Director of 'The Alters' Discusses Working With One Actor to Voice Almost An Entire Cast

article by Katelyn Jewett

Individual actors playing multiple roles in a single video game is nothing new, but few are tasked with quite as many roles as Alex Jordan, who plays all the titular characters in 11 bit studios' The Alters. Jordan stars both as miner Jan Dolski and the horde of alternate Jans summoned up to perform various maintenance tasks and generally keep the base running. Given its isolated setting, Jordan and his various incarnations comprise most of The Alters' cast—a difficult task, but one he approached with passion and enthusiasm.
In a conversation with Game Rant, The Alters director Tomasz Kisilewicz expressed the sheer joy of working with Jordan, praising him as the perfect choice for The Alters' Jan Dolski and his many alternate selves. Kisilewicz revealed that he felt "That's a match" from Jordan's very first audition for the role(s). Jordan's enthusiasm persisted despite "hundreds of hours" in the recording booth, and the result is a memorable series of performances that makes each Alter feel distinct yet connected to one another.
The cast of The Alters is unique in that they represent different incarnations of the same man along many life paths he could have taken. The "core" Jan Dolski is a general worker for Ally Corp to maintain a giant wheel-shaped base reminiscent of Frostpunk on an isolated planet. But his Alters include an engineer, a scientist, a doctor, a miner, and many more.
At their heart, they are the same man—but they also aren't. They made different decisions and had different experiences, at least according to supercomputer calculations that invented these personas. Engineer, for example, is abrasive and not quick to open up to the "main" Jan. Scientist is work-focused and doesn't appreciate breaks. "Main" Jan can get to know them through a series of conversations and branching dialogues. Kisilewicz praised Alex Jordan's grasp of this difficult concept and his ability to strike the balance between the Alters' similarities and their differences.
Naturally, playing so many roles, Alex Jordan, who previously appeared in Dragon's Dogma 2, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, and several other games, spent "hundreds of hours" recording the characters' dialogue. According to Kisilewicz, Jordan "said his time in the recording booth totaled up to about a month" before he had even been "fully" finished with the project. Kisilewicz admired how the actor's ability to "really be in those characters" did not wane despite the major time commitment.
The final product will showcase Jordan's work not just in the main branching narrative, but in a series of - also branching - dialogues between Jan and each of the Alters he creates. While taking breaks from resource gathering and base management, Jan can speak to his Alters to learn more about their "pasts." This can also result in learning new skills or even unlocking new modules to expand the base further.
As Alters players cannot create every Alter in a single playthrough, they are encouraged to play through the game multiple times. This way, they can experience all of Alex Jordan's excellent work as the many, many incarnations of Jan Dolski when The Alters launches later in 2024.

The Alters Trailer: All By Myselves