[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH Probably, but as you mentioned, functionality is there already, game allows one respec. I would think changing it would not be too time-consuming. Even if not deeper in-game integration like ripperdoc service, just changing that menu function from single-use to multiple uses should have been possible. Were they that pressed on time, I wonder.

[ZaidH]

If I was given a chance to be a fly on a wall during the development phase of a game, I'd pick Konami for MGSV and CDPR for Cyberpunk 😅

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH I was involved in several game developments in a few different companies, and in my experience it is a much more hectic process than it may seem. In big teams, often left hand does not know what the right one is doing, there are changes on the go and plans for day-one patches months before release. So not sure how illuminating it may be for a fly on the wall.

But maybe @j7schultz or @SKYTRiXSHA could tell you more about what happens behind the gamedev curtain. 😉

[ZaidH]

New Doctor Eldritch lore drop 😲 That is so cool! I’d love to know what games you’ve been involved with, but I won’t pry too much because of NDAs and privacy 😅 But yeah I follow some game devs and see how often they move between companies. I’m sure it’s a great way to get better positions and pay, but all those deadlines and public expectations must be intense.

I’m genuinely so happy to see people from the gaming industry in this community 😁 @j7schultz @SKYTRiXSHA if it’s okay with you, could you share which gaming studios you’re both involved with? No worries if you prefer not to reveal it!

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH I have some NDAs that bind me for life from some of the other places that I worked in, but gaming companies did not have them for quite as long, and it never forbade me from revealing titles after the release.

Though my role was in translation and localization, I was working on localizing menus, creating subtitles, working on scripts for voice actors, that sort of thing. So, not too deep a clearance. 😉

I worked on Titanfall 2, CoD WW2 and an instalment of the Yo-Kai Watch franchise for Nintendo.

[ZaidH]

See, before the Yakuza games, I didn’t care much about localization. I was used to the barely passable translations back then. Yakuza 0 wouldn’t have been nearly as enjoyable if the localization team hadn’t poured their hearts and souls into making the culture and societal norms accessible to us through language. You guys have my utmost respect 😁

Oooof, those are some big names! It must have been so much fun to localize BT’s lines—that delicate balance between a robot and a human.

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH Localization is challenging work. Especially in cutscenes, you not only need to translate the text but also edit it in such a way that the time to say lines in original and localized is as close as possible. It is sometimes hard, I would imagine especially in Japan/English audio localization where some lines in Japanese are longer in English. You need to get creative with edits.

BT was actually somewhat easy in that regard, he has no mouth, so you do not need to account for lipsync. And he was fun to work at, yeah.

[SKYTRiXSHA]

@ZaidH
I work in the Angry Birds factory, so I'm mainly on mobile side.

[ZaidH]

@DoctorEldritch My goodness these are the kinds of things that your average player won’t notice at first, but they can actually make or break the game 😯 In books or manga, there’s the option to explain cultural nuances via translator’s notes, but for games, holy moly, it’s exactly as you described—a work of precision and insane linguistic mastery. So much respect for you guys 🙏



@SKYTRiXSHA Oh wow that's amazing! Rovio was at the forefront of providing entertainment to both the kid and adult me 😁 You and everyone at Rovio have my gratitude. I wanted to ask if the studios under Rovio and Sega regularly help each other and share expertise, but I'd imagine stuff like this is behind an NDA 😅

[DoctorEldritch]

@ZaidH To be fair, when it comes to cultural nuances, it is more about the game. Titanfall is set in a fictional universe, so the lore has no cultural elements to it that need to be relayed, the culture of the world is foreign to the player no matter where they come from.

It was different with CoD WW2, for example, here culture is very present, and rather depressing, set in a WW2 period, so that needed some extra work...