[pelham123]

Szczepaniak's Japanese gaming book: Do you think he'll raise the dough?


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1748556728/the-untold-history-of-japanese-game-developers

[KaioShin]

I hope so, I'd buy the finished book.

[BRPXQZME]

It is unlikely he will not.

Also if you do the right dance three times he might even show up in this thread! BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMBS

[RetroProf]

I was actually going to ask a mod today if I can start a topic. I'm pleased to see one here already.

I've confirmed Takashi Tokita, the main man behind Live-A-Live, which should be good. I've been promised quite a few introductions to people, though I don't feel comfortable mentioning their names when they're not definite yet (two are from popular RPG series, one involving tanks, the other demons).

One interesting aspect, which I hope the fan-translation community will approve of, is bringing up the subject of fan-translations. I spoke briefly with Gideon Zhi about this (simply because I had his email and know his work dovetails with some of my interviews - but I'm happy to discuss it with anyone in the community).

I'm wondering to what extent Japanese developers know of fan-translators in the west. We've all read the public statements of groups, such as those behind Policenauts and Mother 3, who approached the respective publishers in the hope of negotiating some kind of official deal to use the translation patches, and were shot down without even a second thought. And we know that XSeed has officially licensed the work of fan-translators for commercial releases.

Where appropriate, and as delicately as possible, I'd like to discuss this topic with developers. For example one of my key interviewees, who I am very excited to speak with, was behind the Lennus games (aka: Paladin's Quest). Although he doesn't have the rights to Lennus II, I'm curious as to what he thinks of the fact that fans spent 10 years bringing a patch to fruition.

Of course some of my interviewees do hold positions of authority, so I'd like to ask if they're open to the idea.

Because let's be honest, it's good for the translators, it's good for the fans, it's good for the publishers. It's good for everyone, isn't it? Re-releases of classic games are big business, surely it makes sense to discuss the possibility of fan-translators and publishers working together?

This isn't a guarantee of anything - it's quite possible many won't want to comment on the subject at all.


Failing that, there's going to be some really fun recollections in the book.

[KaioShin]

That is very exciting to hear, and I think it's no surprise that the people around these parts are extremely curious if the folks on the other side are aware of our efforts at all. An official endorsement will be hard to coax out of anyone because of the legal muddyness surrounding fan projects of any kind, but a simple "Yep, heard about it and it made me happy to see it" would already be short of being knighted for our efforts

[Starscream]

I believe some statements indicating approval were made in the past...not that I remember exactly. I think one guy who was involved with the Front Mission series made some positive remarks about unoffical translations or so? I could swear this topic came up on this very board before with at least one example.

[KaioShin]

Of course it happened a few times over the years, but it's extremely rare. It's always good to hear it from different devs.

[BRPXQZME]

I believe some statements indicating approval were made in the past...not that I remember exactly. I think one guy who was involved with the Front Mission series made some positive remarks about unoffical translations or so? I could swear this topic came up on this very board before with at least one example.

If you can fish it up I’d love to see that.

[Starscream]

Found what I vaguely remembered:
http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q3-2007/071207a.html

When asked what made Square Enix decide to take a chance on bringing Front Mission to the US again (the fifth game in the series was notably skipped), the response was that there was one member of the team that was very passionate about the game, and wanted to give players in the United States the chance to experience. He felt that Front Mission 3 and 4 proved that there is a userbase, and since the DS is currently very popular, the thinking went, "Why not give it a try?" On a similar note, we told Mr. Sakamoto that a fan translation had been done some years ago for Front Mission 1, and asked how he felt about such efforts. The producer replied that he actually found them very encouraging -- it's something the developers should be doing, but because they're not, the fans are doing it instead. He stated that he'd like to be able to give something back to the fans, and would like to thank personally each of the fans that worked on the translation.

Woha. And I googled that "manually". I now just found out it's listed in the Fan translation article of Wikipedia. Doh.

[BRPXQZME]

Ahh, very nice.

Of course, if it were not so welcome it would be about four years too late for me to take it back?

[KaioShin]

Just wanted to bump this and remind people this is still a thing, less than a week to go!

For a while things looked a bit bleak, progress grinded down to a crawl in week 2 and 3. But then someone decided to back the £5000 tier and generated a ton of momentum for the final stretch. It's making good progress again now and only ~£3500 are left to go. 975 backers so far, I'm honestly surprised the target audience for this is this big.

[RetroProf]

Really? I'd have assumed the number of people who like Japanese games would be absolutely massive. I mean, didn't every single one of us play a classic 8-bit or 16-bit console game at some point in our lives?

Anyway, thanks for the bump.

Yuzo Koshiro is now onboard, and I am right now in the process of organising a Platinum tier by a Japanese artist. Keep your eyes peeled on the updates.

[badinsults]

Just threw in my lot with an 80 pound pledge. I'm very excited about this project, and with only about 200 pounds left to go as I post, it should get funded. If you find out about any unreleased games for the SNES, I certainly would be interested in hearing about them.

[KaioShin]

Aaand, the project has been funded

[Spooniest]

Sounds like fascinating reading!

I'd prefer a bound book, myself...not sure if he said he was going to actually print it or just do an e-book, but I suppose there are always possibilities.

Seems like it ought to be done in time for Christmas.

[KaioShin]

There are two different print versions and it will be published in march/april 2014 if things go as planned. It's all spelled out at the kickstarter.

[Jorpho]

I'm a little surprised this hasn't been done to death by Japanese writers already.

I've confirmed Takashi Tokita, the main man behind Live-A-Live

What a deeply puzzling line.  Like saying Harrison Ford is best known for his work on American Graffiti.

[Next Gen Cowboy]

Live-A-Live is a cornerstone of classic romhacking, so it's rather near and dear to many of us here. Probably Gid most of all 

[noneother]

I'm a little surprised this hasn't been done to death by Japanese writers already.

It's probably a matter of scope. There are tons of books focusing on one particular era, console, company or game series, most of which never see english publication of course, but going for the untold stories of the unsung heroes of video game development isn't the most commercial approach, and as such probably isn't the most common, either.

[RedComet]

Live-A-Live is a cornerstone of classic romhacking, so it's rather near and dear to many of us here. Probably Gid most of all 

Gid isn't the only one who holds it near and dear.

I'd be particularly interested in what Takashi Tokita has to say about the LAL 2.0 patch.