Hello everyone! This marks the debut project of Grigs Studios, an upcoming indie studio that aims to tell thought-provoking stories through visual novels. Please read below for the opportunity to bring our exciting characters to life and join the team!
Lucid Dreamer Staff:
Director/Producer: Isaiah Grigsby
Narrative Designer: Gabriel Foxx Martinez
Editors: Ian McCarthy, HitheroNihil
Artists: Sayuui, Khaoi Designs
Programmer: DragoonHP
Composers: Jan Hehr, Feris
Vocalist: Phoebe
Video Editor: Hilly
All the assets of Lucid Dreamer's demo are finished at this casting. After it is tested and fixed, it will be released to itch.io and Steam, along with the Kickstarter release. For project updates, please follow us on X and join our Discord!
Follow Grigs Studios on Twitter: Grigs Studios (@GrigsStudios) / X
Join the Lucid Dreamer community Discord: https://discord.gg/WtVtY6dfWM
Please contact Isaiah Grigsby with any questions or concerns through Discord, X, or email.
Discord Username: grigsplays
X Link: Isaiah Grigsby (@IGrigsVA) / X
Isaiah's email can be found on his X page.
Story Synopsis:
In modern-day Japan, second-year student Kaname Nakamura confesses his feelings to his crush but gets rejected and becomes an object of ridicule amongst his peers. To escape and prevent further harm, he shuts himself off from the world to play an obscure '90s dating game; subsequently, Mayumi Ito, his fictional girlfriend, comes to life. While Kaname vows to help Mayumi find a way back home, she tries to help him regain the confidence he showed in his many playthroughs of her game. But Mayumi isn't the only one who cares about Kaname's future.
Project Details:
Lucid Dreamer is a romance visual novel coded in Ren'Py geared towards teens and young adults. It aims to inspire and entertain with a story centered on personal growth and genuine interpersonal connection. Readers will experience the story from Kaname's perspective and will be able to make choices that affect the outcome of his story. Gameplay consists of making choices to determine which branching story path Kaname will take and performing as Kaname during events in the form of minigames. In addition to the branching paths, there are two distinct romance routes in Lucid Dreamer. The overall message emphasizes growth and acceptance, both of oneself and others. Tolerance, ambition, hope, courage, and overcoming negative emotions are essential concepts in the characters' interactions. Framing negativity in a hopeful or uplifting way is part of the design philosophy and, thus, the overarching tone of the project.
Lucid Dreamer aims to be fully funded through crowdfunding. The demo consists of the visual novel's first chapter, which will be released alongside the Kickstarter. There will be no voice acting in the demo build of Lucid Dreamer, but rather the trailer. The auditioner cast will voice lines for the trailer. Voice acting will be added to the full game if a "Partial Voice Acting" stretch goal is met. In addition, voice actors are expected to reprise their roles in the entire game if cast as any character for the trailer.
What is Partial Voice Acting?
For our project, we decided only CG scenes would be fully voiced. For other parts of the dialogue, each voice actor will record short audio quips for different emotions. That quip would play when a specific character speaks outside of a CG. While there are some questions about including full voice acting, it's unlikely at the time of this casting. We want partial voice acting to be the main focus of our project.
Communication/Casting Info:
Discord will be the primary communication form for recording and working on Lucid Dreamer. You can contact Isaiah Grigsby through other means if you have any questions, but having a Discord account is required.
The duration of this casting shall last three weeks or 21 days. After the casting period ends, you will be contacted via Discord about the next steps should you get cast.
Payment Details:
- Pay for voicing the main cast in Lucid Dreamer's Trailer is guaranteed, but not for the main game.
- Our current rate for all lines in the 2-minute trailer and main game is $3 per line, but each person shall receive a minimum of $50 for the trailer. It's estimated that each character will have less than 15 lines.
- There is no expected total amount for each character yet (for the full game), but as an estimate, the total partial voice-acting budget is $12,000
- Payment is negotiable.
