I don’t mind admitting how I got into game design consultation and localisation, even though it’s perhaps not the best advert for my services on face value.
As a reviewer, I play a lot of games, and I play them to completion whether they’re any good or not. Most aren’t. But some are filled with potential, let down by one or two aspects of their production. Japan and Korea have always had a solid game design reputation, but a lot of superb mobile, iPhone, smartphone and digitally distributed games are now coming from countries like China, India, Russia, Eastern Europe and other Far East territories – and they almost invariably suffer from translation and localisation problems.
As unfair as some might see it, this affects the enjoyment of a game enough to reduce its score – after all, gamers shouldn’t be expected to tolerate crass dialogue, nonsensical story lines or baffling instructions just because the game they’ve paid for has come from a non-English speaking country.
Thanks to the sterling reputation of the gaming publications I’ve worked for, the editorial teams have always prided themselves on offering fair, impartial and educated reviews, so I soon found that developers from these non-English speaking countries were coming to me asking for advice on how they could improve their localisation, and for consultation on dealing with the valuable English-speaking markets – exactly because I’d given their game a reduced score.
So I began to offer services beyond simple, off-the-shelf translations. The majority of localisation services simply offer a word-for-word translation, and only edit for grammar corrections. At Graffiti Writer, I offer a full rewrite of a game’s entire text – from dialogue and story to user interfaces and instructions. I play the game from beginning to end, often several times, and I talk to the design team to learn – and ultimately share – the message they want to convey. Then I’m in a far better position to bring the game’s story and characters to life, and enrich the experience for the player.
Clearly this has had a significant impact on the quality of a game developer’s products, since all my clients have come back almost immediately to request similar services on the rest of their catalogue, and many are now commissioning me at the earliest stages of a game design to help with story, narrative, concept and character development to ensure their communication with the English-speaking gamer is of the highest quality.
I work with developers (and publishers) from across Europe, China, India, the Philippines, Korea, Japan and Russia, on mobile, iPhone, smartphone, Xbox Live, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP and WiiWare titles, providing services sometimes as simple as editing instructions to providing complete rewrites of all in-game texts and developing characters, concepts and plots for brand new titles.
Naturally I’m working under strict NDAs for many of my clients, but the following link offers a couple of examples of my game writing endeavours.
If you’d like to discuss your game design, consultation or localisation requirements, please use the contact page to get in touch.