Translation for Video Games: Approaches, Techniques and Challenges

Video games combine a number of types of translation, from the relatively dry and technical (system and UI text) right through to the highly creative (fully voiced dramatic scripts, heavily characterised dialogue, in-world books and documents etc.)
In what is still a relatively young field, standards and approaches vary enormously, as do companies’ attitudes towards the localisation of their own titles.
Oli will talk about some of the challenges (both technical and administrative) particular to games translation, and use examples and exercises to illustrate a few key points and considerations.
In so doing, he hopes to give an overview of video game work, and offer an idea of some of the best and worst that translators in this field can expect to encounter—hopefully more best than worst.

Speakers