Post by Oscar-RN on Aug 18, 2004 22:08:05 GMT -5
At Camp Hyrule, campers got to ask questions to NOA'S Localization team! Including NOA_Bill!
JSR WAS THE FIRST TO GET HIS QUESTION PICKED!
Here it is:
Transcript for Live Forum: 'The Amphitheater', Wed Aug 18 18:02:33 EDT 2004, User: YOSEPH
6:03 PM NOA_BILL: I've been at NOA for about six years. The first game I ever worked on was Ocarina of Time. The game I'm on working on now is Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. I've worked on a lot of stuff in between, including the Zelda series, Golden Sun, Pikmin (and Pikmin 2), and others.
6:03 PM NOA_ANDY: How long have you been at it, Bill?
6:03 PM NOA_BILL: I'm a translator, by the way, which means I translate the game text, manuals, voice scripts, etc. Nate and Erik rewrite the translated text. I've been at NOA since 1998.
6:04 PM NOA_NATE: This year, I've worked a tiny bit on Pikmin 2, Mario Golf: Advance Tour, lots of secret stuff, and I'm currently been burning my life away working furiously on Paper Mario 2. Since I've been here, looooooooooooots of games. I worked on the original Paper Mario as well as Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga.
6:04 PM NOA_ANDY: Bill's the guy you usually see translating for Mr. Miyamoto at big events ...
6:04 PM NOA_BILL: Some of you may remember Nate and I from the Animal Crossing chat we did at Camp Hyrule a couple of years ago.
6:04 PM NOA_ANDY: Who could forget?
6:04 PM NOA_ANDY:
6:05 PM NOA_ANDY: Erik must be a slow typer.
6:05 PM NOA_NATE: I believe I served Bill several times at that event.
6:05 PM NOA_ANDY:
6:05 PM NOA_BILL: I'm the one who taught Nate to serve.
6:05 PM NOA_ERIK: I'm the new guy in the Localization team, so the list of games I've worked on is short - Pikmin 2. Wait, slow typer! I'll get you ANDY!
6:05 PM NOA_NATE: We force Erik to wear mittens as part of his newbie education.
6:06 PM NOA_ANDY: I'll stop hogging the questions ...
6:06 PM NOA_BILL: Andy let it out of the bag. I do indeed translate for Mr. Miyamoto when he is around. He's a great guy to work with. He almost never chastises me for mistranslating him!
6:06 PM JSR: Hi guys! I'm looking forward to Donkey Konga and of course, the song list is different for the US version (than the Japanese version). So, my question is: How did you guys go about picking the US song list for Donkey Konga?
6:07 PM NOA_BILL: Most of the songs in the Japanese version were songs that are only known in Japan.
6:08 PM NOA_BILL: Nate?
6:08 PM NOA_NATE: It was actually a really long process, first picking songs that would appeal to a wide variety of musical tastes, and then getting the rights to the ones we wanted. We didn't EVERYTHING we wanted, of course, but the list ended up pretty rocking, I thought. I would OWN you at Oye Como Va!
6:08 PM NOA_BILL: I put in the hard sell for Rock Lobster!
6:08 PM SAX1: what is your favorite game that you have worked on
6:09 PM NOA_BILL: Wow. Tough question. In terms of playing... probably Majora's Mask or SSBM. (We still play smash everyday at lunch.) In terms of working on, probably Wind Waker or Animal Crossing.
6:09 PM NOA_NATE: My current fave is easily Paper Mario 2, but I'm gonna have to say that it's an all-time toss up between Wind Waker and Super Smash Bros. Melee, AKA Possibly the Greatest Game of All Time.
6:09 PM NOA_BILL: Animal Crossing was a bear that took nine months to localize, but when all was said and done it was worth it.
6:10 PM NOA_NATE: Oh, and Erik's computer is broken everyone--he'll be back soon, though!
6:10 PM NOA_BILL: Typical, Erik!
6:10 PM NOA_NATE: He's crying, too, so we need HANKIES, people!
