ABOUT GAME GLOBAL
Based on 20 years of successful experience running localization events and ten years of hosting the Games Localization Round Table, the organizers of the LocWorld Conference have created an open and honest event dedicated to video game globalization.
Game Global was designed as an event where stakeholders from the video game globalization industry (including text and audio translation and localization, localization and functional QA) can meet and share their endeavors, successes, best practices and research in a collaborative and transparent manner.
We focus on three main areas:
• Localization
• Localization testing
• Functional testing
Localization and functional testing were recently added as specific content types to our conferences since we found that, as opposed to text and audio localization, there are not many chances for video game LQA and FQA stakeholders to get together and discuss their specific issues and best practices.
Our objective is to offer a well-rounded conference where attendees can talk with fellow video game globalizers, discover the latest trends from our industry and learn from the experts.
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Game Global Digital Summit 2020 Program
All times are CEST
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Continuous localization & QA using Git
Bigpoint and XTM will Look at the challenges faced when handling a high-frequency of updates combined with a manual LocQA process on their titles. Then describe how they worked together to create a continuous localization process using Git to embed a QA phase, enabling the QA team to capture, edit, and update changes on the fly.
Dominick Kelly fell into the localization industry 16 years ago as a software engineer and decided never to leave. Over time, he has been involved with the localization tool space and worked at some of the largest language service providers in the world. For the past six years, Dominick has worked at XTM International, as a key part of the team focused on driving innovation and growth at the forefront of cloud-based language technology.
With a degree in modern languages and literature, Audrey Lepage started her career in the games industry in 2010 as a French localization tester for DTP Entertainment, Hamburg. After a year of testing fun, she moved to Bigpoint where she first worked as a French translator, then as a localization project manager (LPM) and then was promoted to senior LPM in 2017. In the constant search for more efficient and streamlined workflows, Bigpoint transitioned to XTM four years ago and has been tailoring the tool to meet their requirements with the support of the XTM team.
Inés Rubio
Inés Rubio is a localization veteran with experience in ecommerce, marketing and 15 years of gaming industry background. Her interest in process improvement centered around technology and outsourcing solutions drove her to research potential machine translation applications to games localization before the Google Neural Machine Translation landmark. Inés currently applies her passion to translation and localization processes at National Instruments, a leader in software defined automated testing and measurements.
Keynote: EA Localization Data Analytics
In this presentation we will introduce our EA data analytics team focus: how to approach machine learning strategies, player data and data infrastructure in order to radically change localization toward a data driven business strategy. We will discuss how to develop a data strategy as well as the connection between game development and localization.
Mario Bergantiños started his journey studying broadcasting, 3D and audio production. After working as a freelancer for several companies he started working at EA and now he has more than 16 years of experience in building high performing teams from audio and video disciplines to data analytics. As a member of EA’s Localization and Madrid leadership teams, Mario is co-responsible for the innovation and strategy of the localization business as well as managing the Audio Artist, Audio Capture, Video Loc and Data Analytics teams.
Nadine Martin
Nadine Martin has been working in the games industry and quality assurance (QA) for over 15 years. She joined Sony PlayStation’s internal QA team after completing a degree in business administration, starting initially as a localization tester for German and progressing to the management of the localization test team. In 2013 she became senior manager for test services which includes localization and functional testing. The team is responsible for testing game franchises such as Gran Turismo, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Horizon and God of War on all PlayStation platforms, including virtual reality and mobile. Nadine has presented extensively on QA and localization topics.
PANEL: REMOTE PRODUCTION – GAME LOCALIZATION AND QA IN TIMES OF SOCIAL DISTANCING
How do we manage distributed and remote work in the social distancing era? How do we solve the challenges when it comes to hardware, access and IPs? We will discuss with panelists from different areas of our industry: audio localization, functional quality assurance and localization quality assurance. After our panel discussion, we will open to a round table with all our attendees.
Olivier Deslandes is a games industry veteran, starting as a voice talent, voice director and translator in the late 1990s. He has contributed to more than 200 titles. Olivier joined Side in 2002 to establish and develop its localization department. In 2017, with Side under PTW ownership, he became senior director of global audio. He rose to vice president of audio and translation for PTW and Side in 2018. Olivier holds degrees in communication and advertising.
A passionate gamer since childhood, Federica Lusardi began working in the videogames industry when she moved to London in 2011 to study for an MA in audiovisual translation. After a brief time as a language tester for SEGA and translating her first game for Codemasters as a freelancer, she worked at Pole To Win as an in-house translator and team supervisor. Federica joined Square Enix in 2016, where she currently works as Italian translator/editor. Her work encompasses translation for games and marketing campaigns, and she has translated games such as Life is Strange 2, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, the FINAL FANTASY Trading Card Game and Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Tülay McNally was the head of Central Development Operations at BioWare for seven years before joining EA DICE in March 2018 where she focuses on strategic planning, organizing, building and leading development support teams such as quality assurance, quantitative easing, launch and release planning and application development. Tülay holds a master’s degree in American studies and a BA in psychology. Her master’s thesis was about the impact of computer graphics on the narrative of Hollywood movies. As a result, Tülay worked as a journalist for several 3D and gaming publications in Germany and Canada. Prior to joining EA she worked for SEGA and Square Enix and before that she worked for Alias Wavefront in public relations and as editor-in-chief of the 3D artist community site www.cgchannel.com. Tülay joined DICE to work with the local quality verification teams on people, process and culture related initiatives and improvements. She is part of the Women’s Ultimate Team Steering Committee in Stockholm. Presently, Tülay works with all game teams across DICE on continuous improvement initiatives, milestone processes, inclusion and accessibility in games and other operational deliverables.
Chris Rowley, an industry veteran since 2002, spent his first five years in development as a games designer and producer. He moved to Codemasters to become their first quality assurance (QA) manager. Since then he has held various QA, localization management and director roles at publishers SCEE, Eidos, 2K and EA. Chris then moved to the vendor side in 2014 working at Testronic, PTW and now Keywords where he is currently responsible for the LQA service line and FQA operations. Chris has been a regular presenter and panelist on the conference circuit for a number of years.
