How localization — and tweets — won over fans new and old Andrew Alfonso, localization director for Capcom games like the Monster Hunter franchise, is a big fan of memes. His appreciation for internet jokes was obvious to those watching the slides that accompanied his Game Developers Conference 2016 talk on adapting games for worldwide audiences: He peppered in funny images and references to illustrate his story about translating Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, which launched on Nintendo 3DS last year.
But that game — which went on to garner acclaim for its strong script and localization tweaks — lacks the memes that Alfonso himself enjoys and has included in previous games, like Capcom’s Ace Attorney series.
“I started thinking that I don’t want people picking up my games on release saying, ‘I like these in-style meme references,’ and then another player picking up the games four years later and thinking, ‘They referenced 300 — that sucks!’" he told the crowd.
Staying away from "meme country" was one of several strategies that Alfonso devised when localizing Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. He and his team at Capcom wanted the game to be their highest quality project yet, hoping to finally bridge the gap between the Japanese audience that goes wild for the role-playing game series and the American gamers who have been comparatively lukewarm on it.
translating the game to a new audience overseas
Alfonso spoke to the crowd about the importance of an entertaining script and other localization tweaks in appealing to Western audiences. As a localization director, finding what American gamers respond to the most is one of the biggest parts of his job. But with this Monster Hunter game, it was even more important that the team get it right.
"Up until 4 Ultimate, we had yet to break a million units sold overseas," he said. "We wanted to do something to help the game break that plateau."
The director came up with several ideas that would help Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate not only be the strongest localization project yet, but appeal to established fans of the series as well as total beginners. These included completely revised loading screens which offered hints to players instead of bland data; truncate the game’s slow-paced tutorial quests; and a unique demo that would teach new players about the often complicated set of weapons available to Monster Hunter players.
As the American-based localization director, however, Alfonso had to answer to the Japanese higher-ups at Capcom. Not all changes were received well — or at all. The Western team was working on translating the project while development on the Japanese version was still in progress, and the company heads emphasized the importance of staying on schedule and under budget.
Many of the changes that Alfonso pitched, while thoughtful and of obvious use to him as a fan and longtime player of the series, were not easy additions. To learn how to better sell his ideas to the Japanese side of Capcom, however, he studied the differences in business practices and communication between Western and Eastern companies.
the localization team doesn’t hold all the power
His research, which also included defining the different demographics for the franchise in its native country and stateside — Japanese Monster Hunter fans are much younger than American ones — ultimately helped him score several localization victories for the game. Other than cutting down the length of dialogue from the original Japanese version to tighten the script, the Western version of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate also includes the ability to skip over beginner tutorials. Alfonso also pitched new optional text to guide total beginners without impeding veteran players, a feature that Capcom liked enough to add to the Japanese version as well.
To further appeal to Western gamers, Alfonso and his team came up with a Twitter campaign that offered short video-based tips. New players, Alfonso said, felt inclined to like the clips, while hardcore Monster Hunter players retweeted them to "spread the knowledge."

#DidYouKnowMH you can chain multiple launching attacks? We call this "Hunter Volleyball" https://t.co/UZWoppLCtd
— Monster Hunter (@monsterhunter) August 19, 2015

While Alfonso had a lot more ideas for how to make Monster Hunter Ultimate 4’s localization Capcom’s strongest project yet, he was only able to accomplish so much; a localization team doesn’t hold the final decision-making power on what makes it into the finished product, he explained. Even so, the team felt satisfied with their "smart localization," which he noted many reviewers picked up on and mentioned favorably.
Overall, Alfonso said the game managed to break through to both the newer and veteran players that he’d wanted to attract in equal measure; it ultimately went on to ship more than a million units in the West.
"If you want something changed and you’re not the one making the decision, you’re going to find more success focusing on the tangibles as opposed to the subjectively better things," he said.
And while he’d encouraged his colleagues in the industry to stay away from memes, he could help but end with one himself: His final slide included wrestling champ John Cena telling the audience to "never give up."

