Hey folks! 👋🦕
Today, we have a special Devlog Q&A with the incredible team at Locadile, Amber Isle's localization partner. We hope you enjoy this Steam post and their insight into localizing our dino-centric shop management sim!
Localization Tales - Dev Log 1
"We’re Locadile, the localization team that brought Amber Isle to life across six different languages.
The first rule of Amber Isle is: you don’t call them dinosaurs! With that in mind, we would love to give you a little insight into the amazing world of Amber Isle and our wonderful experience localizing this great game."
Q: What was the most fun part of Amber Isle to localize?
"Slipping into the compelling narratives and the cast of charming characters, with all their different personalities, was by far the most fun part of the localization process. It was a longer process coming up with funny names that both maintained the charm and humor of the original, but also worked well in the target languages. The developers set a new gold standard when they provided our localization teams with so much information: we received entire backstories, lots of graphics, early access to the build, as well as lore for each of the 48 characters.
Naturally, we had to process all that info, but it was immensely helpful in our creative process. We really enjoyed the storytelling in the cutscene dialogs as well, since this allowed the characterizations of each of the Paleofolk to shine through without being constrained by the narrower nature of the shop responses."
Q: Can you discuss the creative process behind translating the names of each Paleofolk?
"There are as many game localizers as there are creative ways to localize names in a game. In other words: this is a highly individual craft, though there are certain similarities.
It always starts with absorbing as much information as possible - and in the case of Amber Isle, luckily there was a lot of information available. For this game, most names were transcreated and given their very own flavor; some were "simply" transliterated, as sometimes this just yielded the best result. Each name required a different approach: sometimes they were built using popular and modern references, like idioms or real-life people; other times we used a phonetic approach. Our shared view was that the name should represent what the character is about, whether that be their looks, their name, their dialog, or what they do. Keeping or creating alliterations was a very common stylistic choice here. For the transcreation, some translators went about their day and were suddenly hit by a stroke of brilliant insight while brushing their teeth. Others carefully built a semantic web based on the character traits and inspirations behind the individual characters in order to arrive at a name that best represented that specific Paleofolk. Does the name relate to the same feature or pun as the original? Could new funny puns be created? These are questions that always play an important role when choosing a name.
Some examples: "Maple Swiftwing" became "Dahlia Flinkflügel" in German, because "Maple" delivers packages on the island and the name "Dahlia" is close to "DHL", a German delivery service. Or "Raven Readwell" in Spanish turns into "Prudencia Pancorbo", an intelligent and patient older specimen of Microraptor - a flying dinosaur with feathers - that works as a microbiologist. The name includes an alliteration and reflects both the character's personality and their species in a way that feels natural and fun in Spanish."
"And in French, the very snooty and snobby character "Elliot Silvertooth" turned into "Étienne d’Andarjan". "Étienne" is a very timeless French name, and the last name is a pun on the literal translation of silver tooth, "dent d’argent", just made to look like it belongs to former nobility."
Join us next week as we cover dialects, localization challenges and even haikus! Amber Isle’s localization was done by the Locadile team: Please see the game credits for a full overview of all the localization contributors.
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See you soon folks!👋
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