna for this Q&A it really has been a pleasure and I hope I can post a chat with Michael for next time 8)
AC: "Thank you! Good luck, and Under Sun and Sky :)
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