Matt Wilson is a leader in the software and hardware industry with over 20 years of specialist quality assurance (QA) and testing experience. He is currently the global head of format QA within Sony Interactive Entertainment which handles all compliance for PlayStation globally. Matt has experience leading and building a large (250+) co-located team that deals with 30,000+ products globally annually, each with very short service-level agreements. He recently transitioned four separate regional QA teams to a single co-located global QA team. Matt lives in Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen is officially an industry veteran, having spent 20 years in different roles in testing and localization services at Square Enix. He has recently joined Keywords Studios to build cross-service programs, supporting their global development and publishing clients. He remains an active and enthusiastic member of the game localization and testing community.
13:00 -13:30 > Virtual Lunch
Going to India?
From 2016 to 2019 India has had a 190% growth rate of apps downloaded. Forty billion apps downloaded in 2019. The mobile platform, mainly Android and iOS, is the preferred weapon of choice for entertainment, streaming, banking and productivity. For gaming the free-to-play (F2P) market is by far the biggest, meaning that most monetization is ad-based for now. The willingness to spend money on games is however on the rise, most notably in top games like PUBG Mobile.
From a localization perspective, India has 122 main languages, 11 of which have at least 30 million speakers. Is there a window of opportunity for publishers to gain access to an almost untapped market with games localized in these languages? We believe there might be!
Similar to Brazil ten years ago, India is showing all the right signs of being ready to play more games and creating opportunity for other business models than F2P. Understanding India, its languages, culture, economic development and more specifically distribution, marketing user acquisition and so on, is vital to understand which games would be relevant to release in India in other languages than English. Character has looked into the numbers and will be presenting their insights and doubts on this growing market.
Cofounder and CEO of Character Publishing & Localization since 2010, Renée Jessen initially started working as a dubbing translator in the mid-nineties while studying rhetoric and history of ideas. The challenge of creating spoken language and personality in translations is still the favorite part of his job although business development takes up the majority of his time. Today, Character is both a global localization company focused on games and a publishing house of interactive experiences for children. Renée’s main focus is to balance the use of technologies and the translators’ need for a creative approach to their work.
Miguel Bernal-Merino
Miguel Bernal-Merino believes passionately in great quality game localization and has been working nonstop to raise awareness of issues within the game and localization industries as well as academia and translation studies. He is convinced that research into these topics will improve quality, player satisfaction, turnover and return on investment. Miguel holds a doctorate in the localization of video games and is currently lecturing at the University of Roehampton in London. He is a sought-after speaker and prolific author on audiovisual translation and game localization. Miguel was instrumental in the creation of the Localization Summit within the Game Developers Conference and is one of the advisors. He is also a member of the International Game Developers Association and co-founder of the Game Localization Special Interest Group.
Round Table: Quality-driven translation resource management for the fast-paced video game industry
Translating for videogames requires an immense amount of attention to detail which is only possible with a deep knowledge of each specific IP.
- How does this match with the flexibility and scale required by the fast-paced game localization market?
- Does investing time and resources in getting to know your gaming translators main areas of expertise, content preferences and daily capacity, translate into a better gaming experience?
- What do we need to build and maintain our translation resource profiles? (entry tests, previous gaming experience, what games they play, favorite IPs, hobbies/passion).
- And how to deal with the cultural aspects of managing multilanguage teams?
Veterans of the videogame localization industry, from both the developer and service provider sides, will try to answer these questions during this round table.
Marie Amigues is the CEO and founder of Altagram. After living in Paris, Ottawa and New York, she settled in Berlin in 2006. Following her studies in philosophy at La Sorbonne, Marie obtained an MBA in marketing management at Essec. In 2017, she was selected as one of the Top 10 Women in Management in Germany’s gaming industry. Passion, hard work and expertise are the driving forces behind Marie’s accomplishments. She has brought together a team of over 150 talented in-house game localization specialists who have successfully shipped over 5,000 game titles since 2006 for prestigious clients such as Square Enix, Supercell, Blizzard and SEGA, just to name a few.
Micaela Belluzzo is the global resource manager at Keywords Studios, focusing on project resourcing and quality control. A translator and interpreter by education, Micaela started her translation career localizing software and media content in 1998. She then joined SDL in Maidenhead as a localization project manager and in 2000 she moved to Milan to manage the EA Italy localization office. From 2003 Micaela contributed to the building of the EA integration hub in Madrid where she worked as head of localization production-integration until 2007. After a two-year break working for international cooperation in Africa and the Middle East, she joined Keywords with a focus on audio localization production and has been working on resource management for the past six years.
Anca Marica is a localization professional with ten years of experience in the video games industry. She has held various positions within the Ubisoft localization department, from quality control localization team lead to project manager. Currently, Anca is overseeing the localization process for projects developed by the EMEA studios, as well as handling quality topics, process improvement, vendor management and working closely with localization project managers to ensure localized games meet Ubisoft standards. She holds a BA in English and Spanish philology, a master’s degree in international studies and an MS in project management.
Shwetank Sharma is a seasoned management professional with experience across game localization business consulting, business development and localization project management. In his past professional pursuits, international experience in client relationship and project management for localization services stand out. Shwetank founded Locnapps Media in 2014 which has been instrumental in servicing videogame developers/publishers and language service providers for South East Asian, Middle Eastern and Indian Languages.
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Intro day 2
Setting up for Localisation QA on Google Stadia
The presentation aims at walking the audience through the steps taken by Localization to offer Google Stadia among their testing platforms.
The presentation will include: a brief summary of concepts and terms specific to Stadia, a review of the technical setup that led to the successful delivery of several projects and the challenges and opportunities that emerged in the process.
