MARCH 2-3, 2021
GAME GLOBAL
DIGITAL SUMMIT
A full two-day online event dedicated to video game localization and QA
OUR EVENT
Based on 20 years of successful experience producing 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.
Designed as an event for stakeholders of the video game globalization industry, Game Global offers a shared space where folks from across the gaming industry spectrum can meet and share their endeavors, successes, best practices and research in a collaborative and transparent manner.
Game Global offers the unique experience for those specializing in text and audio translation and localization, localization and functional QA to learn from fellow industry experts and share inspiration.
After the success of our first-ever Game Global Digital Summit in June 2020, we are excited to be hosting our next virtual event on video game localization and QA in March 2021.
During the event you will be able to:
- Take your knowledge to the next level with high-quality live presentations and panels.
- Network and discuss with your peers and new contacts through our app.
- Enjoy yourself and chat with peers during our virtual happy hours.
Check out our program below! For more questions or inquieries you can contact our Conference Manager Francesca Sorrentino at francesca@gameglobal.events.
PRICING
Includes access to the networking app, live webinars on both days, recorded webinars on both days.
PROGRAM
Subject to change.
Our team is working hard to bring the best content to you! The program is currently being fine-tuned and the best speakers and moderators are being summoned. Keep an eye on this section so you don’t miss the latest additions!
Intro - Day 1
"I Want That Skin" — How Continuous Localization in Games Meets Player Demands for In-game Purchases
Knowing the why behind localized content being delivered at faster and faster speeds can help address how to treat that content correctly. In game-play UI components really have different intrinsic values. Are your continuous delivery processes personalized to game components? In this panel presentation we discuss how to evolve continuous localization processes to be customized and to deliver expected value and outcomes every time. The panelists will discuss how to make continuous localization and continuous delivery work and look at the evolution and what continuous localization 2.0 means and how to take advantage.
Takeaways: Attendees will learn how to evolve continuous localization programs effectively; what CL 2.0 is; and what are the technology considerations for continuous localization.
Estelle Bailly
Localization DirectorHi Rez Studios
With over 20 years of experience in the video game localization industry, Estelle Bailly is an expert in the globalization and internationalization of creative content. She started her career in France, where she learned about the various aspects of the localization pipeline through multiple experiences which lead her to become head of localization at one of the largest video game localization agencies in Paris. In 2016, Estelle joined Hi-Rez Studios, a games-as-a-service studio, as localization director. Since then, her core focus has been to help the company to better engage and serve their international audience, offering them higher quality and enhanced support in various languages. Estelle is currently based in the UK, leading a multicultural team that translates three live games in more than eight languages.
Daniele Corrado
Customer Support Engineer5th Kind
Daniele had been a consumer of the gaming industry since, well, forever. In 2010 he moved to the other side of the barricades. He began his career as a localization tester for a heterogeneous bunch of titles and platforms. While at Riot Games, Daniele worked in various capacities on every product that was released. His swansong was the global coordination for VALORANT as the Localization Producer for the title. He is currently helping DESTINYbit in developing their next title and he is working as Technical Support Engineer for 5th Kind.
Paul Davies
Head of Localization and Narrative DesignSocialpoint
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.
Dave Ruane
Digital Content and Partnerships ManagerXTM International
Dave Ruane started his 25-year localization industry journey in technology and solutions roles, followed by operations management, consultancy and then designed globalization business solutions for enterprises. He currently manages digital content and partner strategies at XTM International. Dave is a regular moderator and speaker at industry events, and runs the Process Innovation Challenge at LocWorld. He is a self-confessed techie, based in coastal Spain and more often than not can be found near fly fishing water.
Bursting the Social Bubble: How to Increase Your Localization PMs’ Awareness of Available Resources
We’re trying a new approach to solve the age-old dilemma of a project manager’s (PM’s) social bubble. When a new PM starts at their job, they will often begin working with a few select vendors and eventually get used to them. As a result the manager will pick those people over and over, never trying the other vendors available. This can have unfortunate consequences: new skilled vendors may remain unclaimed; project teams may be formed based on the PMs’ habits rather than tangible characteristics such as vendors’ experience and rates; also, despite having access to over 100 vendors, PMs may feel a disastrous lack of manpower when some of their favorites happen to be unavailable. We strive to raise our PMs’ awareness of the resources available to them, and we’d like to share some ideas in that regard.
Takeaways: Attendees will learn how we use infotainment to increase vendors’ visibility for PMs and how we use in-team social interactions to increase vendors’ visibility for PMs.
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy
Managing PartnerLevsha
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy started his journey in video game localization as a freelance translator in 2005. In 2009, he became one of the founders of Levsha localization and has been a managing partner at the studio since then. Despite having a degree in computational linguistics, Fedor’s passion has always been finding new ways to facilitate efficient and joyful interaction and collaboration between different people.
