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Episode Transcription
FLOR: Hello, everyone! How are you? Welcome to the very first episode of Open World, a videocast on videogames, localization and memes.
ALEX: But before we go there, let’s see the LocFact of today.
ALEX: Hey, guys. Welcome to today’s LocFact. We will be talking about Zelda: Breath of the wild. Essentially, everyone knows about this game and its raving success. There are so many details that make it awesome, like the musical arrangements to cue night and day shifting, entering or exiting locations, encountering monsters or the classic door or path unlocking tune.
LORE: Exactly. The game’s highly detailed scenery and the vastness of the open world are impossible to ignore right from the very start. Even the various equipment and food crafting enhances your gameplay experience. Not to mention the story and dialog imbued with so much complex emotion. All of these elements combine to bring us a unique masterpiece that has really shaken the foundation of the RPG genre forever.
ALEX: Totally, Lore. So today we’re going to talk about one famous distortion that ended up generating a completely different ending for Western players. Spoiler alert, guys, you still have time to pause this video, get yourself a console or a YouTube video, finish the game or the video and then return. That being said, let’s go into it.
LORE: Absolutely. So in the Japanese version of Breath of the Wild, we are introduced to Calamity Ganon’s final form by the phrase… Which would mean, “This form was born from his obsessive refusal to give up on revival.” But it was later translated into English as, “He has given up on reincarnation and assumed his pure, enraged form.” So as you can see… Yeah. This subtle yet serious distortion can really change the meaning of the game’s ending. Ganon may or may not reincarnate to threaten Hyrule again.
ALEX: Well, that’s the beauty of localization, right? So me, as a native Spanish speaker, I played the game in Spanish, and this clause was translated from English, not from Japanese. So I received that particular sentence as, “Su ira ha culminado en esta forma física,” which literally translates as, “His rage created his physical form.” So it would be quite a general translation with less information, but safe from any distortion.
LORE: Right.
ALEX: So guys, are you a native speaker of any other languages? Do you know how this phrase was translated to your own language? We want to know, so please leave your comments below. And this is it for today’s LocFact section. See you all very soon.
LORE: Thanks, guys.
FLOR: Hello, everyone! Welcome to the very first episode of Open World, the video cast on the video game industry, localization and memes. Yes, you heard that right. I have the honor to be co-hosting this show with three remarkable human beings. Lucio Alcaide, LocJAM Champion all the way from Córdoba, Argentina. Hi, Lucio. How are you?
LORE: Hi, Lucio!
ALEX: Hi, Lucio!
FLOR: We have here today also Loretta Mulberry. She’s master translator and interpreter, and she’s based in the U.S. Hey, Lore!
ALEX: Hi, Lore!
LUCIO: Hi, Loretta!
LORE: Hi, everyone!
FLOR: And Alexis Biró, marketing extraordinaire and all-around gamer based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Hey, there, Ale!
LUCIO: Hi, Alexis!
ALEX: Hi, everyone!
FLOR: And as for me, I’m Florencia Fole. I am a Women in Games ambassador and I’m also part of ADVA. ADVA is the Game Developers Association in Argentina. And I couldn’t be more excited to be embarking on this new adventure with all of you. So thank you and welcome.
ALEX: Hey, Flor!
LUCIO: Hi!
FLOR: How are you? So, we wanted to share with you what this whole show is going to be about. So on each episode, we will welcome reference from the gaming industry from different backgrounds, and not only from the localization side, but also from different perspectives, from the production or even game design fronts to share with us what it is like to be working on a video game studio or even on the publisher side, and all the different aspects we have to take into consideration for a game to be successful in different markets. Today it will be the four of us without any guests joining us since we wanted to get the chance to introduce ourselves and for you to have the opportunity to get to know us a little better. So first of all, I would love to hear what everyone is currently playing.
LORE: Well, I am currently playing a game called Night in the Woods. I love a platformer, I love indie games, I love a puzzle game. And most of all, of course, I love any game with cats in it. So this one is really ticking like all of my boxes, and I really love it and I would highly recommend.
FLOR: Great. Sounds awesome. And how about you guys? What are you playing, Lucio?
LUCIO: I’m currently playing Genshin Impact. I love that game. It’s really amusing and I enjoy playing it with my friends. And I’m also playing the open beta of Temtem, which will be released on May or March next year.
ALEX: Yeah, I’ve heard about that game.
LUCIO: I’m really looking forward to it.
