[game_edu] Localisation

[Kathleen Harmeyer]

Happy to chat off list - kharmeyer at ubalt.edu
 
Kathleen Harmeyer, D.C.D.
Director, Simulation & Digital Entertainment Program
School of Information Arts & Technologies, 
Yale Gordon College of Liberal Arts, University of Baltimore
AC113, 1420 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21201
Voice mail: 410 837-5473 email: kharmeyer at ubalt.edu <mailto:kharmeyer at ubalt.edu> 
Website: http://iat.ubalt.edu/harmeyer <http://iat.ubalt.edu/harmeyer> 


________________________________

From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org on behalf of Stacey Simmons
Sent: Sun 10/26/2008 6:34 AM
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv
Subject: Re: [game_edu] Localisation



Hi Kathleen,

I am very interested to learn more about this shared experience!  We 
teach a joint game course between LSU and UI-C.

Can we chat off list?

Stacey


On Oct 25, 2008, at 8:38 PM, Kathleen Harmeyer wrote:


> I suspect we have the most fortunate way to work Localization into a 

> project. Anibal Menezes' students at The Image Campus in Buenos 

> Aires and we at University of Baltimore are developing jointly a 3D 

> XBox game using XNA Game Studio. In this project we have split art, 

> audio, and programming tasks to develop the game during the various 

> semesters at the two institutions throughout 2008. We will have 

> Level 1 completed of Ancient Axes December 21 and will do the 

> remaining levels in the spring 2009.

>

> Anibal's students are handling the Spanish text and voices, our 

> folks are doing the English. They have learned how to develop and 

> link in XML files to swap, based on the optional selection of 

> language.

>

> It has been an exciting and sometimes difficult co-ordination task, 

> but we are working successfully as a team from both institutions. 

> And this has forced us into studying Localization. A lucky 

> happenstance for all of our students.

>

> Kathleen Harmeyer, D.C.D.

> Director, Simulation & Digital Entertainment Program

> School of Information Arts & Technologies,

> Yale Gordon College of Liberal Arts, University of Baltimore

> AC113, 1420 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

> Voice mail: 410 837-5473 email: kharmeyer at ubalt.edu <mailto:kharmeyer at ubalt.edu 

> >

> Website: http://iat.ubalt.edu/harmeyer <http://iat.ubalt.edu/harmeyer>

>

>

> ________________________________

>

> From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org on behalf of Tom Dowd

> Sent: Sat 10/25/2008 11:42 AM

> To: 'IGDA Game Education Listserv'

> Subject: Re: [game_edu] Localisation

>

>

>

> I completely agree with Ian's perspective on this. We cover it as an 

> aspect of our fundamental game development course, primarily as an 

> information point, and then it comes up again a time or two again in 

> other classes. I know that the current Little Big Planet incident 

> was discussed in multiple classes, not only from the perspective of 

> technology, but of music licensing, content vetting, and cultural 

> considerations. The requirement to localize the current senior 

> capstone project into Spanish was part of their project spec this 

> year, but we have four concentrations of students working on the 

> project - design, programming, art/animation, and sound - so I think 

> it is more feasible for them, as per Ian's comments.

>

>

>

> That said, and don't tell them this, but given that they are already 

> having to deal with a somewhat overscheduled project I expect it to 

> be dropped as a feature at the last minute... or maybe not. A couple 

> of them are already working on a string management tool for the 

> designers to ease the pipeline. So, we shall see...

>

>

>

> Tom Dowd

>

> Columbia College Chicago

>

>

>

> From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org [mailto:game_edu-bounces at igda.org] 

> On Behalf Of Ian Schreiber

> Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 8:14 PM

> 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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