Polina Karpova
Vendor ManagerLevsha
For the past 2 ½ years, Polina Karpova has been a vendor manager at Levsha localization studio where she is responsible for seeking and recruiting new vendors as well as guiding and helping them throughout their cooperation with Levsha. Whenever vendors face an issue with payment, workload, information, or production — she is there for them. Polina studied international relations at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs (English and Spanish languages) and as a student, she participated in a game localization workshop in 2016.
Meet the Board
The Game Global Advisory Board members will join us in a session to talk about the hottest topics in the video game localization and QA industry.
You can submit your questions in advance here.
After a 30 minute Q&A session with the board, we will move to the Remo networking tables to have lunch together or continue the conversation.
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz
Senior Localization DirectorElectronic 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
LecturerUniversity of Roehampton
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.
Nadine Martin
Senior Manager, Test ServicesSony 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.
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen
Global Head, PMOKeywords 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.
Francesca Sorrentino
Conference ManagerGame Global
Francesca has been in the video game localization industry since 2010, covering various roles: from marketing intern and translator for online games at Wooga and Bigpoint, to Senior Multilingual Localization Specialist at Electronic Arts managing large, multilingual titles, to Program Manager for the Games department at Alpha CRC.
Having experienced both the client and the service provider side of the industry, Francesca recently decided to become a freelance translator and consultant and is currently working as Conference Manager for Game Global and video game localization instructor for the Localization Institute.
Punch, Kick, Block — A Look at Testing Fighting Games
Fighting games may seem easy to understand at first glance but they consist of many layers of complexity. Anyone can test animation or if online ranks are calculated correctly, but testing hurtboxes, hitboxes and frame data, or performing finger-breaking combos requires a lot of experience and skill. It is critical to have a great understanding of the genre and its specific mechanics. Let’s talk about how to approach testing fighting games.
Takeaways: Attendees will learn several example situations/features specific for the fighting game genre that need to be tested and how to approach them to raise confidence in the achieved results.
Jakub Dudkowski
Senior QA Project ManagerQLOC
Jakub Dudkowski is a quality assurance (QA) professional with over eight years of experience as a functionality, localization and certification QA tester, team leader, project manager, training manager, community manager and QA manager. Currently he is a senior QA project manager at QLOC. Jakub is also a fighting game player, tournament organizer, host and community supporter with over 16 years of competitive experience. He has worked on over 100 titles including several fighting games.
Chris Bewick
Regional FQA Director - EurasiaKeywords Studios
Why Modern Game Development Companies Are Moving Away from Custom TMS Tools
Custom content management systems and translation management systems (TMS) tools are prevalent in the gaming industry. An ever-increasing volume of content, expectations of high-quality localization and easy translation workflow, and vendor management is not scalable with legacy or custom TMS tools. This technology debt brings significant overhead that can be addressed with modern TMS tools.
Takeaways: Attendees will learn what pain points game developers face handling localization with legacy or custom-built tools and how they can be addressed with modern TMS products. Uncover localization workflows that you didn’t know existed.
Paul Jakovlev
Customer Success Team LeadLokalise
Paul Jakovlev is a customer success team lead at Lokalise. He is an avid gamer and living the dream of learning about behind the scenes of game development by helping his favorite industry with localization challenges. In his spare time, Paul likes to binge-watch documentaries on various streaming platforms.
Miguel Sepúlveda
Global Localization ManagerKing
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.
Focus on Training and Recruitment - Part II
Our very first and very successful webinar on training and recruitment for the new professionals of the gaming industry was too short! We want to give you a chance to continue discussing.
Miguel Bernal-Merino
LecturerUniversity of Roehampton
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.
Intro - Day 2
Five Reasons Why Independent Developers Should Consider FQA Earlier in Their Project Schedule
Five Reasons Why Independent Developers Should Consider FQA Earlier in Their Project Schedule
In a world lacking time and manpower but with ever-growing to-do lists, compromises have to be made. At the earliest phases of game development, quality assurance is the pillar that usually gets partially cut first. If you’ve just started developing your game and you’re struggling to know if you’re advanced enough to perform functionality quality assurance (FQA) testing, this is the place for you. Stay and listen about the pros of FQA in the earliest parts of your schedule and as a bonus you will learn you don’t have to do everything on your own.
Takeaways: Attendees will learn why QA is important from the earliest phase of development and what can be done with not enough in-house manpower.
