Maestro Media + Funforge (French Translation)
over 2 years ago – Fri, Apr 29, 2022 at 03:12:55 AM

Hello Friends,

Maestro Support here, we have a special treat for fans today, a peak behind the curtain at the discussion and process involved with localizing the game in France, written by our friend at Funforge. I’ll let them introduce themselves, take it away!

Localizing a game like Four Souls is no small feat. From the outside, one might confuse localization with translation, or even think all we need to do is press the “translate” button, which is why we thought it interesting to shine a spotlight on the whole process.

First of all, an introduction: my name is Jérémie, I work as a subeditor at Funforge. We are a Paris-based company who localizes and distributes foreign games in French territories, and we also edit our own games. My job mostly consists in writing content for our games in both English and French, and translating content in these languages.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Everything stated here is in regard to our French localization process alone. I cannot speak for Maestro’s other localization partners.

1/ What is localization?

Localizing means adapting a foreign product for a specific audience. It is like translating, but with additional constraints, both technical and cultural. At Funforge, we have a team dedicated to the endeavor: someone to translate, someone to proofread, and two graphic designers to assemble the finished translated files for print. For instance, Maestro sent us a localization kit with all the necessary files, and we quickly got to work on the 950+ cards, the 4 different boxes, the rulebook, etc.

Usually, when localizing a game, the first step is to have a firm grasp on the rules. You need to understand everything your translation entails, and measure each word. I will provide examples below. Luckily for me, I was already a huge fan of the game!

I’ve been playing BOI since it was simply known as “The Binding of Isaac” on Steam, and my Switch has seen me neglect a shameful amount of games in favor of hundreds of hours spent on Afterbirth. I backed Requiem before knowing I was set to translate it. Being part of this community had made me well-aware of how much responsibility this task represented, and so I knew exactly which were my main issues when approaching it.

How to localize Four Souls?

To localize Four Souls for a French audience, understanding the rules is not enough – you need to understand BOI’s history in France. While I have no way to know the exact numbers, one look at French BOI content creators will tell you how much of an impact the game has had – and continues to have – in the land of the baguette. Edmund McMillen’s design was so efficient that the game didn’t even need to be localized to be a hit in Europe’s least Anglophone country.

This means a couple things: 1) the video game already has a lot of fans. 2) the fans are perfectly fine with the game being in English.

Which leads to the inevitable:
3) A big portion of us winced at the idea of seeing the game translated.

It’s hard to admit, but we French are not the most multilingual Europeans.

This means that, culturally speaking, English has an exotic factor. In France, English words have this aura of coolness, they are like incantations that would be broken by any attempt at altering them.

So, when asking ourselves whether to translate 100% of the game in French, or to leave some words intact in English, my inner BOI fan was fundamentally against the former. But after much debate, that’s what we went with!

BUT WHY ??

Excluding the factual stats shown in the graphic above, this is a board game. Board games, at their core, are made to be enjoyed by multiple people. Localizing this game means allowing it to be enjoyed by any French speaker, regardless of their English proficiency and knowledge of BOI. Someone who does not speak a word of English should be able to dive into the world of BOI Four Souls, and catch its many jokes and references. Locking such a big part of the game behind a language barrier would have meant that, to fully understand the game, French speakers wouldn’t have been able to truly “get” the game without assistance, which would have hindered the experience significantly.

Yes, this means that we’ve translated 99% of the card names. That remaining 1% is mostly made up of the few names that completely relied on the English language to deliver their reference or joke.

For example: Baba / Is you and Keke is you are references to the videogame Baba is You, which uses simple language bubbles to create logic puzzles. Translating this to French would be a misrepresentation of the video game and would mean losing all its meta meaning.

Same goes for Salad Fingers – translating his name would be missing the point of the reference. However, especially for Warp Zones, adapting these references meant that when there IS a French version of the source material, that translation must be maintained, e.g. Among Us’ crewmate and Slay the Spire’s Time-Eater.