LORE: That’s exciting.
FLOR: Yeah, me too. And how about you, Ale?
ALEX: Well, I love indie games as well, so I’m currently playing Little Nightmares. I only played for a little while and then I got really scared. Yeah. I’m also trying a run-through of the last Assassin’s Creed, not Valhalla, Odyssey, just to get in shape for when I get the next one. So yeah, those two are taking up my time.
FLOR: I actually have a recommendation. I actually have a recommendation for you, Lore, because yesterday one of my colleagues, Lali… Hi, Lali, how are you? She actually shared with me a game with cats on it. It’s called Cat Quest, and it’s super fun and cute and dorky and has a lot of puns and wordplay, and it’s super funny. I’m playing it right now in English, but I’m definitely looking forward to playing it in Spanish to see how they solve all those puns and fun sequences between the characters, you know?
LORE: Oh, that’s great.
FLOR: I really recommend it to you.
LORE: Maybe I’ll play it in Spanish and then we can compare notes.
FLOR: Yes! We have to do that.
ALEX: I’ve heard that it’s very well localized, by the way.
LORE: Yeah. I’ve definitely heard it’s adorable, at the very least.
FLOR: Yeah. Looking forward to see the localized version.
LORE: Yeah.
ALEX: What’s the name of the game, Flor, by the way?
FLOR: Cat Quest.
ALEX: Cat Quest. Okay.
FLOR: Yes.
FLOR: Putting it on the list.
ALEX: Yeah.
FLOR: Yeah. To actually recover your life, you have to take a cat nap.
LORE: Can do. Can do.
FLOR: It’s so cute. It’s super cute. So, Lucio, I know that you’re a LocJAM Champion, but I wanted to know if you could tell us a little bit more about that, and if you would like to explain to our audience what is LocJAM in the first place.
LUCIO: Sure. It was the door that took me into the industry. LocJAM is a competition without any economic prize in mind. It’s just for the amusement of translating a game and being led by the top translators and localizers and QA experts. I decided to participate and engage into this competition. So I participated the first time in 2015, and I won a recognition as an amateur translator and…
FLOR: Wow! Congratulations! How old were you?
LUCIO: I think I was 23 years old.
LORE: Oh, just a pup.
FLOR: Super young!
LUCIO: Not that young, but yeah.
LORE: Take the credit!
LUCIO: I felt like a kid in this huge, unknown world, among experts and people who were talking about CAT tools and procedures and techniques…
FLOR: Big words.
LUCIO: …and things that I wasn’t aware of. And I was thinking, “What am I doing here?
LORE: Winning.
LUCIO: How am I going to participate?”
LORE: That’s how you do it.
FLOR: “Yeah, excuse me. I’m here to win this.”
LUCIO: “Take this trophy.”
ALEX: “I don’t know what I’m doing, but give this to me.”
LUCIO: Yeah. And then, thanks to this competition and thanks to this award, I got into the first business relationship with a huge company. At the time, it was named, its name was KiteTeam. And their QA experts and their PMs helped me to improve my skills, improve my techniques by giving me constant feedback, both on the positive and negative aspects of my translations. And now I’m here, enjoying my job.
FLOR: Wow.
LORE: Nice.
FLOR: Well, that’s an amazing story and it’s so nice to hear that there’s people so open to share their knowledge and to actually let other newcomers enter the industry, right?
LORE: Absolutely.
FLOR: And, Ale, I know that you’re currently working with Astral Clockwork Studios. By the way, such a badass team.
ALEX: Go over. Astral Clocktower Studios.
FLOR: Yes. If you haven’t heard of them, go Google them. We are gonna definitely leave the link somewhere over here, but you have to check them out. But I would like to know, what is it like to be working with an indie studio? How did you get into that world in the first place and what are you currently doing there?
ALEX: Well, same as Lucio, I don’t know how I got there in the first place. Well…
LUCIO: It just happened.
ALEX: It just happened, yeah. I was a total rookie. I loved playing FromSoftware games like Bloodborne and stuff, and I was in the same Facebook group as the CEO, who was also named Alexis. She’s a woman.
FLOR: Hi, Alexis.
ALEX: Yeah. Hi, Ali.
FLOR: We love her.
FLOR: And she just shared what she was doing with her game Kristala, and I just asked if she wanted to get this game known for Latin American speakers, mostly. That was my first comment.
FLOR: Bold move.