Audition Requirements:
- You must be 18 years or older to audition. You will sign a contract once cast.
- Auditionees must have good quality mics with no background noise (XLR Preferred).
- Please slate once before reading lines. Your slate should only include a brief introduction along with stating the character you'll be voicing. A reasonable timeframe for your slate should be no more than 5 seconds.
Example Slate: Hello! My name is (Auditioner), and I'll be voicing (Character Name)
- Please audition using the AABBCC format. For those who don't know, all this means is each line should have two different takes and be read from top to bottom. For example:
Slate
Line A Take 1
Line A Take 2
Line B Take 1
and so on.
- You must export your auditions in .wav.
- You must be available to potentially work long-term.
- Please reply with your Discord username along with your audition file.
- Showing your portfolio or demo reel is not required. However, I highly recommend sending it along with your audition if you have one.
A few more disclaimers:
- No AI will be used for production. We will not use or promote AI by any means.
- Audition lines are taken from Chapter 1's Script, not the trailer's. No audition samples will be used in any production form unless the auditioner cast gives permission.
- Our trailer will include both trailer-only lines and lines to be used in the game.
- The trailer's script is still in production at the time of this casting but will be given at the end of casting.
Thank you all for reading, and we wish you the best of luck! We're excited to hear your auditions and see you bring these characters to life! Remember, you can contact Isaiah Grigsby using the links above if you have any questions or concerns.
Lucid Dreamer © 2024 Grigs Studios. All rights reserved.
Submissions for this project are now closed! If you've sent a submission recently, check your emails, as you may be called in for an interview. If no interviews are scheduled past the closing date, the candidates will know their submission results later today. Public results will be announced on the official Grigs Studios Twitter account.
Grigs Studios (@GrigsStudios) / X
Thank you for 1000+ Submissions! We may be back, so feel free to keep us in mind.
Hello again! As we approach our final auditions week, I want to thank you for supporting our first project. It's been an honor listening to everyone's voices and seeing firsthand what bringing our characters to life would sound like. For our next steps in the audition process, we'll begin interviewing our top candidates and asking them questions to help us better understand who they are and also see if they'll be our best fit for our project.
You can still be called in for an interview if you audition within the final week.
This interview will be 30 minutes long.
Your audition and interview will both be taken into consideration for the part.
Once the casting period ends, those interviewed will receive a message through email/Discord on their results.
For those who have landed the role, you'll sign a contract, be told the following steps on work, and be handed the script for our trailer.
If you have any questions, feel free to let us know! Good luck to everyone!
Isaiah Grigsby
CEO of Grigs Studios
Hello everyone. We've received word that there have been some problems with Casting Call Club not letting you send in your audition. If you are experiencing any issues, please email your audition to [email protected] instead. Thank you!
Hello there! I'm really loving the auditions so far, and I can't wait to hear even more as we reach our closing date. Speaking of which, I'd like everyone to know that we'll start reaching out to specific auditions a week before the closing date for some questions or any follow-up lines. You'll still be considered for the role if you audition before our proposed closing date. Even though we'll start contacting roles early, we will decide after September 6th, 2024, at 8:00 A.M. PST.
Isaiah Grigsby, CEO of Grigs Studios
Kaname Nakamura is a second-year high school student and the main protagonist of Lucid Dreamer. In earlier school years, he was a notable basketball player often favored by his peers and those he kept close. Despite expectations of continuing his basketball career, Kaname gives up his opportunity to pursue his passion for drawing manga. While Kaname showcases excellent prowess in the arts he seeks, he can often overthink situations, which causes him to spiral. After being rejected, Kaname hopes to restore his sense of self-worth and feel that he has a place in society again.