I knew that many backers have taken issue with the idea of translating card names since Maestro announced that the game would be localized, and I hope that my fellow French fans will become used to the French names. Since Four Souls is based on the BOI videogame, Maestro had added a file to the localization kit that contained the planned localized names for ALL Enemies & Items in the BOI videogame, which left us with only a small fraction of cards whose names needed an original translation.

Localizing a game also means that your translation needs to perfectly preserve the rules. In the context of Four Souls, this means that you need consistency between all effects. If two cards have the same use, then their ability should read the same. If there is a subtle difference between texts, then my job is to spot it, parse why that difference is there, and find a way to carry that difference into the French version. Usually this is a big issue that requires constant communication with game authors, but this wasn’t the case with this game. I could tell how good of a job Maestro & the Four Souls community had done at proofreading all these card effects, and was able to pinpoint each and every phrase I needed to maintain from one card to the next.

HOWEVER.

Translating from English to French presents a paramount problem: on average, English-speaking text gains 10-15% length once translated into French. This becomes a huge issue when rulebooks and cards are very text-heavy. Four Souls is very much guilty of this.

This means that a board game translation will never be as faithful an adaptation as we would want it to be. You need to make compromises, which often means sacrificing consistency for the sake of readability. For me, prior advanced knowledge of this game was key in helping me navigate the thin line between being concise and being linguistically consistent. For example, I knew we couldn’t add numbers as shorthand for longer words, because some abilities could affect all numbers printed in a card’s ability (Permanent marker & The Real Left Hand can turn a 1 into a 2, so we couldn’t abbreviate “première” (first) into “1e” (1st).

To end on a high note, I wanted to share previews of some of my favorite cards of each type 😊

And that’s the gist of it! I hope you all find this insight interesting.

Jérémie (AKA Belldrop)

Maestro Support again, I hope you enjoyed this incredibly insightful look into the localization process and I can’t thank Jérémie enough for writing this up and for all his hard work!

~The Maestro Team & Funforge

More Production Updates & Four Souls Challenges
over 2 years ago – Thu, Apr 21, 2022 at 12:41:22 AM

Hello Friends,

We mentioned in the last update that we’ve received the first run boxes of the game, over the next few weeks we’ll be showing off everything we’ve received! We’ll start with the classic, The Base Game Second Edition box, in all of its glory.

Four Souls Challenges

The fan support team has been working quietly to build a fun thank you to the fans for awhile. We invited some of these fans to playtest and help us improve and want to thank them as well, you know who you are! With their help, we're proud to announce the Four Souls Challenges. New, free, downloadable ways to play the game with existing cards designed to challenge even the best Four Souls players in Solitaire, Co-op, and sometimes Competitive mode.

The first Four Souls Challenge, RESURRECTION DAY, is available RIGHT NOW! Rag Man’s power grows - no longer content to simply bring himself back from the dead, he is now resurrecting an army of monsters to fight alongside him! To have any chance of defeating Rag Man once and for all, your characters will need to work together to weaken it by killing monsters and gaining souls, but it’s difficult when nothing stays dead! With three different difficulty levels and the ability to play Solo, Co-Op and Competitively, there are hours of fun to be had, and you only need the BASE GAME to get playing! It has also been added as a setup option on the official TTS version of Four Souls. If you don't currently own the game or Tabletop Simulator, don't worry, all past Challenges will be available on our website for when you do. Do you have what it takes to take on Rag Man's growing power and his horde of undead minions?

This, and future, FREE Challenges will be available to download at MaestroMedia.com as a thank you to our amazing fans. The Challenges will soon have their own home on the website so you find them all together in one place & make sure not to miss a single one. The first one is available right now on our homepage under the NEWS section (about halfway down the page).

Why are you still reading? Go download it now! Play by yourself! Play with friends! And most importantly - have fun!

Thank you for being an amazing community,

~The Maestro Team & Edmund McMillen

First Runs from Factory, Timeline, Translations
over 2 years ago – Sun, Apr 17, 2022 at 05:12:11 AM

Hello Friends,

It’s another momentous day in the journey of Requiem,  and one delayed by the lockdowns that have been affecting China. We received the first offset samples of the games. We now have in our possession, a full copy of The Game and it’s looking glorious. That also means the games can begin to be built! 