Krzysztof Fudro
FQA Team LeadKeywords Studios
Krzysztof Fudro is functionality quality assurance (QA) lead at Keywords Studios Katowice. He and his team work with clients to achieve the highest testing efficiency possible. Prior to Keywords Studios Katowice, Krzysztof worked at In-House Studio as a game designer and QA tester. That experience allows him to predict what each client needs the most, sometimes even before the client realizes it. Krzysztof’s addiction to efficiency, combined with an interest in automation, always pushes him further to improve and optimize processes.
Nadine Martin
Senior Manager, Test ServicesSony 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.
Rooting for Better Machine Translation of In-game Content
Is machine translation (MT) any good for in-game content? Can you go with a stock MT or does training your own make sense? Does adding translation memory from other games help or should you go with one game/one MT? How do you deal with custom terminology and tone of voice? Playrix partnered with Intento to answer these questions. We used the Gardenscapes game content to evaluate four custom neural machine translations (NMTs) and 12 stock NMT engines for English-to-French and we’re ready to share our findings.
Takeaways: Attendees will hear the results of our unique internal research which will help them to boost their MT initiatives.
Marina Ilinykh
Head of LocalizationPlayrix
Marina Ilinykh started her career in localization in 2011. Since then she’s been working in game localization on both the vendor and client sides. Currently Marina is the head of localization at Playrix, overseeing localization of all of the company’s titles, ensuring market-readiness and driving innovation initiatives.
Konstantin Savenkov
CEOIntento
After receiving a PhD in 2008, Konstantin Savenkov led research and development efforts for online content services then worked as CTO at Zvooq and as a chief operating officer at Bookmate. In 2016, he contributed his experience in artificial intelligence (AI), tech and operations to cofound Intento, Inc., where they build tools to source, evaluate and use machine translation (MT) and other cognitive AI services. Intento regularly publishes independent MT evaluation studies and aims to be a reference point for utilizing MT to solve particular business problems.
Diego Cresceri
CEO and FounderCreative Words
Diego Cresceri is CEO and founder of Creative Words, a language service provider based in Genoa. At Creative Words he is responsible for the company’s strategy and growth. His clients include multilingual translation agencies, Italian companies aiming to internationalize, and foreign companies aiming to enter the Italian market. Diego graduated from the University of Genoa in translation and interpreting and before founding Creative Words he was a translator, project manager and chief operations officer at a local translation agency. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the European Language Industry Association (ELIA). When not involved in his company, Diego holds workshops and seminars on innovation, artificial intelligence, and machine translation at universities, training schools, and language associations nationally and internationally.
Non-binary Language in Games Localization
In this session we will discuss the growing popularity of non-gendered translation. As the social movement of non-gender association gains more voice, we are seeing more non-binary characters and avatar options in games along with more requests from game developers to create gender-neutral translations. We will discuss the challenges it faces — whether social, political or grammatical — and the obligations we as translators and language service providers have to our clients to assist in this development.
Takeaways: Attendees will hear about “lessons learned” from actual experience with language-neutral games; learn how to make language quality assurance and testing more streamline; and hear a holistic scholarly approach to language neutrality.
Kaysie Green
Program Manager, Games LocalizationGlyph Language Services
Kaysie Green joined Glyph in 2015 as a project manager and developed her zone of genius around the games industry. This passion was her path to becoming a project manager devoted to Glyph’s games clients. Kaysie is currently the program manager for Glyph’s games division. In this role, she ensures continuous process improvement, up-to-the-moment market research, production quality and the cultivation of Glyph’s team of top-tier, game-obsessed linguists. Before coming to Glyph, Kaysie earned her BA in international relations from Gonzaga University, in 2013.
Niall Spooner-Harvey
Account ManagerGlyph Language Services
Niall Spooner-Harvey has over seven years of experience in the localization industry. He is very happy to be back at Glyph after three years away, most recently working as a project manager in the consumer robotics sector. A classics graduate from the UK, Niall is as passionate about gaming as he is about languages, both living and dead. When not talking at great length about the differences between British and American English or being a two-time Pun Slam champion, he can be found playing Cricket Captain 2020 and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Mariana Dadalto Schettino
Gender Inclusive Language SpecialistGame Global
Mariana Dadalto Schettino is a video game localization professional with a passion for gender inclusive language practices and is a project management enthusiast. As a localization tester at Electronic Arts (EA), she has worked to build in quality on more than 15 different titles, from AAA to mobile games. Mariana is the founder of the Gender Inclusive Taskforce for Localization at EA. As the lead stakeholder for this initiative, she creates guidelines for inclusive language for 20 different territories and improves processes regarding gender matters in the department. In addition to researching and implementing guides for a non-binary approach, Mariana works on shipping the first product from EA localization with applied non-binary language. She is currently transitioning to quality assurance testing while continuing as a researcher and adviser for diversity and inclusion practices with an inclusive language approach for localization.