We will also present on the LQA testing strategies employed through a comparison with other platforms and the specifics of Localization compliance.
Localization for UA and ASO: Building a Lean Process
In the age of digital marketing, with the focus shifting to data and traffic, sometimes an idea can go from initial concept to testing within mere hours. How do we integrate localization into this fast-paced process, while making it as painless as possible for all the parties involved, and still deliver the best possible quality in the shortest time? Playrix, one of the biggest mobile game developers in the world, produces enormous amounts of digital content in order to get a sizeable share of traffic. We will talk about how we use templates, how we approach fonts and what texts are safe to reuse. We will also show how we educate our marketing team about localization, how we work with translators and why it’s important to know the basic principles of user acquisition and app store optimization. Managing localization for modern digital ads can be challenging, but we can definitely make it less painful.
Anastasiia Chertenkova’s path to the game development industry was rather unusual. She started her career as an officer of the police force of Ukraine/inspector of the Ukrainian Bureau of Interpol, senior officer of the criminal investigation sector, and taught administrative law and administrative procedure law in one of the state universities. Then she worked as a freelance translator for a couple of years. She joined the game development industry in 2016, starting as a customer support representative for Playrix. Since then, Anastasiia has held the positions of customer support team lead, community manager and player experience department manager. She is currently marketing creatives team lead.
Kseniya Shorokhova has an educational background in linguistics, but she began her career in event management and public relations. English and translation have always been part of her life. Kseniya ended up at Playrix four years ago as a Russian to English translator. Though she had no game localization experience, she found that this field was a perfect match for her. She quickly took up copywriting for marketing and then became a team lead, managing marketing localization. In addition, Kseniya oversees a wide range of localization and management tasks.
Paul Davies
Paul Davies manages the English game writing and localization teams at Socialpoint, a leading developer and publisher of mobile games, in sunny Barcelona. Prior to that, he held various positions at Electronic Arts in the UK and Germany, where he most recently managed the worldwide localization of EA’s mobile games portfolio. A keen gamer at heart, Paul started his career as a translator and language tester for console games at Sony Computer Entertainment in (not-so-sunny) Liverpool.
Localizing racing simulators to resonate with global drivers
We will present a case study on our experience localizing racing and rallying simulation titles and the challenges faced when the content is closely related to the lingo used in international and local competitions and the way events are narrated in each player region. We will approach this topic simultaneously from cultural localization and publishing angles, drawing examples and solutions implemented in recent projects.
Takeaways:
Attendees will learn about key factors that will play a significant part in the success of racing localization projects involving voiceover of context-sensitive commentator text; how to approach technical descriptions of customizable components based on real-life models and products; and how to elaborate on solutions drawing from specific examples and solutions implemented by our team while working with the development studio represented in the presentation.
We would like to turn our learnings into an entertaining presentation that could be useful for other studios working on projects with similar features, such as the need to localize dynamic voiceover in a way that is meaningful to the players.
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli was born in Argentina, has lived in several countries and has always been marked by books, games, languages and having to adapt to different cultures. Choosing to pursue studies in translation led to living in Warsaw. Around 2015, this escalated from working with Testronic’s localization quality assurance team to being involved in the development of Testronic’s translation services. He has managed the translation process for multiple game titles and tries to be involved as a translator or editor when time permits (aside from being constantly engaged with games and other forms of culture).
Kirill Soloviev
Kirill Soloviev is the CEO and co-founder at ContentQuo, an Estonian translation technology company that helps global LSPs, enterprise localization teams and government agencies reduce their linguistic quality risk, improve vendor performance and boost machine translation quality at scale with a data-driven approach. During his 18 years in the industry, Kirill has served in diverse buyer-side and vendor-side roles, most recently as global director of localization at Acronis. Kirill has also co-organized the Localization Unconference in Tallinn and regularly mentors both new and seasoned localization professionals.
Localization user surveys - A case study
In this session we will present the data from our localization user surveys, share best practices and potential pitfalls, and explain how we have used the feedback to improve our localization program and increase the support of our stakeholders. We will introduce our set-up (what did we ask the players and how?), share our major findings (what were the survey results?) in words and numbers, and how different aspects of localization were affected. We will give insight on the action points we took as a consequence and how successfully we involved our stakeholders. We are looking forward to discussing our lessons learned, pros and cons of player surveys and your own experiences, input and ideas for further improvements.
Clara Gómez Pérez joined the game localization industry ten years ago. Since 2011 she has led the localization department at Goodgame Studios. She holds a BA in translation and interpreting and an MA in specialized translation. Clara’s favorite localization-related topics are content management systems, key performance indicators, localization tools, process automation and funny localization mistakes.
Isabell Rudolph has a BA in technical communication and an MS in software localization. She joined the localization department at Goodgame Studios in 2014, gaining experience in working with free-to-play games for mobile and web, delivering high-quality translations, optimizing workflows and continuously improving localization processes and quality.
Daniel Finck
Daniel Finck is an independent consultant who learned his trade setting up and managing localization processes and teams for free-to-play/mobile games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games on the publisher side. This made him develop a particular interest in seeking and trying out new language
technology and service provider models that allow for economic and quality continuous translation workflows. Connecting the dots between the needs of product owners with the strengths of service providers, he now supports businesses in selecting and implementing the right processes, tools and partners for their products.
Machine Translation Evolution: A Case Study on Franchise-Specific Engines
Building up on the knowledge we previously shared at Game Global Lisbon, we will focus on a case study on FIFA and other franchise-specific titles to highlight how much you can improve the quality by creating specific machine translation engines with the data of the game. We will share some details in terms of processes to prepare the engines, but especially a quality comparison between text translated with a generic engine and a text translated with a specific engine.
