Did you want to grow up to make Video Games?

IT was my dream, but like must of my dreams as a kid, none of them worked out. Lol

Let me know how it goes with the game neko-chan.

Do you any involvement in the techy part whatsoever? Or are you just tasked to write a story?

Haha, yes. I still kind of do. Though I've decided that it's best to partake rather than create.

Stories, scenarios, and dialogue. After all, someone has to come up with those catchphrases like, “Show me your moves!” or “Nooo!!! My fight money!!!” (+ rep if you know which game the second line is from). Of course, the biggest challenge is working with all the other departments. You can’t just turn in a script and wipe your hands. The level designs or limitations might cause you to have to re-write a part or a new concept will have you introduce a new part to the story.

Also, working with Japanese games, I have to adapt the game to English – that is my job in particular. Sometimes, localization means that you’ll have to re-write parts of the game because they just don’t make sense. For example, if an old woman tries to talk in a distinguished manner but is actually mispronouncing these old-timey Japanese words, she’ll look like an idiot who is trying to be proper and elegant. You have to find a way to make the joke funny to English speakers who won't understand this.

If Shinryaku Ika Musume was translated into English for a video game, you would have to find a way to convey the silliness of her saying “Degeso!”

Some companies are better at this than others like Capcom and their awesome work on Phoenix Wright games. Other companies aren’t so great at doing this, and end up with lines in a game that get lost in translation. If you ever played a game and though, “Wow, that was a cheesy line…” or “That doesn’t make any sense”, it was because they had a bad Localization or writers on staff. SquareEnix with their weird and vague lines in the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series comes to mind.

I leave all the tech stuff and computers to people who are paid to do that, but I do have to be sensitive to their needs - especailly the artist and director. They want to know not just that someone enters a room, but we have to discuss the angles and in what manner they enter the room. The Director is my boss because he brings my work and everyone else's together, but I still have to do some of the ground work and discussion on my own.


Long winded explaination, but just incase anyone else was wondering what it is like. You don't have to be computer savy, but you do have to be aware of how a game is put together.

TL;DR
I just write and localize and it is hard work.

O= So YOU are one of those ppl that turn the game stories and characters into crap cuz you can not think of a good way to translate certain expressions (or not translate at all judging by some games)!?

Oh, god, I remember getting into university and what maths was like there... Always loved it before, absolutely hated it there.

No I am the person who prevents this from happening. Some companies write a story in a game, then have it translated. About every Final Fantasy game is done this way - they take the script and just translate.

If you have someone like me, I'll look at it, notice parts that people won't understand (like japanese puns, references to Japanese celebrities, or play on words that only make sense in Japanese) and rewrite it into something that keeps the essences of the original script, but makes it understandable.

It is different from a translator because translators don't have to be professional writers.

I understand that you don't like when we throw out a certain expression, but some things are just lost in translation.

Balrog from Street Fighter.

Ah well, dun feel insulted anyway, I know it's not easy work, but just what your doing is very annoying, lol. At least it is for me that know Japanese and notice the difference so clearly. Not a thankful line of work I must say.

You know nothing of my work. The same thing is done in reverse too - English games are localized for Japanese audiences. Many games that are loved by japanese that were originally english would probably make English speakers face palm at the changes they see.

Drake in Uncharted has a major personality change in the views of most westerners. But obviously this is because his cocky and arrogant personality would not work in Japan, so instead they try to make him the equivalent of how Japanese would see a cool and cocky fellow. You can tell just from watching the trailer that he is more of a complaining badass instead of a wisecracking smartass comparing the Japanese versus english.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJTqfz_MxaY



Anyone who can't speak japanese and yet complains that the dialogue is changed is ignorant of the facts. If we left the words the same, they would make no sense whatsoever. Some things just don't translate, some times jokes just aren't funny, and sometimes there is no equivelent from Japanese to English.

lol, seems like someone took insult even though I said you shouldn't, while also believing that they are the only one in this thread with knowledge. And what does it being done in reverse have to do with anything? It's still an annoying factor. The fact that the characters sometimes changes so radically makes it very annoying to play the game, since when the feeling of the main character becomes different, the entire game changes with it, as does the pleasure you get from playing it.

