Issue #12: THE PROCESS

[AtlusAram]

12 - "The Process" by Nich Maragos, Editor

“Six months!? Why six months!?”

“How hard can it be to translate a simple game like this?”

“There’s no reason* why it should be taking them that long.”

It may or may not surprise you to learn that Atlus U.S.A., Inc., like any other company, keeps tabs on Internet response to its games, and the above is a relatively common sentiment expressed on forums here and there. A specific recent example came when someone claimed that “All you have to do is translate 100ish lines of text, something a single person with decent skill can do in an afternoon, alter some graphics, get another guy to proof read, charge $20, and you are good to go.” Now, past production diaries have gone into detail about each step in the process, but the big picture—the overall, start-to-finish procedure of publishing a localized game—might not be apparent to everyone. So here it is, the answer to the question on many people’s minds: why does it take so long?

Step 1: Familiarization (1-3 weeks)

Before we begin work on a game, we need to know what we’re dealing with. For most games we license from other companies, this happens after the game is released in Japan; for most games originating with our parent company, this happens sometime after the developers have a manufacturer-approved master build. During this step, the project lead oversees the receipt of all localizable material, such as text files and relevant graphic assets, from the developer, while the assigned translators play the game thoroughly.

It’s important to know the in-game context of everything when translating, including all dialogue or text found in out-of-the-way side quests or bonus material. You never know what details shown on the screen but not in the dialogue might affect the tone of a line: a simple conversation between two characters might be intended to develop their characters--but if there's a third character silently spying on them from the shadows, it might take on an entirely different cast.

Step 2: Localization (1-8 weeks)

The time required for this step varies the most from project to project. I’ve worked on games that took a week and a half and I’ve worked on games that took four full months. It depends on the amount of text involved, how many editors and translators are allocated to the project, and how easy the files are to deal with—without going into specifics, the text in some games takes quite a bit of effort on our part to manage. Suffice to say that a game’s text is not always divided up start-to-finish like chapters in a book, and disjointed files can add a lot of time to the localization step. If a game has voiced dialogue, the voice recording process can also add to the amount of time this step takes.

Step 3: Programming (4-6 weeks)

Atlus U.S.A., Inc. has no programmers on staff; implementation of the translated, edited, and finalized text files is generally left up to the original developers. This process, which includes redoing any graphic files which need changing, recompiling any movies with a new voice track, and making any adjustments for North American regional technical standards, rarely lasts less than a month.

Step 4: Quality Assurance (5-8 weeks)

Once the developers have a workable English build, the QA testing process begins. Bugs are a natural side effect of any localization programming, and all Atlus U.S.A., Inc. games are tested thoroughly for both system issues (crashes, graphical and sound glitches, standards deviations) and text issues (typos, logic problems, consistency errors). Even what seems like a very simple game often requires several weeks to be thorough; every last piece of content in the game must be checked and then rechecked to ensure the fixes went through.

Step 5: Manufacturer Approval (3-8 weeks)

Every system manufacturer has an approval process in which their own internal testers go over the submitted master candidate to ensure the game meets their requirements. This generally takes around 3 weeks, provided there aren't any serious issues with the game. If there are, we notify the developer and a truncated version of steps 3-5 happens again.

Step 6: Manufacturing (3-5 weeks)

Just because we have an approved master build doesn’t mean the game can appear on store shelves overnight. That build first goes to replication houses who stamp out copies of the game to meet our order; the amount of time this takes depends on whether it’s a DVD or a cartridge. Once the game has been printed and boxed at the manufacturer, it’s shipped to our distributor, who then fulfills the demand from various retailers such as GameStop, Amazon, and whatever other specialty shops place an order for the title.**

There are other things that have to happen that take time, such as creating a website, or designing the packaging and manuals, or working out what, if any, Atlus Spoils the game will have, but those happen concurrently with one or more of the six above steps.