Age: 16
Archetype: Reluctant Hero / Protagonist
Character Type: Dynamic Character
Kaname has a dynamic personality. Overall, we're looking for someone with a great range (Mid-High Voice) who can capture his insecure and vulnerable side at the beginning of his arc and adapt to be more confident as the story progresses. Here's some voice references to help understand what we're looking for:
Max Mittleman (Kousei Arima - Your Lie In April) - https://youtu.be/aMJpI_fEsA4?feature=shared&t=62
Sean Chiplock (Subaru Natsuki - Re:Zero Starting Life In Another World) - https://youtu.be/Fiutyx3YBJQ?feature=shared&t=91
Ultimately, you should decide how to voice each character, but these references can give you a good idea of where to start! Remember: Make sure you have two takes per line going in order from top to bottom. The context for each line will be shown below to help you with your audition.
Line A Context: Kaname has just been rejected by his crush, Fumiko Hisakawa. While he's processing the news, we glimpse his inner thoughts.
Line B Context: Kaname confronts Takashi for telling the entire school about his confession. Takashi taunts Kaname into a fistfight, but Kaname walks away. When Takashi labels him a quitter and tells him he hasn't changed, he replies:
Line C Context: Kaname and Chiharu sit together at a local park after school to discuss Kaname's encounter with Takashi. Chiharu asks Kaname if he will return to classes after what happened, and Kaname reluctantly says no.
A. (Uncomfortable) I snapped out of my trance. Fumiko was twirling the tip of her hair with her index finger. It was a tick of hers when she felt uncomfortable. *sigh* (Regretful) What am I doing? I’m making things awkward.
B. (Irritated) You’re right. I haven’t. But neither have you. You’re just as petty and vindictive as you always were. I guess we can always count on ourselves to remain the same.
C. (Nervous) *Deep Breath* Chiharu, please don’t get mad at me… But I don’t want to go to school anymore. Not after what happened today.
Important Disclaimer: While the trailer does not feature singing, Mayumi has parts in the game Lucid Dreamer where she will sing. When sending your audition, please provide us with your singing experience. If you have a song portfolio, feel free to send it too! Overall, your singing experience doesn't matter; we will have ways to get around that when the time comes. To voice Mayumi, we're asking you to be willing to sing.
Mayumi Ito, a renowned pop idol, is a sentient fictional character from a 90s dating game. She's also one of the two main love interests in Lucid Dreamer. In her world, Nights of Bittersweet Memories, she falls in love with her bodyguard, Kaname's player character. Having never gotten a chance to experience her own true ending due to a bug in her game, Mayumi seeks to correct the error in her digital world by entering ours. However, the bug persists in our world, giving Mayumi a limited amount of time to help her beloved Kaname. She aims to restore his faith in himself and solve the mystery of her game's fatal flaw.
Age: 17
Archetype: Joker / Love Interest
Character Type: Rounded Character
Mayumi is bubbly and playful. She often gets into trouble for things she says or her lighthearted antics. We're looking for someone with a high-range voice that can convey Mayumi's expressive, upbeat personality. A cute anime-like voice is very acceptable. Here are some voice references to help you understand what we're looking for:
Amber Connor (Hortensia - Fire Emblem Engage) - https://youtu.be/4A2bHJST0aY?feature=shared&t=3511
Kayli Mills (Rosa - Pokémon Masters EX) https://youtu.be/Z-AOyT1kr64?feature=shared
Ultimately, you should decide how to voice each character, but these references can give you a good idea of where to start! Remember: Make sure you have two takes per line going in order from top to bottom. The context for each line will be shown below to help you with your audition.
Line A Context: Kaname is playing the 90's dating sim Nights of Bittersweet Memories. During this end scene, his character is on a date with Mayumi at a fancy restaurant. Mayumi decides to greet her boyfriend when she finds him daydreaming.
Line B Context: Mayumi and her boyfriend look towards the city as the end of their date draws near. She reminisces about their time together before reaffirming her love.
Line C Context: A bug in Nights of Bittersweet Memories' code causes the game to crash and reset during Mayumi's end scene. Mayumi is conscious of the multiple attempts to watch the scene over. She's saddened as the world prevents her from being with Kaname.
A. (Lively) What are you daydreaming about, dummy? The fun’s over here. *giggles* C’mon, relax! Everything’s going to be fine. Let this night be ours.