Cristina Anselmi is machine translation lead at Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), leading EA efforts related to machine translation technology and implementation within the localization department. She’s been in the video game localization industry since 2012, managing all kinds of multilingual projects from small mobile games to big MMORPGs and several AAA titles. Cristina’s passion for localization in combination with new technologies makes her always look at the best way to apply automation to optimize time and increase speed, without jeopardizing quality, and she believes machine translation is the way to achieve this in the near future.
Fabio Minazzi
Fabio Minazzi has been into localization of interactive media since 1992, dealing with text, audio and video contents at Philips Interctive Media. After founding Binari Sonori, he dealt with software localization projects for Sun, Oracle, Peregrine and Adobe for a decade, using CAT and WISIWIG localization tools, DTP and workflow systems. This experience has proven useful in the roaring game localization industry, where, for the past ten years, Fabio has been in charge of game localization by Codemasters, Microsoft, Capcom, Square Enix and Bandai-Namco. An active member of Games Localization SIG and cofounder of the Games Localization Round Table, he is passionate about building bridges between cultures and helping people publish great content worldwide.
Game Writing for Mobile Games
What is game writing and how is it related to localization, narrative design and user experience writing? What are the daily challenges of a game writer at Socialpoint and the best practices to speed up and ensure quality in the localization process? In this presentation, we will go through these hot topics and more, sparking an interesting conversation with other developers on the benefits and challenges of collaboration between game writing and localization.
Blanca Joplin has been working for over five years as a game writer at Socialpoint, one of Spain’s most vibrant game developers. During this time, she has worked on some very successful titles, including Monster Legends (her main focus and love of her life), Dragon City, World Chef and Word Life. Blanca’s background is in translation, having spent two years as a freelance translator and subtitler prior to arriving at Socialpoint, which has been her home ever since.
Ayesha Khan
Ayesha Khan is an unapologetic word nerd, fascinated by the way languages change over time and influence the way their speakers think. Having moved around for most of her life, Ayesha has used her cultural adaptability and comfort with several languages to help her integrate into game development studios in four countries, where she has worked on titles including The Lord of the Rings Online, Gears Tactics, Wizard101, DarkOrbit and APB. Ayesha has been a narrative designer, writer, content designer and everything in between. Her favorite forms of amateur anthropology include sampling local food and drink wherever she can and gleefully inflicting her karaoke skills upon bar patrons around the world.
What if Localization and UX Writing were part of the same team?
Localization is usually an afterthought in the design of user experience (UX) and especially in the content creation process. What if localization and UX
writers, the creators of the content we translate, were one team? Join this session to learn more about UX writing and how localization can raise its profile by collaborating with UX professionals to meet the needs of international users.
Takeaways:
Attendees will find out what UX writing is and its fundamental principles; how UX writers and localization can work together to meet the needs of global users; and how localization can work closer with source content creators in order to get a seat at the table.
Let’s break the silos. Collaboration between localization and UX professionals is the key to have strong advocates that consider an international community of users and raise the profile of localization within companies.
Mario Ferrer
Senior UX WriterSenior UX Writer
Mario Ferrer is a senior (or señor) user experience (UX) writer. He designs content that guides users across digital products and services. Mario is a part of UX Writers Spain, a local community of practitioners that guide professionals on how to get into the discipline, and helps companies discover the value of the UX writer role within a product team. He’s always trying to find the best tacos in town, listens to stand-up comedy and teaches his two kids about Mexican Lucha Libre.
Patricia Gómez Jurado is a global content strategy and localization leader with more than ten years of experience, both in the corporate and localization provider sides. She currently works at King and has managed diverse teams of UX writers, content strategists, localization project managers and language specialists at eDreams Odigeo and Google. Patricia is the former manager of the Catalan chapter of Women in Localization, a global community for the advancement of women and the localization industry.
Ayesha Khan
Ayesha Khan is an unapologetic word nerd, fascinated by the way languages change over time and influence the way their speakers think. Having moved around for most of her life, Ayesha has used her cultural adaptability and comfort with several languages to help her integrate into game development studios in four countries, where she has worked on titles including The Lord of the Rings Online, Gears Tactics, Wizard101, DarkOrbit and APB. Ayesha has been a narrative designer, writer, content designer and everything in between. Her favorite forms of amateur anthropology include sampling local food and drink wherever she can and gleefully inflicting her karaoke skills upon bar patrons around the world.
Virtual Happy Hour
Coffee and lunch breaks, dinners and parties are what we are going to miss the most about the live event. Let’s use this time to chat and say goodbye properly. Bring your own drink!
Advisory Board
Game Global will be supported by high-profile professionals in the games industry from various geographical markets, with their combined expertise covering the gamut of both quality assurance and localization. Our current advisory board includes the following industry experts:
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz
Senior Localization Director
Electronic Arts
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz is the senior localization director at EA, heading up all worldwide localization functions including translation, recordings, vendor management, testing and engineering for the video game developer and publisher. Originally a translator by education, she looks back at 15 years of experience in the game localization industry. Her current focus is on shaping the strategic direction of localization in the company’s shift to online service models.
Miguel Bernal-Merino believes passionately in great quality game localization and has been working nonstop to raise awareness of issues within the game and localization industries as well as academia and translation studies. He is convinced that research into these topics will improve quality, player satisfaction, turnover and return on investment. Miguel holds a doctorate in the localization of video games and is currently lecturing at the University of Roehampton in London. He is a sought-after speaker and prolific author on audiovisual translation and game localization. Miguel was instrumental in the creation of the Localization Summit within the Game Developers Conference and is one of the advisors. He is also a member of the International Game Developers Association and co-founder of the Game Localization Special Interest Group.
Chris Bewick
Regional FQA Director - Eurasia
Keywords Studios
