Posts Tagged ‘ GDC ’

Walking Around GDC

April 3, 2009
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Walking Around GDC

Walking around the Expo floor at GDC is always interesting. What’s the hot new thing? What’s old that’s different? What are the new trends that companies are trying to push? First of all, there are too many motion capture companies. Everywhere you turned, there was a model or two dancing on the floor with their actions mimicked onscreen in realtime behind them. This was a really cool technology when I first saw it in 1996. While interviewing with a now-defunct game company, I was with them taking motion capture for a Steven Seagal title at his dojo in Santa Monica.…

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Game Localization Award

April 1, 2009
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Game Localization Award

At the GDC Localization Summit, there was an extended discussion about having a Localization Award. After all, we all want to have great localizations, and we need something to promote good work, yes? As discussed, the problem comes from several angles: Who is going to judge for the award? While we may have a few individuals competent to judge three, four or five languages, most big titles are now being translated into ten or more languages. If we choose to offer the award only for one title in one language (i.e., the German edition of Bioshock), we still need to…

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GDC Localization Summit 2009 Quick Notes

March 30, 2009
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GDC Localization Summit 2009 Quick Notes

Back home in Southern California. Ahh, it feels good to be home—the right coffee mug, comfortable office, wicked-fast internet connection, hard-wired to the company server. Ahh, the good things of life! Not to mention family and friends! Today, I’m going to scribble down a few of the general overview notes on the GDC Localization Summit. I may get a few things wrong—if so, please correct me in the comments. Digital recordings of the proceedings will be available in three weeks, and I expect to be able to give more detailed (and less prejudiced) material at that time. Stay tuned for…

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GDC Localization Summit

March 24, 2009
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GDC Localization Summit

The Localization Summit is over. 75 of the biggest names in game localization in one room. Pretty cool! The keynote speech was by Jaime Gine, Vice President of International Development Services for Electronic Arts. This man is in charge of EA’s $50 million annual budget to localize their games. And he does. I saw his work in Hungary last year, where the ONLY localized titles were the ones from his company. I’ll post more (much more) on his speech, the other attendees and more later. UPDATE: A more lengthly report is now available here.

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At Game Developers' Conference

March 23, 2009
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At Game Developers' Conference

I’m at GDC in San Francisco this week. I love GDC. Even before the demise of E3 in 2006, I always preferred GDC. It was at GDC that I bumped into Bill Gates (2001, during the launch of Xbox), as well as stop Steve Jackson in his tracks for a twenty minute conversation about games, the FBI and EFF and other fun stuff. GDC is the geeky side of the gaming industry, and I really like it for that. I’ll write about it here soon.

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