ALEX: Yeah, I just went for it. I mean, I had been translating my entire life, but just for kicks. Comic books, novels, short novels. But I mean, and I played video games my entire life, so it was like, maybe I can help them out, right? So after like six months talking back and forth, I was in, and I started localizing some weapon descriptions, some lore, quest logs and stuff like that. And then suddenly I just became their PR as well, just…
FLOR: Suddenly. Out of the blue.
LORE: Out of nowhere.
FLOR: You did nothing to…
LUCIO: Just luck.
LORE: Woke up like this.
ALEX: Yes, because I talk to people, and I always was talking with people about the game and everything. And that took us places, I could say.
LUCIO: No doubt.
ALEX: Yeah. And, I mean, what it’s like to work in an indie studio from my experience? We are family. I mean, working in an indie dev studio, we do it with no funding whatsoever, just for the love of it. And, I mean, it is incredible to see the entire process that goes behind the making of a game. And I mean, working at an indie dev studio makes you see all of that because much of the process is being, like, discussed internally through Discord or whatever. But it’s a unique experience. I highly recommend, if you have anything to offer to an indie dev studio, just go for it. I mean, you don’t miss out on anything by just asking, “Hey, may I be of service in some way? Can I help?” You might just can.
LORE: Absolutely. Give it a shot.
LUCIO: Yeah.
FLOR: Yeah. And I personally love indie games, too, and I’m always looking to find out about new projects and try to help build new communities, so… Yeah. Go and support the indie communities.
LORE: So much heart in the indie world.
ALEX: Yeah. I mean, just people doing what they wanna do. I mean, I think that we all, at some point, have played a game and we thought, why don’t someone do this or that? I mean, and people actually going for it and doing it, doing it the way they want. I mean, thinking about, I don’t know, in this game, this was missing, and they just get the skills to do it and get the team to do it with them. It’s inspiring. I mean, Astral Clocktower Studios is women-owned, they are three leading ladies, and, I mean, they are a source of inspiration because they just poured their hearts out on this game. It’s a cat game as well. So, Lore, you love cats, you’re gonna love it.
LORE: Yes. I know, we have our…
FLOR: We are big fans of cats and we have a special guest right here. So, we’re all about cats.
LORE: Introduce.
FLOR: This is Roque, actually. And he’s the cutest.
LORE: He’s so sweet.
FLOR: Yeah, he’s super sweet. He just needed to cuddle, so.
LORE: Well, you were wearing a black top, so.
FLOR: Oh, yeah, I wear black a lot, and, I mean, I’m just past it. Like, whenever I go outside, I have to double check if I’m not like having like a zillion tiny white hairs on top of me.
ALEX: Well, yeah, that’s me.
LORE: Yeah. That’s exciting, Ale, and we couldn’t be more proud to have you and to represent the indie community with us here. So thank you.
ALEX: Thank you, guys. It’s an honor.
FLOR: And, Lore, I know that you are specialized in translation and interpreting. You have a master on that field. But I wanted to know, what do languages mean to you, and how was it that you decided to become a professional translator and interpreter?
LORE: Well, I mean, yeah, for me, language has always been everything. It’s been… It seems like such a simple thing. You know, you do it every day, it’s how you communicate with everyone and everything around you. But there’s a whole world out there of people that, unless we’re speaking the same language, we’re never gonna really get to know. And it’s not just that other cultures have delicious foods and fun games and things like that. You know, there’s just so much to be shared and learned. And so growing up, we had a neighbor, a family who had immigrated from Mexico, and a few of them spoke English, but a lot didn’t. And I wanted so badly to be best friends with these people. They were just the nicest and most fun. And I think that just started all of it. I immediately started trying to learn Spanish from a very young age. I was not good at all.
FLOR: Is it ever a young age? I mean, how old were you?
LORE: I was probably about six at the time, when we met them.
ALEX: Wow.
LORE: Still learning today at 28. So, surprise us.
FLOR: But do we ever stop learning languages?
LORE: No, because as soon as you think you’ve got it down, something changes.
FLOR: There’s a whole other layer.
LORE: Yeah. And then it’s like, oh, yeah. And then you realize, oh, wait, I don’t actually know anything. But that’s kind of the fun part of it. It’s frustrating, but it’s fun. There’s always something new to learn and new people will always teach you something new because we all communicate so differently. So for me, that’s really what language is. It’s just connecting with other people that I might otherwise not have been able to ever have a friendship with or go get a taco with.
ALEX: Right. Yeah.