6:10 PM NOA_BILL: Erik's favorite game that he's ever worked on is Pikmin 2.
6:10 PM AWFULFAWFUL: Hey everyone! I was curious about how long in general it takes to translate the text and speech in games that have a longer course of gameplay, such as the Legend of Zelda series, or perhaps Tales of Symphonia?
6:10 PM NOA_BILL: Erik's a lot like Louie, by the way.
6:11 PM NOA_BILL: Ooo... Yeah... Zelda took us about three months from the time we started work on it until the game cleared debug and went gold.
6:11 PM NOA_BILL: That included translating the text and recording Nate to be the voice of Salvatore.
6:12 PM NOA_NATE: A game like Mario Kart Double Dash that's mostly menu text? 1 month. A game like Paper Mario 2 that has 15,000 messages? Muuuuch longer.
6:12 PM NOA_ANDY: When you say a month, how many hours a week is that?
6:12 PM NOA_BILL: We're still working on Paper Mario 2, but it is almost done. And it is very, very funny.
6:13 PM NOA_NATE: Depends on the game. A Mario Kat month is 40 hours a week, typical. A Paper Mario 2 month like July was 10-12 hour days, every day of the week, all month long. And it was sunny!
6:13 PM NOA_ANDY: Dedication, baby.
6:13 PM NOA_BILL: A month? A month is 30 days. For us, a month would be all weekdays, usually until fairly late, and sometimes weekends. Nate has pulled more than a few weekends on paper mario 2.
6:13 PM NOA_NATE: All worth it.
6:14 PM THE_DUDE: Do you guys use a special program for working on games? BTW I have hankies for Erik!
6:14 PM NOA_ERIK: A few weekends? Try every!
6:14 PM NOA_BILL: Thanks, The Dude. He could use the hankies and what not and what have you.
6:14 PM NOA_ERIK: Save the tissues for Nate - he's going to be crying when I get ahold of him from across the desk!
6:15 PM NOA_NATE: We use text tools that vary by game--some easier to use than others. You gotta find ways to make the text fit in the windows, you know?
6:15 PM NOA_BILL: The tools that EAD (Mr. Miyamoto's teams) use are great. Very easy to use. Others can be more challenging.
6:15 PM MARIOMANIAC10: I'm a huge Paper Mario fan... how did you guys like working on Thousand-Year Door? Do you feel it will be better than the original? What kind of new features will be in it?
6:16 PM NOA_NATE: I see from Ganon's fine form that Erik has returned.
6:16 PM NOA_NATE: Send to All: Oh my, I have no idea where to start on how much better this game will be. Hang on a second, I feel woozy.
6:16 PM NOA_BILL: Paper Mario 2 is a blast to work on. It will be better than the original, because this time we have not only Nate's sweet writing, but the awesome translation skills of one Scot Ritchey as well.
6:17 PM NOA_NATE: OK, this game is so good. Much, much longer. Much funnier. Much more challenging. Many more sidequests. Soooooooooooo good! I was a huge fan of the original as well (first game I ever worked on) and this one is my new favorite game.
6:17 PM NOA_BILL: The game itself is quite funny, both in the original Japanese and in the English. We of course (and by we I mean Nate) like to add in more humor than they had to start with.
6:17 PM NOA_BILL: Overall it has been a pretty smooth project.
6:17 PM NOA_NATE: Awww, don't let Bill fool you--he throws a lotta gold in there too.
6:17 PM CUBE_FAN90: Who are the singers of those songs in Wario Ware for GCN?
6:18 PM NOA_NATE: I sing those songs.
6:18 PM NOA_NATE: No just kidding.
6:18 PM NOA_ERIK: Paper Mario 2 blows my mind every time I see it. These two guys have done a fantastic job on it
6:18 PM NOA_BILL: Some of them were Japanese dev team members, but one was a girl who works here at NOA. You guys would love her.
6:19 PM SQUAREPANTS: How is it decided which games are translated? Do the translators (including yourself) decide which games will make the most profit here in the US? Some particular games, such as Mother 1 and 2 for Game Boy Advance, are classics that we'd like to see remade in the States. Is there any possibility they'll be translated in the future?