This really feels like the culmination of all our sleepless nights, weekly meetings with the factory at midnight, the ceaseless work from Edmund and the team to improve this game, its art, and really deliver something amazing to the fans. Seeing it come together now makes all of it worth it.

We’re another step closer to bringing the game to you!

English Language Timeline

Keep in mind that this is tentative as lockdowns in China continue to affect manufacturing speed, but our partners continue to work when they can, and meet with us from home. This is the timeline we’ve built together:

• English versions will be complete in late July
• With current shipping challenges, delivery to backers should happen in October/November

Translations

Pegasus Spiele, Funforge, Magic City/MS Ediziones, SD Games and ourselves have been in constant conversation to work through translations. We're working with the best partners we could ask for to help us bring this game to as many fans as possible all over the world. Translation is not easy, and keeping the spirit of the game and the text intact while ensuring the clarity of the game is daunting. Our partners continue to work hard on the cards, but we wanted to show the first glimpse at some non-finalized cards to you.

We're working through the timeline for delivery of the translated games now and will keep everyone updated as we know more.

We'll be back soon,

~The Maestro Team

Introducing The Unboxing of Isaac! Available NOW
over 2 years ago – Thu, Apr 07, 2022 at 01:22:43 AM

Hello Friends,

The most fan-requested merch during the Kickstarter was t-shirts… You asked, and we listened!!

We are excited to announce that Edmund McMillen & Maestro Media have teamed up to create a monthly subscription box called The Unboxing of Isaac. 

This new series features bold and creative The Binding of Isaac themed limited edition t-shirts, new Four Souls cards, and more. Featuring collaborations with well-known creators and artists like Tom Bunk, Daniel Shaw “sawblade666”, Jimbo Phillips, Angela Ho, Sr Pelo, and so many more.  These awesome new t-shirts will not be available ever again, so be sure to get your hands on all 12 while you can.

There are three ways to participate in The Unboxing of Isaac:

• Subscribe to a recurring Monthly Subscription, for $30 a month and never worry about missing a box! We’ll automatically charge your card for the next month’s box, but don’t worry it can be canceled at any time. If you stay subscribed for all 12 months you'll receive 1 FREE box on the 13th month.
• Purchase each month’s box individually for $35 per box. And pick and choose which shirts and boxes you want.
• And coming soon: for a one-time Annual Subscription purchase of $350, reserve all 12 shirts+goodies & the bonus 13th shirt+goodies. This subscription will bundle every month together into one big box that will ship in May 2023! This option, available soon, should significantly cut down on shipping costs.

Find out more about the project at TheUnboxingofIsaac.com.

At this time, we are not able to collect Taxes and duties and they may be due on arrival based on your location.

Watch the unboxing stream from the man himself here. He talks about the Annual Subscription around 9 minutes in, he starts talking about why he likes promo cards at around 19:30. You can also check out and print out this month's promo cards for yourself if you just want the cards at https://foursouls.com/card-search/?origin=box.

~The Maestro Team
 

The Pre-Order and Backerkit Stores are Back!
almost 3 years ago – Wed, Mar 23, 2022 at 07:36:55 PM

Hello Friends,

Throughout the day we'll be sending out 50,000 individual emails so that everyone has a link back into their specific Pledge Manager. This will allow you to add items to your existing order. This is huge for a few reasons and we're thankful to our partners at Backerkit for helping make it happen! 1) You'll save on shipping, since everything will ship at once and in fewer boxes. 2) Everything in that order will ship out at the same time. If you make separate orders, they'll ship out separately, sometimes several weeks or more apart. If you have questions not answered below, please ask them in the comments section below! Now, let's answer some FAQs.

I haven't gotten my link yet!

Please be patient, it's going to take several hours to send out all of those emails. If you don't see it 12 hours from now, please check your SPAM folder before reaching out.

Who is the email from?

The email will be sent from [email protected].

Can I upgrade my pledge level?