Gaëlle Caballero
Director of Localisation QA
Testronic
Gaëlle Caballero is a global head of localization quality assurance (LQA) with years of experience in video game QA and localization. A former lawyer, she started her career as a French LQA tester in London and developed her localization skillset working on multiple titles and platforms as a technician, lead and project manager. Gaëlle successfully developed and delivered Testronic’s Warsaw-based LQA department and is responsible for its continued success. She is recognized for her extensive experience in team management, development and swift delivery. A great motivator and team builder, she creates confidence and excitement across multiple Testronic global LQA facilities. An advocate for women in games, Gaëlle is involved in Testronic’s initiative aiming to mentor and promote the role of Women in the Games industry. She is also chairman of Testronic’s learning and development committee.
Nadine Martin
Senior Manager, Test Services
Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
Nadine Martin has been working in the games industry and quality assurance (QA) for over 15 years. She joined Sony PlayStation’s internal QA team after completing a degree in business administration, starting initially as a localization tester for German and progressing to the management of the localization test team. In 2013 she became senior manager for test services which includes localization and functional testing. The team is responsible for testing game franchises such as Gran Turismo, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Horizon and God of War on all PlayStation platforms, including virtual reality and mobile. Nadine has presented extensively on QA and localization topics.
Fabio Minazzi
Text Localization Director
Keywords Studios
Fabio Minazzi has been into localization of interactive media since 1992, dealing with text, audio and video contents at Philips Interctive Media. After founding Binari Sonori, he dealt with software localization projects for Sun, Oracle, Peregrine and Adobe for a decade, using CAT and WISIWIG localization tools, DTP and workflow systems. This experience has proven useful in the roaring game localization industry, where, for the past ten years, Fabio has been in charge of game localization by Codemasters, Microsoft, Capcom, Square Enix and Bandai-Namco. An active member of Games Localization SIG and cofounder of the Games Localization Round Table, he is passionate about building bridges between cultures and helping people publish great content worldwide.
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen
Program Director
Keywords Studios
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen is officially an industry veteran, having spent 20 years in different roles in testing and localization services at Square Enix. He has recently joined Keywords Studios to build cross-service programs, supporting their global development and publishing clients. He remains an active and enthusiastic member of the game localization and testing community.
Miguel Sepúlveda
Global Localization Manager
King
Miguel Sepúlveda started his journey in the exciting localization world in 1995. He worked as a quality assurance (QA) specialist for Microsoft for a few projects such as Microsoft Project, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. Early in his career, Miguel worked on the vendor side, mainly working for Lionbridge as localization QA manager for different clients. In 2007 he had the opportunity to enter the gaming industry thanks to Electronic Arts where he was responsible for setting up the technical team to provide automated localization QA services to games such as FIFA, Harry Potter or Need for Speed among others. Then Miguel moved the buyer side giving him the opportunity to complete his vision of how the localization industry worked from both sides. In 2014 he joined the King Candy Crush world where his role is to lead the globalization efforts of a very talented team.
Vanessa Shallcross
Head of Localization
SEGA Europe
Having been in the games industry since 1996, Vanessa Shallcross is an experienced manager of computer game localization on a global basis. In her early years, she worked for Psygnosis, then moved to Sony Computer Entertainment and more recently Bigpoint GmbH based in Hamburg. Since November 2020 Vanessa was honored to be appointed as the Head of Localisation for Sega Europe overseeing all Localisation, Audio, LQA, and Engineering, part of the wider Operations Team, located in Brentford HQ. Her current focus is on getting to know her team and all the stakeholders across the Sega business, as well as planning the strategic direction of the Localisation Department.
Nate Stoddard
QA Discipline Principal
Epic Games
Nate Stoddard has been working in quality assurance (QA), testing, hardware development and game development for more than 12 years. In that time, he has worked on over 34 titles, on almost as many platforms. Nate recently moved from Boston to North Carolina to work at Epic Games and is now a senior QA lead on Fortnite.
Speakers
Marie Amigues is the CEO and founder of Altagram. After living in Paris, Ottawa and New York, she settled in Berlin in 2006. Following her studies in philosophy at La Sorbonne, Marie obtained an MBA in marketing management at Essec. In 2017, she was selected as one of the Top 10 Women in Management in Germany’s gaming industry. Passion, hard work and expertise are the driving forces behind Marie’s accomplishments. She has brought together a team of over 150 talented in-house game localization specialists who have successfully shipped over 5,000 game titles since 2006 for prestigious clients such as Square Enix, Supercell, Blizzard and SEGA, just to name a few.
Cristina Anselmi
Machine Translation Lead
Electronic Arts
Cristina Anselmi is machine translation lead at Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), leading EA efforts related to machine translation technology and implementation within the localization department. She’s been in the video game localization industry since 2012, managing all kinds of multilingual projects from small mobile games to big MMORPGs and several AAA titles. Cristina’s passion for localization in combination with new technologies makes her always look at the best way to apply automation to optimize time and increase speed, without jeopardizing quality, and she believes machine translation is the way to achieve this in the near future.
Micaela Belluzzo
Global Resource Manager
Keywords Studios
Micaela Belluzzo is the global resource manager at Keywords Studios, focusing on project resourcing and quality control. A translator and interpreter by education, Micaela started her translation career localizing software and media content in 1998. She then joined SDL in Maidenhead as a localization project manager and in 2000 she moved to Milan to manage the EA Italy localization office. From 2003 Micaela contributed to the building of the EA integration hub in Madrid where she worked as head of localization production-integration until 2007. After a two-year break working for international cooperation in Africa and the Middle East, she joined Keywords with a focus on audio localization production and has been working on resource management for the past six years.
Mario Bergantiños
Director, Localization Analytics & Video-Audio
Electronic Arts
Mario Bergantiños started his journey studying broadcasting, 3D and audio production. After working as a freelancer for several companies he started working at EA and now he has more than 16 years of experience in building high performing teams from audio and video disciplines to data analytics. As a member of EA’s Localization and Madrid leadership teams, Mario is co-responsible for the innovation and strategy of the localization business as well as managing the Audio Artist, Audio Capture, Video Loc and Data Analytics teams.