6:19 PM NOA_BILL: Sometimes we do get input into what games get released.
6:19 PM NOA_NATE: Sometimes we don't.
6:19 PM NOA_BILL: The localization team pushed hard for both Advance Wars and Fire Emblem.
6:20 PM NOA_BILL: Unfortunately, we don't always have the final say. It often comes down to how well a game will do once released.
6:20 PM NOA_BILL: The Mother game pak is one that I'd like to see get done eventually, but we aren't working on it right now.
6:20 PM EKANS28: How many games do you guys work on at a time?
6:21 PM NOA_NATE: Depends on how busy we are. In a perfect world, one, so we can devote all our energies. That said, I've juggled five before in various capacities.
6:21 PM NOA_BILL: Right now I am working directly on three, and am somewhat involved in one or two more.
6:22 PM NOA_BILL: When Animal Crossing was in, the whole team worked on that exclusively for six months before some shifted off to other projects.
6:22 PM NOA_ERIK: In other words, as many games as coffee and burritos will allow.
6:22 PM DSTARFOX: Does anyone have any anecdotes of bad translations? If so, could you tell us any specifics?
6:22 PM NOA_BILL: I never do any bad translation!!!
6:23 PM NOA_NATE: Must...find...PG-rated...story...
6:23 PM NOA_NATE: I tried to stick the line "All your basement belongs to us" in Animal Crossing but everyone yelled at me.
6:23 PM NOA_ANDY: Nice.
6:23 PM NOA_BILL: If you look at a lot of older games, you can see some, uh... problems. There was one game where a character that was male in the Japanese version ended up being female in the final US version...
6:24 PM NOA_ERIK: I would never have yelled at you about that. That rocks!
6:24 PM ZELDAS_MAJIK_101: Do you know why games such as Doshin the Giant were released in both Europe & Japan, but not in America?
6:24 PM NOA_BILL: Sometimes it comes down to resources.
Sorry, I HAVE TO DOUBLE POST.
JSR WAS THE FIRST TO GET HIS QUESTION PICKED!
Here it is:
Transcript for Live Forum: 'The Amphitheater', Wed Aug 18 18:02:33 EDT 2004, User: YOSEPH
6:03 PM NOA_BILL: I've been at NOA for about six years. The first game I ever worked on was Ocarina of Time. The game I'm on working on now is Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. I've worked on a lot of stuff in between, including the Zelda series, Golden Sun, Pikmin (and Pikmin 2), and others.
6:03 PM NOA_ANDY: How long have you been at it, Bill?
6:03 PM NOA_BILL: I'm a translator, by the way, which means I translate the game text, manuals, voice scripts, etc. Nate and Erik rewrite the translated text. I've been at NOA since 1998.
6:04 PM NOA_NATE: This year, I've worked a tiny bit on Pikmin 2, Mario Golf: Advance Tour, lots of secret stuff, and I'm currently been burning my life away working furiously on Paper Mario 2. Since I've been here, looooooooooooots of games. I worked on the original Paper Mario as well as Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga.
6:04 PM NOA_ANDY: Bill's the guy you usually see translating for Mr. Miyamoto at big events ...
6:04 PM NOA_BILL: Some of you may remember Nate and I from the Animal Crossing chat we did at Camp Hyrule a couple of years ago.
6:04 PM NOA_ANDY: Who could forget?
6:04 PM NOA_ANDY:
6:05 PM NOA_ANDY: Erik must be a slow typer.
6:05 PM NOA_NATE: I believe I served Bill several times at that event.
6:05 PM NOA_ANDY:
6:05 PM NOA_BILL: I'm the one who taught Nate to serve.
6:05 PM NOA_ERIK: I'm the new guy in the Localization team, so the list of games I've worked on is short - Pikmin 2. Wait, slow typer! I'll get you ANDY!
6:05 PM NOA_NATE: We force Erik to wear mittens as part of his newbie education.
