All posts by Ed Jowett

Blue-Shift: Frenemies – Now In Audio!

Hi everyone!

Great news today for all you Blue-Shift fans out there, because the amazing EraScapes team has voiced and produced an enhanced and extended audio version of one of our best-loved comics, Blue-Shift: Frenemies!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/erascapes/blue-shift-audio-drama?ref=ajmg3e

For those of you who don’t already know the plot, it’s all about a speedster who goes out for a date, then finds herself in the middle of a group of supervillains robbing a bank… who then rescue her! Confused and lost, Blue-Shift will have to decide where the difference between “good” and “right” are.

I was honoured to be able to work with that team, and I have added additional scenes (including more from everyone’s favourite newscaster, Rajesh from Metro News!) during my adaptation of the story to audio. I’d definitely say this is a fantastic accompaniment to the current comic (which you can grab from the Kickstarter if you don’t have it yet!), even beyond what we achieved with the comic.

I hope you’ll join us there and, just in case you need more persuading, here’s a playlist of some awesome snippets from this project:
https://soundcloud.com/erascapes/sets/blue-shift-frenemies-audio-drama-samples

Enjoy, and please join us in making this story a reality!

– Ed

#AudioDramaSunday – How to approach the booth.

Hey Folks!

It’s been a while, but I’m back with another how-to for #AudioDramaSunday! We’ve been doing some recording for an upcoming project, so all of this is rather fresh!

Today, we’re talking about the all-important things you should do to make sure your time in the booth is the best possible!

1. Get Physical (No, I don’t mean punch the director!)

Before recording, get a full body warm up going along with your vocal warm up. Shake yourself out from your head to your toes, do some push-ups or squats.

If you want to challenge yourself, singing while planking can kill two birds with one stone! (It’s really difficult, though!)

2. Take care of yourself in the booth

Stretch out and stay hydrated between takes. Depending on the weather, your soundproofing or size of your recording space, it can get hot (Our studio is nicknamed the hotbox for a reason)! Be prepared to take small breaks and step out to cool down instead of rushing because of the heat!

Speaking of staying hydrated…

3. Swallow the right way.

Yes, before you look at me like I’m mad, just listen!

Swallowing before a take or taking a drink without rinsing it around your mouth will often reduce your mouth clicks. Not rinsing it around your mouth is very important, because that tends to cause a massive number of clicks.

Mouth clicks are well-known as one of the worst things a voice actor can do, so simple techniques to ensure they are minimised are super important! People have been dropped from projects (in the wider world, not from ours yet!) for the number of mouth clicks, so it’s definitely something to watch out for.

4. Use warm ups to prepare – and be ready to improvise

Get in the zone before you hit the script!

Whether it’s warming up in character or discussing key moments an the emotions in them with the team, if you keep your mind on the world you’re building it will give you more confidence to nail those takes and make you more familiar with the material.

Improvising a few bits as the character you’re playing can let you build more of a personal connection with them, as well! It can be great fun and even produce additional material you might use later – we recently did several minutes of improv for both Midnight Terry and the Edvertiser while recording Season 2 of Radio Free Taranis!

This is part of an ongoing series of articles I’m writing about our experiences of writing and performing audio dramas for the EraScapes division of Shades of Vengeance.

We’re always looking for more help, so if you’d like to get involved with our projects in some capacity, please contact us at erascapes@erascapes.com!

A Titan’s Rise – Epic Audio Drama

Hi everyone!

Today, I want to talk about A Titan’s Rise, an Audio Drama that has been in production for 2 years now, and has finally make it to Kickstarter!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/erascapes/a-titans-rise-a-cyberpunk-full-cast-audio-drama?ref=esgm94 It’s currently 33% Funded (just 24 hours in!) and we’re hoping it’ll go to the goal and beyond by the end of its 34-day run.

Leo and I had worked on an audio project – Life on Gaia, the Era: Survival Audio Book – but we both had slightly higher aspirations than reading the stories that had already been written for the universes. That’s not to say that Life on Gaia wasn’t great (check it out on Audible: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Life-on-Gaia-An-Audiobook-of-Post-Apocalyptic-Stories-Audiobook/B07XVCTS4J), it was just a little limiting on the writing side of creativity.

We decided that something more ambitious could be done with a small voice actor cast (and, like everything, that spiralled and became almost double the originally intended size!), and we set about writing the story of Elliot Draigon, one of the most important characters in Era: The Consortium history.

We finished writing the script (about 150 pages) in November and recorded between November and December 2018, which was a huge amount of work… and then the editing, composition began. We had everything that could possibly go wrong, from sudden illness to people involved having to leave the country because their visa ran out!

In the meantime, however, we repeatedly aimed out sights higher, recording our own foley and working hard to make the story as real as we imagined it.

I’m very proud of what we’ve produced and I hope you’ll consider joining us on the Kickstarter or even just spreading the word of this amazing Sci-Fi Cyberpunk Audio Drama!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/erascapes/a-titans-rise-a-cyberpunk-full-cast-audio-drama?ref=esgm94

See you there!