So as you can see, it’s not as simple as it might seem from a the point of view of someone playing the finished product. Shame, really, because if it was, every day at Atlus U.S.A., Inc. could be ice cream and Nerf wars. But as it is, I’ve got another 100 5,000 lines of text to get through today…

* Speaking personally, If I could put one phrase into the banned word filter on every gaming message board on the Internet, it would be “no reason.” There’s always a reason.

**This, incidentally, is why it’s hard to give a straight answer to people who want to know if their favorite online import retailer or mom-and-pop game store is going to get a given preorder item. Once a game and its attendant bonus paraphernalia are at the distributor, fulfillment to specific accounts is really up to them, and we don’t have much control over or knowledge of the smaller orders these retailers generally place.

[atboob]

I dunno, I think there's something he's still not telling us!

[The Fiz]

You mean its not magic?

I see a weapon used when workers become insolent. Nice choice.

[mjemirzian]

Whatever Atlus' translation process is, it certainly seems to work well. They just haven't stopped cranking out games lately.

[MrPopo]

That's very interesting that you have no programmers on staff. I can see the pros and cons for each. If you send the text to the original devs they are familiar with the code base and can get the insertion and editing done more quickly. But on the flip side there will be slower turnaround between doing a build and testing, as you're going across the ocean and into a different office altogether. Having a programming team in-house will flip those pros and cons.

Also glad to see that I'm not the only office dweller with the Nerf machine gun.

[Electrolyte Junky]

We left out the part about the Warehouse Gnomes that sneak into the office at night, turn on the PCs, and then systematically wreak havoc on the files and draw mustaches on all the character portraits...

Those jerks usually add an additional 4-16 weeks to the schedule... But at the same time, it's worth seeing Chie and Raidou with imposing Civil War 'staches...

[BlindsideDork]

This length is pretty standard except when it comes to Demon's Souls which is perhaps the most IMPORT FRIENDLY game on the market. All text, spoken, word and all that is in English. Also, no bugs.

I guess that levels months to make the instructions english friendly? That and the strat guide?

[etrianfan]

Intresting article.

Well for me, it's not the "long wait" for a game I want to be released, it's the fact that WILL a publisher pick the game up.

I don't really mind waiting months, I whine for THE announcement itself that INSERT GAME PUBLISHER has picked up INSERT GAME and the release date is blah blah...etc

6 months, 8 months, whatever. as long as I know it's coming here.

[Sonicandtails]

Great read. Gives quite a bit of insight I have been curious about for a while.

But what about localizing a game at the same time it's being created? Both teams working together? Sounds like a developer nightmare though...

[Yukichin]

This is really cool to see what goes into translating the games!

I do have to wonder, though, how it's decided what games will get spoils and how those spoils are decided/manufactured/designed...

[Manly Biceps]

Originally Posted by MrPopo

Having a programming team in-house will flip those pros and cons.

Unless, like say 100% of all third-party game developers, they don't give you their source code.

I mean, if you hired programmers, and then we never got source code then there'd be NO REASON to have them on staff!

[Balrog]

This is fascinating.

[Yukichin]

Originally Posted by Manly Biceps

Unless, like say 100% of all third-party game developers, they don't give you their source code.

I mean, if you hired programmers, and then we never got source code then there'd be NO REASON to have them on staff!

I'm curious, is there a particular reason for this? It seems fairly odd to me to let a localization company translate your game, but refuse to give them the code for it (when they don't make games) and take more work upon yourselves. (Er, yourselves being the 3rd party developer.)

[reson8er]

Originally Posted by etrianfan

6 months, 8 months, whatever. as long as I know it's coming here.

I wholeheartedly agree with this, as long as I know its coming, I don't mind the wait.

Not knowing and possibly spending money for the import are even worse O_o;

[Macstorm]

Quick the translator is playing a DS game. Let's all speculate wildly on what game it is and why it's not out sooner.

