A brief perspective on how the LocJAM contest came to be and what we can learn from it, held duting the GDC localization summit follow up seminar organized by IGDA Japan in May 2014 Conference video with Japanese interpreting here http://youtu.be/nzuJuQQN-E0 Screencast with no interpreting here http://youtu.be/2WYOYckrrSU

1. LocJAM 2014
Perspective
by
Alain Dellepiane

2. The Republia Times
• April 2012
• Flash game created in
48 hours for the
“Ludum Dare” jam
• Very popular (Pbs, Kotaku,
Rockpapershotgun, VG247)
• Short and rich (many styles
and layers, text-based
gameplay)

3. Video tutorial
• May 2013
• 22 minutes tutorial on
my website
• Free from NDA, I can
show my whole process
• No other plan after that

4. They like it… and ask for more
• 1000+ visitors
• 90+ FB shares, 50+
retweet
• “How can we translate
it too?”
• “How can you build
experience in this field
if you are not allowed
to start?”

5. First things first: the game
• September 2013
• Found a freelance
programmer on Elance,
Cristian Corbu from
Colombia
• Through a special
loader, strings are
injected into the game
• Very solid

6. First things first: the website
• January 2014
• “Eventify” theme on
themeforest.com
• Custom Wordpress
framework by
Tirzen.com
• Very solid

7. How much?
• About 700 USD
• That’s our budget for
two/three nengajō card
mailings
• The IGDA Foundation
might refund (all or in
part)

8. 17 jurors
• As simple and light-
hearted as possible
• Not the Oscars, but a
party
• Many jurors, many
prizes
• Tool makers by raffle
• Agencies for merit

9. Promotion
• Italian localization
podcast (Outcast,
Ringcast, Wiskast)
• Game magazines:
Playerone.tv, Mediamag,
Eurogamer.it
• Blogs and forums
• Posters at GDC and
Fun 4 All

10. Did it work? Site visitors
• 6000 users from
beginning of March to
end of April (100/day)
Most visitors per day:
• 925 on April 5 (start)
• 594 on March 3
(launch)
• 401 April 7 (1st Monday)
• 385 April 13 (end)

11. Visitors
Spain,
25%
Italy, 17%
UK, 8%
Japan, 8%
France,
8%
Germany,
7%
USA
6%
Venezuela
, 3%
Argentina,
2%
Canada,
2%
Direct,
46%
Social,
21%
Referral,
20%
Search,
11%

12. Did it work? Candidates
511 entries
• 186 EU Spanish (87 pro)
• 134 Italian (37 pro)
• 60 French (37 pro)
• 42 German (24 pro)
• 42 LA Spanish (13 pro)
• 20 Japanese (6 pro)
• 28 duplicates/invalid

13. Candidates
Amateur,
58%
Pro, 42%
EU
Spanish
36%
Italian
26%
French
12%
German
8%
LA Spanish
8%
Japanse
4%
Invalid
6%

14. Did it work? Workshops
More than 180 attendees
• London 1: 40+
• Madrid: 40+
• Tokyo: 20+
• London 2: 10+
• Alicante: 10+
• Barcelona: 60+
• Milano : 10+
• 2,5h of published videos
with 350+ views

15. They like it…

16. They like it…

17. And ask for more

18. But we can benefit too
Spelling mistakes Winners
23%
77%
More jurors One juror
53%
19%
Italian
Pro Amateur

19. Adaptation: “Democria”
100.00% 100.00%
86.00% 83.00%
75.00%
10.00%7.00% 7.00%
14.00%
75.00%
7.00% 10.00% 11.00%
15.00%
Italian EU Spanish LA Spanish German French Japanese
Democria
Tweaked (Demócria, Demokria, デモクライア, デモクライア...)
Replaced

20. Adaptation: “Mumpit Mush”
50.00%
61.00%
5.00%
52.00%
40.00%
35.00%33.00%
5.00%
60.00%
4.00%
3.00%
5.00%
17.00%
34.00% 35.00%
44.00%
57.00%
60.00%
German Italian Japanese LA Spanish French EU Spanish
Mumpit Mush
Tweaked (Mumpitz-Maus, Mi amigo Mumpy, マムピットマッシュ)
Replaced

21. 511 times thank you

22. Question Time
Slides, videos and links:
www.localization.it
• Alain Dellepiane:
alain@gloc.it
• Ryoichi Hasegawa:
CXE03617@nifty.com