And don’t get used to that costume Spider-Man is going to make his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Captain America: Civil War, and directors Anthony and Joe Russo think fans will be pretty happy with how the superhero turned out.
Speaking to Collider, the Russos said they spent months nailing down Tom Holland for the role, having him test first with Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans to see if he mixed well with them, before having him test with the other actors involved.
Joe Russo said they always intended to have Spider-Man be a part of the movie, but didn’t want to say anything because of the incredibly secret meetings Marvel was having with Sony to acquire sharing rights to the character. The director added that he has a very special role in the film that should please fans. According to his brother, Spider-Man is the only character in the film who doesn’t have baggage that the rest do from the previous Avengers movies, which puts him in an interesting place.
The directors also touched upon Spider-Man’s new costume, heavily influenced by the artwork of iconic artist Steve Ditko, and said that although they loved the design and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige was a fan, the hero’s costume would change if he was brought into future films. They did not confirm, however, whether or not Spider-Man would be included on the roster for the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War — Part 1. Spider-Man will get his own movie, produced by both Sony and Marvel, on July 7, 2017.
Captain America: Civil War hits theaters May 6.

Students and industry folks join forces in the name of romantic diversity “Are tentacles in games going to make people uncomfortable?"
A group of game design students, industry veterans and everyone in between had been sitting on the floor in the North Hall of the Moscone Center for nearly half an hour when Michelle Clough, a narrative designer and localization editor whose resume includes Death Note and Mass Effect 3, asked this question. They’d been talking about different sexual kinks, practices and relationships in gaming with total candor, addressing subjects like, well, tentacle porn — among myriad other sexual preferences and portrayals.
The impromptu roundtable assembled after being shut out of a packed Game Developers Conference 2016 panel hosted by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) on how to portray romance and sexuality in gaming. Clough served as co-moderator alongside writers Patrick Weekes and Sylvia Feketekuty of BioWare (both writers on the Dragon Age franchise), posing questions and fielding responses on subjects.
The moderators’ goal was to carve out ground rules for a possible special interest group that IGDA would sponsor to keep having these conversations. There’s a lot to talk about on the topic, they said — which the group proved to be true right away.
"Fuck men, more femmes"
Before discussing more fringe romantic relationships like the controversial tentacle-monster-meets-schoolgirl trope, students and designers had impassioned things to say about other brands of sexuality. These included Weekes, who discussed the impact that the pansexual Dragon Age: Inquisition character Iron Bull had on players and the writer himself.
"It raised some eyebrows in the studio," he said of including the beefy minotaur with a predilection for BDSM.
"There were a lot of developers outside of the studio who were not familiar with that lifestyle," Weekes explained, adding that some members of BioWare thought that the character’s taste for "consensual power exchange" might make people uncomfortable. But if anyone was uncomfortable, it was people at the studio, not the audience, Weekes said.
Based on the various requests made and debates had by participants of the provocative and fascinating discussion, this certainly seemed true. To the opening question of what gamers wanted to see more of in terms of how romance and sexuality are represented, a student shot her hand up in the air:
"I want to see femme-on-femme relationships," she answered. "Basically, ‘fuck men, more femmes’ — or don’t fuck men, more specifically."
Others said they’d like to see more relationships like that of Iron Bull’s or the bisexual Josephine, also from Inquisition, whose storyline Feketekuty designed. They also talked about diversity not just in sexual representations in games, but in the body types of these marginalized characters. Many expressed their desires to see queer characters of all shapes and sizes.
"some people are offended by women. Some people are offended by penises"
These discussions and suggestions were thoughtful and thought-provoking, but the moderators didn’t want to limit the conversation to the small group seated on the floor. The goal was to launch a special interest group dedicated to this subject. There, members could have these conversations in safe spaces with even more fans who have ideas of how games can continue to get more diverse in all manners, but especially in how they depict relationships.
The conversation had been powerful and refreshing up to the point that Clough asked how some might feel about a game including tentacle porn as a romantic option. But even the moderator recognized that there are some lifestyles that many just can’t get comfortable with — including herself.
To answer the question, though, the same student who called for more lesbians in games vouched for those who are interested in kinks on the fringe.
"Yes, some people are offended by schoolgirls and tentacles," she said. "But some people are offended by women. Some people are offended by penises."
Counterarguments like this were what made the discussion one of GDC’s hidden highlights. But although everyone there was comfortable talking about what some might consider taboo topics, the group conceded that the spectrum of kinks and sexual preferences doesn’t necessarily appeal to everyone. So how can games give people a heads-up about the relationships included within as they get more diverse — in order to reach out to fans of these kinks and warn those who are decidedly not interested?
how tagging content could help fans find the stories they’re looking for
Someone proposed a tagging system that could take cues from fan fiction sites like Archive of Our Own. These websites feature writing on a plethora of romantic relationships and characters, including stories based on characters from games.
These sites use tagging systems that detail the content readers will discover within. If a story features explicit content depicting two underage female leads in a sexual relationship, that will be noted appropriately. Games could include a similar system to benefit players, the group suggested.
Tagging content made sense to these fans of a wide array of sexual material — and, they said, they were likely not alone in thinking this. While the members of BioWare, whose games often let players have queer relationships as a standard option, didn’t have hard numbers on how many straight fans played as gay characters and vice versa, they said they’d heard from many people on how this content appeals to a broad set of players.
"Gay relationships don’t just appeal to gay people," Clough said. Talking openly about these relationships with wider groups of people — in safe, dedicated spaces — could only help make that more apparent.
While the floor of a busy convention center might not be what the group had in mind, it was certainly a great start.

