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0verflow officialy recognizes Sekai Project

Started by blakraven66, August 05, 2010, 10:46:21 PM

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blakraven66

The people at Sekai Project graciously filled us in on some details on how their relationship with 0verflow (or more precisely, the parent company STACK) started and progressed, and we thought we'd share the story from the point of view of the two parties involved.

To start the stage, let's take a look at what 0verflow and Sekai Project had been up to before this year's Anime Expo.  Sekai Project had started in April of 2007, announcing the start of a translation project for 0verflow's animated branching video game School Days.  They are currently finished up through chapter three of the six chapter game.  Meanwhile, as an April Fool's joke for 2008, 0verflow released the trial version of the sequel, Summer Days, translated into Chinese, Korean and English using their new multilingual game engine.  They had used this to see what kind of demand there was for the different languages, and English was on top by a wide margin.  Then, in 2009, one of the staff traveled to Anime Expo and helped out with the HOBIBOX area in the MangaGamer booth.  Furthermore, there were a few mechanized sex toys on display in conjunction with Summer Days.  At this point, no contact had been made between the game company and the translation group.

Now Anime Expo 2010 came around, and the situation started moving.  When the 0verflow representatives arrived on the first day of Anime Expo, one of them, Mathers Numakichi, wrote an email to Sekai Project.  In it, he said that they had received several inquiries from their users about the translation project's website.  Apparently these users thought the project had received an official license from 0verflow.  Since at that point, one of the posts on the top page was talking about the cancelled eden* project, Numakichi noted in the email that he was aware of the TLwiki issue beforehand.  Apparently, there was a public lecture held at Tokyo University last year that talked about, amongst other topics, sites hosting translation projects undertaken without the original creators' permission.  This was a large lecture, with even member(s) of the Diet present.  Thus, Numakichi said that the hardball response from minori was not unexpected and that many game makers had become overly sensitive to the issue.

However, according to Numakichi, 0verflow didn't believe that hardball responses are the only way.  They wanted to find some way for the game company and the fan translation group to coexist, if possible.  Apparently, the game engine for their latest game, Cross Days, and their upcoming game, School Days HQ, ran on a multilingual core, and if it were possible for the company and the translation project to coexist, then insertion of translated scripts would be very simple.  The prototype build of the engine was apparently used in the Summer Days translated trial version.

According to the email, 0verflow was apprehensive of their games being illegally distributed for free, but they also wanted to see if they would be able to answer to the demands of fans who want to see their games in English.  In closing, Numakichi said that they would be at Anime Expo for the duration of the convention and invited the project members to visit their booth.  They were not part of MangaGamer, but had borrowed a section of the booth from them.  Numakichi then apologized for his English skills and said that another staff member who was better at English would be present at the booth.

In response to this email, the project leader of Sekai Project, Kanna, wrote that they would like to do everything they can to help get an English version of School Days and other games from the company out the door.  However, the project group was done as a hobby and thus might not be able to adhere to a rigorous schedule.  Lastly, due to residing in Canada, Kanna could not come to Anime Expo but offered to send representative(s) in the area instead.

At Anime Expo, a representative from Sekai Project met with the 0verflow staff, and it looked like 0verflow was willing to allow the fan translation project to move forward as an unofficial translation.  0verflow also wanted to talk to the project members about the legal framework needed in order to release their games overseas as well as using their scripts for an official release, should that be possible.  Due to discussions being rather short at the convention, the project leader decided to put the translation project on hiatus until more discussions can be made.  In a follow-up email, the project leader thanked 0verflow and made it clear that they would not distribute the actual contents of the game and that they had already implemented a disc checking system to make sure people playing the patches had the game disc.  The reasoning for this was not just because they wanted to avoid copyright infringement, but mainly because they wanted to encourage fans to buy the actual game.  Therefore, they did not want to become an obstacle to an actual official release from 0verflow and wanted to hear more about 0verflow's plans.

0verflow, in their reply email, stated that they would actually officially recognize Sekai Project under two conditions — that they made it clear on their website that the project was done through voluntary interest and that 0verflow is not involved in the endeavor, and that they make it known that 0verflow is looking for information on what is considered inappropriate or obscene, how it may be considered that way and in what regions or countries do these rules apply.  Once these two conditions have been fulfilled, 0verflow would officially recognize the group and link to the group's website from their website.  With regards to an official release, they currently had no concrete plans but are having discussions with interested commercial parties.

In response, Sekai Project agreed to implement the changes and then suggested that putting up a survey would help 0verflow's goals as well as some additional survey questions with regards to pricing and copy protection.  The project group also informed 0verflow that their stance has garnered a lot of positive responses.  0verflow then thanked the group for their efforts and agreed that a survey would be a wonderful idea.

