LocJam April 2014

An Insight into Localizationby

Richard Mark Honeywood

Welcome to LocJam

• How the event works...http://www.locjam.org/

• Why participate?Prizes and bragging rights if you win.Experience (something you can learn from and take to potential employers about).Just for fun to see what goes into translation.

Who am I?Richard Mark Honeywood

1997/11–2007/12 Square Enix Co., Ltd. Tokyo, JapanLocalization Director, Lead Translator, Localization Engineer (Programmer)

2007/12–2010/11 Blizzard Entertainment Irvine, CA,USAGlobal Localization Manager

20011/3–2013/3 Level-5, Inc. Fukuoka, JapanDirector of Localization / International Operations Coordinator

2013/4–PresentFreelance Localization Project Manager / Translator

Softography• The Raiden Project – PS• SaGa Frontier – PS• Einhander – PS• Xenogears – PS• Chocobo Racing – PS• FINAL FANTASY VIII – PS • Chrono Cross – PS• FINAL FANTASY IX – PS• The Bouncer – PS2• FINAL FANTASY IV – PSX• Chrono Trigger – PSX• FINAL FANTASY X – PS2• Sword of Mana – GBA• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles – GCN• FINAL FANTASY XI – PS2/PC• Dragon Quest VIII – PS2• Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime – DS

• Dawn of Mana – PS2• Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker – DS• Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the

Tower of Mirrors – Wii• Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen – DS• Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride – DS• World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King – PC &

Mac• Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty – PC & Mac• World of Warcraft: Cataclysm – PC & Mac• Diablo III– PC & Mac• Inazuma Eleven 2: Firestorm/Blizzard –DS• Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch –PS3• Inazuma Eleven Strikers –Wii• Inazuma Eleven 3: Spark/Blast/The Ogre–3DS• Layton Brothers:Mystery Room–iOS and Android etc

• How I would go about localizing the game...both from a translator viewpoint, andfrom a dev company or loc vendor viewpoint.

• Will be following the concepts of the Best Practices document from the IGDA Loc SIG website but applying them to this title as a micro study that will hopefully get you to think of how it can be up-scaled to a larger project.

http://bit.ly/gamebestpracticesJP and http://bit.ly/gamebestpractices

Stages of Localizing a Game

1. FAMILIARIZATION & PREP WORK2. GLOSSARY & STYLE GUIDE CREATION3. TRANSLATION4. EDITING5. INTEGRATION6. QA & BUG FIXING7. SUBMISSION + POSTMORTEM

Sample Schedule

1) FAMILIARIZATION & PREP WORK

• Download the game package from http://locjam.org/• Look over the files to see what's what.• Open up and play the game for several rounds.• Do a word count...

Tip: Copy & Paste the text into Word and see how many words it tells you are in there as a quick & easy way to estimate the word count.(With actual vendors there are complications like hyphenated text, programming codes ("tokens"/"macros“) and for JCK-->EFIGS whether white space is counted as characters or not. But this will give you a rough idea.)

Here we have \n that probably should not be counted.But [GOV] probaby should be counted.

• Approx. 1,787 words.

• Know your speed. e.g. assume: JE 4,000 moji per 8 hour day per translator. EJ 2,000 words per 8 hour day per translator.

approx 1 day's work for 1 translator. 1 editor can handle 3 (or 4) translator's output per day

= 1/3 day to edit/proofread. Integration and testing = an hour or two.

2) GLOSSARY & STYLE GUIDE CREATION

List of terms... Republia (your country) Democria Antegria (enemy country) Great and Honorable Leader Ministry of Media Republia Times (newspaper name) editor-in-chief loyalty/disloyalty readership article(s) rebellion/rebels

Kurstov (leader of the rebellion) Central Chem (place name) Cherrywood (Hollywood send-up?) Chad and Jenlyn (celebrities) Aprelica (TV star) Mestonda (reality star) HugginBoyz (boyband) Mumpit Mush (childrens book) Restojiu (tennis star) CrevyCrevy (fashion designer) etc.

TIME TO BRAINSTORM!What is the game’s text telling us...?

• dictatorship? communism/socialism?• orphans/soldiers/army/navy/spy satellites/rebels/terrorists• Orwellian "Big Brother" censorship & propaganda

i.e. "your job is to increase public loyalty," "edit carefully," "pick only stories that highlight the good things about Republia and its govt."

• "As a precaution against influence, we are keeping your wife and child in a safe location“"family has lost several privileges“"Your family has been eliminated and you will be reassigned“"We have found a new wife and child for you. "

Irony/dark humor here.

Not just translation, but true localization.

• Setting could be wartime Japan, future Japan, one of our neighbors like Korea, China, Russia, or anything really, instead of just transliterating the names.

• These are extreme examples. But feel to be creative, while still respecting the source material. Not just the naming, but the style will be affected...

　 直訳 ウオッカ・コース 寿司・コース キムチ・コース ラメン・コース

Republia レパブリア ソビエ 大なる和帝国 高句麗（こうくり） 中华（ゾングフア）

Antegria アンテグリア クリミア コメクニ 新羅 日本

Great andHonorable Leader

偉大なる名誉ある首相・大統領

偉大なるプチンスキー

テンノウ陛下（今上） 最高司令官キム 国家主席

Kurstov カーストブ トゥルチノフ トルーマン パク 安倍

Style

System message style. Dry but full of irony.

Newspaper headlines important. But what style of headlines will you use?• NY Times vs US Today vs National Enquirer• Asahi / Yomiuri/ Mainichi/ Nikkei Shimbun vs Sports

Shimbun (Yukan Fuji / Nikkan Sports) vs "ToSupo"(Tokyo Sports)

• Shuukan Shincho vsShuukan Post vsShuukan Jitsuwa

Limitations

• Check out how the JP font appears on screen. The mini-headlines are pretty hard to read.May have problems with kanji that have a lot of strokes. May need to use simple kanji only or even katakana to make it readable. Best to solve this before you translate as you might have to come back and redo parts!

• FIGS should check whether accent marks appear okay.

Once you have planned your style guide and have your glossary, it's time to translate...

3) TRANSLATION

• Save backups regularly.• Even try to integrate your text occasionally to

see whether it fits in the line limits.• Issues to think about...

Day ~ ~ 日目 in JP, so the order is backwards. "~ rd/th/st day" vs "day: ~ idea"?

4) EDITING

• In a large team you will have 1 editor for every 3 or 4 translators. May even have editors of editors on huge projects like MMORPGs!

• Might have another native speaker, who is a good writer, look over your text?

• If you don't have such a friend that can help, at the very least, copy & paste the text into Word or another word processor tool and have it highlight potential spelling and grammar mistakes!

• You make the call, as the translator you "own" the text. So don't feel you have to believe and implement everything your editor says.

5) INTEGRATION

• Very easy for this game... Just save the Excel file and run the game.Your translation should be reflected.

6) QA

• Play through the game with your translation in it.• Better yet, have some of your friends play it too to give

you feedback and find things you may have missed.• Try to break the game!• Look for readability as well as how your translation

works in context.• Overflows? Need to shorten down text?• General brushing up or polish now you see it on screen.• Always recheck everything that has been changed again

in game. = "Regression"

7) SUBMISSION

• Upload your translateme.csv file on the locjam.org website before the 13th of April 2014 at midnight (Greenwich Mean Time)

Question Time

• Richard Mark Honeywood:spoony_bard@live.com

• Alain Dellepiane:alain@gloc.it