Epic-sponsored GDC session compares virtual reality to film’s early days Game Developer Conference 2016 is in the grip of a virtual reality frenzy. Lines for speaking sessions this week snaked around the Moscone Center, with some talks relocated to much larger rooms.
You can see a few of the games being demonstrated in Polygon’s round-up. But what does this burst of developer enthusiasm mean for the fledgling form?
In “The Future of Virtual Reality: Luminary Panel Discussion" yesterday, hosted by Epic; execs from Lucasfilm, WEVR, Oculus and Baobab discussed some of the likely creative consequences of a technology that is only beginning to be understood.
"The beachhead of VR will be games," said Max Planck, technical founder of Oculus Story and a one-time Pixar technical director. "Gamers are willing to go through early adoption." He added that game-related design would have a profound effect on all kinds of VR-related entertainment experiences.
"It’s very quickly expanding to non-gaming experiences and audiences," added Neville Spiteri, CEO of WEVR. "We’re seeing game folks, video people and web people collaborating as well as musicians and writers. The response from the creative community has been amazing."
Rob Bredow, chief technical officer at LucasFilm said that he is looking to tell stories "that are best told, or can only be told, in this medium." He said that "we are still at a place where we can make things 50 times better. Ways of doing things better will be discovered even this year," he offered, adding that all creative people would benefit from those discoveries.
Eric Darnell, chief creative officer at Baobab as well as he director and screenwriter on the Madagascar movies, compared VR to the very early days of film, when film-makers often innovated by understanding and manipulating a new technology. "Artists got a hold of this new technology and found new ways to tell stories. In VR, we will see the same kind of progression."

