Localization Summit

23 March, 2009 Jason Shirley Audio Producer Microsoft Games Studios - Ireland Localization Case Study

23 March, 2009 Fable II Localization Case Study »Jason Shirley, Audio Producer Microsoft Games Studios – Ireland »Will Braham, Design Producer Lionhead – UK »Palma Cedele, Production Coordinator Binari Sonori – Italy

23 March, 2009 Fable II multilingual cutscene

23 March, 2009 Jason Shirley Audio Producer Microsoft Games Studios - Ireland Jason Shirley Audio Producer Microsoft Games Studios

23 March, 2009 Agenda Items »MGS Ireland »Fable II localization »The successes »Tools / Technologies »Recommendations

23 March, 2009 Microsoft Game Studios Ireland »Manage MGS Localization for Xbox and Games for Windows »Engineering, Test, PM, Audio, Management »Partner with 10 Loc Vendors covering Translation, Test and Audio. »Gears of War 2, Halo 3, Halo Wars, Scene It?, Mass Effect, Fable II

23 March, 2009 »Lionhead  Will Braham: Design Producer »Microsoft Game Studios  Declan MacHugh: Project Manager  Virginia Spencer: Loc PM  Jean-Philippe Chassagne: Lead Engineer  Alan Davis: Test Lead  Jason Shirley: Audio Producer »Binari Sonori  Translation & Audio production »Logrus  Translation & Audio production Fable II Loc Team

23 March, 2009 Fable II Languages »15 languages »7 Full: French, Italian, German, Spanish, Mexican, Russian, Japanese. »5 Partial+: Polish, Czech/Slovak, Hungarian, Korean, Chinese »3 Partial: Nordic, Brazilian, Arabic

23 March, 2009 Fable II Localization »420,000 words to translate »48,000 audio files per language to record »54 actors per language »50 quests = 238 hours of game to test »Male or Female hero »Sim Ship release

23 March, 2009 The Successes »Communication »Text management »Smooth VO Production »Build Portability »Creation of custom tools / technology

23 March, 2009 Tools / Technology »Automated testing »Management of text content English 420,000 words.XML Character1 Character2 Character3 Character4 Translator1 Translator2 Translator3 Translator4 Localized 420,000 words.XML Localized 420,000 words.XML

23 March, 2009 Language support and language interface packs »Allow for dashboard language changes on-the-fly »Automatically support Downloadable Content (DLC) packs »Support the addition of extra languages after release

23 March, 2009 Recommendations »Engage with your loc team

23 March, 2009 Recommendations »Engage with your loc team

23 March, 2009 Recommendations »Use a database to store text for UI and VO scripts Database Design Writers Geopolitical Production Editors Loc

23 March, 2009 Recommendations »Build portability, Independent loc builds »Chronological order for scripts »Avoid concatenated sentence »Track VO SFX

23 March, 2009 Recommendations »SFX Batch processes or realtime DSP »For pre-rendered movies use multilingual cinematics »Avoid pre-rendered text or subtitles in cinematics »Avoid time constraints for non cinematic

23 March, 2009 Jason Shirley Audio Producer Microsoft Games Studios - Ireland Will Braham Design Producer Lionhead Studios

23 March, 2009 Lionhead »Our approach to localization on Fable II  Learning from past mistakes  Minimal impact on game development  Processes that driven rather than fire fighting  Collaborative planning

23 March, 2009 Text »The pipeline  Internal database  Exported as.xml  Compiled into game format »Using the exported.xml  Loc Studio  Translated text stored by the localization team  Easy to use and manipulate

23 March, 2009 Huge.xml file »The.xml Splitter Tool  Splitting a 50,000 line (10 MB).xml file  Male / female hero gender  Created and maintained by MGS Dublin

23 March, 2009 Builds and Compiling localized assets »Builds  Builds provided daily  All builds smoke tested internally and reports sent to localization teams »Compiling localized assets  Localization Asset Build  Language Interface Pack »Localization able to create and test localized builds independently

23 March, 2009 Text Pipeline Overview Lionhead text database English book.xml English Char1.xml Char2.xml Char3.xml English Char1.xml Char2.xml Char3.xml Splitter tool Localised using Loc Studio translated Char1.xml Char2.xml Char3.xml translated Char1.xml Char2.xml Char3.xml Splitter tool translated book.xml Build with English text Build with translated text asset build

23 March, 2009 Support and Communication »Support  Localization Asset Build  String Context »Communication  All communication channelled through MGS Dublin  Regular visits from the MGS Dublin team

23 March, 2009 Summary »Work with localization teams to streamline processes »Upfront planning to avoid fire fighting

23 March, 2009 Jason Shirley Audio Producer Microsoft Games Studios - Ireland Palma Cedele Production Coordinator Binari Sonori

23 March, 2009 Early kick-off »Accurate planning phase  Preliminary information on volume and types of material  Defining number of batches has allowed perfect synchronization between developer, publisher and localizer  Microsoft experience has been fundamental in the preproduction phase

23 March, 2009 Ad hoc team building »International Coordination Centre  International Project Management  3 Project Managers (text/audio/supervision)  International Language Coordination  International Audio Team  Audio Project Lead  Audio Manager  13 Sound Engineers  International Quality Assurance  International Engineering Team

23 March, 2009 Ad hoc team building »Local Project Teams  Local Project Management  Local Linguistic Coordination  Local Translation  6 translators  2 reviewers  Local Audio Team  Casting Manager  Dubbing Director  Sound Engineers

23 March, 2009 »A monster Localization team Over 130 people! (not including actors) Ad hoc team building

23 March, 2009 Pipelining with Development »MGS Dublin  Fundamental in managing the needs of development and localization »In-country Production Units  Ability to manage translation and audio at the same time »Lionhead  Excellent support throughout the project

23 March, 2009 Overview of Loc. Process »Subdivision in batches (and sub-batches) »The book »The gender issue

23 March, 2009 Overview of Loc. Process »Translation

23 March, 2009 Overview of Loc. Process »Structured in-context revision

23 March, 2009 Overview of Loc. Process »Gender control

23 March, 2009 Overview of Loc. Process »Script in Excel format

23 March, 2009 Overview of Loc. Process »Audio  Expert Casting / Dubbing Direction  Audio Post Production (250,000 audio files)  Full Proof-listening

23 March, 2009 Overview of Loc. Process »Recording Volumes Batch (volumes for 1 language) N° of words In-game N° of words Time Constrain N° of words SoundSynch N° of actors N° of audio files Recording Batch Recording Batch Recording Batch 3 Part Recording Batch 3 Part Recording Batch 3 Part Batch (volumes for 5 languages) N° of words In-game N° of words Time Constrain N° of words SoundSynch N° of actors N° of audio files Recording Batch Recording Batch Recording Batch 3 Part Recording Batch 3 Part Recording Batch 3 Part

23 March, 2009 Questions?