B. (Heartfelt) You kept me safe by putting your own life on the line. It meant a lot to me. (Crying) Words can't describe how thankful I am to be with you. *sniffles* I love you.
C. (Upset, in tears) I’m sick of it. I’m tired of having to go back to square one, time after time. (Desperate) I just want to be with him. Why can’t you let me be happy?
Chiharu Suzuki, a second-year, is a childhood friend of Kaname and one of Lucid Dreamer's two love interests, along with Mayumi Ito. She is stoic and reserved and rarely speaks her mind, often finding it difficult to express herself with words. Seeing Kaname succumbing to depression reminds Chiharu of her powerlessness when her father passed away. She wants to help him, but juggling her responsibilities and school takes most of her time. She is determined to do well at the annual Taito Ward Kendo tournament and wants Kaname to return to school for her sake as well as his.
Age: 16
Archetype: Caregiver / Love Interest
Character Type: Dynamic Character
Chiharu is a reserved character, but she's by no means shy and isn't afraid to step in whenever her friends need help. A good pointer is she doesn't come across as robotic but rather soft-spoken and a bit airy. Due to her personality, we're looking for someone with a Medium-High voice to bring out her reserved nature but also able to be commanding when push comes to shove. Here are some voice references to help you understand what we're looking for:
Suzie Yeung (Fuuka Yamagishi - Persona 3 Reload) - https://youtu.be/wx8SWY7y3C4?feature=shared&t=1338
Xanthe Huynh (Marianne Von Edmund - Fire Emblem Three Houses) - https://youtu.be/Caan7aG9IPg?feature=shared&t=221
Ultimately, you should decide how to voice each character, but these references can give you a good idea of where to start! Remember: Make sure you have two takes per line going in order from top to bottom. The context for each line will be shown below to help you with your audition.
Line A Context: Amongst the crowd of students, Chiharu finds Kaname being grabbed by the collar by Takashi. As Takashi is about to strike Kaname, Chiharu grabs Takashi's arm.
Line B Context: After cooling down from what's happened at school, Kaname tells Chiharu that he doesn't want to go to school anymore. While she isn't mad at him, Chiharu disagrees with Kaname's decision.
Line C Context: Kaname asks Chiharu if she wants to explore the city for Golden Week. While Chiharu declines due to having kendo practice, she surprises him with an offer to have lunch together.
A. (Angry) That’s enough. An upperclassman doesn’t lay his hands on his juniors. You of all people should know that Takashi.
B. (Displeased) I don’t like the idea of you skipping school. (Reassuring) But am I mad at you? No, I’m not. I’m sad you feel that way, but while I disagree with your decision, it can’t really be helped.
C. (Apologetic) Can’t. I’m going to Kubo to train with my grandfather all week. (Optimistic) To make it up to you, I’ve bought us something to eat. A new restaurant just opened nearby, so I thought we might try it together.
Fumiko Hisakawa is a third-year and the council president at Kaname's high school. Externally, she is calm and intense, commanding respect from those who see her in action. Coming from a family of politicians, she is remarkably talented as an organizer. While a part of her does enjoy the attention and respect she receives, underneath her mask is a passionate and sometimes eccentric manga writer. Having become friends with Kaname and Chiharu in junior high and written manga together, she now finds herself too busy with responsibilities to spend much time on relationships. Still, she is focused on self-improvement and wants her social life to be easier.
Age: 17
Archetype: Ruler / Side Character
Character Type: Static Character
We're looking for someone with a low-medium voice who can pull off Fumiko's refined facade and her vibrant personality. One thing to note is that while she can come across as blunt occasionally, it's never out of insensitivity. Instead, Fumiko prioritizes honesty above all, even if it hurts. Here are some voice references to help you understand what we're looking for:
Kari Wahlgren (Saber - Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works) - https://youtu.be/ix4thQNoXIA?feature=shared&t=41
This clip exemplifies the low end of Fumiko's voice.
