JOE FREELANCE VS THE MAMMOTH GAME TRANSLATION
Contents
Intro - Teams are unavoidable
Management
Style
Terminology
Speed and quality
Outro – Why you should care
Current problems
Possible solutions
Thank you!
One last foreword
One last foreword
Project manager
Translator 1
Translator 2
Translator 3
Translator 4
Today’s high demands
Cinematics
Tutorials
Backstory
Online
Parallel import
Downloadable
Streaming
Simship
More text Less time
Translators can’t cover more than 3000 words/day
Team translation is unavoidable
Teams are problematic
Selection
Availability
Micro-management
Bickering
No flexibility
New partners
New methods
Responsibility without authority
Agency/Publisher Translator
What can happen
No control
No vision
No motivation
Soulless translations
Two goals, one target
Improve efficiency Improve management Better quality
Internal managementPart 1
Internal management
Arrange relocation
(house, visa...)
Provide office space
Micromanage
Find good freelancer
Prepare a plan B
Micromanage
In house Outsource
Improving internal management
1 Mail + 1 Skype
Answers 24/7
Always on the same page
Dropbox
Instant availabilty
Secure storage
Communications File sharing
qdPM
Self-service task input
Automated invoicing
Tracking
StylePart 2
Style
Play the game
Super-detailed
Focus on the text
Very slow
Style by genre
Very generic
Focus on the audience
Fast
In house Outsource
Improving style
Marketing
press release
website/trailer
Press
previews/reviews
interviews
Platform
console
PC / social
Pegi
3, 7, 12, 16, 18
Product Audience
Format
ingame
subs / dubs
Adaptation
terms/dialogues
limits
Style
Improving style
Improving style
Medieval Venice but with a fantastic twist
Sexy lead character but it's not an amazon
Linear action rpg
Console centric
Pegi 16
Product Audience
Timed subtitles
Use Venice terms
Do not adapt dialogues
Style
TerminologyPart 3
Terminology
Detail-oriented
Each term is discussed
No triage
Slow process
Ongoing
A few key terms
Populated and unified as you go
Many rewrites
In house Outsource
Improving terminology
Find frequent terms
Check context, style guide, client
Brainstorm and define terms
Added as you go
Internal queries to solve issues
Core terms Less frequent terms
City Council You have now unlocked
back streets
darkstreets
Maggior consiglio (Venice flavour) Hai sbloccato (consistency)
Callefosca
Callefosca (source inconsistency)
Examples
The glossary is not final!But it builds a common and consistent vision of the project
Speed and qualityPart 4
Speed and quality
No CAT
Slower
Consistency and QA more cumbersome
Standardized
Steep learning curve for managers and freelancers
Expensive and limiting
In house Outsource
Improving speed and quality
Convert XLS files into TMX
Allows to leverage and reuse any previous text
300 KB in size: you can’t break what isn’t there
Free and no learning curve
Lookup terms and sentences
Works from any application
QA: Inconsistencies
Mismatches
Check against key terms (glossaries, TRC)
2,03 MB in size
Free and no learning curve
TM Builder Xbench
Conclusions
Tools are not special
Syncplicity, Wuala (commercial SAAS)
Subversion (free and open source)
Dropbox alternatives
qdPM alternatives
Pbworks , Teamdoer (commercial SAAS)
Redmine, Collabtive (free and open source)
Xbench alternatives
Lexicool Lingo, LogiTerm (commercial concordancers)
Errorspy (commercial QA)
It‘s free for a reason
So why should you care?
No staff, no time and no money
Don’t reinvent the wheel! Build on this and push game localization forward.
Speed and quality to next-gen standards
Less time, less cost
Motivation = fidelization and availability
It‘s inspiring It‘s good for the industry
Thank you