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The Complete Guide to Videogame Performance Directing
This book teaches the complex, sometimes confounding, and often beautiful art of directing live performance for videogames. Starting from a clear and comprehensive introduction to the nuts and bolts of directing on the motion capture floor and in the voiceover booth, the book dives deeper with concrete examples from the author’s 25-year career directing seminal games from the early years to today’s blockbusters.
Identifying the Place (What is the physical environment?), Time (What just happened?), and Action (What do the characters want?) of every scene empowers directors with essential tools to dive straight into the subtext, the life below the words. Through step-by-step instructions, the book shows how to make scenes and lines come alive. It offers real-world advice on everything from casting, to table reads, rehearsal, and production days. In addition, readers can find valuable advice about self-care and sustaining a long-term career as a performance director.
This book is sure to be an essential resource for directors, actors, voice-over artists, and game developers who want to master videogame performance.
Identifying the Place (What is the physical environment?), Time (What just happened?), and Action (What do the characters want?) of every scene empowers directors with essential tools to dive straight into the subtext, the life below the words. Through step-by-step instructions, the book shows how to make scenes and lines come alive. It offers real-world advice on everything from casting, to table reads, rehearsal, and production days. In addition, readers can find valuable advice about self-care and sustaining a long-term career as a performance director.
This book is sure to be an essential resource for directors, actors, voice-over artists, and game developers who want to master videogame performance.
202 pages, Paperback
Published July 21, 2025
4 people want to read
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October 31, 2025
Honestly for the tea on the games industry alone this book is worth the price of entry.
I don't have any interest in being a performance director, but I work WITH performance directors a lot as a game writer, and this was such an eye-opening read. I highly recommend any game developers who interact with the voiceover and performance capture process in any way read it. It's so helpful to know what directors are doing and why. It's also helpful to know how as a gamedev I can accidentally or unintentionally hinder the process.
And in some ways Keegan has tailored this book for gamedevs too. He brought up that game scripts are often in the form of a spreadsheet and lacking the knowledge that actors and directors need to do their jobs. I know that from old work in the VO pipeline, but I'm sure there are plenty of people who don't. He talks about what developers can be like at sessions, and when they're the most helpful and least. I've been at VO sessions and always assumed my role was "to give context." But reading this book has opened my eyes to how much more helpful I can be, and when to step out of the way and let the director do their job.
VERY key was learning why notes should always go from performance director to actor, rather than everyone giving notes to the actor. Makes total sense.
I basically feel like a veil was lifted over my eyes. I'd seen voice & perf directors at work, but I hadn't really SEEN them at work.
Thanks for the lesson, Mr. Keegan. Will be recommending your book often.
I don't have any interest in being a performance director, but I work WITH performance directors a lot as a game writer, and this was such an eye-opening read. I highly recommend any game developers who interact with the voiceover and performance capture process in any way read it. It's so helpful to know what directors are doing and why. It's also helpful to know how as a gamedev I can accidentally or unintentionally hinder the process.
And in some ways Keegan has tailored this book for gamedevs too. He brought up that game scripts are often in the form of a spreadsheet and lacking the knowledge that actors and directors need to do their jobs. I know that from old work in the VO pipeline, but I'm sure there are plenty of people who don't. He talks about what developers can be like at sessions, and when they're the most helpful and least. I've been at VO sessions and always assumed my role was "to give context." But reading this book has opened my eyes to how much more helpful I can be, and when to step out of the way and let the director do their job.
VERY key was learning why notes should always go from performance director to actor, rather than everyone giving notes to the actor. Makes total sense.
I basically feel like a veil was lifted over my eyes. I'd seen voice & perf directors at work, but I hadn't really SEEN them at work.
Thanks for the lesson, Mr. Keegan. Will be recommending your book often.
Displaying 1 of 1 review