Erica Mendez (Mai Sakurajima - Rascal Does Not Dream) - https://youtu.be/Oy0G_bo5HR4?feature=shared
This clip is the highest end we want Fumiko's voice to be.
Feel free to put your own spin on Fumiko, but overall, anywhere within that vocal range is acceptable. Remember: Make sure you have two takes per line going in order from top to bottom. The context for each line will be shown below to help you with your audition.
Line A Context: After Fumiko rejects Kaname, Kaname asks why she doesn't want to go out with him. While she believes she will come across as blunt, Fumiko wants to be as honest as possible.
Line B Context: Shaking off the incident, Fumiko parts ways with Kaname. She still hopes to be friends with him despite all that's happened.
Line C Context: At the opening ceremony of Meiseki Yume High School, Fumiko stands on top of a podium to address the entire school.
A. (Stern) Even if I wasn't busy with school work, I'd still refuse. (Stoic) You’re a nice guy, Kaname, but you’re just not my type. I’m sorry. Besides, I value our friendship too much to risk losing it.
B. (Neutral) We should get going. We don’t want to miss the opening ceremony. I’ll see you later, Kaname. (mutters under breath) I hope we can still be friends.
C. (Inspiring) I want to thank everyone for being here. I’m well aware most of the students present are first-years. First off, welcome to Meiseki Yume High School. My name is Fumiko Hisakawa, and I will be your student council president.
Takashi Akai, a third-year, is the school's top athlete and the region's #1-star basketball player. He enjoys moderate popularity despite being somewhat abrasive and dismissive, thanks to his consistent displays of skill. He likes to assume the appearance of a rebellious character, but this masks a deep loyalty to his school and peers. Holding a grudge against Kaname for the last two years, Takashi has failed to make Kaname feel ashamed for abandoning the basketball team. He is unchallenged in athletics and sees Kaname as a waste of potential; for him, their old rivalry never ended. He wants to settle things with Kaname for good and see him humbled.
Age: 17
Archetype: Rival / Side Character
Character Type: Static Character
Takashi is arrogant on and off the basketball court because he has the skills to back up his words. He can shrug off most situations but tends to lose it over Kaname. Overall, we want Takashi's voice to have a medium range to exude confidence and show that they're a person to be acknowledged. Here are some voice references to help you understand what we're looking for:
Kaiji Tang (Satoru Gojo - Jujutsu Kaisen) - https://youtu.be/6VYLwT8fviM?feature=shared
This clip is a reference to Takashi's arrogance.
Jerry Jewel (Kyo Sohma - Fruits Basket) - https://youtu.be/450za2wi1UE?feature=shared&t=52
This clip references Takashi's hot-headed nature should someone challenge his superiority.
Ultimately, you should decide how to voice each character, but these references can give you a good idea of where to start! Remember: Make sure you have two takes per line going in order from top to bottom. The context for each line will be shown below to help you with your audition.
Line A Context: Takashi, still bitter about Kaname leaving the basketball team, waits at an exit for Kaname. When Kaname finally arrives, Takashi makes an approach to mess with him.
Line B Context: Kaname confronts Takashi for telling the entire school about his confession. While smug, Takashi shrugs off his claims of having any part of it.
Line C Context: After Takashi slams Kaname into a locker, Kaname stares him down, not reacting to his threats. Eventually, Takashi loses his cool and attempts to strike Kaname.
A. (Friendly) Kaname, hey! How’s your art going? (Smug) You didn't quit on it, did you? What, you didn't realize drawing is hard, and now you're off to a new hobby?
B. (Dismissive) People saw you following Fumiko up to the roof. You were giving her puppy eyes all the way. (Laughing) You were being super weird, dude. It sure creeped me out, no wonder she said no.
C. (Dumbfounded) You’re joking, right? You have to be. Be real with me. I know you too well. *pause* (Angry) What’s the matter? C'mon, say something! *pause* (Yelling) If you won’t talk, I’ll make you talk!