LORE: As far as translation and interpreting, though, that came a little bit later. I always knew I wanted to do something with languages, but kind of fell into that trap of, oh, I’ll just go get like a business job for a few years and figure it out along the way. And I realized one day that I wasn’t using my languages in any meaningful way. So good-old education got me back in the game. I went for that Master’s degree and I just I’ve been more and more in love with translation and interpreting every day since. It’s the best decision I think I’ve ever made.
ALEX: That sounds cool.
FLOR: Yeah. Amazing. And this question goes for both of you, Lucio and Lore. You can definitely take turns to answer, but I know that both of you have experience handling large localization projects. What would you say is the most challenging part of your jobs?
LUCIO: I’ll let Lore take the first turn.
LORE: Let’s see. Well, I think anybody who has ever done a group project for school… knows the dangers involved in relying on a team of people, some of whom you may not have been working with closely. You’re just hoping and praying that every piece of the puzzle, you know, finds its way in. So I would say it’s a little nerve-wracking, especially if you’re working with a new team and you aren’t sure how well you’re gonna work together. Just that organization and trusting your team and knowing that there’s going to be a million moving parts, and you’re gonna have to adjust if one of those parts isn’t moving correctly. It could be a little bit much sometimes.
FLOR: Yeah, I like to think like project managers are kind of the glue of the whole team and make everything work somehow like wizards. So. And how about you, Lucio? Do you feel the same?
LUCIO: Yeah, partially. I think the most challenging part of our job is to build the trust with our resources, with our linguists, who actually never met us. They just received this message on Skype or maybe by email in which I say, “Hi, I’m Lucio Alcaide. I’m PM for Terra Localizations, and this is your assignment. This is the deadline, this is the word count. Bye.” That’s it. But I think getting to communicate with all these strangers from all over the world, all these linguists and specialists, makes out the best aspect of our job. I love getting in contact with other people, to know new people, to meeting professionals and learning from them as well, and helping them to complete these assignments, whatever it is, maybe reassigning it, maybe answering their questions, or maybe changing the deadline makes me really happy and makes me feel really helpful both for the client and for our teammates.
FLOR: Makes sense, and especially with all the different backgrounds, different cultures. I bet that is super interesting to learn and to get to know them better. And building loyalty and trust is something super…
ALEX: It’s challenging as well, right?
FLOR: Yeah, exactly.
ALEX: To become accustomed to all of the different cultures and to not know what to expect sometimes.
LUCIO: Especially learning when someone’s awake and when someone’s asleep.
FLOR: Oh, yeah, time zones. Time zones. Come on, dude.
LORE: Fun fact. Argentina does not do daylight saving. So if you are a project manager in the States like me, get ready to redo your math every six months.
LUCIO: Yeah, that’s impossible. That’s another kind of data.
LORE: Yeah, we got into this industry for words, not numbers, all right?
FLOR: Oh, yeah. Well, same here. But one recommendation. There is something called Time Converter, and it’s super handy whenever you need to check if someone’s awake or if you’re gonna be pestering them at 3 a.m. in the morning.
LORE: Yeah.
ALEX: So I have a question for Flor. You’re just taking it away with all the questions, Flor. I have something for you.
FLOR: Bring it on.
ALEX: You mentioned that you’re with ADVA, right?
FLOR: Yes.
ALEX: And you’re very active in the Argentina gaming community. But can you please elaborate a little bit on what it’s like?
FLOR: Sure. Yeah, well, I’ve been part of ADVA for quite a while now as a member. At first, I was part… Well, from Terra, from Terra Localizations, we joined the association, almost six years now it’s been that we are members of the association. ADVA is the counterpart of IGDA, that’s the International Game Developers Association, and ADVA works locally here in Argentina, because that’s where I’m based. And I’ve been part of the board of ADVA for two years now, and I hope that I can continue contributing with the association for two more years now. From there, I collaborate in different initiatives. I’m now leading the diversity commission, so I’m very involved with Women in Games, both Argentina and the Global Association, and I try to generate different initiatives to educate and to promote diversity within the industry. We’ve been working on different webinars and we have had the pleasure–I had the pleasure to meet a lot of very interesting and remarkable people from all over the world, and I hope I can continue doing so for many, many years now, because I’m super in love with this industry. And as I said, I love contributing with indie communities. I’ve been working closely with the Mendoza community. Mendoza is a province here in Argentina. I’ve been helping out organizing the EVA. That’s the expo, the video game expo of Argentina. We have several chapters this year. Because of the lockdown, we have to concentrate all the chapters within one single event, but in normal times we would have different chapters for the expo, so that we had the Mendoza EVA, we also have in Córdoba and in Santa Fe. And the one that it’s the bigger one compared to the rest is the one that takes place in Buenos Aires. And I’ve been closely working with all of them to get speakers and get funding and get the word out there of what’s going on here in Argentina. And we are always trying to collaborate with different organizations, both from the private and the public sector. So yeah, I mean, it’s a very interesting, demanding job because every single person that works at ADVA has other jobs to attend to. But we have one thing in common, and it’s that we are passionate about this industry and we want every single studio to have their go at it and hopefully close deals with publishers from all over the world and get their games out there and globally known, you know? So I kind of do that from both sides of my job, from ADVA and from Terra, because we also help them localize their games and help them reach new markets. So, yeah, pretty much what I do there.
