Writing Portfolio - Chatter, Barks, Misc. Question

[tsloper]

Originally Posted by hero_of_canton

I'd love to be ... a writer, as well as a game designer.

Then I hope you're planning to get a writing degree, or have gotten one.

[hero_of_canton]

I don't have my major yet, but I was thinking of majoring in French or Japanese, with a teaching minor. Because there are sooooo many things that you can do with a foreign language and a teaching minor... not even funny.

What does it take to get into localization (like translating wierd Japanese games into English?)

[tsloper]

Originally Posted by hero_of_canton

What does it take to get into localization (like translating wierd Japanese games into English?)

A lifetime of living in two cultures, plus writing creds in film and/or TV.

The former makes you intimately familiar with vernacular of both cultures.
The latter makes you marketable as a writer.

Hardly anybody can both translate and also localize.
Also, translation jobs would not be full-time in games -- you'd also be translating other media as well, and only working in games when the translation company gets a game job.

[hero_of_canton]

That's okay... I wouldn't pass up any opportunity to do two of the things I love best, at the same time!

[delusionsofgrandeur]

Hero and Boojum, I think this might be what you're looking for:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/featur...e_.php?print=1

I'd read the whole thing, but know that the good stuff on formatting dialogue starts about halfway down the page. I have no idea which studios use these formats, or whether it's hopelessly outdated and something ever so much whizzier and cooler has been introduced, but it's a start.

Critiques from more experienced members welcome, of course. Hope this helps.

[tsloper]

Originally Posted by delusionsofgrandeur

Hero and Boojum, I think this might be what you're looking for:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/featur...e_.php?print=1
Hope this helps.

Delusions,
You necro'd an old thread; please don't do that. Nine months down the road, you can safely assume that someone is no longer anxiously searching for an answer. Also, Chandler's article is about formatting game dialogue, and I only saw a brief mention of that in passing in this wide-ranging two-page thread. Your arrow has missed the bullseye, besides being nine months late.