Profile photo of Marek Makosiej, game translator localizer
Marek Makosiej is expert at translating words into profits.

Marek Makosiej is a professional technical translator and localizer for games and other software. His guest post below is aimed to help aspiring game localizers understand a bit about the industry, without getting lost in translation. If you think a job doing game localization might be for you, then don’t miss this! Read more »

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This is one of more than 30 interviews with professional game developers. For more, visit Which game job is right for you?.
Damien Yoccoz, video game translator/localizer at Level Up Translation
Damien Yoccoz: “Speaking two languages doesn’t make you a translator any more than having two hands makes you a pianist.”

Hundreds of new video games are created every year, but unfortunately, most are made by developers who speak a language you don’t. That means unless you learn Japanese, French, Mandarin, and a dozen other languages, you’ll miss out on thousands of awesome game experiences in your lifetime.

That is, unless the developers translate their game into a language you understand, using a painstaking process called localization.

Before the 1990s, if you didn’t speak the language, you simply couldn’t play the game. Some players learned a second language like Japanese, solely so they could play rare unofficial imports. Others took matters into their own hands and made “fan translations” to distribute to other players using dial-in bulletin-board systems (BBS).

Fortunately, game localization has become so affordable that publishers release each game in multiple languages so players around the world can enjoy their creations.

Today I’m speaking with Damien Yoccoz, the founder of Level Up Translation in Basse-Normandie, France. He explains what a translator does, how he got started in the job, and what it takes to succeed as a game localizer. Read more »

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In this episode of Game Industry Career Guide Podcast, I answer a question from Paulo, who asks, “In terms of the gaming industry, the topic that matters to me the most is video game localization. I’m a Brazilian translator and I would love to translate games as well. I don’t know if you have already written anything about that, but I would love to know more if possible.”

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • The difference between game translation and game localization
  • Some of the biggest challenges of localization
  • How you can get started as a video game localizer

Read more »

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