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Interview RPGVault talks Nival Interactive

Spazmo

Erudite
Joined
Nov 9, 2002
Messages
5,752
Location
Monkey Island
Tags: Nival Interactive; Silent Storm

<A HREF="http://rpgvault.ign.com" target="_blank">RPG Vault</A> have done an <a href=http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/528/528303p1.html>interview</a> with <b>Serge Orlovsky</b>, CEO and Chief Awesome Dude at Russian developer Nival Interactive, the brilliant guys behind Silent Storm and the upcoming expansion Silent Storm: Sentinels. The interview discusses Nival at large and its various games.
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<blockquote>Serge Orlovsky: We have changed in so many ways, yet at the same time, our vision hasn't changed at all. The closeness of a small group of people can't be replicated when you have over 100, but there are many benefits and advantages as well. We've gone from one project at a time with a team of about 10 to 12 people to four simultaneous game projects with teams numbering over 40 at peak production.
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When I started the company, I had to wear a lot of hats - manager, designer, programmer, accountant, even composer - I played some role in every aspect of development. All of these various responsibilities prepared me for my role as Executive Producer, which is the hat that I like the best. Because I have been in most roles already, I have a better understanding of who is making what decisions and what effects they will have - whether they are the project's strategic goals or the color of a character's clothing. It's nice to get nostalgic from time to time, but I'm more excited about where we're headed.</blockquote>
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I'd say it's nice to see a foreign developer who actually <i>uses good English!</i>
 

Whipporowill

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Joined
May 18, 2003
Messages
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Location
59°19'03"N 018°02'15"E
What disturbs me is that they're talking going for some console games, but as long as they stick with at least 75% pc games (three out of 4 teams) then I guess I can't complain that much. Having said that, Evil Islands would probably work pretty ok on console.
 

Whipporowill

Erudite
Joined
May 18, 2003
Messages
2,961
Location
59°19'03"N 018°02'15"E
Well. I'm playing it right now and am amazed at the size of it - I'm still running around in leather and have been given my first magic(!) and metal (!) sword. From what I'm guessing I'm about 50-60% through - after 3-4 days of approx 8 hrs a day playing. Love the crafting setting, some monsters are way to hard and you have to sneak past them. I use backstabbing way more than I did in the IE games for instance...
 

evilmonkey

Liturgist
Joined
Dec 15, 2002
Messages
104
Location
the Ocean
About that good english yo.

Seeing how they actually operate in russia and not in the UK, nor in the states this doesn't really help the audience for their games - beisdes some obscure PR on sites like RPGVault, RPGdot or RPGcodex to name 3.

oh well if they are responsible for the actual translation of the games they produce it would help, but I think not - as that seems to fall down to JoWood or similar publishers (and even if we have seen some poor examples of publishers seeing to the translation of various games through the years, this is still probably a good thing, even if someone at said company actually can handle the english well).

Now of course this only goes for companies like Nival that makes games for their own market, that is russian games - and then exports it to others - in the example of S2 it did spread pretty well - but when you have companies like Digital Illusions(DICE) that makes games for the international market and not for the national market (in this case Sweden) sure Spazmo, I agree - too bad Serge Orlovsky and Nival Interactive isn't one of them.

So what should be done when you have someone who does not handle the english (or other target language) well? I'd say translate it - rather then actually going underway with the interview in english despite the poor replies. This is actually much better most of the time, even if the other party is confident in his/hers english, as knowing the rules hardly aspires for great reading - just that you can actually make yourself understood - and that said not knowing all the rules often works as well (having an ediitor helps) - for example when I write in swedish I'll throw things like mimeses, kiasm and the like in there as besides understanding the words I can also incoperate them into the piece, and I will be able to avoid repetition in general to boot - I'll also be able to give it a feeling even if writing about stale subjects, just by having a larger active vocabulary and actual potty traing in the language - rather then just the lessons.

So if I were to do an interview with someone for PR reasons, this actually not being towards an obscure soruce - but actual PR - or even worse writing technical literature, in the way of say an paper on "cargo space on ships" or "phenomenology in art from the Husserl, Edmund perspective"; I would easily go with Swedish and then let someone else trasnlate it into english for me as what you read now would easily be better if I had written it in my native language then in this english fashion.
 
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