Castle of Secrets developer Serene Questworks has been accused of hiring human voice actors, only to fire them and replace them with performances made with generative AI. Voice actor Mika Nerida claimed the studio "decided they wanted to use AI-trained voices" for its debut game, and "canned every voice actor they had, refusing other talent onboard."A picture in the post from Castle's voice director Ian Mitchell shows he was also banned from Castle's Steam hub by a Serene Questworks developer for "personal hostility and imposing their position." The now-deleted post on the game's forums claimed the studio "used AI to make voice actors sound like multiple different people, instead of having the actors act out as the characters. Make it less authentic, as a computer's doing the voices."Nerida told Game Developer she was initially cast under the belief she was meant to replace the game's initial AI placeholder voices. She later alleged Serene "doubled back" and implied AI would be used in some capacity. Both she and Mitchell refused this, after which they and the game's other human actors were "kicked off" the project.Per Mitchell, the actors were fired before voice recording was set to begin. He said the generated voices are more than a simple "voice filter," and they "make you sound like a different person completely. This was to save on costs of different voice actors, even though the voice actors who auditioned could do a MASSIVE range of voices for them.""We asked to just let us voice act, instead of letting the computer do it for us," he continued. He also revealed one voice actor had agreed to Serene's terms just hours before they and everyone else were let go, and Serene "told us they're switching to their original plan."Castle of Secrets' Steam page acknowledges the game has "sometimes generated voice acting." According to Nerida, that acknowledgement was on the page prior to actors being booked.In a followup post, Nerida said Serene Questworks "doesn't have any content of mine that would allow them to steal, take, or sample me." She also made her feelings on the technology clear: "Fuck AI. Shit's stupid. Create authentically."Game Developer has also reached out to Serene Gameworks and publisher Wandering Wizard for comment, and will update when a response is given.