LORE: Oh, is that it?
ALEX: It’s that it? It’s that all?
LUCIO: You sure?
ALEX: I don’t think that I want to see what’s in store for you for 2021, Flor. I mean, it will probably be quite, quite crazy.
FLOR: Yeah, but I’m really looking forward to 2021, to put 2020 behind. Because I’m here speaking for myself, but, wow, man, this year has been… it’s been one hell of a ride, isn’t it?
ALEX: Totally. Um, so can I get a question for Lucio right now?
FLOR: Sure. Go ahead. The floor is yours.
ALEX: Yeah. Lucio, I know that you’re super passionate about video games. You’re playing the latest of the latest, Genshin Impact, and also indie games. But are you exploring the possibility of becoming a game dev yourself? I had that little piece of information up my sleeve.
FLOR: I wonder who told you.
ALEX: Who told me?
FLOR: I’m looking at you, Flor.
ALEX: Are you taking up a course for this or are you just like…?
LUCIO: Yeah. I just started the course a couple of months ago. It’s an online course on Game Design LA. That’s the Latin American Game Design School.
FLOR: Wow!
LUCIO: It’s a really great resource. I recommend it to everyone. They have online courses on game design, on communication, on interactive narrative, creative redaction and there’s transmedia narrative. There’s a lot of things to learn from. And then there’s a lot of books to buy or to read online. Pretty much a lot of resources.
FLOR: And you mentioned how is it called so that everyone knows what to look for?
LUCIO: It’s GameDesignLA.com.
FLOR: Cool.
ALEX: Cool. And is it with any engine in particular?
LUCIO: I don’t remember a particular engine. It’s just a course of information and projects. You have to complete assignments, and there’s a lot of theory to put into practice. And then the teachers and the tutors answer to any of your questions through Discord or through email. And you can get your sketches go back and forth and get into building this own model, your own documents. In my case, for game design. And my own game design, that was actually a kind of a joke, and then it became… It’s becoming a really enjoyable card game for families.
ALEX: Wow.
LUCIO: I will share it once it’s ready, all right?
ALEX: It started as a joke…
FLOR: Yeah, doesn’t everything start like a joke?
LUCIO: Yeah, kind of.
ALEX: Like, “Hey, I’m just gonna go for it.”
LUCIO: “Hey, look at these little monsters. They are so fun and cute and catchable.” And then you have Pokémon.
FLOR: But that’s the fun thing about video games. You start with a crazy idea, and the crazier, the better. Right?
LORE: Yeah, absolutely.
ALEX: Yeah, totally.
FLOR: Yeah. Now that you mention engines, I myself, I have been exploring with Unreal Engine. Like, I started the course a couple of months ago, like, really slowly making progress, but…
ALEX: So you’re gonna be an indie dev, too?
FLOR: Yes! Hopefully.
ALEX: I mean, you’re gonna need a couple of few hours extra every day.
FLOR: Or a clone or a pause button, or something like that. Yeah, I need to clone myself like three times or something.
LORE: Put the cats to work.
ALEX: Put Roque to work.
LORE: Yeah! He looks like he’s got free time.
FLOR: Oh, yeah, he’s probably sleeping right now. I don’t see him around. So yeah, he’s napping.
LUCIO: Use his time. It’s busy cat time.
LORE: Busy cat time.
FLOR: So I have a question for all of you.
LORE: Yes, ma’am.
FLOR: And you can, of course, take turns. But what do you find most fascinating about video games? Ale? Or whoever feels like answering.