And thus, after roughly one months time, we'd reached the point where Sekai Project had released a translation patch for chapters 2 and 3 as well as a survey.  0verflow stated that they wanted to use the fruits of their discussion with Sekai Project to suggest more optimistic dialogue to game production companies who are currently wary of the overseas market.  Apparently 0verflow is also looking into the ability to custom tailor content for specific regions.  As an example, Numakichi brought up a scene where Makoto was having a bath with his little sister, which was supposed to bring up the notion that even though Makoto was such an unfaithful person, he still cherished his family.  This new system was intended to allow the game to skip that scene in regions where having brother and sister bathe together was forbidden or if displaying a small child in the nude was prohibited, should such regions exist.  They also wanted to make it so that these content changes could be changed quickly should the law get changed.  Therefore, they would be really interested in what types of contents are banned where.  In closing, they hoped for more development with this cooperation and noted that they will post a link to Sekai Project's website, which is currently up now, under the "officially recognized fan activities" section.

http://novelnews.net/2010/08/04/0verflow-around-the-world/

inferno_flamex

#1
Congrats to the people of Sekai Project! And also... THANKS OVERFLOW!

Quote that first guy on the moon.
"One small step for the big wigs, one giant leap for VN fans around the world"

This is such a huge sigh of relief after the constant negative bombardments I've been hearing regarding Fan Translations...

...
To be honest... Overflow... Does not really ring any bells for me... I do not remember playing any of their games... Sorry if i were to sound ignorant and/or rude.. but well yeah.. School Days sounds familiar tho.. >_>... Wonder where I've heard that from.

But with this kind of response... Im sure going to keep a look out for them and their works right now...
..

If their main objective is to garner some positive reactions from foreign fans... They've done it.
But hey...

If you treat your fans right... your fans will stay true... Treat them like shit, well they'll revolt of course.

So its no surprise that when Overflow first extended their hand of friendship... The public will roar in applause... It may not be a surprise, but its something to be happy about nonetheless.

Yossarian762

http://www.sekaiproject.net/survey/

Here's a link to the survey if any of you guys wanna fill it out, which you probably should if you're interested in helping this get released - with all the C&D's going out lately, any company willing to support a fan translations deserves at least a filled out survey, right?

blakraven66

#3

This is such a huge sigh of relief after the constant negative bombardments I've been hearing regarding Fan Translations...

Do take note though that the first (I've heard of anyway)to actually approve of fan translations is 07th Expansion the guys behind Higurashi and Umineko, but it's more likely to do with because they're a doujin circle and know what it feels like to do fan works...


To be honest... Overflow... Does not really ring any bells for me... I do not remember playing any of their games... Sorry if i were to sound ignorant and/or rude.. but well yeah.. School Days sounds familiar tho.. >_>... Wonder where I've heard that from.
Popularized Yandere. Source of "nice boat" meme. Ring any bells?

inferno_flamex


http://www.sekaiproject.net/survey/

...any company willing to support a fan translations deserves at least a filled out survey, right?

Indeed... And done...

@Raven..
Checked VNDB...
I think there might have been an H-anime about this too... And yes... It does ring... a bell.. Just that ONE actually.. XDDDD

Whatever. Any company that supports fan translations deserves support in return right?... I did say that im gonna be looking out for any games they'll release.

SaMo

#5
Good news.
But the bad thing is.... Sekai Project translate too slow!!, more than 2 years translating School Days and just recently launched the patch for chapters 2 and 3.
And don't forget, in september 0verflow gonna launch a better version of School Days using new game engine (based on Cross Days engine) and having more definition. (the original School Days run 640 x 480, School Days HQ run 800 x 600)
But... 0verflow new engine it's a multilingual engine, so now that Sekai Project had the approval from 0verflow they can mess with Cross Days and School Days and translate everything in a fastest speed.

Mizuno


Green_Tea

1) Sekai. Finally, I can have her.

2) It's hard translating a vidxgame. I mean all those subs you have to put with what? 12 different endings.

3) FUCKING MAKOTO.

4) FUCKING MAKOTO.

4) I guess there will be routes where he's better. Hopefully. Please. OH GOD DIE ALREADY YOU GIGANTIC FAGGOT.

The anime was painfully good.

Mana

#8
I've been following their news for the past month and already filled out their survey some days ago. 0verflow deserves some respect for not overreacting without trying to dialogue with Sekai Project. There was the precedence of Ryukishi07 and Nitro+, but it's always good to see other companies taking the same stance toward fan translations.


But the bad thing is.... Sekai Project translate too slow!!, more than 2 years translating School Days and just recently launched the patch for chapters 2 and 3.

