A Kickstarter idea for the rest of Sora no Kiseki

[St. McDuck]

I'm not sure about the feasibility of this, but after the Double Fine success of funding an original game though Kickstarter, I started to wonder about funding the translation of an existing game via the same means.
I'm getting really close to finishing Trails in the Sky and I just know that I'm about to face an ending that leaves questions unanswered. Therefore, to help get the rest of the trilogy into English in a timely manner, Xseed should seriously consider starting up a Kickstarter fund to allow us who want, need, DEMAND the other two games in the Sora no Kiseki series be released in our lifetime. A digital PSN release is all I'd really care about, but if the funding goal for a packaged release isn't too outrageous, then go for that too.

So how about it, Xseed? I'd be down to donating massive funds if it would mean seeing the rest of this great series on my shiny new Vita screen.

[Minneyar]

It's been brought up before, and unfortunately it's not really a feasible option for a localization company. It was brought up during an interview by Wired with XSEED: link

[St. McDuck]

Thanks for the article, Minneyar. I hadn't seen that.
I see what the Wired article means pre-licensing deal, but the licensing deal for the Sora no Kiseki trilogy is already done and one of the games is already out. If Kickstarter could help get the two already-licensed games out sooner, wouldn't that benefit both the licensee and the licencor?
I mean, Xseed is 'sitting' on two games and nobody is making any money on them right now. Logic would suggest that finding a way to get them into the paying hands of customers now instead of way, way later would be in the best interest of all parties involved.

[Peytral]

Thanks for the article, Minneyar. I hadn't seen that.
I see what the Wired article means pre-licensing deal, but the licensing deal for the Sora no Kiseki trilogy is already done and one of the games is already out. If Kickstarter could help get the two already-licensed games out sooner, wouldn't that benefit both the licensee and the licencor?
I mean, Xseed is 'sitting' on two games and nobody is making any money on them right now. Logic would suggest that finding a way to get them into the paying hands of customers now instead of way, way later would be in the best interest of all parties involved.

Yeah, I was thinking this. XSEED already has the rights to the trilogy, so I don't see why any of the listed problems would be a... well, problem.

EDIT: Er, well, I guess aside from the "if we don't get the game out even after the kickstarter thing then it'll be even more disappointing" thing.

[none123]

Thanks for the article, Minneyar. I hadn't seen that.
I see what the Wired article means pre-licensing deal, but the licensing deal for the Sora no Kiseki trilogy is already done and one of the games is already out. If Kickstarter could help get the two already-licensed games out sooner, wouldn't that benefit both the licensee and the licencor?
I mean, Xseed is 'sitting' on two games and nobody is making any money on them right now. Logic would suggest that finding a way to get them into the paying hands of customers now instead of way, way later would be in the best interest of all parties involved.

The problem at the moment is the translation. It takes a really long time to get the words translated and worded correctly for the audience to understand. Can someone link to what wyrdwad said about number of translators and problems that arise from having more?

[The Enigma]

If Kickstarter worked that way, we probably would have SC bby now, but unfortunately I think it is a way to just raise funds for games.

[Chaosblade]

That's actually a good point about kickstarters in general, there's no contractual agreement that the party getting the money has to put out a product. They just have to meet their donation goal and then they get the money.

That's why I've only contributed to one (Wasteland 2).


And Wyrdwad has brought up the point about not wanting too many translators numerous times. This was the first comment I found.

Throwing more money at it isn't going to make it go any quicker UNLESS we want to add more translators, which is just going to result in a more uneven and less high-quality translation

A bit later in that topic with more details.

Just speaking as an Industry Dude, though, it's often easier if there's just one translator and one editor on a project, because they can develop a better rapport and work together better to refine a game's voice and narrative. When you have to work with multiple translators, it's rather like having multiple cooks trying to make one steak - sure, it's a steak, but nobody can really agree on how much A-1 to use or how well it should be cooked or what have you.

Yeah, wholly agreed on that. That's why I maintain that the commonly-suggested solution to the SC-taking-a-long-time problem, "get more translators," is inherently flawed. Yes, the localization may get done faster with more translators... but it almost certainly won't be anywhere near as good. The more translators you use, the more unbalanced the end result will be. Heck, we only used 3 for the first game, and even THAT was pushing it. We would've preferred to keep it to 2 or 1 if we could've.

Maintaining a consistent voice is of the utmost importance in any game's script. And the more cooks you have in the kitchen, the harder it'll be to maintain that consistent voice.

Of course, you could twist the concept around and instead of saying "put the money toward SC to release it quicker," say "put the money toward 3rd so you can go ahead and have translators working on it early." Though that probably wouldn't help a whole lot since the editing process is likely slower than the translation process due to the games having multiple translators working on them. And XSEED is still not going to be interested regardless

[The Enigma]

That's actually a good point about kickstarters in general, there's no contractual agreement that the party getting the money has to put out a product. They just have to meet their donation goal and then they get the money.

That's why I've only contributed to one (Wasteland 2).


And Wyrdwad has brought up the point about not wanting too many translators numerous times. This was the first comment I found.

Well would a Kickstarter help them hire OTHER translators for their other non-Kiseki games while Tom and Sara and the others focus on SC without having to bounce between projects? I dont know...just an idea that I had brewing in my head.

[fedaykin]

Well would a Kickstarter help them hire OTHER translators for their other non-Kiseki games while Tom and Sara and the others focus on SC without having to bounce between projects? I dont know...just an idea that I had brewing in my head.

Alas, at the article Minneyar linked http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/0...lindside/all/1 , Ken and Jess seem to indicate that Kickstarter just generally isn't a plausible option for localisation companies. If I correctly interpret his point, Ken stated that the fact that they're working with 3rd party games means that they'd need to request that the licenses be reserved for them while they carry out the fundraising (which presumably wouldn't impress Falcom very much). Furthermore, as they don't have complete end-to-end control of the product, they wouldn't be able to guarantee completing a project simply based on acquisition of sufficient start-up funds. , They both seem like rather strong arguments and I for one appreciate a frank explanation of the realities of the situation. A lot of companies just say nothing about business suggestions, other than "we take these ideas into consideration".

I don't know precisely what can go wrong when attempting to localise a game. Would anyone more clued up care to give an example of a localisation falling apart, out of the control of the publisher, to flesh out Jess' point a bit at all? Programming or legal issues perhaps?

At any rate, from what Tom's been saying, that they're slowly working on the translation, I'm still reasonably optimistic about an eventual digtial release of the rest of the trilogy in the worst case. If it's PSN/Steam only, the costs should hopefully be low enough that they just need some dedicated mad people to spend their weekends and evenings translating a few giant russian novels.

[The Enigma]

That's true. I forgot that the fact that the games aren't their own would make it slightly more difficult to start any start of Kickstarter type charity.