Fans Help Translate Fragile Dreams
This won't really affect many of you directly, but I thought it was so interesting that I wanted to share. I know that bringing the Nintendo Wii title Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon to the US was a laborious process because of the amount of dialogue and signage in the game that required translation. Well, publisher Rising Star Games has revealed that it has actually teamed up with Spanish fans to translate the game into their own language so that they can play it. The Spanish website DSWii.es approached Rising Star with the idea, and after recruiting 50 volunteers, got to work. With over 35,000 words in the script for Fragile Dreams, it's quite an undertaking, but the translation will be available as a digital download via DSWii.es and through Rising Star's Hoshi portal for free following the game's launch on March 19 in the UK. (Although if the website is accurate, and they've translated 0% so far, they should probably get busy!)
"This is a great opportunity for us to connect with our fan base in Spain through such a unique and innovative project," says Raul Nieto Garcia, marketing manager at Rising Star Games. "We hope Spanish gamers will appreciate the joint efforts of Blogocio and Rising Star games to provide the best experience possible when playing Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon on their Nintendo Wii."
"The most important aspect of this translation is not that the game arrives in Spanish, but that this is the first time in history in which gamers will participate actively in the development process or the localisation of a title," says Hugo Fraga, director of content and marketing at Blogocio Media SL. "That's the really exciting about this project."
Personally, I think this is unprecedented. I've heard of fan translations, but never any that are officially embraced by the developers. I think this just goes to show how dedicated gamers can be, and maybe if more game developers and publishers were this forward-thinking, more obscure games could be released in other countries.
Wootini
Posted to Video Games on 8 March 2010
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: fragile dreams, nintendo, rising star games, Spanish, translation, wii
And the translators are paid nothing?
this is actually the 2nd time ive heard of this kind of thing. first one was with the Chaos;Head fan translation project.
it was discontinued in august because of a planned partnership between themselves and JAST USA for an official english translation for the title.
i personally love the idea, and i wish we could see it happening more often (Seiken Densetsu 3)
Being a translator, I hope they are proper paid or this could be the end for professional translators.