Dear readers, I have been neglecting you. I’m sorry. I hope you are doing well.
For all the video game nerds out there: I have worked on the Italian localisation of a new Thief instalment. Here it is. I haven’t played it myself, but it looks good – yes, we usually translate video games without actually playing them. Translating video games is quite the mysterious affair. We are provided with poor context for the scenes and dialogues, and the translation work happens in real time with the development of the game. We can ask questions to the developers through shared “query sheets” and wait for their answers and then – if the deadline allows it – adjust our translations accordingly. Most of the time, we make it work. It’s a tough business. Unfortunately, translators are missing from the credits of this game – it happens very often. I can only promote my localisation services with other companies when I’m credited. Oh, well, some things never change, I suppose?
But we can try. There’s a nice initiative going on to gather information about video games without credits for translators, promoted by the Game Loc Coalition (GLC). If you know of any, please fill this form.
On a happier note, I’m back with some new music. It’s an album of instrumental library music released by Opensound Music Publishing. You can check it out here (I’m told it will be available on the streaming platforms soon). These are tracks that can be licensed for use in cinema, TV, video games, advertising, radio and so on – some people call it “media muzak”. For me it was a nice way to experiment with some new ideas and implement them in my songwriting. I’m particularly happy with “Early Afternoon”, “Insomniac”, “Rebirth” and “The Conversation”. Feel free to let me know your thoughts.
Bye for now!
Marco Machera 