“This has been a really weird year for me" "I never hoped to create anything that would be featured on the cover of the New York Times," said Amy Green, co-director and writer of That Dragon, Cancer.
"To get press like that, you have to do something innovative, truly groundbreaking and deep. And the truth is, we didn’t. My husband and I experienced the most common thing in the world: pain."
That Dragon, Cancer tells the story of a family — Green’s family — through a series of vignettes. It revolves around the illness of their real-life son Joel, who was diagnosed with cancer as a baby and died at the age of 5 in 2014. Green, in recounting her experience during GDC 2016’s Indie Soapbox panel, said she does not feel that the game accomplished something extraordinary. Instead, she said, it speaks to the power of video games as a medium.
"We didn’t do anything surprising," she said. "We took the hardest situation of our lives, our son’s terminal cancer diagnosis — the event that shook us to our core and threatened to destroy us altogether — and we tried to create something beautiful out of it."
To Green, the game would never have made headlines if people understood what video games could be.
"My husband and I experienced the most common thing in the world: pain"
"If writers really understood what was possible in a video game, we wouldn’t have to worry about a lack of diversity and voices in games," she said. "We wouldn’t have to worry that a non-technical person like me would be too intimidated by technical terms like player agency, because if great writers knew the potential of games, like you all know it, they would overcome any obstacle placed before them, technical or otherwise, to create in this medium.
"The fact that the world sees That Dragon, Cancer as novel just shows that outside of this room, outside of this conference of your peers, people still don’t understand the potential of video games."
Although Green resisted the idea of calling herself a game maker at first, defaulting to That Dragon, Cancer being " Ryan’s thing," she eventually embraced her presence in the space. It no longer mattered if she was a "technical" participant or not.
"I started to realize that my voice was essential to this medium … I had to carve a space for myself in this medium because the medium itself is compelling and innovative," Green said. "It takes the most common experience in the world and it makes it new and profoundly personal.
"My sweet, funny, cuddly son whose laughter had been silenced is still working his way into another person’s heart."

Vive and Rift launch title is about underwater exploration This new trailer for Vive and Rift launch title Time Machine takes viewers into an ancient underwater world of aquatic dinosaurs.
Players are on a scientific mission to go back in time and investigate long-extinct creatures in order to fend off a modern disaster. During a Game Developers Conference 2016 demo, players are asked to inspect the eye of an enormous predator, without being eaten.
Currently available on Steam Early Access for Oculus Rift DK2 for $19.99, the full game launches next month on Rift and Vive, with a PlayStation VR launch planned later this year.

A heartfelt interactive story At the 2016 Game Developers Conference this week, Penrose Studios is showing Allumette, a virtual reality movie that looks like a cross between papercraft and claymation.
While the full film will run for approximately 20 minutes, the clip on display at GDC lasts less than five. In it, the viewer watches a grown woman and a child interact in a town floating in clouds. Part of it takes place in a small town and another part takes place inside an airship.
“It’s a story about the infinite bond between a mother and an orphan child, and it’s about the sacrifices that people have to make for the greater good, contrasted with the love that family members share for each other," says Penrose Studios CEO Eugene Chung.
Chung started Penrose after heading up Oculus Story Studio, and says the move came partially because he always wanted to build his own storytelling company, and partially because Facebook acquired Oculus.

"That changed the nature of the entire industry," he says. "And I stayed on for a while after the acquisition. […] But as I saw the industry grow, I think what I thought was going to take 10 years got condensed into one."
Similar to the projects from Oculus Story Studio, Allumette will react based on how players interact with it, though Penrose is keeping most of how that works under wraps for the time being. In the demo I watched at GDC, the viewer could only look around and poke their head through walls to see what was happening in certain rooms.
Penrose recently announced that it raised $8.5 million in seed funding, giving the team enough breathing room to create other upcoming projects beyond Allumette, though it hasn’t announced specifics on those. Chung says he formed the company to focus on storytelling in both virtual and augmented reality, and sees both as the team’s focus for the future.
Allumette will be a launch title for PlayStation VR, and it’s also headed to the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, though Penrose has yet to announce timing for those versions.

Grab the toothpaste just grab it already GRAB THE DAMN TOOTHPASTE Watch on YouTube | Subscribe to Polygon on YouTube
If QWOP and The Sims fused together to create a highly dysfunctional baby, it would look a lot like Manual Samuel.
During GDC, we got the chance to go hands-on with Perfectly Paranormal’s latest, in which players control a spoiled brat named Samuel. After getting hit by a truck and landing himself in hell, Samuel makes a deal with the devil: He can have his life back, but only if he can successfully survive 24 hours controlling every aspect of his body.
This means manually breathing, blinking, walking, peeing (man, this is especially hard) and … well, you get the picture. Check out the video above to see us attempt the hardest game of all: basic existence.