Localizing Games Effectively for Latin America
Latin America is an emerging market for the gaming industry. It is composed of many different countries, with different cultures and flavors of the language so localizing effectively can be a challenge. In this panel session, we will explore some things to consider when localizing video games for this market including special considerations for the Brazilian-Portuguese and Spanish-speaking audiences in the region. Panelists specialized in mobile, console and PC gaming will share some of the challenges publishers face when trying to resonate with this audience and some of the strategies their companies implement to get raving fans in Latin America.
Takeaways: Attendees will learn about the nuances of the Latin American region and obtain different perspectives from the publisher side about their localization strategies when releasing a new title in the different markets of the region.
Priscilla Bermea
Cargo Localization Operations and Partner LeadRiot Games
Priscilla Bermea is the localization operations lead for Latin America at Riot Games. She is Mexican and a professional with over 10 years of experience in the gaming localization industry. Priscilla has been a fierce gamer since she can remember, and has dedicated herself to translating and interpreting videogames for friends and family. After working as a freelance translator and specialized project manager, she turned her favorite hobby into a career, becoming part of the Latin-American Riot Games team in 2016.
Hugo Miranda
Language SpecialistBlizzard Entertainment
As a language specialist for Latin American Spanish, Hugo Miranda’s main quest is to find what serves players best. From making linguistic creative decisions on style, translation and voiceover to diving deep into the history and culture of the region, he combines a passion for video games, languages and heritage.
Kassi O’Connor
Outside Services DirectorGlu Mobile
Kassi O’Connor began her career in gaming over 11 years ago working in external development. Since then, she’s worked on over 100 titles, been a producer and has expanded the outsourcing and localization department to 11 studios worldwide. Kassi is currently the outside services director and runs all external services for Glu Mobile, including external development, localization and independent contractors. She enjoys working with external teams and using them in a way that they feel ownership of the game they are working on. Kassi has presented at numerous international and US conferences. She holds a BA in communication and an MBA.
Ulises Uno
Content & Localization ManagerEtermax
Ulises Uno is content and localization manager at etermax, leading a strategic area for the company’s gaming division which is focused on developing and publishing worldwide social games that entertain, connect and foster knowledge in up to 34 languages. With an educational background in social sciences and translation, he joined the gaming industry as a translator and copywriter. Ulises currently leads a team of language specialists, user experience writers and content producers, guiding them toward a product-centric mindset.
Marina Ilari
CEOTerra Localizations
Marina Ilari is an ATA certified translator with 16 years of experience in the localization industry. She has worked as a translator and quality assurance specialist for many companies around the world with a special focus on video game localization. Marina is the chief executive officer of Terra Localizations and co-host of the podcast En Pantuflas. She was a 2020 recipient of the Enterprising Women of the Year award.
Localization and Pandas
Pandas is a powerful Python library for quickly and easily manipulating structured data sets like Excel sheets and CSVs. This makes it ideal for sorting, slicing and otherwise juggling large string tables. Just a few simple Pandas commands can give you powerful control over your data and make life easier for your translators.
Takeaways: Attendees will get an introduction to Python Pandas library; learn how to read and write data using Pandas; and learn how to sort, filter, clean and split data using Pandas.
Andrew Vestal
Senior Localization Program ManagerAmazon Game Studios
Andrew Vestal got his start in games localization in 2004, turning Japanese RPGs into English at Tokyo’s 8-4, Ltd. He moved back to the United States in 2006 to work at Blizzard Entertainment, where he oversaw the localization of the first two World of Warcraft expansions, Diablo III, and Battle.net. In 2013, he took a brief break from games to join Microsoft to focus on localization tooling and pipeline design. At Amazon Game Studios since 2017, Andrew currently oversees translation and translation testing of all first-party AGS titles, Twitch Prime, and Lumberyard. He loves retro games and has accidentally started a collection of CRT monitors in his garage.
Lingua Ex Machina: A Look Behind the Scenes of Innovative Initiatives in Video Game Localization
Gaming localization text is very specific. The text is full of nuances and creativity, the audio component needs to be engaging and it is fundamental for a full gaming experience. But the need for live content localization is more and more pressing. How can we combine these factors? In this panel presentation we will discuss the latest technologies that are getting a foothold in the video game localization workflow. Will they help to achieve the results they promise? What are the reasons behind the decisions of implementing innovative technologies? How do we support localization teams in their continuous efforts to add value to the game experience? What does it take to implement the technologies? What progress has been made and what are the next developments in the field? What are the challenges that change and innovation always bring?
Takeaways: Attendees will hear the stories of innovation implementation and learn how to tackle specific challenges that come with it; hear different approaches, like being competitors doesn’t necessarily mean not collaborating and by sharing our experiences we can learn from each other; learn to stimulate research around technology and innovation — together we can push for changes to happen; and to give service providers the opportunity to see the big picture and the work behind this.