Also, considering translation; making the sentences fit the cultural differences and ways of speaking does not mean that the entire conversation and story should change. Of course you cannot do a literal translation at all times, but you should at least stay as close to the original as possible. I don't know if you just assume that people are stupid when you do your translations and changes in the speech and that they have no understanding of the world outside their own rooms (well, I guess americans usually dun actually), but it is really insulting to the player imo.

I realise that there's a lot of writing to be done in games production - indeed, if you dig up my introductory thread from when I joined, I mention writing for an indie 360 game - but bear in mind that I was still fairly young when I made this choice. By the time I started seriously thinking about my future, I'd already worked my way into journalism, which is what I'm currently studying.

I still write about games, though, and having had a glimpse into one such role (the company making the indie game is now a member of the UK games trade body, and has garnered some big company contacts) it's definitely something which I'd like to return to if and when the opportunity, and indeed the time for it arises. The aspects of collusion, bouncing ideas off of each other and fine tuning scripts were certainly something I really enjoyed.

Nope. I wanted to be the tester. The guy who is given a draft of a game, plays it and tells the developers if it was good or not.

Too bad, a testers job isn't that fun. Your job is not to play the game for fun, and tell if it was good, your job is to play the same game (mostly not even the entire game, but just one scenario of the game) over and over again until you are sick of it, trying every possible way to play and walking over every single square inch, hoping to find (or rather, hoping Not to find) a bug, glitch or something else that might be wrong with the game.

Believe me, it's hard to enjoy playing the game afterwards.

I can't blame him. The way you are wording your sentences sounds like you are attacking him and his job. I would probably defend it if I was him, too.

Also, just a thought Ethil, but I don't think localizations are meant to be compared to the original. I can see how it can be disliked by someone to knows details about different versions of a game, but many gamers just play one and that is the one they experience.

Just like neko's example with Drake from Uncharted. The Americans have their Drake, and the Japanese have their Drake. They are meant to get a response from the cultures they were designed for and not meant to be compared.

Maybe it's just a personal opinion thing, but I just play games that are in my area and base my opinions on that experience.




Ethil is right. It can be an extremely tedious job. While a few can handle it, most don't keep a tester's job very long.

I've never had that desire at all.

I love using computers and games, and know my way around them well enough, but I don't have the patience to work on anything of the sort.

I'm more of the mechanically inclined type anyway.

I am not insulted. I said "You know nothing of my work" as a quote to a movie. It was a joke.



Of course not. I assume you are all very knowledgable nerds.



Eh, that is your opinion. The point I was making about localization was that you do have to change stories or tweak personalities or else the culture you are adapting it to just won't get it. It doesn't become enjoyable. Uncharted was just an example. A direct translation just wouldn't work - japanese would hate Drake. He would look like an asshole in Japan. So your suggestion of keeping him the same as the original would fail. I don't mean that to be offensive, it is just the reality.



We don't. I don't know anyone who does. You never do complete re-writes of a story or complete character changes. However, there are small and subtle changes that you can make that will make the game more accessible to people. Simple changes in syntax will make a joke that wasn't funny suddenly become hilarious or someone like Drake change from an asshole into a badass.



Sorry if you find it insulting, but that is just the way it is. You have to localize stories with the mindset of someone who has no idea about the culture of where that game originated.

Following the example of uncharted, in the game Drake often has his plans go wrong and yet still is able to fumble through his quest and get lucky enough to save the day. The things he says - like a grenade dropping by him and him saying "Ohnononono...!" - will seem charming to an english audience. We see it as witty and down to earth. Drake is an everyman and we as westerners believe it is better to be lucky than good.

However, in Japan, Drake would just look like an idiot. He would seem incompetent as a hero. Japanese gamers would think, "Drake is so stupid! why does he always get caught? I hate this guy! He only is alive because he gets lucky!"

So the challenge is, how do we make Drake seem like a charming and funny guy to Japanese players?

Well one thing you cannot do is to do nothing. You have to change it - subltely - or else no one will like your game.

it's my dream too last time.. but now i think i lost interest in it.

It ain't a dream no more.

I'm more on the art side of things.

When I was younger, yes, I wanted to go into game development. But then things came along and my perspective on it being a perfect-dream-awesome-job changed and I decided to go into computer science instead. More to say, networking.

I'll probably take some stuff on the side once I have my job at Google.