People sure like to make demands and complain about the speed of translation projects when they should be happy that there are groups that release 2/3 translated games per year. You should know that there are slower projects with a larger number of followers and we keep waiting for them, because we know that it takes time and that, sooner or later, they will deliver. I know that it's frustrating to wait, but you can always try to learn the language.


Apparently, there was a public lecture held at Tokyo University last year that talked about, amongst other topics, sites hosting translation projects undertaken without the original creators' permission.  This was a large lecture, with even member(s) of the Diet present.  Thus, Numakichi said that the hardball response from minori was not unexpected and that many game makers had become overly sensitive to the issue.

Those people need some lessons from Bethesda, Stardock, Bioware, Square-Enix, Bandai Namco and the likes. They don't give a damn if their products are modded and translated into other languages. They only care about the profit that those translations will bring them and that bothering the fans for that only gives them a bad name.

inferno_flamex

Indeed...

As long as the translating teams DELIVER.. Its good enough for me...

...
.....

Longest wait i've ever had to endure was SRW Masoukishin: Lord of Elementals (SNES)... Oh wait... after soooooooooooooooo many years... IM STILL WAITING.. >_>

I think that project is already as good as dead i assume.

The thing about translated projects, is that they're doing it on their own sweet time... They have their own lives to live ... If you want them to work faster... you could always 'donate'...

I know some fans translation sites do not accept $$$... But you could always 'donate' by alternate means...

Make an alternate site theme perhaps?...
A new banner... draw a site mascot...
send homunculus loli imouto to a imouto-fetished translator...
Sacrifice a chicken while it is midnight to speed up process.
Buy over the company that owns the game they're working on...

Annnnddd stuffs like that...

Green_Tea

Easiest just to learn Jap. It's not a hard language to learn with all the immersion we go through.

Still, can't wait for this. Something else to add to the list, right?

Mana


Longest wait i've ever had to endure was SRW Masoukishin: Lord of Elementals (SNES)... Oh wait... after soooooooooooooooo many years... IM STILL WAITING.. >_>

I think that project is already as good as dead i assume.

Gideon Zhi hasn't updated the status of the project in 3 years, but on his last update, he was having problems with the script insertion. He only updated his SRW EX and SRW Alpha projects after more than 2 years without talking about them, so it's nothing special. He also didn't talk about the Alpha Gaiden project for years until there was some months left for it to be finished and he delivered, like he did with everything else. Some months ago, he finished the translation project of the SNES version of Tactics Ogre, so he is still active. The problem is that he has more than 20 projects on his hands and he has to split his free time among all of them, besides his personal life, which leads to months of silence, even on his boards.

SaMo

#12


But the bad thing is.... Sekai Project translate too slow!!, more than 2 years translating School Days and just recently launched the patch for chapters 2 and 3.

People sure like to make demands and complain about the speed of translation projects when they should be happy that there are groups that release 2/3 translated games per year. You should know that there are slower projects with a larger number of followers and we keep waiting for them, because we know that it takes time and that, sooner or later, they will deliver. I know that it's frustrating to wait, but you can always try to learn the language.



Don't misunderstood what I have said (my engrish can be very funny).
I'm thankful with Sekai Project, And you had to know that the scrip from School Days are already 100% translated. But the fuck*** engine it's not friendly to work with.
What I was triying to said it's: now they had the support from 0verflow, and taking advantage of the new engine (from Cross Days and upcoming School Days HQ) are more flexible to work they had to wait till' School Days HQ launch (Sep. 24th) and put all the effort in it and not waste time trying to edit all the videos inserting the subs for each one on the old School Days.

0verflow appeared to have come for the same reasons as Front Wing.  However, one of the 0verflow staff present was actually at Anime Expo last year, helping out with the HOBIBOX booth.  Furthermore, the adult toys booth had 0verflow's Summer Days for their demonstration.  For their booth this year, in addition to merchandise they were selling, they had a netbook running the English version of the trial for Summer Days that they released for April Fool's a few years back.  English, Chinese and Korean versions of the trial were available for download, and 0verflow said that they put out different versions to gauge interest in localized versions.  The English version ended up being vastly more popular than the other two versions.

When we inquired further regarding their English version, they revealed to us that they actually have a multilingual game engine and work flow all set up for English translations of their game.  Their translation interface consists of an input box containing the original line, and the translator would just type in the translated line.  After submitting, the lines would end up in a script database.  In fact, 0verflow claimed that if they had all the translations, they could literally put together a localized version of a game running on that game engine within a day.

Mana

Yeah, when a game's engine is hard to work with, it can lead to what's happening with School Days.

inferno_flamex

Do you guys think that Overflow would actually help Sekai should they encounter any sort of... 'hacking' problems? >_>

That really sounds like Overflow really recognizes Sekai as a REAL translator. A free one to boot.