Cristina Anselmi
Machine Translation LeadElectronic Arts
Cristina Anselmi is machine translation lead at Electronic Arts (EA). She takes care of everything related to machine translation (MT) implementation and maintenance within EA localization, leads a team of MT specialists, and coordinates several developments around MT. Cristina has 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. Her focus for the past four years has been implementing MT and AI technologies to automate workflows within EA localization. Cristina’s goal is to pave the way for this to be welcome in daily life and to be seen as a help rather than an enemy, a powerful tool that can enhance productivity, without jeopardizing quality and creativity.
Catherin Newmann Halebian
Localization Manager, OG Production & LATAMBlizzard Entertainment
As a localization manager, Catherin Newmann Halebian’s main objective is to support her teams and pipelines, enabling them to provide the highest level of service. She does this with tools such as neural machine translation, digital asset management and computer-assisted translation. Working with multidisciplinary stakeholders has enabled her to develop expertise in interpretation (simultaneous, consecutive and live streamed subtitles) as well as audiovisual and multimedia localization.
Sandra Pourmarin
Localization ConsultantUbisoft
Sandra Pourmarin’s journey in the video game localization industry started 16 years ago with Ubisoft Montreal. Initially Localization Project Manager, she has been localization consultant for ten years now, overseeing Ubisoft NCSA localization and defining Ubisoft worldwide localization strategy with key localization stakeholders. No need to say that localization is one of Sandra’s favorite topics. Very enthusiastic about constant changes in the video game industry, which she sees as an opportunity to challenge oneself and foster out-of-the-box thinking in order to optimize localization processes while always targeting high quality standards.
Tamara Tirjak
Senior Localization ManagerFrontier Developments
Tamara Tirjak is the senior localization manager of Frontier Developments, a self-publishing video game developer based in Cambridge, UK. She is responsible for coordinating all localization-related activities across the organization, focusing on establishing reproducible, automated processes in order to streamline translation efforts and support the company’s international presence. Tamara’s previous experience includes working as an in-house linguist, project manager, translation tool support engineer, and technical trainer for various leading language service providers. She is a certified memoQ trainer, a qualified English-Hungarian translator and interpreter, and holds an MS degree in technology management.
Inés Rubio
Language Services Sr. Global ManagerNI
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.
Closing
Happy Hour
Networking time
Select a session from the program list to learn more.
SPEAKERS
Cristina Anselmi
Machine Translation Lead
Electronic Arts
Cristina Anselmi is machine translation lead at Electronic Arts (EA). She takes care of everything related to machine translation (MT) implementation and maintenance within EA localization, leads a team of MT specialists, and coordinates several developments around MT. Cristina has 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. Her focus for the past four years has been implementing MT and AI technologies to automate workflows within EA localization. Cristina’s goal is to pave the way for this to be welcome in daily life and to be seen as a help rather than an enemy, a powerful tool that can enhance productivity, without jeopardizing quality and creativity.
Estelle Bailly
Localization Director
Hi Rez Studios
With over 20 years of experience in the video game localization industry, Estelle Bailly is an expert in the globalization and internationalization of creative content. She started her career in France, where she learned about the various aspects of the localization pipeline through multiple experiences which lead her to become head of localization at one of the largest video game localization agencies in Paris. In 2016, Estelle joined Hi-Rez Studios, a games-as-a-service studio, as localization director. Since then, her core focus has been to help the company to better engage and serve their international audience, offering them higher quality and enhanced support in various languages. Estelle is currently based in the UK, leading a multicultural team that translates three live games in more than eight languages.
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.
Priscilla Bermea
Cargo Localization Operations and Partner Lead
Riot Games
Priscilla Bermea is the localization operations lead for Latin America at Riot Games. She is Mexican and a professional with over 10 years of experience in the gaming localization industry. Priscilla has been a fierce gamer since she can remember, and has dedicated herself to translating and interpreting videogames for friends and family. After working as a freelance translator and specialized project manager, she turned her favorite hobby into a career, becoming part of the Latin-American Riot Games team in 2016.
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
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy
Managing Partner
Levsha
Fedor Bonch-Osmolovskiy started his journey in video game localization as a freelance translator in 2005. In 2009, he became one of the founders of Levsha localization and has been a managing partner at the studio since then. Despite having a degree in computational linguistics, Fedor’s passion has always been finding new ways to facilitate efficient and joyful interaction and collaboration between different people.
