Allegations have surfaced against Serene Questworks, the developers of the indie game Secret Castle, concerning the use of AI-generated voices in place of human voice actors.

Voice actor Mika Nerida took to Twitter to express her concerns: "Hey VAs, how do you feel about being hired for a game, only for the devs to decide to use AI trained on your voice not only INSTEAD of your recordings, but firing all hired VAs and barring additional talent?"

In an interview, Nerida explained she was initially brought on board under the impression she would be replacing the game's initial AI voice acting. However, Serene Questworks later reversed course and implied that AI would still be used in some capacity. After Nerida and another voice actor, Mitchell, expressed their concerns, they and other voice actors on the project were dismissed.

Mitchell elaborated, stating, "Actors were fired before recording even started. The generated voices aren't just 'voice filters', they make you sound like a completely different person.  This is to save costs on diverse voice actors, despite auditioning voice actors who could provide them with an incredibly wide range of voices. We are asking to allow us to voice act instead of letting a computer do it."

He further revealed that a member of Serene Questworks initially agreed with the voice actors' concerns, but the documentation was removed hours later, and shortly thereafter, they were dismissed from the project.

While Secret Castle's Steam page now includes a disclosure about the use of AI-generated content, including voice acting, Nerida claims this disclosure was added *after* the voice actors were hired. As of yet, Serene Questworks has not publicly addressed these accusations.