Hoping to make your life's design a bit more dynamic!

Just thought I'd let everyone know that a new podcast has gone up. So far there are only two episodes, and although I haven't listened to either yet, the second one is interviewing Eien Ni Hen on which she talks about some of her projects (including Princess Minerva). They're even looking for future guests

http://ettugamer.com/2014/05/10/romhacking-histories/
http://ettugamer.com/2014/08/18/romhacking-histories-2/

Pretty cool! It's great to put some voices to these names and it was fun to hear Eien and Garrett talk about their projects. I'm glad to hear that Eien is doing some work on Team Innocent too. She's always helped me out a lot, even now when I'm dropping the ball on some projects.

Yeah, the podcasts definitely seem to "humanize" (not they aren't real people to begin with) everyone a little more. Listening to the episode with Eien made me want to work closer with the translator when writing/editing scripts, and I plan to make changes to my system of editing as a result.

Btw, Eien finished working on TI. It's all in Esperknight's hands now I would encourage you to email him and to whisper in his ear to work on some of your projects. Every little bit helps.

Btw, Esperknight will be the next interview. Working on questions for him right now.

Awesome! I just emailed him offering him some of my extra PC-FX games at a discount. I was planning to follow up on our projects since it's been a while (I haven't really been translating for the past year). I'll touch base about TI in particular.


Interesting. What are you considering changing?

In the past, I never had much contact with the person translating the scripts that I was working on (can't say the same for Taskforce or Wildbill in this case). I was simply handed a completed (usually ) script and ran with it. I would then make grammar/punctuation changes on my own and play in-game to test the flow. A lot of the time I would then make slight changes here and there to ensure everything flowed, and then... blah, blah. I'm rambling, aren't I?

Anyways, right now I'm working with a pretty good translator on a project that hasn't yet been announced officially, though some know what it is. The difference this time is that there is lots of back-and-forth communication with the translator, and I feel that I can bounce ideas off of him easily and get clarification without having to do a lot of guesswork when the script gets ambiguous. Having this contact has been something new to me, and after hearing Eien speak more about her role editing scripts and pouring in lots of time (usually the way she does it. not just a rough translation), it made me want to ensure that I get more input from the translator and run most changes by him before I commit to them. I really don't want to make a change to his script that he's not happy with, nor do I want to interpret the work in the wrong way and write something that's not in-line with the original intent of the script. As a script writer, I want to really make sure that he's okay with the edits that I do because I know how much time and effort he has put into the translations, and I don't want him to feel like he has wasted his time if I mess it all up on my end.

All-in-all, I think it will make for a better game once it's released.

Thanks for elaborating on that. It made me think a little too. I tend to lose interest when it comes to the task of playing through the game to edit the script. I've been thinking about my Pia Carrot translation a lot recently though. It's not perfect, but it flows well, and I'm proud of it. It's all because I played through each character (at least enough to finish their route) and edited the script as I went.

I caught myself wondering "Was I a better translator back then?". I wasn't, I'm definitely better now, but that effort on my part clarified ambiguity in the script and made it a real translation. I'm considering making that promise to myself to put that extra effort in on my scripts in the future as well.

Nice! Yeah, I definitely think that "playing-and-translating" is probably the best way to get things done. Though it can be extremely tedious, especially when you can't find something in-game that is in the script, it still ensures a much more accurate translation.

Re: Team Innocent, I've finished the text translation. There are several cut scenes with audio dialogue, and unfortunately my listening skills aren't up to par to translate those. (There's a LOT of sci-fi jargon in them.)

Like I mentioned in the interview, I definitely recommend playing through a game at least once when translating it, especially if it's a text adventure. Frankly, sometimes I work like a hired hand and just produce a solid translation without worrying much about flow or localization.

With other projects, if the hacker gives me free reign, I will act as editor and put a lot of personal touches into the script. Princess Tomato was one such script, and Arabian Nights was another.

Speaking of PC-FX games, I am in love with Miraculum. I want to drop everything else I'm doing right now and work on it (but it will have to wait).

Thanks again for this. Remind me, did you just go over the stuff I'd done, or was there more of the scrip that Esperknight dumped? Also, is it inserted, or is that still a work in progress?
That is awesome. I love it when anyone is in love with a PC-FX. game. I wouldn't have expected Miraculum though. I've never gotten far in it, just played the first town, but it always seemed pretty traditional and underwhelming. Have you made it very far?

I feel like I'm getting the PC-FX bug again. I've been away from it for a while now. I might play Ah! Megami-sama to do like you say and at least play through it once before continuing with the translation. I'm only half-way and I've been sitting on it for so long, but it would be a shame not to finish translating it. There are so many games I want to play on it, and so many I've already enjoyed.