– Ed

Era: Lyres Audio Short – A Very Trout Christmas

Hi everyone!

To get into the Christmas spirit, we’ve done a special Audio Short set in the Era: Lyres universe for you to enjoy!

Produced by Heike Priwitzer, who worked with me on the original story, this is an adaptation of the piece that appeared in The Era Zone Issue 4!

This is totally free, so enjoy a present from us this Christmas!

You can find it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/MytwwlacWRw
or on Podbean: https://shadesofvengeance.podbean.com/e/era-lyres-a-very-trout-christmas/

Don’t forget Discord!

Hi everyone!

I just want to remind you about two things:

Firstly, we have a Discord Server. It’s the best place to ask us questions about the games, or to get involved in some of the amazing events we have coming up to celebrate Era: The Consortium’s 5th Anniversary. There’s a chance to get your character featured in one of our upcoming books, so I’d definitely recommend you consider joining!

https://discord.gg/6C4H9Cv

Secondly, The Era Zone comes out on Kickstarter tomorrow, so fingers on those buttons and get ready to go! The amazing subscription price will increase if we fund additional issues, so it’s best to be quick off the mark, I think!

I hope to see you there!

– Ed

Life on Gaia Kickstarter over, Era: Survival Colony coming soon…!

Hi everyone!

We’re giving Era: Survival plenty of attention at the moment, and not just because it’s halloween! Our post-apocalyptic world is one of my favourite universes because it’s got so much potential complexity alongside such a simple concept.

Life on Gaia, our audio book set on the world of Era: Survival, is now over. The lucky backers will be able to immerse themselves in the outstandingly detailed universe, brought to life by Leo Cosh’s talents.

However, we have a new game coming soon to Kickstarter, called Era: Survival – Colony.

This is a brand new kind of card game from us – a strategy co-op game which has been described by players as “like Dead of Winter, but with only cards!” and “a fantastic, portable co-op game!”.

In it, you must try to keep your colony alive by working together against the various threats which Gaia presents. If you can survive long enough, you will create a thriving town. If you don’t… well, I’m sure you can guess!

Era: Survival – Colony is coming out soon on Kickstarter, so keep an eye out!

– Ed

Spotlight on EraScapes – The Oracle

Right now, we have two big Kickstarters happening at the same time!

Era: The Empowered’s Core Rulebook and Blue-Shift’s first ever comic have both been doing amazing and with just above one week left to gather more support there’s a good chance that either of these projects might achieve another Stretch Goal. If Blue Shift breaks the $1200 Stretch Goal, then the entire comic will double in length! That would be a fantastic addition for everyone supporting this story. To read more about the Blue-Shift comic Kickstarter head over here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sovcomics/blue-shift-frenemies/description

If you’ve been following our Empowered Core Rulebook Kickstarter you may have noticed some exciting audio additions. Leo Cosh, the man behind “EraScapes”, has turned several Empowered stories into audio adventures for this Kickstarter event and he’s done a superb job. Leo is a talented voice actor who has been using his considerable skills to bring several of our games to life and It’s time you hear more about what he’s been up to!

Along with the audio stories you’ve seen on the Empowered Kickstarter, Leo has also created an audio drama called “Hardcastle’s Havoc”. This was his first major work with the Era games and it turned out fantastic! You can find a copy of this drama based in the Era: The Consortium universe on his Soundcloud page… https://soundcloud.com/leocvoices/hardcastles-havoc-a-story-of-the-consortium If you haven’t already, you need to immerse yourself in this captivating 14 minutes of tense Consortium action!

Leo is just getting started with his audio work for Shades of Vengeance and you’re going to hear quite a lot more from him in the coming months. Currently he is working on an audio book (with Ed directing) for the entire story of the Consortium! This large-scale project is not the only thing he’s busy with as he is also working with both Ed and myself on a brand new Consortium audio drama series called “Radio Free Taranis”. Radio Free Taranis is the story of underground radio host Midnight Terry. You can read more about Terry and the details of this upcoming project here: https://erascapes.com/radio-free-taranis-oracle/

Like the expansion of our comics division, adding Leo and his audio talents to the work we’re doing at Shades of Vengeance further deepens the world-building of our Era games. We love creating all this extra content to help you dive into the universe. Whether it’s blasting off to fight in the Bug War with Era: The Consortium or learning to control your superpower of flight with Era: The Empowered, we want you to feel like you’re completely at home in these worlds. To that end, we’re excited to fuse Leo’s audio talents with our games and can’t wait for you to hear more of his work.

That’s all the latest news I have for you today. If you’d like to gather with other like-minded folks who want to know more about the Empowered you can join our Facebook group where Ed posts daily updates and behind-the-scenes details that are available nowhere else. https://www.facebook.com/groups/eratheempowered/

All this work on Era: The Empowered doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten about our other games and Saturday I get to share with you a few new things for the Consortium!

See you then!
-A