[Abandonnez]

Even though that was just one person who said that I'm sure that tons of people think that. I personally don't care if a game takes up to 2 years as long at teh quality is up to par with the original. I don't need to worry about that with you Atlus. You games are always quality. Thank you!

[Rednusander]

Originally Posted by BlindsideDork

All text, spoken, word and all that is in English. Also, no bugs.

No bugs? Really? Oh man, what are those QA guys doing in that picture if there are no bugs!? Don't tell me we've been paying them for NO REASON!

[mumu]

Originally Posted by Electrolyte Junky

We left out the part about the Warehouse Gnomes that sneak into the office at night, turn on the PCs, and then systematically wreak havoc on the files and draw mustaches on all the character portraits...

Those jerks usually add an additional 4-16 weeks to the schedule... But at the same time, it's worth seeing Chie and Raidou with imposing Civil War 'staches...

what about the uuuuuunicorns that poke holes in the monitors!!!!???

[Onion of Mystery]

Now, don't go jumping to conclusions.
Or maybe you like jumping to conclusions; I don't care.

Really, there's a lot that gets changed when you localize, not just text.
Each time you fiddle with a file, any file, it needs to be recompiled into that build to ensure that nothing's been broken or otherwise affected.
And even then, sometimes you have problems that occur for what seems like NO REASON, like the files physical location on the disc causing problems with the loading sequences and stuff like that.
So you can see that there's more involved than just slapping some text on top of some other text and throwing the game out the door.
Of course, try telling that to the people on websites crying out about how Japan gets all their favorite games before they do.
Nothing's good enough for them, so I try to tune the whiniest of the whiners out.

[Manly Biceps]

Originally Posted by Yukichin

I'm curious, is there a particular reason for this? It seems fairly odd to me to let a localization company translate your game, but refuse to give them the code for it (when they don't make games) and take more work upon yourselves. (Er, yourselves being the 3rd party developer.)

One word: Theft.

[aamdani07]

There's always a reason - I agree with that. Even if it's a terrible reason

Great post! Personally, I always prefer that a game be delayed to ensure it's quality - just not delayed again and again and again, with price increases or serious alterations of the end product (*cough*StarCraft2*cough*).

Also, I'm glad to see that Atlus goes through a familiarization process, including side quest and bonus content/materials, so that they really delve into the whole context of the dialogue. I own all but 2 SMT games and several other Atlus games - huge fan and supported, and I love all of the localization I've seen so far.

Keep up the great work guys!

[Prem-aka-Prince]

As much as I can understand all that, I really would like to see the English localisation start much earlier. Now, I don't mean to sound purely self-serving, but it goes without saying that there are a lot of people who buy the English language version, so I'd think at least this language could be developed in partnership with the creators from a much earlier stage... personally, I live in the UK, so I think sometimes the game needs to be released with many languages, but at least in the US it would be nice to hear about more simultaneous releases at least for the mainstream games. gee, maybe one day we'll have worldwide releases (since the other languages matter too^^). personally, I'm hoping persona 5 will see much less of a delay, because as you know, both 3 and 4 were huge hits on the same platform. here's hoping P5 will be a PS3 worldwide release^^

[Manly Biceps]

Originally Posted by Prem-aka-Prince

As much as I can understand all that, I really would like to see the English localisation start much earlier.

You spelled "localization" wrong.

[Onion of Mystery]

Originally Posted by Manly Biceps

You spelled "localization" wrong.

Nonsense. He said "English localisation," not "North American localization."

[Tears of Ash]

I wonder what the process is for the atlus spoils. Like who decides it's going to be a plushy in a cool box vs an OST packaged in.

I knew that there were more things involved with localization than just translating some text, but I never knew you weren't allowed to have any source code nor that you didn't have any programmers. Seems like it would be such a hassle to fix things whenever your localization caused errors in the game. All that back-and-forth between houses must get tiring.

Doesn't really matter how long a game takes to come out, as long as it's not like...in production for 12 years and then the company shuts down. That's not good.

