KickStarter STASIS - An Indie Space Adventure Game - now with CAYNE DLC

Im not certain of the costs off hand, but it was a pretty large chunk of our budget - but its something we really wanted done properly. You get 'cheaper' options where they do machine translation and do corrections, but for Stasis its a translation by natural speakers, and they do full localisation testing - so its not just the translation, its also ensuring that the translations work in context of the story.

 

What languages have you gone for? (Sorry if this has been mentioned, can't recall)

 

English, German, Spanish, Russian, Polish, French.
It was VERY difficult to chose the languages to translate into (budget wise we only *just* managed the 5...) - so we based the choices on the analytics of things like who backed the Kickstarter, what countries visit the website and Facebook, and what online outlets covered the game. If the game is successful enough we will add in additional languages after release.

 

Hey Pyke, did you ever get an estimate for community translations? If you did, what made you go with paid translation over community? As I understand it, community translations still require the contracting of a coordinator and, ideally, an editor/proofer per-language, but could still be cheaper than a full translation service.

 

Community translations are a very bad idea. They are mostly done by terrible people who are clueless about everything. I'd rather have no translation at all than that shit.

 

I'm only aware of it through Beamdog, did the translations turn out shit?

 

No idea, but I'm just saying this as a translator. If you have an unwashed mob of people who say 'HEY I KNOW INGLESE BRETTY WELL I CAN TRANSLATE' do anything, it'll turn out horrible. Horrible. No exceptions.

 

Yea, aVENGER mentioned that they had to hire a coordinator and I think editors per-language to establish conventions, agreed transliterations, etc. An unmanaged community translations sounds like a trainwreck, but I'm curious about the cost of a managed and edited one versus the professional services.

 

This. Exactly this. These days every dimwit who watches subbed GoT thinks themselves a translator.

Furthermore, as it is often the case, translating a game/movie/book is not the same as translating one's uncle's online small business' website.

In the case of a one-man-job, to translate a book/game/movie, a translator also needs to be a good writer, and that's a coincidence that doesn't often occur. Of course, most "AAA" translation projects get translated by one firm, then "writing-edited" by another, and so on, but that implies really different (higher) budgets.

 

It came down to a few things - the main one being that we are slight control freaks - and the quality of the translations is something we would have no idea about - because I dont speak any of those languages.

There is also a cost/benefit ratio when doing something like hiring a coordinator to do the translations - it could become a bit of a time sink, and they would need to have access to additional people (beyond the translators) who could double check each language...essentially it would (more than likely) become enough of a hassle that we would start losing out on time, which is many ways is more expensive than just losing out on money! With Roboto we get access to translators AND editors.

This is our first release - and its really important to us that foreign people who play the game get the absolute best experience we can provide. The fact that they are going to be paying money to us to play the game is amazing - I don't want it to feel like translations are an afterthought!

Going with 1 company, having a single point of contact, and having that company also handle localisation testing really was the best move for us. It has let us concentrate on this final few weeks of polishing up the game - time that would have been spent on managing freelancers. We are also looking at doing larger more complex games in the future - so starting to create working relationships with other companies now is something we have really been very conscious about. Stasis is going to form the foundation of our games and business for the next long while - we want a solid strong foundation!

We still do have a lot of interaction with the translators in terms of explaining the context of certain conversations - but thats a joy to do - and its still done through a single point of contact who then disseminates the info among the people that need it. If there was less writing in the game we may have tried some alternate options - but we knew from editing that its just an immense amount of work. 5 editors worked on the game during the writing, and 4 writers (including me) - and that took months to get everything correct. Doing it again - but in 5 languages that I didn't speak just seemed like something that was too important and big to leave it up to chance or experimentation!

 

God damn, this is really coming. I would like to let you know Pyke, that I've just preordered the game. I'm so hyped!44444!!!

Now, where is AoD VD????

 

Ditto.

 

You guys really are real bros!

 

BTW, will I just get the key in my email, the email associated with the paypal account I used? (after paying, I was simply prompted a "thanks" page, and nothing else...)

 

Ill have to check with nic - but I would assume its the email address associated with your paypal account.

 

I've always wondered, how scary is it knowing that soon review scores will be everywhere?

 

Its this really strange feeling. Like - on one hand its quite scary - but on the other I know that I've really done the best I could to make the best game possible - to make the game I wanted to make.
My biggest fear is more on the technical side...that the game doesn't run. Those developers of Assassins Creed UNITY and the new BATMAN game are pretty much living through the thing that gives me nightmares. Artistic choices I can justify - and if I made the wrong ones its something I can deal with...but technical issues I have very little control over.

One thing I keep telling myself is that people enjoyed the Alpha demo. It got a lot of praise and people really reacted to it in the way I wanted - they 'got' it and what I was trying to do. The full game is a much more polished and expanded version of that alpha. The core of it hasn't changed. The interaction with the environment is there - the descriptions, computer entries, diary entries...the interface has been polished (the biggest difference being a cursor that changes depending on what you are mousing over) but it works in the same way...and if people responded positively to THAT then they should enjoy the game at least at a gameplay level!

The story however - I'm not sure how people will react. The game has some properly disturbing scenes. I showed my girlfriend a few of them and she had dreams about it for the next few nights. But the scenes aren't done in a 'for shock value' way. Think of it like SAW vs SEVEN. SAW (at least the sequels...SAW 1 is a masterpiece) are more 'LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT HOW GROSS I AM! LOOK!', but SEVEN is subtle....its disturbing more than shocking, and that's what I'm really trying to go for.

 

You sir, deserved my money. I hope the game does deliver exactly like that, as I really hate the "gratuitousness" and "pointless shocking value" of much of the content out there, these days. Too often it feels like writers/directors/creatives are in a race to find and deliver the most disturbing scene/content, yet they forget that shock value unsupported by a decent plot and "coherence" is just like a polystyrene chunk tossed at the wind.

On this not, I played the alpha a bit last night, and the first thing that I thought when I obtained the high-speed neural drill was "inb4 Dead Space" XD.

(btw, should I post bugs/issues somewhere, or that's not a thing?)

 

If there are any bugs or issues you can mail me at chris@stasisgame.com - although if its the path finding or the doors...I've fixed them.

 

Alpha is old news!, i want beta acces!
Beta is just english? Cause i could check for errors in spanish translation (yeah just desperatly trying to get into the beta i know).

 

Beta will be in all languages.

 

When is the marketing engine gonna spin up?

 

I'm still producing material - but its basically a 30 day plan...a little earlier if I can get this stuff done sooner!

 

We got back one of the portal reviews for the game (we will be making an announcement soon on the available portals), but thought you guys would like what their internal reviewer said. Also this was off an older version of the game - its gotten way better since he played it!

I edited this to avoid spoilers - and its not really a 'review' - more of an internal write up.

*Chris breaths a sigh of relief that someone who he isnt paying has played it and liked it*

 

I just realized I'm leaving for my holidays on the 31st of August exactly. What a cruel twist of fate.