Localization SIG Past Events

International Game Developers Association

Past Events

20 October, 2009 - Games Localization Roundtable @ Localization World (Santa Clara): Another edition of the Game Localization Round Table took place at the Localization World event in Santa Clara, California. This intimate and specialised forum was targeted at game loc. professionals from the development, publishing and vendor side of the industry.

6 Sept., 2009 - Localization Talk @ PAX 2009: Game Localization: A Behind-the-Scenes Look: The localization team of Alexander O. Smith and Joseph Reeder, known for their work on Final Fantasy XII, presented a behind-the-scenes look at the game localization process. How long does it take to localize a mega-RPG? How does ADR (writing for lip sync) work and not work? What makes a localization not suck? Actual scripts, video clips, and a Q&A session followed.

18 August, 2009 - Loc SIG Meeting @ GDC Europe: The Loc SIG meeting was hosted by Olivier Cabart who presented updates on SIG activities and discuss current issues.

18 August, 2009 - Localization Panel Session @ GDC Europe: The financial crisis is setting an important challenge to the games industry: produce more diversified contents, for more markets, in a more cost-efficient way. The overall games sales will grow over the coming years, but localization professionals may not be able to support such increase just by scaling up their existing operations. How will the international games production and localization look like as a result? A panel of experienced professionals (including SIG members) from the publishing, localization and translation side of the business will confront on practical approaches to support the global future of gaming.

8 June, 2009 - Games Localization Roundtables at Localization World (Berlin): Another edition of the Game Localization Round Table took place at the Localization World event in Berlin. This intimate and specialised forum was targeted at game loc. professionals from the development, publishing and vendor side of the industry.

3 June, 2009 - E3 2009: The IGDA Loc SIG held an informal gathering on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at 12:00-2:00pm. SIG Chair Tom Edwards was in attendance to provide a brief update on SIG activities and facilitate discussions the group had about the SIG activities, website status and other issues.

13 October, 2008 - Game Localization Roundtables at Localization World (Madison): Continuing our efforts to create a forum to promote communication and best practice amongst game localization professionals, the 'Game Localization Round Table' held its fourth outing on Monday October 13th in Madison (Wisconsin) at the Localization World event. This full day event was yet another great meeting of game localization professional minds.

9 June, 2008 - Games Localization Roundtables at Localization World (Berlin): Some members of the Loc SIG organized a rountable discussion on game localization at the Localization World event in Berlin. The full day of roundtable discussions took place on the pre-conference day, June 9, 2008. For more information, access the Loc World site.

13 May, 2008 - ION Conference (Seattle): Tom Edwards presented a lecture entitled Online Worlds and Offline Worldviews - Managing Geocultural Expectations in Game Content at the ION Game Conference (formerly known as OGDC) in Seattle (the conference took place May 13-15). For more information about the talk, access the ION Conference site.

20 & 21 February, 2008 - Game Localization Sessions at GDC 2008: The Localization SIG was busy at GDC 2008 with two sessions, a group gathering and a SIG meeting. See the section below on GDC 2008 Results to catch up on the news.

9 November, 2007 - Game Localization Session at the IGDA Leadership Forum: Heather Chandler presented a production-oriented overview of localization at the IGDA Leadership Forum in San Francisco. Further information can be found here: [1]

26 October, 2007 - Localization SIG launches presence on Facebook: In order to further broaden the reach of the Localization SIG, a Facebook group has been established called "IGDA - Localization SIG". The group can be accessed here: [2]

16 October, 2007 - Games Localization Roundtables at Localization World (Seattle): A day of roundtable talks on game localization took place at the Localization World conference in Seattle on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 (this was the pre-conference day). More information is available on the Loc World site.

26 September, 2007 - Localization SIG Announcement at DiGRA Japan Conference: A brief talk by Tom Edwards announced the formation of the Localization SIG to those attending the DiGRA 2007 conference in Tokyo, Japan. More information can be found at the DiGRA 2007 conference site.

5 September, 2007 - Games Localization Session at Austin GDC: Tom Edwards delivered a presentation entitled "Capturing International Markets - Game Localization Done Right!". The session was sponsored by the Localization Institute and Multilingual Computing. More information can be found at the GDC Austin site.

1 August, 2007 - New Poll for Prospective SIG Members! In order to ensure that this SIG better serves the games localization community, we've developed a brief poll to understand your needs and challenges. Your time and answers provided are greatly appreciated! The poll is located here: [3]

GDC 2009 Summary

THANK YOU to everyone for attending and supporting the SIG's efforts at GDC 2009!
Overall, the Loc SIG steering committee felt that our activities at GDC 2009 were a great success, considering the various challenges we were facing in terms of time and resources.

