Atomic Heart’s Marine Symphony: Voicing the “Enchantment under the Sea” DLC
In January 2025, Mundfish—the studio behind one of the most talked-about games in recent years—delighted fans with its third story-driven DLC. The studio entrusted the voice acting for this new expansion to Logrus IT.
Oleg Mironov, the project manager, Anton Litvinenko, deputy head of the game department, and Anastasia Biryukova, lead voice director, discuss their work on the project.
THE STARS ALIGNED
Mundfish shook the industry with Atomic Heart, which became, without exaggeration, a global sensation. Tell us how your collaboration began.
Oleg Mironov: Well, there’s nothing surprising about it. Logrus has been a leader in the localization market for over thirty years. Our track record in game voiceovers is well known, which is why Mundfish was interested in working with us. And, of course, we were well aware of Atomic Heart and its developers—the game made waves long before it was even released. We’d had some contact with Mundfish before, and in February 2024, their producers approached us with an offer to voice the third Atomic Heart DLC. We held meetings, negotiated, and eventually signed a contract.
Was it really that simple? Weren’t there any other factors that led to the choice of Logrus IT?
Oleg Mironov: Well, of course. For example, our company takes data security extremely seriously—and that played a crucial role. Naturally, any developer worries about leaks. But in our case, that’s never happened—our decades of work with major publishers and global franchises prove it. I won’t go into specifics, of course, but we’ve built our recording and data-handling processes to eliminate any concerns for our clients.
Logrus IT has been in the industry since 1997 and has voiced dozens of games. What made this project unique?
Anton Litvinenko: For “Enchantment Under the Sea”, we recorded original master audio—meaning we weren’t re-dubbing from English or any other language. Basically, we worked without any pre-existing voice tracks. I can’t recall our team ever doing something like this for a game before. We do handle training courses in this way regularly, but those are different—there, the actor just reads the text. For a game, though, the performance requires emotional depth: here, the character is running; there, they’re grieving; somewhere else, they might even die. The actor has to fully immerse themselves in the role.
Anastasia Biryukova: I’d call this project truly unique—we had the rare and exciting opportunity to lay the master track. Our team created the content from scratch, and based on that, the DLC was localized into other languages. The client came to us with a highly unusual request: to record the original audio in Russian first. They wanted the highest possible quality, and we convinced them we could expertly manage all the necessary production processes. During preliminary meetings, we showcased samples of our work, demonstrating our capabilities. That was crucial, because Mundfish’s team have deep expertise in voiceovers and know all the ins and outs of the craft.
“IN THE BLUE SEA, WHITE FOAM...”
Let’s dive into the production process itself. What were the developer’s requirements for the recording?
Oleg Mironov: Both sound engineers and producers from Mundfish worked with us on the project. With this large team, the studio participated online during every session, overseeing the entire process from start to finish. For example, they approved takes on the spot—deciding what to keep and what to re-do.
How many voice actors were involved in the recording? Who handled casting—you or the developer?
Anton Litvinenko: Fifteen actors. That might seem small, but remember we were working on DLC, not the full game. We didn’t hold auditions since many actors reprised their roles from the main game. Plus, this was the third expansion after all.
Oleg Mironov: But we organized the sessions ourselves—and coordinating a clean recording on a tight schedule is no trivial matter. Moreover, the actors worked across two different cities: Mundfish recorded most of the project at our studio, while some actors recorded in Krasnoyarsk with the lead sound engineer. By the way, he’s also one of the story’s creators.
How did you manage to coordinate with the actors in such complex conditions?
Anastasia Biryukova: The project participants were scattered across the globe, and we needed to ensure that everyone received clear sound. To do this, we routed the actors’ voices directly from mics. At times up to seven people were working on a session simultaneously, but we managed to arrange everything so everyone could work comfortably.
As director, I worked in close contact with both the artists and the client, tackling a wide variety of challenges. This included resolving creative differences, keeping everyone focused, and explaining the task requirements.
