How to play the dubbing game

PartyDub is a dub game for two to eight people: everyone re-voices the same clip at the same time, alone, and then the room votes on whose version is best. A round takes about five to ten minutes.

A round, step by step

1. 1

   Start a room and share the code

   The host creates a room and reads out the six-character code. Everyone else types it in — no account, no install, no app. Two people is enough to play; four to eight is where it gets loud.

2. 2

   Pick a clip worth dubbing

   The host picks a short video from their own device. PartyDub listens to the audio and works out where the lines are and who speaks them, so there is nothing to mark by hand.

3. 3

   Get cast, and find out nothing else

   Players are split into teams, one person per character. You learn which character you got and that is all — you do not hear anybody else's take while you work.

4. 4

   Record your lines, badly, on purpose

   Your lines come one at a time with the original timing. Redo any of them as often as you like. Nobody can hear you, which is exactly why people commit to the accent.

5. 5

   Watch every version back and vote

   Each team's dub plays for the whole room, and nobody has heard any of them yet. Then you vote — for anyone except yourself.

What makes a clip play well

Most of whether a round lands is decided before anybody records, and it is decided by the clip. The rules are short:

• Thirty to ninety seconds. Long enough for a scene to turn, short enough that everybody is still performing at the end of it.
• Two to four speakers. One speaker is a monologue and nobody has anything to react to. Six is a crowd, and half the room gets three words.
• Arguments beat explanations. A clip where two people talk over each other is far better to dub than one where somebody calmly describes something.
• Faces help. Voice acting to a visible mouth is easier and funnier than dubbing a voiceover with nothing on screen to hit.

Playing with memes

Short meme clips are some of the best material there is for a dub game — the timing is already tight, everybody knows the shape of the thing, and a wrong voice on a familiar face is most of the joke. The rule is the same one that applies to everything else you bring: it has to be yours to use. Your own footage, your own recordings, anything openly licensed, or anything you hold the rights to.

PartyDub has no library of its own and never supplies material. It is an engine you point at your own clip — which is also why the video never reaches our servers. See the acceptable use policy for where the line sits.

Being better at the voice acting

Nobody here is a voice actor, and the game is much better for it. Three things separate a take people vote for from one they politely sit through:

• Commit in the first second. A confident wrong choice beats a careful impression every time. The worst take in any round is the hesitant one.
• Match the rhythm, not the words. Landing on the same beats as the original is what makes a dub feel like a dub. What you actually say matters far less.
• Use the retakes. You can redo any line as many times as you want, and nobody hears the discarded ones. There is no reason to keep a first attempt.