A summary of the major events is as follows:

• Game Localization Summit: We're very pleased to announce that the Localization SIG steering committee in cooperation with Think Services (formerly CMP) is organizing a full-day Game Localization Summit at GDC! This new Summit is aimed at helping game professionals understand how to combine original content and local culture with the organization and logistics required to meet the demanding deadlines of today's gaming industry via localization and globalization. Professionals from all departments and areas of industry expertise are welcome to participate in the event. The day will be a mix of panel sessions and lectures, including a keynote address by Jaime Giné (VP of International Development Services at Electronic Arts) and a case study panel session on Fable II's localization process. The full Summit schedule is available on the GDC Loc Summit web site! [About the Localization Summit's Content: We have been asked by some individuals as to why the Localization Summit did not have a open call for speakers. The reality is that only 3 of the 9 Summit events at GDC actually create session content through an open call approach; in other words, most of the Summits have an advisory committee which plans the theme and content and then seeks out appropriate speakers to fill the sessions. As the organizers of this inaugural Localization Summit, we needed to act very quickly this year and felt that an open call for content would not have been sufficient. Assuming that the Loc Summit will return at GDC 2010, we will consider whether or not we will hold an open call for speakers.]
• Thursday, 26 March at 12:00-1:30pm, Room 112 North Hall - Informal SIG Meeting Space: This space has been reserved if SIG members would like to use it as an informal gathering spot, a place to eat your lunch, follow-up from the Loc Summit, etc. The SIG won't be conducting any formal meeting during this time slot.
• Thursday, 26 March at 4:30-6:00pm, Room 113 North Hall - Annual SIG Meeting: PLEASE NOTE THE TIME CHANGE - it was previously announced as 12:00pm-1:30pm! At this annual meeting of the IGDA Loc SIG, the SIG Steering Committee will update members on recent activity and provide a brief post-mortem on the Loc Summit (23 March). We also plan on kicking off working group activity for the SIG, so please come prepared to contribute and get involved! The proposed agenda is now available for your review. We hope to see you there!
• Friday, 27 March at 2:30-3:30pm, Room 2004 West Hall - Embracing Global Game Development: A New Look at Game Localization: As the two designated advisors for the Game Localization Summit, Miguel Bernal and Tom Edwards will present an overview session for the main GDC conference that is intended as a summary of main takeaways of the Loc Summit for those who did not attend.

GDC 2008 Summary

Thank you for everyone's participation at GDC! If you weren't able to attend GDC this year, we're sorry we missed you! The Localization SIG had an excellent launch, thanks to all the people who were able to attend and join the SIG meetings. The following events were on the agenda:

Loc SIG Meetings:

As our inaugural year at GDC, we went into the event a bit blind in terms of knowing how many people to expect, as we're scattered across a Yahoo group and a Facebook group. We had spread the word about our activities as far and wide as we could but we still didn't know what to expect in terms of numbers. In the end, our group gathering at the IGDA booth on Wednesday morning saw about 25-30 people, which was fantastic! Then we took a gamble and held our SIG meeting at 8am on Thursday, but even there we had about 25 people show up - with some overlap from Thursday but not entirely. By the end of GDC, our SIG sign-up list contained 54 names and emails, representing a broad cross-section of functions (translation, audio, management, etc.), companies (EA, Sony, Nintendo, LucasArts, etc.), and locales. Between the new names acquired at GDC and our 2 existing online groups, our current SIG roster currently stands at over 120 people, so thank you again for your interest!

As per Jason's advice (the IGDA executive director), it's one thing to build a list of people, it's another thing to motivate them to action. There was obviously a lot of enthusiasm and excellent ideas put forward for SIG projects and goals, and we’ll be following up soon in another email with details of the project ideas, as well as a call for members to start forming Working Groups around specific localization topics (e.g., translation issues, audio, tools, etc.).

Localization Talks:

• Sponsored Panel Session [Feb. 20, 10:30-11:30]: Attendance: 135 (standing-room only), Overall Evaluation Score: 4.0 (out of 5). The session was entitled: "Rethinking Game Localization as Global Game Development." The impression from in-person feedback at GDC was that the session did exactly what we intended to do - raise the issue of localization's importance as a core part of development. The link to the slide slides for this session on the GDC site will be posted shortly; information about the session is located here: [4]
• Tom Edwards' Lecture [Feb. 21, 12-1pm]: Attendance: 55, Overall Evaluation Score: 4.2 (out of 5). The lecture was entitled" "Self-Censoring Potential Content Risks for Global Audiences: Why, How and When." The in-person and evaluation feedback was very positive, while being clear that it's time for more in-depth talks on culturalization issues (this lecture walked a line between introductory and substantive). The slides for this talk can be obtained on the GDC site.

NOTE: All SIG members (whether existing or new) who attended received a really cool "IGDA Localization SIG" badge ribbon to proudly display on their badge holder. This went over very well as a good method to raise awareness of the SIG and we still have a lot left, so we'll be using them at future events. Click here to view an image of the ribbon.

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