[nintendomaster2024]

I just HAD to register for the forums after reading this article (I know, I know, heresy, I was too lazy to join a looong time ago). I have a lot more respect for Atlus and what it does, seeing how difficult and multi-layered it's process is for localizing and translating games.

I usually don't mind waiting months or however long it takes you guys, to bring a game over from the US, as long as it comes EVENTUALLY! Like another poster above me stated, it's hearing the ANNOUNCEMENT of a release of a game that I wait to hear, not the release date.

I also wonder, like the above poster said, how you decide what pre-order bonus people get for the game. It seems that for almost every console game, there's an art book, and for some handheld games there are art books, but about the Raiho plushie? What about the P4 Ultra-Cool pack, with the bear plushie, calendar, shirt, art book, AND strategy guide?

[MrPopo]

Originally Posted by Manly Biceps

Unless, like say 100% of all third-party game developers, they don't give you their source code.

I mean, if you hired programmers, and then we never got source code then there'd be NO REASON to have them on staff!

Ahhh, that makes sense. I didn't realize that all of the third-party devs wouldn't give you the source. As you mentioned, theft is a reason a dev wouldn't give you the source, but I didn't realize that no third-party devs would release it.

The point that Onion of Mystery made about how things as mundane as physical location of a file on a disk can make a difference is spot-on, though. Until you've worked on a large software project you'll have a very hard time really appreciating just how much one mundane change can make to the entire program. A good example of that phenomenom is the Mother 3 fan translation. They had to move around the location of their hacks (without changing the substance) to fix bugs.

[introvert]

Part of the delay also likely has to do with when they begin this process. The writer is talking about this process as if it is a post-production process, meaning it starts after the Japanese game is complete. I recently read an interview on GamaSutra (I think) with studio heads and employees of XSEED and Ignition Entertainment. I believe they spoke with one person from Atlus as well.

Anyway, it sounds as if the general business workflow for localizing a game starts with the American publisher picking up on a game that's already complete and released in the Japanese market. The heads of XSEED in particular were talking about how great it was to be able to invest in a product that's already complete rather than taking the risk and gambling on a product that's still in development, which may or may not turn out to be a great product.

On projects I've worked on (generally AAA, big budget projects), we've often started the localization process when the script is finalized, not when the game is done, and it's an ongoing process throughout production. This allows us to ship localized builds of the game sooner, sometimes even launching in multiple territories on the same date. But we're able to do this because we have larger budgets than most of the titles Atlus releases.

And despite this, I still have more fun playing Atlus games

ANYWAY, moving on, the tech we're working with also allows for easy swapping of content based on region. In Unreal Engine 3, for example, you can load all of the content into the same build and just flip a switch in an ini file that will change languages. This is a benefit of using an established commercial platform for games development. There are some really nasty negatives to UE3 though, so don't think it's all sunshine and roses.

In Atlus' case, with multiple developers creating these games, often using their own proprietary tech (particularly for the handhelds), it would be unfeasible for them to do the integration themselves. The ramp up time alone would eliminate any benefit they might gain by having coders on staff. And the different workflows of these different developers likely means that the Atlus staff have to adapt to a new workflow with every project they take on.

Localization is hard, and it's even harder to do it well. Very few loc shops get things done right. I play a lot of games, and I've worked on a fair number of projects in my time as well. Atlus does some of the best localization work I've ever seen. Yeah, it sucks that it sometimes takes a while, but I think I speak for most of us when I say that the end result is always worth the wait. So be patient with them. It won't kill you to wait another month for a title

And btw, hi, my name is intro, I'm a game developer and my wife and I are raging Atlus fans.

[Blackwing Dragon]

I almost wrote something stupid here, but then I thought for a nanosecond and went OLOLWTFYAH-snort-
It gets tedious to look at not wall but a whole MONOLITH of text and know you have to battle that...

[Kazaum]

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