Split personality: new site online

It was long overdue, but we've finally completed the makeover of our website. You are reading this, so you've obviously seen the new site. Hope you like it. If you have any suggestions or comments, just let us know.

One of the major changes is a clearer distinction between our two main areas of specialization. We are one of the few translation agencies in the Netherlands that specialize in full game localization, with ample experience in all game genres, for all gaming platforms. But we also have a long history in business localization, entailing anything from software localization to the translation of documentation, websites, newsletters, etc.

By clearly defining these two areas on our website, we can offer more detailed information about our services to each of these industries. This is definitely a split personality that is meant to be.

New business and game challenges

In 2011, we've dealt with huge volumes of text, both for the software and hardware industry and the gaming industry.

On the business side, we worked on the latest Dutch versions of leading scanning solutions for document management, document imaging, and PDF creation. We also crossed new borders and are now localizing phone instructions into eight European languages.

We've been equally busy with challenging game localization. We completed work on major titles for AAA publishers (sorry, confidential), including a few that required full voice localization. Of course, we also continued working on our favorite EA franchises, wrapping both FIFA 12 and Need for Speed The Run.

To deal with increased volumes, we have expanded our linguistic teams with eager and experienced professionals. So we're ready for whatever 2012 may bring!

The Game Localization Handbook

If you're in the game localization business, this is probably not 'news' to you. The second edition of The Game Localization Handbook, written by Heather Maxwell Chandler and Stephanie O'Malley Deming, was published mid 2011.

Still, we believe it's worth mentioning this valuable and comprehensive reference work. In our day to day work, we often find that things would be so much easier if developpers had better understanding of the problems faced by translators during game localizaton. Translators often work without context, without game design docs, and without any information on where their translated texts will end up in a game. And all this with tight deadlines, of course ;-). 

Professional localizers have become very proficient at overcoming these limitations, but game localization would be far more efficient if developpers and publishers took localization needs into consideration earlier in the design process.

This book deals with all the complexities of game localization and explains best practises, pitfalls, common problems and solutions. This is a must-read to  increase the linguisitic quality of your localized games, while keeping your costs down and your time-to-market as short as possible. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.