Diego Cresceri
CEO and Founder
Creative Words
Diego Cresceri is CEO and founder of Creative Words, a language service provider based in Genoa. At Creative Words he is responsible for the company’s strategy and growth. His clients include multilingual translation agencies, Italian companies aiming to internationalize, and foreign companies aiming to enter the Italian market. Diego graduated from the University of Genoa in translation and interpreting and before founding Creative Words he was a translator, project manager and chief operations officer at a local translation agency. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the European Language Industry Association (ELIA). When not involved in his company, Diego holds workshops and seminars on innovation, artificial intelligence, and machine translation at universities, training schools, and language associations nationally and internationally.
Mariana Dadalto Schettino
Gender Inclusive Language Specialist
Game Global
Mariana Dadalto Schettino
Gender Inclusive Language SpecialistGame Global
Mariana Dadalto Schettino is a video game localization professional with a passion for gender inclusive language practices and is a project management enthusiast. As a localization tester at Electronic Arts (EA), she has worked to build in quality on more than 15 different titles, from AAA to mobile games. Mariana is the founder of the Gender Inclusive Taskforce for Localization at EA. As the lead stakeholder for this initiative, she creates guidelines for inclusive language for 20 different territories and improves processes regarding gender matters in the department. In addition to researching and implementing guides for a non-binary approach, Mariana works on shipping the first product from EA localization with applied non-binary language. She is currently transitioning to quality assurance testing while continuing as a researcher and adviser for diversity and inclusion practices with an inclusive language approach for localization.
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.
Jakub Dudkowski
Senior QA Project Manager
QLOC
Jakub Dudkowski is a quality assurance (QA) professional with over eight years of experience as a functionality, localization and certification QA tester, team leader, project manager, training manager, community manager and QA manager. Currently he is a senior QA project manager at QLOC. Jakub is also a fighting game player, tournament organizer, host and community supporter with over 16 years of competitive experience. He has worked on over 100 titles including several fighting games.
Krzysztof Fudro
FQA Team Lead
Keywords Studios
Krzysztof Fudro is functionality quality assurance (QA) lead at Keywords Studios Katowice. He and his team work with clients to achieve the highest testing efficiency possible. Prior to Keywords Studios Katowice, Krzysztof worked at In-House Studio as a game designer and QA tester. That experience allows him to predict what each client needs the most, sometimes even before the client realizes it. Krzysztof’s addiction to efficiency, combined with an interest in automation, always pushes him further to improve and optimize processes.
Kaysie Green
Program Manager, Games Localization
Glyph Language Services
Kaysie Green joined Glyph in 2015 as a project manager and developed her zone of genius around the games industry. This passion was her path to becoming a project manager devoted to Glyph’s games clients. Kaysie is currently the program manager for Glyph’s games division. In this role, she ensures continuous process improvement, up-to-the-moment market research, production quality and the cultivation of Glyph’s team of top-tier, game-obsessed linguists. Before coming to Glyph, Kaysie earned her BA in international relations from Gonzaga University, in 2013.
Marina Ilari is an ATA certified translator with 16 years of experience in the localization industry. She has worked as a translator and quality assurance specialist for many companies around the world with a special focus on video game localization. Marina is the chief executive officer of Terra Localizations and co-host of the podcast En Pantuflas. She was a 2020 recipient of the Enterprising Women of the Year award.
Marina Ilinykh
Head of Localization
Playrix
Marina Ilinykh started her career in localization in 2011. Since then she’s been working in game localization on both the vendor and client sides. Currently Marina is the head of localization at Playrix, overseeing localization of all of the company’s titles, ensuring market-readiness and driving innovation initiatives.
Paul Jakovlev
Customer Success Team Lead
Lokalise
Paul Jakovlev is a customer success team lead at Lokalise. He is an avid gamer and living the dream of learning about behind the scenes of game development by helping his favorite industry with localization challenges. In his spare time, Paul likes to binge-watch documentaries on various streaming platforms.
Polina Karpova
Vendor Manager
Levsha
For the past 2 ½ years, Polina Karpova has been a vendor manager at Levsha localization studio where she is responsible for seeking and recruiting new vendors as well as guiding and helping them throughout their cooperation with Levsha. Whenever vendors face an issue with payment, workload, information, or production — she is there for them. Polina studied international relations at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs (English and Spanish languages) and as a student, she participated in a game localization workshop in 2016.
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.
Hugo Miranda
Language Specialist
Blizzard Entertainment
As a language specialist for Latin American Spanish, Hugo Miranda’s main quest is to find what serves players best. From making linguistic creative decisions on style, translation and voiceover to diving deep into the history and culture of the region, he combines a passion for video games, languages and heritage.
Catherin Newmann Halebian
Localization Manager, OG Production & LATAM
Blizzard Entertainment
As a localization manager, Catherin Newmann Halebian’s main objective is to support her teams and pipelines, enabling them to provide the highest level of service. She does this with tools such as neural machine translation, digital asset management and computer-assisted translation. Working with multidisciplinary stakeholders has enabled her to develop expertise in interpretation (simultaneous, consecutive and live streamed subtitles) as well as audiovisual and multimedia localization.