No, you'll not be able to do that yourself. If you would like to upgrade your pledge you'll need to message https://boirequiem.backerkit.com/faq#contact-us. Please only contact Backerkit for upgrades to pledge levels. If you need anything else, please message [email protected].

Can I change my address?

Absolutely, you've always been able to do that. If you click on the link provided in the email, skip over (or buy from) the add-on section and you'll get to the shipping section or confirm section. From there you'll see a button to "Edit Your Address."

Can I use a different credit card?

Absolutely, if you click on the link provided in the email, once you add-on your items you'll get to the shipping section or confirm section. From there you'll see a button to "Update Credit Card."

I don't want to add-on anything, do I need to do anything?

Nope, ignore the email that's coming from Backerkit. You've already been charged (or have been receiving emails saying your charge has failed please update your Credit Card) and will not see any new charges. This is just for those people who have expressed the desire to add more items after the original store closing in February.

Will the store open again?

No, this is it, the last time to add-on to your order before the game ships out. Any new pre-order store that opens will either be on our retail store or the retail version of the translated games from our localization partners and those versions won't ship out until much later and will not include the Birthday Card.

Does Requiem, The Big Boi Box, or The Full Collection include the Warp Zones/Alt Art/KS Bonus items?

If you are a Kickstarter Backer (someone who can comment on this Update in Kickstarter) your store will include the Kickstarter exclusives including Alt Art and Warp Zone cards, same as before. If you pre-ordered after July 3rd your items will not include any of the Kickstarter exclusives, same as before.

If I add more, when will I be charged?

Any add-ons will be charged when the store closes on March 31st. Expect most charges to happen on April 1 or April 2.

Is there a limit to what I can add-on?

No, go crazy. But also, we're announcing that secret project we were talking about in February in Early April, so don't go too crazy!

I used an email relay such as Apple Relay:

You will not have received any emails from Backerkit or Kickstarter, so hopefully you found this answer because you check the updates page. You'll need to email [email protected] and let us know a different email address we can use to get you your link to Backerkit.

I might want to change my language:

Don't worry, you can still do that after March 31st. Once we have the cards translated we will show examples and give a deadline for when any language swaps will need to happen.

Things have changed and I need a refund:

Please email [email protected]. Just be patient, we realize that in some situations every penny helps, and we're moving through messages as quickly as possible. Please note, that with recent sanctions, every Credit Card company, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, and other money apps has banned sending or refunding Russian backers. That might change later, but as of today all we can do is put the order on hold so it doesn't try to ship.

I didn't back the game but I want to pre-order:

You have until March 31st at 9am PST to do so, after that the pre-order store will close. We've had overwhelming demand and there's a limit to how much we can manufacture. 

Do Pre-orders include Kickstarter exclusives (Warp Zone Cards, Alt Art Cards, Gold Box Cards, etc)?

All of those were Kickstarter exclusives and are not available in the Pre-order Store. You are a pre-order backer if you ordered after July 3rd.

Is the Guardian Isaac Tier or Tapeworm Pink Box available for pre-order?

Much like the Warp Zones, those two items are Kickstarter exclusives and are not available in the pre-order store. They are available to Kickstarter backers as add-ons though.

I ordered two different pre-orders or a Kickstarter pledge and a pre-order:

You are welcome to do separate orders like that, just be aware that shipping will be more and separate orders are not guaranteed to ship together. If you'd like to combine orders please reach out to us at [email protected] and we can assist you with combining orders into one. If you used multiple email addresses, please include any used in the email.

Will this store re-opening delay the release?

We're able to re-open the store because the manufacturer is able to do a larger print run without effecting the timeline. We are anticipating a few delays with the game being translated into multiple languages, the terrible conflict in Ukraine affecting global shipping, and recent shut downs in China as the coronavirus flairs back up (they've recently shut down the factories in the Shenzhen province and Shanghai Disneyland). When we have a better timeline we will update everyone, for now "late summer or early fall 2022" is the best guess we have. Again, we'll send an update when we know more.

This is also a great time to tell others that the game is available for pre-order since the store will only be open until March 31st at Noon PST (1900 UTC).

Thanks everyone!

~The Maestro Team