Atenao X “Raft & Scupper” Strategic board game Localization
How to efficiently localize a board game? Join us for this video demonstration of the pirate-themed strategic board game “Raft & Scupper”, a game calling upon a player’s ability to think creatively to overcome multiple variables.
Discover the video introducing our team’s approach towards such a challenge.
When British company Et Games Trading Limited, specialized in designing, manufacturing and distributing innovative board games contacted us to localize their game “Raft & Scupper” for a German audience, we couldn’t help but recall the very beginning of our videogame localization journey beginning with our French-German translation of the Wiiware labyrinth game Equilibrio. Back in 2012, Wiiware was the dedicated service for downloading Wii videogames. It allowed players to download games from both independent, and famous game publishers. This was Atenao’s very beginning in game localization, well before we started working with Ubisoft.
“Raft & Scupper” is a rather elegant strategic board game invented by philosophy professor Dr. David Vander Laan and marketed by Et Games where we witness two pirate crews, the round-bellied “Yellowbeards” and the square-jawed “Blackbeards” collide to dominate the high seas.
In order to win, each crew must round-up all the ships of the same type or color. Victory is attained either by rounding up all the remaining ships together, or when one of the players manages to sink or “Scupper” 4 opponent ships with the other player sinking none.
The art and method behind translating and localizing a board game
As you can imagine, translating a strategic game such as R&S transcends beyond reading and translating the instructions, and requires us to understand the game and fully immerse ourselves in the concept.
Main challenge: Rendering the game enjoyable and accessible to a large audience by allowing players from different cultures and regions to fully benefit from the game without facing any linguistic or cultural barriers. Strategic board game translation requires a deep comprehension of the game itself and its elements. Translators must pay attention to details, wordplay and cultural references present in the game in order to correctly adapt them to the target language.
Hence, game localization entails:
- Translation of game equipment: maps, boards, instructions manual and written content.
- In the videogame realm: translation of dialogues, menus, dubbing of cinematic scenes.
- In both cases cultural adaptation and adjustment is required to render elements such as idioms, wordplay and even jokes, understandable and relevant to the target audience.
And also…
Localisation of the board game “Cro-magnon”
Bioviva editions chose Atenao to carry out the localisation of the board game “Cro-magnon” into Dutch, German and Italian.
The board game Cro-magnon offers a unique journey into prehistoric times, combining knowledge, philosophical reflection and humor to trace the lives of our distant ancestors. Atenao localised the board, the information booklet and playing cards tonto Italien, German and Dutch.
Working languages : Italian translation, German translation, Dutch translation.