6:06 PM NOA_ANDY: I'll stop hogging the questions ...
6:06 PM NOA_BILL: Andy let it out of the bag. I do indeed translate for Mr. Miyamoto when he is around. He's a great guy to work with. He almost never chastises me for mistranslating him!
6:06 PM JSR: Hi guys! I'm looking forward to Donkey Konga and of course, the song list is different for the US version (than the Japanese version). So, my question is: How did you guys go about picking the US song list for Donkey Konga?
6:07 PM NOA_BILL: Most of the songs in the Japanese version were songs that are only known in Japan.
6:08 PM NOA_BILL: Nate?
6:08 PM NOA_NATE: It was actually a really long process, first picking songs that would appeal to a wide variety of musical tastes, and then getting the rights to the ones we wanted. We didn't EVERYTHING we wanted, of course, but the list ended up pretty rocking, I thought. I would OWN you at Oye Como Va!
6:08 PM NOA_BILL: I put in the hard sell for Rock Lobster!
6:08 PM SAX1: what is your favorite game that you have worked on
6:09 PM NOA_BILL: Wow. Tough question. In terms of playing... probably Majora's Mask or SSBM. (We still play smash everyday at lunch.) In terms of working on, probably Wind Waker or Animal Crossing.
6:09 PM NOA_NATE: My current fave is easily Paper Mario 2, but I'm gonna have to say that it's an all-time toss up between Wind Waker and Super Smash Bros. Melee, AKA Possibly the Greatest Game of All Time.
6:09 PM NOA_BILL: Animal Crossing was a bear that took nine months to localize, but when all was said and done it was worth it.
6:10 PM NOA_NATE: Oh, and Erik's computer is broken everyone--he'll be back soon, though!
6:10 PM NOA_BILL: Typical, Erik!
6:10 PM NOA_NATE: He's crying, too, so we need HANKIES, people!
6:10 PM NOA_BILL: Erik's favorite game that he's ever worked on is Pikmin 2.
6:10 PM AWFULFAWFUL: Hey everyone! I was curious about how long in general it takes to translate the text and speech in games that have a longer course of gameplay, such as the Legend of Zelda series, or perhaps Tales of Symphonia?
6:10 PM NOA_BILL: Erik's a lot like Louie, by the way.
6:11 PM NOA_BILL: Ooo... Yeah... Zelda took us about three months from the time we started work on it until the game cleared debug and went gold.
6:11 PM NOA_BILL: That included translating the text and recording Nate to be the voice of Salvatore.
6:12 PM NOA_NATE: A game like Mario Kart Double Dash that's mostly menu text? 1 month. A game like Paper Mario 2 that has 15,000 messages? Muuuuch longer.
6:12 PM NOA_ANDY: When you say a month, how many hours a week is that?
6:12 PM NOA_BILL: We're still working on Paper Mario 2, but it is almost done. And it is very, very funny.
6:13 PM NOA_NATE: Depends on the game. A Mario Kat month is 40 hours a week, typical. A Paper Mario 2 month like July was 10-12 hour days, every day of the week, all month long. And it was sunny!
6:13 PM NOA_ANDY: Dedication, baby.
6:13 PM NOA_BILL: A month? A month is 30 days. For us, a month would be all weekdays, usually until fairly late, and sometimes weekends. Nate has pulled more than a few weekends on paper mario 2.
6:13 PM NOA_NATE: All worth it.
6:14 PM THE_DUDE: Do you guys use a special program for working on games? BTW I have hankies for Erik!
6:14 PM NOA_ERIK: A few weekends? Try every!
6:14 PM NOA_BILL: Thanks, The Dude. He could use the hankies and what not and what have you.
6:14 PM NOA_ERIK: Save the tissues for Nate - he's going to be crying when I get ahold of him from across the desk!
6:15 PM NOA_NATE: We use text tools that vary by game--some easier to use than others. You gotta find ways to make the text fit in the windows, you know?
