Making sense of culturally localized references on a global level: examples of challenges in video game translation
This conference will focus on the challenges posed by the translation of video games that revolve around culturally embedded references. First, we will delve into the history of French adventure games from the 1980s. Then, we will lay out the creative challenges that arose from the Italian translation of our game Lie in my Heart, an autobiography in which action is geographically and temporally placed in a way that creates a realistic effect, all while containing transmedia references. These references have the objective of making sense at multiple geographical levels, both nationally and transnationally.
Sébastien Genvo
is a professor at the University of Lorraine, director of the Information – Communication department, and he is connected to the Research on mediation center. He is responsible for the research team Pixel. Having been a ame designer at Ubisoft from 2001 to 2002, Sébastien Genvo defended the first thesis about video games in France (2006). Within this field, his work is centered around cultural and artistic challenges, with particular interest in the notion of “expressive games”. Within this scope, his research activities involve the creation that has led into the development of two independent games, Keys of a gamespace (2011) and Lie in my heart (2019). He is responsible for the Expressive Game Lab, a platform for videoludic analysis and creation.