LUCIO: Well, why don’t I take the lead?
ALEX: Can you, please?
LUCIO: The most fascinating thing about video games is that I can get to explore a lot of worlds and perspectives of how to read the world, and maybe by being the hero or the villain, or neither of them, and then take these decisions that affect my surroundings, my context. Or maybe impersonating someone who I’m not actually… it’s not actually me in the real world, but I can get to simulate, try being someone different. And I think getting the possibility to try that and build my own image in the real world after the game is something great of videogames.
FLOR: Yeah, I feel the same. It’s like you can be whoever and whatever you want to be within a different world, actually.
LUCIO: It’s also educative on other realities and different lifestyles. You get to understand other people by playing someone who you’re not. You can build empathy.
ALEX: Building up on that, I think that it’s also pretty amazing to see video games that were created by someone else, right? I mean… Please let me elaborate, right? To see what other people thought out, planned, and then just put to action for you to enjoy. I mean, the little Easter eggs, the little secrets. And when you combine that with even historical accuracy, like they do with some games, they mash the surreal worlds that they are making with the reality that we all know. I mean, it’s a trip. It’s a trip.
LORE: For sure. I personally, it’s funny, I never considered myself a gamer like ever in my life, even though I’ve been playing video games for as long as I can remember. Because for some reason, I’ve always had this feeling that, like, you have to be playing… I’m gonna sound like so old right now because this isn’t the hottest game anymore, but, you know, like you have to be playing Call of Duty or whatever, like, Halo…
FLOR: Yeah, you have to be a hardcore gamer.
LORE: Yeah, you have to be playing…
LUCIO: You can say Fortnite. It’s okay.
LORE: Thank you. Fortnite.
ALEX: You need to play Halo.
LORE: Grandma Loretta over here. Whatever the kids are into.
FLOR: Well, Auntie Lore.
LORE: Yeah. You don’t have to be playing whatever it is all the kids are into. If you’re playing a game and you like it, then that’s what you should be playing. It’s a good game. I mean, just because I wanna be a goose terrorizing some sleepy town, honking and stealing things, like, I think that’s valid, you know? There’s a game out there for everyone. And just because point-of-view games confuse and scare me and maybe make me a little dizzy, does that mean that I can’t enjoy Pikuniku and cry at the end? I mean…
LUCIO: No, that’s a spoiler!
LORE: I’m just kidding. I cry all the time for any game. Anything that’s cute is gonna make me cry. Like, “Oh, look how precious he is!”
ALEX: Now, I’m all about crying for video games. I’m all about crying, too.
FLOR: Yeah. In weird places, right?
LORE: Pode was the one that got to me recently. I was playing and the characters were so cute. Like nothing was even happening, and I’m like, tearing up just because I love these little guys so much.
FLOR: Oh, you’re the sweetest!
ALEX: I mean, does crying because you are afraid of the game count?
LORE: See, I don’t play horror games. I don’t mess around with that. But yeah, I’d say that counts.
ALEX: That counts? Okay, yeah, so…
FLOR: I need to play with you guys Phasmaphobia, like…
LUCIO: Yeah.
ALEX: We need to play that.
FLOR: ASAP. We need to scream and cry and do all that crazy stuff that scared people do.
LORE: You can play without me and fill me in later. I’ll be playing some cat game on my couch.
LUCIO: Don’t make me play it.
FLOR: You know where to find me.
LUCIO: One game that made me cry is Gone Home because I wasn’t expecting the end. I’s a story of a college student that goes back home, and then she opens a door and finds nobody’s there. And you have to explore the house and find some notes about the diary of her sister. And you find out some things on your family when you weren’t at home that actually shock you. And you’re playing that on first person, and the house seems haunted, but you are not really sure it is. And then the sister starts telling you all the secrets and all these feelings and she’s trapped and then she finds something that makes her feel free. And the game is shocking. It’s really strong.
ALEX: Don’t tell us more because I feel that you’re coming up to a spoiler there.
LUCIO: No, no, no, I won’t spoil the ending. But it’s a really great game. Try it. It will take, I think, an hour or half an hour to clear the first time. And it made me cry. I cleared the game and it was wild. This was…
ALEX: Super intense.
LUCIO: Yeah.
FLOR: That’s what I love about games, that it can generate so many different reactions. It’s amazing. And I have another question for all of you. All of us. What do you think it takes for someone to work in the video game industry?
LORE: That’s a really good one.
