[game_edu] Localisation

[m.bernal at roehampton.ac.uk]

I agree with you, there's rarely enough time to cover everything, and that the main thing is that the game actually works. It's great that you guys do manage to talk about it even if it is briefly.

I suppose the best way (if there's no time) is to mention the issue just as an acknowledgement of where it should ideally be and what kind of adaptations/modifications a game might require, and the type of problems that may originate.

Localisation would be better placed in a final year or advanced project (when you can safely assume they know the basics), specially if your cohort of students is multilingual.

I am working on a little article for TIGA and ELSPA, with basic principles of good practice in game localisation, because they don't really have anything at all on it, which seems surprising since they often get 30-50% of their return from localised versions. But I think things will change as non-English markets keep on growing.

Anyway, if you want some info on game localisation, I'll be happy to help.

Kind regards

Miguel Á. Bernal-Merino
Lecturer in Media Translation
Roehampton University London
Roehampton Lane, Putney
SW15 5SZ
LONDON
Tel: (00 44) (0) 208 392 3799


From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org [game_edu-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Ian Schreiber [ai864 at yahoo.com]
Sent: 25 October 2008 02:13
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv
Subject: Re: [game_edu] Localisation


I actually do mention this in my classes (in the same category as saving/loading functionality and audio pipeline) as things that tend to get forgotten or neglected early on and end up being a serious pain to shoehorn in at the end if the team hasn't been on top of them for the entire time. My students go off to the industry fully aware that these are issues that their first project is likely to get burned on :)

In practical use for student projects, all three of these are difficult to fit in the schedule at all, simply because they are a bit of work and take time and focus away from the essential core gameplay. For student projects, just getting a single working game in their native language is challenge enough, and having multiple languages, the ability to save the game and having interactive audio are things that just aren't in the cards most of the time.

In a curriculum where students have the time to work on multiple projects and multiple teams (which is rare -- in many cases, students get maybe one or two shots at this), I could see the case for devoting one project slot to a "maintenance" class. The idea would be to take a working project from a previous project that a totally different group worked on, learn the code, refactor it, and add this kind of functionality. The benefit to students would be exposure to real-world tasks, as well as experience working with someone else's code (which it's extremely likely that they'll be doing in their first job).

- Ian

--- On Fri, 10/24/08, m.bernal at roehampton.ac.uk <m.bernal at roehampton.ac.uk> wrote:

From: m.bernal at roehampton.ac.uk <m.bernal at roehampton.ac.uk>
Subject: [game_edu] Localisation
To: game_edu at igda.org
Date: Friday, October 24, 2008, 3:15 PM


Hello everybody,

I am glad to see that there is an important group here trying to improve
standards in education by suggesting curriculums, modules, topics and the
branching and pacing of the content delivered.

I would like to participate with modules/sessions on game internationalisation
and localisation. I believe this part of the globalised game industry is often
neglected in development and production, creating more problems than it should.
Just recently the issue with SCE "Little Big Planet".
A bit of planning and team awareness in time would eradicate such issues and
smooth out localisation, as well as save time and money in testing, etc.

What do you guys think?


Miguel Á. Bernal-Merino
Lecturer in Media Translation
Roehampton University London
Roehampton Lane, Putney
SW15 5SZ
LONDON
Tel: (00 44) (0) 208 392 3799

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