Even though many of the actors were already veterans of the project, they couldn’t just step up to the mic and start recording. The story had evolved, and so had their characters—which meant rethinking many of the roles.
The actors were invested in the project, striving for excellence and brainstorming together with everyone else. This sometimes sparked heated debates mid-session. My job was to channel that energy in a constructive direction—though, as they say, the best performances often emerge from such creative friction.
Nastya, as the head director, what were some of the main challenges of working on “Enchantment Under the Sea”?
Anastasia Biryukova: During the dubbing, the actors had to re-record their own speech to match mocap footage—a process called tonirovka (“tuning”) in Russian Mocap (motion capture) translates live actors’ movements directly into animation using sensors attached to the body and face. Recording voice for mocap footage is extremely challenging. Actors must perfectly synchronize their vocal performance with the video, matching every gasp and lip movement.
Few actors excel at both mocap acting and subsequent re-voicing, which can create issues when recording. However, our cast delivered brilliant results. As mentioned, the voice-over was done “from Russian to Russian”, meaning this wasn’t standard dubbing but tonirovka—mapping voice to mocap footage.
One particularly challenging scene had a character trapped in a burning room. In the mocap, the actor was running, wheezing, and choking, all while talking to another character. The actor had to perfectly synchronize his voice with all of this on-screen agony.
Is it common to work with mocap for game voiceovers?
Anastasia Biryukova: For Russian-language projects, mocap is rarely used. Russia is just beginning to adopt this technique. Usually, we’re given pre-rendered footage, which is much easier to work with.
What other challenges did you face during recording?
Anastasia Biryukova: Well, actors always struggle with swearing. It’s a challenge to get the necessary authenticity. In Atomic Heart, one of the characters is a foul-mouthed grandma. Fans of the game know her iconic line about pies, which went viral online. We spent ages working on it, trying to get a convincing take. Nothing worked until she finally snapped during rehearsal and blurted out this phrase spontaneously.
In general, the whole session was wildly creative. We always recorded multiple takes, hunting for perfection. Sometimes we’d go back three scenes because someone would suddenly shout: “Wait! We should’ve done it like this!” Many important decisions were made during the recording process itself: changing lines, adjusting workflows, incorporating updated videos and scripts. It was intense, but we succeeded.
The Mundfish team deserve huge credit—and they produced a great script. Their writing has such vitality and creativity, it’s a pleasure to work with. That’s probably why the recording was so dynamic. It was fireworks in the studio!
Was there a large team from Logrus IT?
Anton Litvinenko: We prioritized having the right specialists in each role. There was a lot to do—beyond the creative process, there were logistical and technical tasks such as preparing actors’ materials, organizing finished tracks, audio pre-processing, and tracking changes made to the script mid-session. Our team was small, but deeply committed to the project. That’s the key to an outstanding recording.
What was the timeline?
Oleg Mironov: At first, the project was urgent. But when developing games, things rarely go according to plan—everything depends on the creative process and technical execution. We worked as fast as we could while juggling other projects, and wrapped up the recording in two months. The first session was on October 8, and the final retakes on December 12—we had to re-record some takes where the developer decided to make minor changes.
“Stay with us, boy, you’ll be our king!”
Looking back, how do you see the results now and the experience as a whole?
Anastasia Biryukova: Mundfish is an incredible partner—working with them was a privilege!
This project required intense concentration and out-of-the-box thinking, with great care for every aspect. But the joint team of Logrus IT and Mundfish did an excellent job.
We were delighted to watch the DLC trailer and see how everything was perfectly synced. The expansion was released on January 28, 2025, and the audience was thrilled. And when players are happy, so are we who work in the industry!
“Enchantment Under the Sea” has received high praise from critics and fans alike, calling it the best of Atomic Heart’s three expansions. We’re proud that Logrus IT contributed to this success. We’re always open to new projects. If you need voiceovers, localization (including rare languages), or help with marketing materials/SMM—reach out anytime!
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