LocJAM 2 Barcelona Workshop

Carme Mangiron

Friday, 27th February, 11-13 h, UAB

 LOCJAM
• Started in 2014.

• Non-profit videogame translation contest.

• Organised by
– Team GLOC (Alain Dellepiane)
– Localization SIG of the IGDA
– IGDA Japan Chapter
 OBJECTIVES
• Spread the word about game translation
and localisation.

• Open the door for translators wanting to

specialise in this field.

• Have fun!
PARTICIPANTS LOCJAM 2014

LANGUAGE AMATEUR PROFESSIONAL TOTAL

Castilian 99 87 186
Spanish
Italian 97 37 134
French 23 37 60
German 18 24 42
LA Spanish 29 13 42
Japanese 14 6 20
TOTAL 280 204 484
 LOCJAM 2
•22nd February to 1st March at 23.59
(Greenwich Mean Time)

•Do not leave it to the last minute to avoid

problems with the website

•Languages: EN, FR, GE, IT, JA, SP, LA SP, RU, BP

 COMPETITION
• Only one entry for participant

• Amateur vs. pro categories

• Prices: studio tour or diploma

GAME
 GAME
• Interactive story similar to the Choose your
own adventure books.

• Developed with Twine.

• 5000 thousand words, but some repetition in

the Inventory in the second part.
 GAME
• Requires Mongoose editor to view it.

• Character encoding UTF8

• Text with code tags.

• Work with Notepad++ or Sublime Text (set

View>Syntax>Regular Expression to clearly
differentiate translatable text and control codes).
 TEXT WITH CODE
• \n, text within <<>> and codes like tt42 tags
are control codes used by the game and
should not be modified for the translated
version.

• KITCHEN:\n\n[img[kitchen-hat]]\n\n"YAY WE
FOUND IT!"\n\n[img[Poor Torn Hat|badhat
45]]\n
 LOCALISATION PROCESS
• Familiarisation
• Glossary and style guide
• Translation
• Editing
• Integration
• QA
• Submission
 FAMILIARISATION
• Game mechanics

• Theme

• Characters: Emi, a little girl, and her

grandfather
 LANGUAGE
• Literary and descriptive language

The dusty, bittersweet smell of weathered

books and century-old furniture wafted
through the door as Emi and Grandpa
entered Grandpa’s office.
 LANGUAGE
• Dialogue with colloquial language

• “Hurray!” Emi said. “We had an amazing

adventure, didn’t wee, Grandpa? And I really
helped, right? I hope you are proud of me!”.

• You have a reeaally creepy shed, Grandpa.

• Just kidding! Hehehe.

 LANGUAGE
• Terms of endearment

– Grandpa

– Little one
 LANGUAGE
• Options for players

• Could you fix my hat now, little one?

• Read the last entry in my diary.

• Look in the fireplace.

• Oh, never mind then.

 SYSTEM MESSAGES
• Emi obtained Poor Torn Hat.

• Next.

• Emi fixed Grandpa's hat.

ONOMATOPOEIA AND INTERJECTIONS

• Hurray!
• Hmmm…
• Oops
• Ew!
• YAY WE FOUND IT!
• Aww, it’s okay, Grandpa!
 VERBAL TENSES
• Combination of present and past

Emi and Grandpa are outside the family

mausoleum. A grim atmosphere surrounded
the ornate structure.
 INVENTORY
• Humour, alliteration, play-on-words, creativity
– Muddy Yucky Paddle
– Weird Metal Thingy
– Poor Torn Hat
– Big Bad Crowbar
– Teeny Tiny Key
– Colorful Wacky Thread
 CULTURAL REFERENCES
• Begin teatime

• Boogeyman

• Fedora
 ORTOTYPOGRAPHY
• Inverted commas for dialogues in English vs. long hyphen
(raya) in Spanish.

—¡Qué le vamos a hacer! —exclamó resignado Ash.

—Está bien —dijo Misty—; te acompañaré.

—¿Puedo irme ya? —Se puso en pie con gesto decidido—.

No hace falta que me acompañe. Conozco el camino.

http://buscon.rae.es/dpd/srv/search?id=kyRrDVgsOD6Xup8Dpt
 TRANSLATION STRATEGY
• How to make your translation stand out?

• Idiomatic language

• Literary register

• Creativity (inventory)

• Correction: extremely important!

 EDITING

• Review the translation thoroughly.

• Read it aloud to make sure it sounds natural.

 INTEGRATION
• Just save the file.

• Do not change the file name.

• Choose Translate in game title page to load

your translation.
 QA
• Play the game several times, to make sure you view all the
text on screen.

• If you can, get somebody else to play it as well and take

their feedback on board.

• Check for spelling mistakes, style issues, inconsistencies,

etc.

• Correct any issues in the file, save it and load the game
again.
 QA
• Check any errors that you corrected, to make sure they
appear OK.

• Copy and paste your final translation onto a word

processing tool in order to spell-check it.

• Upload the final file. Only one entry for participants.

Good luck!

• Winners will be announced in May, picked by a jury

made of specialised game localization agencies.
 Jury of LOCJAM 2014
• Criteria for choosing best translations
• Correctness: no
• grammar or spelling mistakes.
• Style: naturalness
• Humour
• Creativity
• Cultural adaptation
• A translation that feels like an original
• Maintain suspension of disbelief
 MORE INFORMATION
• IGDA LOC SIG’s group in Facebook

• Frequently asked questions

• Official chat