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DIS_Spectrobes collection | wishlist Blog Posts: 3
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Blog Created: Aug '08

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Monday, September 08, 2008

Lost in Translation... Sort Of

Hi everyone, I’m Adam Evanko, the Associate Producer responsible for localizing this game into English. With games developed in Japan, it is common for English localization to start once the Japanese script is complete. However, this was not the case with Spectrobes: Beyond The Portals – script writing for both languages occurred simultaneously.

From left (in front): Chizuko Mori and Kentaro Hisai of Disney Interactive Studios Japan, Victor Lucas of Greedy Productions and Electric Playground, and Adam Evanko.

That being said, you can definitely see the Japanese influence in the English script. For those of you who study Japanese or just love things Japanese, maybe you have noticed that names, such as the planets, originate from Japanese words. Rallen’s catch phrase, “Iku ze!” is actually a Japanese expression for “let’s go!” We threw things like this into the game to retain the original essence of the Spectrobe universe.

Localizing a game as ambitious as Spectrobes: Beyond The Portals requires a lot of time and energy, as we are constantly revising and making tweaks to an already several-hundred-pages long script. The localization period for this title was roughly half a year. We couldn’t keep our hands off the script and kept coming back to polish existing lines and create new ones.

The original Spectrobes game introduced many new concepts but was missing one of my favorite key elements; definitive bad guys. Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals introduces the High Krawl – intelligent and conniving characters filled with personality. I think most translators would agree – localizing text for bad guys is a blast, but that’s not to say the good guys aren’t any fun.

When you work long hours on a game, it seeps into your pores. You end up talking like the characters you are writing. There were a few times I called a friend on the phone and they had no clue it was me since I was talking like some character from the game. The most embarrassing thing that happened was one day, after a long day of work, I went home and while I was sleeping, I was still going over the script in my mind. I woke up to find my wife glaring at me. When I asked her what was wrong, she asked: “Who is Jeena!?” I was in hot water until I showed her that it was a character from the game… Work can be rough sometimes grin

Due to the technical limitations of the Nintendo DS, text plays a huge role in shaping a character’s personality. There are several ways to read sentences depending on the punctuation. A lot of time is spent making sure that each sentence reads how it should read. Look at the following examples and you can see how the placement of a single space and ellipsis can change the sentence:

“I don’t know.”
“I… don’t know.”
“I don’t… know.”
“I don’t know…”

NPC Text
NPC (non-player characters) are often overlooked in games. In Spectrobes: Beyond The Portals, a lot of time was spent in writing dialogue for them. Go back to the same person at different points in the story and they will have different things to say. So make sure to talk to them as they have plenty to say and some of them can give you some very valuable hints.

NAMES
One of the most challenging aspects to localizing Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals was the names of places, people, and items. There are over 600 unique names once you add up the Spectrobes, custom parts, custom names, items, etc. And naming them isn’t the only step. Every single name has to go through a legal check – you never know, there may be a can opener or something bizarre called the “Komainu”. And we also do cross-language checking as well – the last thing we want is one of the new Spectrobe names meaning something inappropriate in a European language. There’s a lot more to localization than just translation.

ABOUT MYSELF
I work at Disney Interactive Studios Japan at our Tokyo office. I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and like most of the other ‘gaijin’ (foreigner) that come over here, I have loved Japan and everything Japanese since as long as I can remember. After turning 21, I finally made the life-changing decision to pack up and move to Tokyo, coming over here to study Japanese at a language school for a year. It’s 6 1/2 years later, and here I am married to a beautiful Japanese woman, with a kid on the way, and working for one of the most well known companies in the world. To all of you who love games and Japan and are thinking about living here some day, I say… GO FOR IT! With proper planning and hard work, you can achieve anything. We think this game is proof of that as well.

I’m looking forward to hearing all the feedback once the game is released and I hope you look forward to the story we have in store for you. The action is intense, but don’t forget to slow down and enjoy the text! grin

Topic: Spectrobes: Beyond The Portals (Game) (Nintendo DS)

Posted: 2:53 pm by DIS_Spectrobes Rating: 5 0 Views: 297

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Comments (4)

9/9 6:15am, ninelivesmoonlight2 posted:

Do you actually work side by side with japaness script writers or do you get the script and just try your best to translate it, anyway still sounds like alot of hard work to me.
I wish you luck with the new one and looking forward to it's release.

ohio cedar point lol

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9/9 12:18pm, DIS_Spectrobes posted:

Thank you very much for your encouraging words! Although we don't literally work side-by-side (since Disney Interactive Studios Japan is in Tokyo and Jupiter is in Kyoto), it sure feels like we do. Although the Japanese and English scripts go at things a bit differently in several spots, the overall message and intention of the dialogue is the same. This was possible thanks to constant communication between DIS and Jupiter. Having full access to the script writer, planner, and other key development staff members was critical in localizing the script.

-- Adam

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9/9 10:22pm, newlight430 posted:

this is a very interesting blog because i've always been interested in the translation stages of video game development. it sounds like you are very passionate about what you do. amazing. what did you have to do to prepare to move to japan and start school there?

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9/10 11:08am, DIS_Spectrobes posted:

newlight430:

I took a short Japanese course that was being offered at the local community college in Ohio in order to understand the basics of Japanese grammar - I did that for about half a year while I saved enough money to pay for a 1-year course at a Japanese language school in Tokyo plus living expenses. With some money saved up and a few months of learning Japanese, I just quit my job in Ohio and came over! It's tough (but exciting!) when starting out in a new country, but after half a year or so, things really start to kick in. After the year of schooling, finding a job that will sponsor you with a work visa is important - getting a college degree (any major) will help out a lot in finding jobs to sponsor you. So save some money, keep your passion alive, and you can do it as well. A lot of people come over doing the English teaching route, so that's another way you can do it. Keep your dreams and never give up!

-- Adam

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