Kassi O’Connor
Outside Services Director
Glu Mobile
Kassi O’Connor began her career in gaming over 11 years ago working in external development. Since then, she’s worked on over 100 titles, been a producer and has expanded the outsourcing and localization department to 11 studios worldwide. Kassi is currently the outside services director and runs all external services for Glu Mobile, including external development, localization and independent contractors. She enjoys working with external teams and using them in a way that they feel ownership of the game they are working on. Kassi has presented at numerous international and US conferences. She holds a BA in communication and an MBA.
Sandra Pourmarin
Localization Consultant
Ubisoft
Sandra Pourmarin’s journey in the video game localization industry started 16 years ago with Ubisoft Montreal. Initially Localization Project Manager, she has been localization consultant for ten years now, overseeing Ubisoft NCSA localization and defining Ubisoft worldwide localization strategy with key localization stakeholders. No need to say that localization is one of Sandra’s favorite topics. Very enthusiastic about constant changes in the video game industry, which she sees as an opportunity to challenge oneself and foster out-of-the-box thinking in order to optimize localization processes while always targeting high quality standards.
Dave Ruane
Digital Content and Partnerships Manager
XTM International
Dave Ruane started his 25-year localization industry journey in technology and solutions roles, followed by operations management, consultancy and then designed globalization business solutions for enterprises. He currently manages digital content and partner strategies at XTM International. Dave is a regular moderator and speaker at industry events, and runs the Process Innovation Challenge at LocWorld. He is a self-confessed techie, based in coastal Spain and more often than not can be found near fly fishing water.
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.
After receiving a PhD in 2008, Konstantin Savenkov led research and development efforts for online content services then worked as CTO at Zvooq and as a chief operating officer at Bookmate. In 2016, he contributed his experience in artificial intelligence (AI), tech and operations to cofound Intento, Inc., where they build tools to source, evaluate and use machine translation (MT) and other cognitive AI services. Intento regularly publishes independent MT evaluation studies and aims to be a reference point for utilizing MT to solve particular business problems.
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.
Francesca Sorrentino
Conference Manager
Game Global
Francesca Sorrentino
Conference ManagerGame Global
Francesca has been in the video game localization industry since 2010, covering various roles: from marketing intern and translator for online games at Wooga and Bigpoint, to Senior Multilingual Localization Specialist at Electronic Arts managing large, multilingual titles, to Program Manager for the Games department at Alpha CRC.
Having experienced both the client and the service provider side of the industry, Francesca recently decided to become a freelance translator and consultant and is currently working as Conference Manager for Game Global and video game localization instructor for the Localization Institute.
Niall Spooner-Harvey
Account Manager
Glyph Language Services
Niall Spooner-Harvey has over seven years of experience in the localization industry. He is very happy to be back at Glyph after three years away, most recently working as a project manager in the consumer robotics sector. A classics graduate from the UK, Niall is as passionate about gaming as he is about languages, both living and dead. When not talking at great length about the differences between British and American English or being a two-time Pun Slam champion, he can be found playing Cricket Captain 2020 and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Tamara Tirjak
Senior Localization Manager
Frontier Developments
Tamara Tirjak is the senior localization manager of Frontier Developments, a self-publishing video game developer based in Cambridge, UK. She is responsible for coordinating all localization-related activities across the organization, focusing on establishing reproducible, automated processes in order to streamline translation efforts and support the company’s international presence. Tamara’s previous experience includes working as an in-house linguist, project manager, translation tool support engineer, and technical trainer for various leading language service providers. She is a certified memoQ trainer, a qualified English-Hungarian translator and interpreter, and holds an MS degree in technology management.
Ulises Uno
Content & Localization Manager
Etermax
Ulises Uno is content and localization manager at etermax, leading a strategic area for the company’s gaming division which is focused on developing and publishing worldwide social games that entertain, connect and foster knowledge in up to 34 languages. With an educational background in social sciences and translation, he joined the gaming industry as a translator and copywriter. Ulises currently leads a team of language specialists, user experience writers and content producers, guiding them toward a product-centric mindset.
Andrew Vestal
Senior Localization Program Manager
Amazon Game Studios
Andrew Vestal got his start in games localization in 2004, turning Japanese RPGs into English at Tokyo’s 8-4, Ltd. He moved back to the United States in 2006 to work at Blizzard Entertainment, where he oversaw the localization of the first two World of Warcraft expansions, Diablo III, and Battle.net. In 2013, he took a brief break from games to join Microsoft to focus on localization tooling and pipeline design. At Amazon Game Studios since 2017, Andrew currently oversees translation and translation testing of all first-party AGS titles, Twitch Prime, and Lumberyard. He loves retro games and has accidentally started a collection of CRT monitors in his garage.
