You need a business sense | Moxu Kraze translator

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You need a business sense | Moxu Kraze, translator

Moxu Kraze freelance translator

Twitter: @MoxuKraze

YouTube

Kraze grew up with parents who didn't really want him to play video games even though they had a Sega console at home. Possibly a bootleg version.

But as a teenager, he got a laptop, discovered DragonAge and the world of video games. He's been hooked ever since.

He grew up outside the US but visited with his parents and found out that he was good with languages.

So he started translating by helping with a fan-translation of a novel.

Even though he wasn't very good at the beginning, they had a small community that helped each other.

Later he came to the US for college and stayed afterward. As a way to make money, he searched online for translating jobs.

Kraze started on small projects and even got scammed a few times.

But he found out that video games also need translations and figured he could combine his talent for languages with his passion for video games.

After working on mobile games and smaller indie games he the opportunity to work on a big AAA game which led to more projects in the same caliber.

We talk about the challenges of being a freelancer and the need to build your own client base.

Even though translation is a part of video game development that doesn't get a lot of attention and in a way is almost invisible for the end user, it does take effort, there's a lot to consider and often there is not one true answer to a problem.

You'll hear me show my admiration for puns in the Pokemon games, and Kraze voices his frustration that Japanese games can have both the best and the worst translations.

Ninja Turtles games

Bare Knuckles / Streets of Rage

Dragon Age

Anthem

Titanfall 2

Pokemon games

Final Fantasy games

Nioh

Yakuza games

MeetTheTranslator hashtag

Computer-assisted Translation

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