LUCIO: I would say to…
FLOR: There is no wrong answer.
LUCIO: I think you have to be willing to learn things on a daily basis. And you have to be kind of accepting challenges. Every day there’s a new challenge, and you have to forget about those of yesterday and then try to win this day.
FLOR: Yeah, you move on.
LUCIO: Yeah, you move on and you learn and you get better and improve, and eventually you’ll get better.
LORE: Yeah.
FLOR: Yeah, for sure.
LORE: I would say somewhat similarly, I think the best quality you can have is flexibility. You know, it’s just things are always gonna go wrong. Something is always gonna change and mess up your plan. So if you can’t just like go with the flow and figure it out, you’re gonna get so frustrated. And as soon as you get frustrated, you’re gonna get mad and shut down, and then you’re not gonna do your job well. It’s gonna be harder for your teammates and your coworkers to work with you because you’ve just, you know, blocked out what you really need to do next because it’s not what you wanted to be doing. And it’s hard sometimes to make those changes. But I think really just the ability to say, “Okay, this has come up, we gotta deal with it this way.” The old plan is gone, forget about it. It’s not here anymore. Just figure it out and move forward, you know, so that you don’t give yourself a heart attack every time the plan changes. Yeah, and really, I mean, your teammates, they’re everything, you have to work with each other. And if you let them, they’ll be your best friends and your family. You really just have to work together and know that things are gonna change and be okay with that. So be flexible. You’ll figure it out. You’ll find a way.
FLOR: Yeah. Everything’s gonna be okay at the end, right?
LORE: Yeah.
ALEX: Yeah. Well, just to… I mean, what Lucio said and what Lore said, I agree totally. I would say that you don’t actually need to be a full-on hardcore gamer, like Lore was just saying, right? You don’t need to be that guy or that lady, that girl, you know? That, “I play video games, so I must work in the video game industry.” You don’t have to be that. And there’s so many things that you can do. You can be a tester, you can work in localization, you can study to be a dev. There’s just so many things that take place during the making of a game that you need to study, yes, you need to know what you’re doing, right? But if you don’t, there are people who will share their knowledge with you in order for you to get to the place that you wanna be. This is an industry that I think that gives you that.
LORE: Absolutely.
ALEX: So on all those grounds, you just need to go for it, I mean…
FLOR: Yeah. I mean, I couldn’t agree more. And it’s such a generous community, because, when I started like almost ten years ago, I was a plain translator and interpreter who was super eager in working in the localization industry and to learn a lot about the video game industry. I’m a gamer myself, but that was it, that was my knowledge. And I was so lucky to meet so many amazing people that were willing to pretty much open their brains for me and to share their network and share their ways just to let me in and know how things are done and to learn from different perspectives. And as Ale said, you can play different roles within the industry. It’s not like you have to develop a game to be working within the gaming industry. You can do localization, you can do marketing, you can be a producer, you can be a game designer. So there are many different hats that you can wear. But as long as you’re passionate and you know where you’re going, then go for it.
ALEX: That’s inspiring to say the least, guys.
FLOR: Yes. We rock. So now, I know that you already know this, but I wanted to explain what’s coming next, because this is our first episode, so we’re gonna have a special section on memes, as I said at the very beginning, since we want to end every single episode on a high note. So this time we’re gonna share with you guys our favorite memes. So I’m gonna share my screen now, if you don’t mind. And where is the presentation? Of course I cannot find it right now. Just a second.
LUCIO: Adapt. Adapt, be positive.
LORE: Yeah, be flexible, Flor.
LUCIO: You can do it. Ask for help.
FLOR: Yes. Who hasn’t been there?
ALEX: This can happen and this has happened even more in the early stages, like PlayStation 1, that you needed a memory card to save. Nowadays, you have autosave, right? In most games.
LUCIO: Yeah, but it will definitely keep happening.
FLOR: I was gonna question like, what happens, the unsaved progress or the crying in the bathroom?
LUCIO: Oh, definitely, the crying.
ALEX: Well…
LUCIO: Maybe I don’t go to the bathroom to cry. I just cry in front of the TV.
FLOR: Yeah. There’s no time for that.
ALEX: There’s no time to go to the bathroom.
LUCIO: I need to do this again!
LORE: Push through the tears.
