After 50 years of playing video games, I’m finally starring in one

Draga, protagonist of Black Tides Draga's Wake, played by Dominik Diamond Photograph: Strange Creature Factory Ltd Draga, protagonist of Black Tides Draga's Wake, played by Dominik Diamond Photograph: Strange Creature Factory Ltd After 50 years of playing video games, I’m finally starring in one Dominik Diamond Voicing the main character in Black Tides Draga’s Wake led to me making the kinds of noises I haven’t made since my honeymoon but also one of my favourite moments as a father “I listen to you on the radio and I keep hearing your voice in my head!” Not a typical opening to a creative partnership, but that is how Greg Strangis introduced himself to me 16 months ago, when he asked me to come to his garage in the middle of nowhere and have a look at a game he was making called Black Tides Draga’s Wake.

If this sounds dodgy, remember that when I was 21 years old, a posh bloke asked me to come to a random church in the East End of London and talk saucy in front of him and a couple of other posh blokes.

This turned out to be my audition for GamesMaster.

So, I go to Greg’s garage.

He has a giant yet well groomed beard, eyes that flash with intensity underneath one of those Peaky Blinders caps and talks faster than other humans.

He’s basically a hipster Rasputin.

He is also a character artist who has worked for Rockstar, Naughty Dog and Guillermo del Toro.

He ticks all the genius boxes for me.

And then I see the actual game.

It is gorgeously dark and twisted: a survival horror game set on a decaying 1900s steamship after a heist gone wrong.

The titular Draga is a big, tough-as-hell sailor with a dark past, infected by an ancient god that grows within him.

Gorgeously dark and twisted … Black Tides Draga’s Wake.

It sounds exciting, it sounds original, it sounds terrifying.

And he wants me to be in it.

But it sounds nothing like me.

I am not a sailor.

I am not big and tough as hell, and the only ancient god I have ever been infected with is gout. (Trust me, the pain is biblical.) I am going to have to … act.

I did study drama at university, but this was the University of Bristol in the early 90s, so it was less about high kicking on stage to Oklahoma or learning Shakespearean monologues and more about poring over some obscure Russian play where potatoes are a metaphor for gender politics, written by a bloke who once gave Gorky a lift.

I never told Greg this at the time, but when I see my first attempts at voice acting play out in the game, I don’t like it.

I see this amazing badass character smashing disgustingly huge monsters with my tinny tones coming out of him.

So I lower my voice ever so slightly and stop trying to act so much.

And it works!

Helpfully, Greg’s direction always makes me feel comfortable and encouraged.

Every time I turn up for a session I am inspired by the work done by the team, who are in different corners of the world, doing this in their spare time.

I see their message threads with all kinds of ideas, pictures and animations.

It reminds me of the bedroom programming culture of the ZX Spectrum, fuelled by the unshakeable belief in an idea and a passion for gaming.

In an age where huge publishers are decimating studios all over the world, it is a reminder of how vibrant game-making can still be.

Existential crisis … Dominik as a survival horror action hero.

I don’t want my performance to be something that takes a prospective publisher out of the moment.

I learn to love pushing and pulling the words in different directions.

The biggest challenge is improvising fight noises that Greg and the team can add in wherever and whenever they want.

During the game this is supposed to seem natural, but in reality it is a Scottish dad in his 50s making the kinds of noises he hasn’t made since his honeymoon.

In a garage.

In the middle of rural Nova Scotia.

With another guy telling him he has to be more aggressive.

It’s unbearably weird when I play the game.

I feel distraught when I die, because it is me.

I feel equally bad when I see other people playing the game, leading to uncomfortable new thoughts about video game characters’ lack of free will.

It’s all a bit of an existential crisis.

But then I play clips for my kids without telling them I am in it.

I see their faces break out into wide grins as they realise it’s their grumpy old Scottish dad playing a survival horror action hero.

It’s one of my favourite ever moments as a parent.

It has also made me appreciate voice acting in games, something that didn’t register with me before, because for me it always felt like the character talking – which is testament to the quality of voice acting and directing in games.

Or at least games since the original Resident Evil.

I now truly appreciate performances like Nolan North as Nathan Drake, Ashley Johnson in The Last of Us, and every single actor who says any of the words in Expedition 33.

The announcement trailer for Black Tides Draga’s Wake dropped a month ago.

It got 200,000 views in the first couple of days.

Greg is in discussions with assorted publishers.

I still have to pinch myself that after playing games for 50 years, I am finally going to be in one.

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