Localization can sometimes be straight forward, but on occasion some projects have components that make them impossible to properly adapt for any particular country. With a full feature of the game being centered on history Valiant Hearts was a peculiar project to localize, and I’ll show you what happened behind the curtain.

2. Localizing

3. Summary
• Introduction
• What and how to localize
• Audios localization
• In-game text localization
• Historical facts localization

4. Introduction
Quick background information:
• I’ve started working in video games in 2001
• Ubisoft since 2007 (Far Cry 2, BIA 3)
• Credited on (Neverwinter Nights 1 and its expansion packs, Act of War,
Hasbro license, Totally Spies…)
• Worked as an external producer
(The Witcher, Kao the kangaroo…)

5. What & how
• 3 parts to localize audios, regular texts and the
historical facts.
• Target Languages:
English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian,
Dutch, Polish, Brazilian and Japanese.
• External translation agencies and recording
studios.

6. Audios
How do we provide emotion with the audios:
1) Best acting conditions: No lip synch, no STC, only a soft TC start to end.
2) Smart casting: French version had Marc Cassot a very strong narrative
voice, but the localization casts were done based on the emotions we wanted to
obtained NOT on the replica of the original recordings.
3) Strong in-game choices: implementation of fake languages

7. Audios
Émile
French farmer, main actor,
needs to be expressive,
will do the last letter, the
signature of the game,
should give goose bump to
the players.
Marie
Emile’s daughter.
Not playable, but central to the
story she’s what is keeping
Emile and Karl alive. Young
woman in her early 20’s but
not a love interest for the
players.
Narrator
The main role of the game.
Always off-screen, no visual, soft time
constraint. Not necessarily a video game
actor, but we need a great voice. The voice
should be strong enough to bring the
player in the world and make him believe
in the story.

8. Audios
No in-game languages
Artistic choice + avoid breaking the immersion/emotion
De-structure the languages (focus on the intention not on the text)
Recorded with natives (keep the language dynamic)
Samples

9. In game text localization
• UI Texts and diaries followed a classic pipeline.
Translations from French into English
then dispatched to the other languages.
• Historical objects
used as props to depict life in the 1910s.
Translations from French into English
then dispatched to the other languages.

10. Historical facts Localization
• What are historical facts?
• What are their objectives in the game?
• How was the localization done to achieve these goals?
• What are the problems we faced during localization?

11. Historical facts Localization

12. Historical facts Localization
Objectives:
1) Narrative helper and a tribute to all soldiers
2) Informative: parallel with real history
3) Entertaining: not boring
4) Educational/accurate: it did really exist!

13. Historical facts Localization
Initial French writing Review and Validation by
English translation
English review and validation
Other languages translation
Other languages validation

14. Historical facts Localization
Various problems we faced:
1) The winners write History
2) History is nationalist, reality is neutral and international
3) What is interesting for one country isn’t interesting for everyone
4) A country is not a language

15. Historical facts Localization
Winners write history
1) Narrative positioning as neutral with a respect to all soldiers
2) Not another game with German bad guys
3) Cooperation with the German studios
4) Comical scope includes the French side

17. Historical facts Localization
History is nationalist, reality is international
1) Subject to scrutiny so official support
2) Validation of our documentation sources.
3) Use of a specialized dictionary

18. Historical facts Localization
What is interesting in one country is boring to the others
1) Text was to be short, entertaining and relevant to the
player.
2) Mix of adaptation and translation.
3) Anticipation in the selection of the freelance translators
4) Validation of adapted version based on sources and on
basic online translation tool

19. Historical facts Localization
A country is not a language
• Dutch is spoken in both Belgium and Holland
• Poland didn’t exist at the period the game unfolds
• United Kingdom, Australia and United States played a different role
in the war
• Brazilian situation vs Portugal
• 3 examples to illustrate

20. Historical facts Localization

21. Historical facts Localization

23. Questions?