COMPANIES
ADVISORY BOARD
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.
Gaëlle Caballero
Director of Localization 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.
Simone Crosignani
PR Manager
Jinglebell Localization
Simone Crosignani worked as a video game journalist for 15 years before moving to the public relations department of Sony Computer Entertainment in Italy. At Sony he handled enthusiast and online media, working on the launch campaigns of PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 and 100+ games. In 2006 Simone moved to Binari Sonori, a translation and audio production company, now part of Keywords Studios. In 2016 he joined Jinglebell Localization, the game localization spin-off of audio production powerhouse Jinglebell Communication. Simone has been a member of the International Game Developers Association localization group since day one and has been vice-chair of the group since 2013.
Anca Marica
EMEA Localization Manager
Ubisoft
Anca Marica is a localization professional with over ten years of experience in the video game industry. At Ubisoft, she oversees the localization operations for the EMEA region by keeping in close contact with project managers and handling various transversal topics such as loc quality, process improvement or vendor management to ensure the localized versions of Ubisoft games meet company 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.
Nadine Monschau
Senior Localization Manager
Electronic Arts
Nadine Monschau is senior localization manager at EA, leading the translation, vendor management, machine translation, and desktop publishing teams. She has a background in translation and started her career at EA and in the video game localization industry in 2001. Currently, Nadine has kicked off an inclusive language initiative to ensure that players can immerse in an inclusive experience when they play EA games. She is also the local chair of EA’s Women’s Ultimate Team Employee Resource Group and passionate to help women (and her teams in general) progress in their careers.
SPONSORS
Pinknoise
Pinknoise enables the game industry to offer an unquestionable quality experience for the players. With a focus on Game Localization since 1999, Pinknoise 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
Keywords Studios
At Keywords Studios, we are using our passion for games, technology and media to create a global services platform for video games and beyond.
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.
Creative Words
Backed up by almost twenty years of experience in localization and content management, Creative Words is an all-round, flexible and dynamic Language Services Company. We love our work, we have a deep passion for languages and communication is our bread and butter: all of this, in addition with the right dose of technical skills to meet and exceed the expectations of each client. From the translation of a technical manual to the localization of games and apps, from the creation of contents for a web page to the voiceover for an e-learning course, you can count on a dedicated team that will follow your projects step-by-step to achieve its goal.
Testronic
Testronic is an award-winning Quality Assurance (QA) and Localisation company serving the global games and entertainment industries.
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 5,500 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
RoundTable Studio
RoundTable Studio – your game localization partner for success in Latin America! With its own production centers in Argentina and Brazil, and a complete range of translation/audio recording services for Spanish and Portuguese, RTS combines top quality standards and cost efficiency to bring you unbeatable overall value.
The Localization Institute
The Localization Institute was founded in the fall of 1996 to help a young and rapidly evolving industry gain access to quality training and learning opportunities. My own experiences, first as an International Sales and Marketing Manager, then as President of the US office of a British localization company, confirmed to me that there was almost nowhere to go to learn about localization and about how companies could compete more effectively in international markets.
The Institute offers public events and private consulting engagements that help companies reduce the cost and time required to deliver localized products and services. Our facilitators have years of direct personal involvement in the specializations they represent, have a passion for sharing their expertise.
What started with a single event almost a decade ago has evolved into an organization that conducts many events each year covering different aspects of the industry. Localization Institute events have an unrivalled reputation for exceeding participants’ expectations.
Intento
Intento provides services and enterprise tools to evaluate best-of-breed AI models and implement hybrid multivendor AI solutions. We publish independent machine translation (MT) evaluation reports. We help our clients with data cleaning, MT model training and evaluation either via providing software tools or professional services. Our Enterprise Machine Translation Hub is an enterprise-grade AI middleware that provides a unified interface to multiple MT engines to serve MT needs across a variety of enterprise business processes and software systems, as well as a single dashboard to manage MT.
Alpha
Alpha Games is a major player and market-leader in games translation, localization and LQA – and it’s all done by Gamers for Gamers. With a hub based in Barcelona, and further team members located in our offices around the world, the Games team is a trusted service provider and capacity partner for everyone. From indie developers, to AAA publishers and the world’s largest entertainment studios, our clients have lots of good things to say.
Our in-house teams of gaming experts can help you:
- Culturally adapt your game
- Localize dialogue to ensure understanding and allow game fluidity
- Record voice-overs for characters and narrators
- LQA and test the localized game across devices and versions
- Translate technical instructions
- Provide Subject Matter Expertise (SME) review
- Localize all your marketing content
PARTNERS
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