Miguel Bernal-Merino believes passionately in great quality game localization and has been working nonstop to raise awareness of issues within the game and localization industries as well as academia and translation studies. He is convinced that research into these topics will improve quality, player satisfaction, turnover and return on investment. Miguel holds a doctorate in the localization of video games and is currently lecturing at the University of Roehampton in London. He is a sought-after speaker and prolific author on audiovisual translation and game localization. Miguel was instrumental in the creation of the Localization Summit within the Game Developers Conference and is one of the advisors. He is also a member of the International Game Developers Association and co-founder of the Game Localization Special Interest Group.
Anastasiia Chertenkova
Marketing Creatives Team Lead
Playrix
Anastasiia Chertenkova’s path to the game development industry was rather unusual. She started her career as an officer of the police force of Ukraine/inspector of the Ukrainian Bureau of Interpol, senior officer of the criminal investigation sector, and taught administrative law and administrative procedure law in one of the state universities. Then she worked as a freelance translator for a couple of years. She joined the game development industry in 2016, starting as a customer support representative for Playrix. Since then, Anastasiia has held the positions of customer support team lead, community manager and player experience department manager. She is currently marketing creatives team lead.
Paul Davies
Head of Localization and Narrative Design
Socialpoint
Paul Davies manages the English game writing and localization teams at Socialpoint, a leading developer and publisher of mobile games, in sunny Barcelona. Prior to that, he held various positions at Electronic Arts in the UK and Germany, where he most recently managed the worldwide localization of EA’s mobile games portfolio. A keen gamer at heart, Paul started his career as a translator and language tester for console games at Sony Computer Entertainment in (not-so-sunny) Liverpool.
Olivier Deslandes
VP Audio & Translation
SIDE Audio PTW
Olivier Deslandes is a games industry veteran, starting as a voice talent, voice director and translator in the late 1990s. He has contributed to more than 200 titles. Olivier joined Side in 2002 to establish and develop its localization department. In 2017, with Side under PTW ownership, he became senior director of global audio. He rose to vice president of audio and translation for PTW and Side in 2018. Olivier holds degrees in communication and advertising.
Mario Ferrer
Senior UX Writer
Senior UX Writer
Mario Ferrer
Senior UX WriterSenior UX Writer
Mario Ferrer is a senior (or señor) user experience (UX) writer. He designs content that guides users across digital products and services. Mario is a part of UX Writers Spain, a local community of practitioners that guide professionals on how to get into the discipline, and helps companies discover the value of the UX writer role within a product team. He’s always trying to find the best tacos in town, listens to stand-up comedy and teaches his two kids about Mexican Lucha Libre.
Daniel Finck
Independent Consultant & Solutions Architect for F2P and Web Content Localization
Loquatics Consulting
Daniel Finck
Independent Consultant & Solutions Architect for F2P and Web Content LocalizationLoquatics Consulting
Daniel Finck is an independent consultant who learned his trade setting up and managing localization
processes and teams for free-to-play/mobile games and massively multiplayer online role-playing games on
the publisher side. This made him develop a particular interest in seeking and trying out new language
technology and service provider models that allow for economic and quality continuous translation
workflows. Connecting the dots between the needs of product owners with the strengths of service
providers, he now supports businesses in selecting and implementing the right processes, tools and
partners for their products.
Clara Gómez Pérez
Localization Lead & Vendor Manager
Goodgame Studios
Clara Gómez Pérez joined the game localization industry ten years ago. Since 2011 she has led the localization department at Goodgame Studios. She holds a BA in translation and interpreting and an MA in specialized translation. Clara’s favorite localization-related topics are content management systems, key performance indicators, localization tools, process automation and funny localization mistakes.
Patricia Gómez Jurado
Head of Content, Player Support
King
Patricia Gómez Jurado is a global content strategy and localization leader with more than ten years of experience, both in the corporate and localization provider sides. She currently works at King and has managed diverse teams of UX writers, content strategists, localization project managers and language specialists at eDreams Odigeo and Google. Patricia is the former manager of the Catalan chapter of Women in Localization, a global community for the advancement of women and the localization industry.
Cofounder and CEO of Character Publishing & Localization since 2010, Renée Jessen initially started working as a dubbing translator in the mid-nineties while studying rhetoric and history of ideas. The challenge of creating spoken language and personality in translations is still the favorite part of his job although business development takes up the majority of his time. Today, Character is both a global localization company focused on games and a publishing house of interactive experiences for children. Renée’s main focus is to balance the use of technologies and the translators’ need for a creative approach to their work.
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli
Head of Translation Services
Testronic
Manuel Jimenez Verdinelli was born in Argentina, has lived in several countries and has always been marked by books, games, languages and having to adapt to different cultures. Choosing to pursue studies in translation led to living in Warsaw. Around 2015, this escalated from working with Testronic’s localization quality assurance team to being involved in the development of Testronic’s translation services. He has managed the translation process for multiple game titles and tries to be involved as a translator or editor when time permits (aside from being constantly engaged with games and other forms of culture).
Ayesha Khan
Principal Narrative Designer
Deep Silver Dambuster Studios
Ayesha Khan is an unapologetic word nerd, fascinated by the way languages change over time and influence the way their speakers think. Having moved around for most of her life, Ayesha has used her cultural adaptability and comfort with several languages to help her integrate into game development studios in four countries, where she has worked on titles including The Lord of the Rings Online, Gears Tactics, Wizard101, DarkOrbit and APB. Ayesha has been a narrative designer, writer, content designer and everything in between. Her favorite forms of amateur anthropology include sampling local food and drink wherever she can and gleefully inflicting her karaoke skills upon bar patrons around the world.
Anca Marica
EMEA Localization Manager
UBISOFT
Anca Marica is a localization professional with ten years of experience in the video games industry. She has held various positions within the Ubisoft localization department, from quality control localization team lead to project manager. Currently, Anca is overseeing the localization process for projects developed by the EMEA studios, as well as handling quality topics, process improvement, vendor management and working closely with localization project managers to ensure localized games meet Ubisoft standards. She holds a BA in English and Spanish philology, a master’s degree in international studies and an MS in project management.
Nadine Martin
Senior Manager, Test Services
Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
Nadine Martin has been working in the games industry and quality assurance (QA) for over 15 years. She joined Sony PlayStation’s internal QA team after completing a degree in business administration, starting initially as a localization tester for German and progressing to the management of the localization test team. In 2013 she became senior manager for test services which includes localization and functional testing. The team is responsible for testing game franchises such as Gran Turismo, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Horizon and God of War on all PlayStation platforms, including virtual reality and mobile. Nadine has presented extensively on QA and localization topics.
Tülay McNally
Senior Development Director
DICE
Tülay McNally was the head of Central Development Operations at BioWare for seven years before joining EA DICE in March 2018 where she focuses on strategic planning, organizing, building and leading development support teams such as quality assurance, quantitative easing, launch and release planning and application development. Tülay holds a master’s degree in American studies and a BA in psychology. Her master’s thesis was about the impact of computer graphics on the narrative of Hollywood movies. As a result, Tülay worked as a journalist for several 3D and gaming publications in Germany and Canada. Prior to joining EA she worked for SEGA and Square Enix and before that she worked for Alias Wavefront in public relations and as editor-in-chief of the 3D artist community site www.cgchannel.com. Tülay joined DICE to work with the local quality verification teams on people, process and culture related initiatives and improvements. She is part of the Women’s Ultimate Team Steering Committee in Stockholm. Presently, Tülay works with all game teams across DICE on continuous improvement initiatives, milestone processes, inclusion and accessibility in games and other operational deliverables.
Fabio Minazzi
Text Localization Director
Keywords Studios
Fabio Minazzi has been into localization of interactive media since 1992, dealing with text, audio and video contents at Philips Interctive Media. After founding Binari Sonori, he dealt with software localization projects for Sun, Oracle, Peregrine and Adobe for a decade, using CAT and WISIWIG localization tools, DTP and workflow systems. This experience has proven useful in the roaring game localization industry, where, for the past ten years, Fabio has been in charge of game localization by Codemasters, Microsoft, Capcom, Square Enix and Bandai-Namco. An active member of Games Localization SIG and cofounder of the Games Localization Round Table, he is passionate about building bridges between cultures and helping people publish great content worldwide.
Valentina Mollica
LQA Manager
Testronic
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen
Program Director
Keywords Studios
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen is officially an industry veteran, having spent 20 years in different roles in testing and localization services at Square Enix. He has recently joined Keywords Studios to build cross-service programs, supporting their global development and publishing clients. He remains an active and enthusiastic member of the game localization and testing community.
Chris Rowley
LQA Head of Division/Operations Director
Keywords Studios
Chris Rowley, an industry veteran since 2002, spent his first five years in development as a games designer and producer. He moved to Codemasters to become their first quality assurance (QA) manager. Since then he has held various QA, localization management and director roles at publishers SCEE, Eidos, 2K and EA. Chris then moved to the vendor side in 2014 working at Testronic, PTW and now Keywords where he is currently responsible for the LQA service line and FQA operations. Chris has been a regular presenter and panelist on the conference circuit for a number of years.
Inés Rubio
Language Services Sr. Global Manager
NI
Inés Rubio is a localization veteran with experience in ecommerce, marketing and 15 years of gaming industry background. Her interest in process improvement centered around technology and outsourcing solutions drove her to research potential machine translation applications to games localization before the Google Neural Machine Translation landmark. Inés currently applies her passion to translation and localization processes at National Instruments, a leader in software defined automated testing and measurements.
Isabell Rudolph
Localization Project Coordinator
Goodgame Studios
Isabell Rudolph has a BA in technical communication and an MS in software localization. She joined the localization department at Goodgame Studios in 2014, gaining experience in working with free-to-play games for mobile and web, delivering high-quality translations, optimizing workflows and continuously improving localization processes and quality.
Shwetank Sharma is a seasoned management professional with experience across game localization business consulting, business development and localization project management. In his past professional pursuits, international experience in client relationship and project management for localization services stand out. Shwetank founded Locnapps Media in 2014 which has been instrumental in servicing videogame developers/publishers and language service providers for South East Asian, Middle Eastern and Indian Languages.
Kseniya Shorokhova
Localization Team Lead
Playrix
Kseniya Shorokhova has an educational background in linguistics, but she began her career in event management and public relations. English and translation have always been part of her life. Kseniya ended up at Playrix four years ago as a Russian to English translator. Though she had no game localization experience, she found that this field was a perfect match for her. She quickly took up copywriting for marketing and then became a team lead, managing marketing localization. In addition, Kseniya oversees a wide range of localization and management tasks.
Kirill Soloviev
CEO & Co-Founder
ContentQuo
Kirill Soloviev is the CEO and co-founder at ContentQuo, an Estonian translation technology company that helps global LSPs, enterprise localization teams and government agencies reduce their linguistic quality risk, improve vendor performance and boost machine translation quality at scale with a data-driven approach. During his 18 years in the industry, Kirill has served in diverse buyer-side and vendor-side roles, most recently as global director of localization at Acronis. Kirill has also co-organized the Localization Unconference in Tallinn and regularly mentors both new and seasoned localization professionals.
Blanca Sánchez Joplin
Game Writer
Socialpoint
Blanca Joplin has been working for over five years as a game writer at Socialpoint, one of Spain’s most vibrant game developers. During this time, she has worked on some very successful titles, including Monster Legends (her main focus and love of her life), Dragon City, World Chef and Word Life. Blanca’s background is in translation, having spent two years as a freelance translator and subtitler prior to arriving at Socialpoint, which has been her home ever since.
Matt Wilson
Global Head of Format QA
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Matt Wilson is a leader in the software and hardware industry with over 20 years of specialist quality assurance (QA) and testing experience. He is currently the global head of format QA within Sony Interactive Entertainment which handles all compliance for PlayStation globally. Matt has experience leading and building a large (250+) co-located team that deals with 30,000+ products globally annually, each with very short service-level agreements. He recently transitioned four separate regional QA teams to a single co-located global QA team. Matt lives in Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Sponsors

