AI Voice Acting for Indie Games: Steam's Disclosure Rules and a Better Workflow

Steam allows AI voices. You declare them in the AI section of the Content Survey, and Steam shows your description on the store page. What players dislike isn't AI in itself but flat, unnatural acting. The fix many developers settle on: perform the lines yourself, then change the voice.

Rules checked on 24 October 2026, from Steam's partner documentation.

What does Steam require?

Steam's Content Survey asks how AI was used in "content that ships with your game, and is consumed by players. This includes content such as artwork, sound, narrative, localization, etc." Voices are sound, so they're in.

There are two cases:

Most games are the first case: dialogue recorded during development. Steam added in January 2026 that "efficiency gains through the use of these tools is not the focus", so AI help with code or planning doesn't need declaring; voices players hear do.

How does it show on my store page?

Steam adds a section called "AI Generated Content Disclosure", which begins "The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:", followed by your words. Be plain and specific, for example: "Some character voices were made with AI voice tools from performances by our team." A clear note reads better than a vague one, and players do read it.

Why do AI voices in games get criticized?

Developers who tried text-to-speech for characters report the same thing: the information is right but the performance isn't. Intonation lands in odd places, a scream sounds read, a joke has no timing. Text-to-speech is fine for narration, tutorials, menus and barks; a character's emotional scene is where it shows.

Act it yourself, then change the voice

A voice changer keeps everything about a performance (the timing, the breath, the emotion, the pause before the punchline) and swaps the voice. So:

1. Record the line yourself, or have a friend do it, acting it properly. Your phone is enough if the room is quiet.
2. Clean it up if there's noise: noise removal lifts the voice out of a noisy room.
3. Change the voice to the character's: an old sailor, a child robot, a queen. One person can play a whole cast.
4. Keep each character's voice consistent across the game by using the same target voice every time.

Use text-to-speech where it's strong: narration, item descriptions, tutorial lines and dozens of short barks you'd never record by hand. Our genre pages compare voices for horror and kids' stories, and for sound effects there are free game sound effects.

Can I sell a game with these voices?

Yes. Audio made on a paid Leelo plan can be used commercially, including in games you sell, even after your plan ends. Never clone a real actor's voice without their written permission; that's against Leelo's terms and, in places like Tennessee, against the law.

All platforms at once: can you use an AI voice on YouTube, Udemy, Audible, Spotify, Steam and TikTok?