6:15 PM NOA_BILL: The tools that EAD (Mr. Miyamoto's teams) use are great. Very easy to use. Others can be more challenging.
6:15 PM MARIOMANIAC10: I'm a huge Paper Mario fan... how did you guys like working on Thousand-Year Door? Do you feel it will be better than the original? What kind of new features will be in it?
6:16 PM NOA_NATE: I see from Ganon's fine form that Erik has returned.
6:16 PM NOA_NATE: Send to All: Oh my, I have no idea where to start on how much better this game will be. Hang on a second, I feel woozy.
6:16 PM NOA_BILL: Paper Mario 2 is a blast to work on. It will be better than the original, because this time we have not only Nate's sweet writing, but the awesome translation skills of one Scot Ritchey as well.
6:17 PM NOA_NATE: OK, this game is so good. Much, much longer. Much funnier. Much more challenging. Many more sidequests. Soooooooooooo good! I was a huge fan of the original as well (first game I ever worked on) and this one is my new favorite game.
6:17 PM NOA_BILL: The game itself is quite funny, both in the original Japanese and in the English. We of course (and by we I mean Nate) like to add in more humor than they had to start with.
6:17 PM NOA_BILL: Overall it has been a pretty smooth project.
6:17 PM NOA_NATE: Awww, don't let Bill fool you--he throws a lotta gold in there too.
6:17 PM CUBE_FAN90: Who are the singers of those songs in Wario Ware for GCN?
6:18 PM NOA_NATE: I sing those songs.
6:18 PM NOA_NATE: No just kidding.
6:18 PM NOA_ERIK: Paper Mario 2 blows my mind every time I see it. These two guys have done a fantastic job on it
6:18 PM NOA_BILL: Some of them were Japanese dev team members, but one was a girl who works here at NOA. You guys would love her.
6:19 PM SQUAREPANTS: How is it decided which games are translated? Do the translators (including yourself) decide which games will make the most profit here in the US? Some particular games, such as Mother 1 and 2 for Game Boy Advance, are classics that we'd like to see remade in the States. Is there any possibility they'll be translated in the future?
6:19 PM NOA_BILL: Sometimes we do get input into what games get released.
6:19 PM NOA_NATE: Sometimes we don't.
6:19 PM NOA_BILL: The localization team pushed hard for both Advance Wars and Fire Emblem.
6:20 PM NOA_BILL: Unfortunately, we don't always have the final say. It often comes down to how well a game will do once released.
6:20 PM NOA_BILL: The Mother game pak is one that I'd like to see get done eventually, but we aren't working on it right now.
6:20 PM EKANS28: How many games do you guys work on at a time?
6:21 PM NOA_NATE: Depends on how busy we are. In a perfect world, one, so we can devote all our energies. That said, I've juggled five before in various capacities.
6:21 PM NOA_BILL: Right now I am working directly on three, and am somewhat involved in one or two more.
6:22 PM NOA_BILL: When Animal Crossing was in, the whole team worked on that exclusively for six months before some shifted off to other projects.
6:22 PM NOA_ERIK: In other words, as many games as coffee and burritos will allow.
6:22 PM DSTARFOX: Does anyone have any anecdotes of bad translations? If so, could you tell us any specifics?
6:22 PM NOA_BILL: I never do any bad translation!!!
6:23 PM NOA_NATE: Must...find...PG-rated...story...
6:23 PM NOA_NATE: I tried to stick the line "All your basement belongs to us" in Animal Crossing but everyone yelled at me.
6:23 PM NOA_ANDY: Nice.
6:23 PM NOA_BILL: If you look at a lot of older games, you can see some, uh... problems. There was one game where a character that was male in the Japanese version ended up being female in the final US version...
6:24 PM NOA_ERIK: I would never have yelled at you about that. That rocks!
6:24 PM ZELDAS_MAJIK_101: Do you know why games such as Doshin the Giant were released in both Europe & Japan, but not in America?
6:24 PM NOA_BILL: Sometimes it comes down to resources.
Sorry, I HAVE TO DOUBLE POST.
