Tall Story Games is a literal mom-and-pop operation, founded by UK couple Tom and Emma Hardwidge in a fairly sudden pivot away from their advertising work amid COVID-19 lockdowns. Despite not playing many games since childhood, Tom always had an interest increating point-and-click adventure titlesand learned the ropes of being a solo indie dev as Emma handled facets like PR and marketing. However, on their debut commercial ventureLucy Dreaming, some things like music and voiceover needed to be outsourced.
One of the biggest selling points forLucy Dreamingahead of launch was the involvement of Dominic Armato, the voice ofGuybrush Threepwood fromMonkey Island- a LucasArts title that inspired Tom and Emma. Yet the vast majority of the voice work was carried by Emma, who plays Lucy. This wasn’t the original plan, but it highlights the strength of the bonds behind Tall Story Games. Game Rant spoke to Tom and Emma about voice acting inLucy Dreaming, as well as the tribulations of a family working from home.
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Funding Voice Acting, Dominic Armato in Lucy Dreaming
Tom and Emma have known each other for two decades, and in that time they worked together at different advertising agencies before deciding to start their own - Considered Creative - after getting married. They still run that business alongside Tall Story Games, a balance made tougher byraising their young son throughout the pandemic.
ButLucy Dreamingis like a dream for Tom, especially as it prepares to launch a Switch skew on February 28; appearing alongsidechildhood icons such as Mario and Link. “The whole idea of releasing a game was great, but having it on a Nintendo device makes it feel proper,” Tom said. “There’s a Nintendo logo and then my game. That’s official. That’s magic.” Though the Hardwidges don’t consider themselves gamers (they don’t even own a Switch), this upcoming release stands alongside achievements like working with Armato.
ALucy DreamingKickstarter campaignin April 2021 raised over 25,000 Euros, funding full English voiceover, a German translation, and a professional composer. This was a “risk-free” gamble given Tom intended to continue whether he had dedicated funding or would work on a 10-year hobby project, but that backing helped expand its scope. Getting Armato involved was as simple as approaching him and asking. “It was quite sweet in a way, because Tom did have this big fan level of excitement while also having his business mind on it,” Emma said.
While Tom did his best to hold back fanboyish tendencies during Zoom calls, he said he was glad Armato is such a “consummate professional” out of fear for having to potentially tell the voice actor he did “a rubbish job.” The only re-recorded lines came from pronunciation errors, and even better was the inherit marketing opportunity. Armato found out aboutReturn to Monkey Islandafter agreeing to work with Tall Story Games, but still kept to his commitments and even letLucy Dreaming"slightly piggyback" on interviews.
How Emma Hardwidge Came to Embody Lucy
Getting a voice for the game’s titular character was more difficult. The point-and-click adventure formula necessitates lots of voice lines to cover “funny retorts” and dialogue as Lucy looks at, talks to, picks up, or otherwise interacts with nearly every object in a scene (the full game has over 11,000 lines of dialogue). Not to mention Tom has a free-form style of development that meant important items would be decided upon organically as he “meandered” between narrative milestones. Kickstarter funding wouldn’t cover therates of most UK voice actors, so early on it seemed the game would go voiceless.
When a member of the extended Hardwidge family asked if Emma would try, having done some “not super professional” acting growing up, she was concerned about ruining Tom’s hard work. “I didn’t want us to go with something just because I’m your wife and it’s cheaper.” They decided to use Emma temporarily for theindie game’s demo and see where to go next based on feedback.
“I did spend half the summer recording it under the duvet, but I was completely overwhelmed when everyone said the voice acting was great! So I wound up doing it for the full game, and I really enjoyed it.”
With that settled, Tall Story Games bought a vocal booth so that they didn’t have to work with just an iPhone and “slightly professional duvet;” some of the actors originally considered for the titular role were also hired for smaller voices. This economical choice was also hugely beneficial to production, as their long-standing marriage gave Emma a unique insight into Tom’ssarcastic British demeanor and sense of humor. “She instantly knew how [lines] should be delivered because that’s how we talk to each other,” Tom sad.
Though Tom and Emma raised their son in a screen-lite household, both parents working on a computer game from home was hard to resist. So they gave him a chance to join the fun, too. “We told him if the voice recording doesn’t work right and we can’t use it, you mustn’t be upset,” Emma said. “But then we gave him these lines and listened to it, and we were both like ‘he’s really nailed that.'” The youngest Hardwidge is credited with two voices inLucy Dreaming, and helpedplay test the game on Switch and iPad.
Balancing Work and Life Behind Lucy Dreaming
Working from home had its benefits, but also plenty of drawbacks. Because Tall Story Games exists alongside Considered Creative, Tom did most of his development in late-night shifts to not short-change either job. Tom said he was “not just physically absent, but mentally” - oftencontinuing to code in his head. That balance became trickier taking community management into consideration, as the Hardwidges found this to be an unexpected full-time job in its own right thanks to fans in various time zones.
However, years of working together pre-pandemic prepared the couple for how to find agood work/life balance. Emma said one thing they’ve come to accept is it can be more stressful to commit oneself to not talk about work after-hours. “The thing is, if you spend all evening talking about it and you’ve had a nice evening, that’s okay as well,” she said. The actual share of the work they do also helps to avoid that sense of wanting to kill one another after being in the same space for so long.
“We have very different roles, and I think that’s really important. If we tried to do the same job, that would really not work at all.”
In spite of all the late nights, Emma is proud to say “we’ve had more weekends over the past few years than we’ve ever done.” They’ll be taking the lessons they’ve learned onto whatever project comes next for Tall Story Games, and hope starting withLucy Dreaming’s foundation will make it a smoother family experience.
Lucy Dreamingis available now on Mobile and PC, with a Nintendo Switch port releasing on August 04, 2025.
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