Arthur Inasi, Senior Sound Designer and voice of Dance Central’s “Boomy”, walks us through what it’s like to be the voice within the boombox and provides details on an exciting music offer for fans!
Inasi: Outside of work at Harmonix I’m also an emcee and producer, which helps in the role of Boomy since he has a loud voice. When we were brainstorming concepts for the Dance Central project, the team liked the idea of bringing characters to the forefront. I initially did a voice test as Mo and performed a few lines. The team liked my performance and decided that I should be cast as a narrator of sorts.
In the original Dance Central, Boomy was locked in as a guide in Break It Down. He walks you through each move and provides positive and encouraging feedback on your performance, which we think works really well. Dancing can be intimidating and we didn’t want players to feel alone during the learning process.
We had to find a way to tell players who may be having trouble with specific moves that they may not be doing the moves perfectly, but eventually can with practice. Our writers worked hard to keep Boomy positive and likeable in the original Dance Central. In Dance Central 2, along with Break It Down, Boomy also has a presence in Dance Battle. He calls out the crew that is in the lead. With Dance Central 2 he’s become a bigger part of the Dance Central universe.
I’ve always wanted to do voice overs in a video game and I feel very lucky to have gotten the opportunity to do so with Dance Central. I love that the fans love Boomy and am honored that my voice has helped push his personality and character.
I also wrote the theme and credit music for Dance Central 2 so now that the game is in stores, I wanted to give players a chance to listen to it outside of the game. We’ve released the mini soundtrack, "The Boomy Mix", with those two songs included for free. The download also includes free Boomy wallpaper!
Theme and Credits music are property of Harmonix Music Systems.
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