FLOR: Yeah, especially when you’re tired. I mean, I’m not sure about how it is for you, guys, but I honestly don’t have that much time right now in my hands to play games, so I usually end up playing like really late at night, and I’m super tired and I’m seeing double, but still want to go through the level and I… again, try to… Or lose at the same card, or I didn’t save my progress and I was like, “Oh, okay. Well, I’ll continue tomorrow.” Oh, this one. This is so cute.
ALEX: We’ve all been there, right? On either side.
LUCIO: We’re all there sometimes.
LORE: But this is like in the, um… What was it? Animal Crossing stage of lockdown, everybody was hopping on it for the first time. And it’s like, as soon as of your new buds hops on, everybody shows up to their island like, “Oh, here you go, here’s a guitar. Here’s some outfits.” Like…
LUCIO: Take everything.
FLOR: Like, take everything for me.
LORE: Exactly.
FLOR: But that’s the fun thing about games, at least for me. It’s like you have to put your ego away and just start from scratch and learn new ways every single time that you’re faced with a new game. Right?
LORE: Except Mario Kart. I’m sorry. I’m not gonna hold back on my blue shell. I don’t care how long we’ve been friends, like, I’m gonna win this game, all right?
FLOR: This is war. This is personal.
LUCIO: I think this kind of situation encourages solidarity and companionship. And you’re giving someone your things and helping them reach your level. It’s not something you would do every day, but still you do it for your friend, and it gets the game into another level. Cooperation is…
ALEX: Except in Mario Kart.
LORE: Except in Mario Kart. I’m gonna hold on to this one, I’m sorry.
FLOR: You’re good, Lore. I’m like super competitive and I…
ALEX: It’s understandable.
FLOR: …whenever I need to start a new game and… I feel you.
ALEX: Yeah, you should play Rocket League with Flor.
LORE: Oh, no, I’m scared!
FLOR: I’m the worst! I suck at Rocket League. I’m like, the ball is here, and I’m like, on the other side of the floor. Yeah, but we have to, just for the laughs. We have to play Rocket League.
LORE: We will. I know, we keep talking about it. We’ll schedule a time.
FLOR: Yeah. Oh, this one. “When you’re playing a horror game and suddenly the autosave icon pops out.”
LUCIO: Oh, no, boss fight again.
FLOR: Every single time.
ALEX: And you start finding ammo, like, a crazy amount of ammo. It’s like, “I’m gonna need this so soon.”
FLOR: Yeah.
LUCIO: This is not gonna be enough.
FLOR: No, it’s never enough.
LORE: It’s like, “Here’s all these gifts.” How altruistic of the game to just give me these. No ulterior motive.
FLOR: I wonder what this is gonna… Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, again. I think there’s a pattern here. Like we have been through this experience a lot.
ALEX: We are scared of the autosave. And, guys, guys, who has loaded instead of saved a game? It’s like… Yes.
LORE: I don’t know if I’ve done that. That gives me anxiety to think about it, though.
ALEX: You beat a boss, and it’s like, “Okay, I’m gonna save.“ Loading…
FLOR: Oh, yeah.
ALEX: Okay, I’m gonna go cry in the bathroom.
LORE: Yeah, go cry in the bathroom.
LUCIO: There’s no more tears here. No more tears.
ALEX: I’m dry inside.
FLOR: Well, and this one is for Lucio especially, because we know that you’re a Star Trek fan.
LUCIO: Yeah, that’s right.
FLOR: And you look at us from above.
LUCIO: Yeah, I could wear a wig like that and… yes.
ALEX: You can go full vampire, Lucio. I think that you can rock that.
FLOR: It suits you. I definitely look forward to seeing you in that look.
LUCIO: I will try next time.
ALEX: We can do an episode.
LORE: Yeah. I like that idea.
ALEX: With us rocking wigs and stuff.
FLOR: We have to ask our audience.
LORE: I have a really sick Gandalf costume ready to rock at any moment. I made the beard and everything.
ALEX: A wizard arrives when he means to.
LORE: Yes, exactly.
FLOR: Next time, all of a sudden, Lore turns up…
LORE: That’s what I say every time I’m late to a meeting.
ALEX: In the third day at dawn, look to the mountain. And there goes Lore.
FLOR: And I think that’s the end of our meme round. And, well, thank you, guys. I had a great time with you. So for everyone watching, we’re gonna leave all the links for you to follow us on our social networks. I hope that you enjoyed the show as much as we enjoyed doing it. And see you around next time.
ALEX: See you next time, people.
LORE: Bye, everyone! Thank you!
FLOR: Bye! Take care!