PTW

SIDE
SIDE works at the cutting edge of interactive media as a provider of audio services for the global entertainment market.
With over 20 years’ experience, an international network of resources and state-of-the-art studios, SIDE’s award-winning team of technical and creative experts still hold the same collective intention: To develop the truest interpretation of each client’s vision – for audiences of every genre, on any platform, in all languages.

Orange Rock
Drawing upon our parent company, PTW’s 25 years of industry experience, Orange Rock Studios aims to deliver next-gen products using next-gen technologies. PTW is a leading games, digital entertainment, and interactive media solutions provider. The company has 35 studios spread across 3 continents and has worked on over 1500 titles.
As a diverse group of people, cultures, skillsets, hairstyles, beard lengths, and over 200 years of combined on-the-job experience, we build trailblazing products and revenue generating-digital solutions for brands daring to be different.
If you said our obsessive need to innovate and disrupt comes from us being gamers first, we’d say you’re right. Clocking in over 12 years multiplied by 12 hours per day playing games (much to the annoyance of mom), our crew of 80 of the brightest tech wizards, digital strategists, and software hustlers agree on just about everything, except whether RPGs are better than FPS games. Rumor has it, they’re still debating to this day.
Product Development | Game Development | Staff Augmentation | Porting | Esports
As the progenitors of next-level game and app design, we see ourselves as architects building the future of web and mobile experiences for brands and games worldwide.

Keywords Studios
We stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients, working as their external development partner, and providing access to our teams of experts, where and when needed. We are trusted and relied upon by many of the world’s leading video game companies, supporting them from our global network of studios.
We invite you to leverage the breadth and depth of our industry-leading service lines including Art, Game Development, Audio, Functionality QA, Localization, Localization QA and Player Support.
We can deploy these services for you from within our own secure studios around the world; as an Embedded Technical Service on your site but managed by us and we can deliver them singularly or combined through our Co-Development engagements. From individually delivered services to a one-stop-shop, we are trusted to deliver every time.

Roundtable Studio

Memsource
Memsource is the translation management system for global companies wanting to improve localization efficiency. 500+ languages, 50+ file types, 30+ MT engines, REST API, and patented AI make Memsource the TMS used by many of the world’s leading brands to reduce costs, automate workflows, and optimize the entire translation process.

Jinglebell
Jinglebell offers localization and audio production services to the entertainment industry. Our Project Managers and Audio Specialists will answer your requests promptly, provide a wide range of tailor-made solutions and handle big workloads ensuring the finest quality. With four recording studios, one music production studio, two post-production suites and a client base that includes Activision, Bandai Namco, EA, Epic Games, SIE, THQ Nordic and WB Games, Jinglebell is your partner for quality localization, cutting edge audio and voice over services.

Ark One Studios
We are Ark One Studios. A Video Game Localization and Production Company that provides a wide range of services for the Video Game Industry, including Localization, Testing, Voice Over, Dubbing, Music Composition & Implementation, and Audiovisual Production. With a focus on giving you all the necessary tools to adapt your stories for the LATAM market, we want to help you reach Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking audiences without losing what makes your content special. Our goal is simple. Your product in our market. Delivered on time, faithful to the original, seamlessly localized.
Trust us. We are your audience too.

Pink Noise
Pink Noise enables the game industry to offer an unquestionable quality experience for the players. With a focus on Game Localization since 1999, Pink Noise helps game developers, distributors, and publishers reach new markets with high-quality multilingual services. If you played games in the last 20 years, we were probably involved in the translation and audio recording of some of the titles.
Better Localization. Better Game Experience. Paris – Madrid – Mexico City

Acclaro
Acclaro is a translation service and platform that helps the world’s leading brands succeed across cultures. Through a fine-tuned process, top industry talent and leading technologies, we make a long-term investment in our clients’ global brands.
Working in over 100 languages and with offices around the globe, Acclaro helps clients open new markets and gain a competitive edge by expertly adapting their brands and products with fast, high-quality translations.

Testronic
Testronic is an award-winning Quality Assurance (QA) and Localisation company serving the global games and entertainment industries.

XTM
XTM International develops XTM Cloud, an award-winning Translation Management System (TMS) with an integrated Computer-Aided Translation (CAT) tool. XTM is currently the leading web 2.0 complete translation environment and it is available via the cloud or on your own servers. XTM is cost-effective, easy to use, includes filters for all common file types, and is built for collaboration. Our global customers range to include some of the world’s largest games companies and enterprises.
Sign up for a free trial at www.xtm-intl.com/trial
Contact us at sales@xtm-intl.com

Wordbee
Wordbee has developed Wordbee Translator, a cloud-based, all-in-one translation and project management platform and Wordbee Beebox, a middleware that integrates with the most popular CMS software on the market. Wordbee’s flexibility and scalability help gaming companies streamline their processes and reduce turnaround time.

Altagram
We are a global multilingual game localization and audio production agency with offices in Berlin, Germany, Seoul, South Korea and Montreal, Canada. We are a talented and passionate team with years of experience in the video game and localization industry. With more than 5,000 game titles localized, we are a reliable partner to bring games to a worldwide audience.
We devise personalized and effective solutions for our clients’ needs in over 50 languages, guaranteeing the highest quality localization each and every time. And we are grateful to be able to work with top video game developers and publishers from all over the world.

Terra Localizations
Video game companies operate in a fast-paced world. Sometimes you just need those 30 words localized into 20 languages in the next few hours. It can be a struggle to deal with delays when the update needs to go live today and you are responsible for making it happen. This is the problem we solve a Terra Localizations. We offer a dedicated 24-hour localization service, so that you can meet that deadline and turn your audience into raving fans, everywhere.
We are a boutique localization company that cares about the gamers’ experience, regardless of their language, because we are gamers ourselves! This is our secret sauce: we combine a highly specialized localization team with a passion for video games.
Contact us at info@terralocalizations.com
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