Ariane in Paradise is now voiced!

I used AI voice via Eleven Labs, the same I used for Something’s In the Air Redux and Date Ariane Remastered.  All versions except the Low Res Android version have been updated.

Due to the number of lines, every line has been voiced except some puzzles like the I Spy game.  Lines that contain a variable are delivered generically.  This is things like lines that include the players name as that is not voiced, but the voice will call you a “friend I met”.  Text is more important than voice and voice can be turned off by turning the voice volume to zero in Preferences.

Ariane in Paradise is the only one of my games officially translated into another language. The Spanish translation made by Moskys is still in the game and has been updated to work in version 1.5. My testing indicates 99% are translated, though less than 50 “new” lines had to be machine translated.  Many of the English lines were rewritten for clarity reasons when I voiced them and found them awkward sounding, but the translations were already corrected for Spanish clarity, so I moved the Spanish translation to these updated English lines.

While text lines were translated to Spanish, voiced lines are still only in English. Eleven Labs does provide foreign text pronunciation (I used it on the scenes where characters speak French), but it takes too much time and money to revoice in Spanish, and I’m not sure there is a huge demand for it.

Ariane in Paradise does not have a demo. It’s basically Date Ariane on a tropical island so I never bothered.

AI voices are good enough, but not as good as human voice actors, and I recognize that.  But I can’t afford to hire voice actors, so AI is the way I am going.  It adds a new dimension to the game I hope you appreciate.

Other Changes

Besides voice, many lines of dialog have been changed or improved in part to improve the voice lines, but also improves the readability.  A greater use of contractions (“I’m” instead of “I am”) will be noticeable.

Bonus is easier to reach! The rule to wait until you get 40 achievements to unlock the bonus is gone.  Now you just need to reach the “best” ending (the one where the two girls talk about wanting to swim naked) once first.   Once you get that ending, you then need to go to “Character” and create a bonus character.  You can switch back in Preferences.

The bonus has been expanded in places with about a dozen new pictures and expanded scenes. Several bugs have been fixed as well.

Where to get AiP 1.5

If you don’t have Ariane in Paradise yet, you can purchase it at any of the stores linked on this page. There is no demo version, and I am not sure I’ll ever make one.

It is currently not available on Steam, but I hope to change that in the near future. There is a Linux only version available on the itch.io store which you can side load to steamdeck, and while I haven’t tested it yet, it should work just fine.

If you previously bought it on Itch.io, you need to download it again. I am not releasing a patch as those tend to be problematic, and the game is only around 620 MB.

This is where you can find Mac, Linux, Android, and PC versions all of which have been updated. The PC version is now called “win” for windows, or you can use the linux version if your PC is linux.  You can load these on top of the PC version and not lose old saves or settings.

The only one that hasn’t been updated is the “lores” android for old phones because the changes are too big, but if you have a better android phone get the “hires” APK file. 

I tested the “hires” Android on my cheap Samsung A phone and it works fine, so unless your Android is old you should be able to use hires version. I didn’t enlarge the text this time so it works the same as the PC version except for touch screen friendly centered menu choices.

The site store (aka Payloadz) does not have a good updating system, and things I tried in the past, like release updates as free samples, no longer works. Go to the PC or Mac store, and click on Contact Seller and send a message using the email you bought the game under, and I’ll send you a new link as soon as I verify the purchase. I have to do this manually, so it will not be instantaneous.

Conclusions

Tell me what you think. Tell me any bugs you find. I’m planning on voicing Hopepunk City, but probably not until Summer 2024.