Production Archives - DeafCat Studios

How Easy is it to Localize Chinese Games into Arabic

DeafCat Studios — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 11:09:37 +0000

Is it easy to localize Chinese games into Arabic?

Don’t worry we’ve got you covered!

Over the years, the team at DeafCat Studios gained in-depth experience in video game localization. That’s mainly due to working on global titles such as FIFA and Battlefield but also working with the smaller titles and mobile games.

An optimized Process:

Our process at DeafCat Studios has been tested and optimized to produce a top quality product quickly and efficiently. This is also true when we localize Chinese video games into Arabic. Recently DeafCat established an operation in China and has recruited Chinese speaking team members that help us close the cultural gap between our team in the middle east and China. The added value of having native Chinese resources on our team is that they understand the intricacies and specificities of the Chinese culture and they can relay very well our ideas and thoughts to the client et vice versa

Whether the video game is massive or tiny, the localization process is pretty the same and can be summed up into four distinct categories:

– Linguistic (this includes translation, diacritics and adaptation)
– Audio (VO recording of in-game lines)
– Marketing Asset Localization (Localizing all marketing assets such as trailers and producing customized content)
– Quality Assurance (language quality assurance as well as game testing.

Bejing here we come:

With our current set-up and our new representative office in China, we are now more than ever capable of servicing a bigger Chinese customer base, while at the same time simplifying the process of localizing Chinese video games into Arabic; A process that might seem difficult to most Chinese clients especially due to the language barrier.

If you want to learn more about our services, reach out to us today to get a free quote.

Get a Free Quote

Check out our podcast below to learn more about localizing Chinese video games into Arabic:

https://spoti.fi/3IrjNTA

The post How Easy is it to Localize Chinese Games into Arabic appeared first on DeafCat Studios.

Helping Chinese Video Games Publishers Enter the MENA Market

DeafCat Studios — Sat, 14 Sep 2019 12:13:29 +0000

VideoGame Publishers In the Mena Market

The MENA region has the fastest growth rate in the videogame market, with more than 4 billion dollars of total revenue in 2017. We’re confident that the future of the videogame industry in the Arab world is promising and DeafCat Studios is happy to be part of it. Our main objective in the coming years is to localize more Chinese games into Arabic.

There’s no doubt that for foreign video game developers and publishers, tackling the Arab market can be quite tricky. Recently we were at Gamescom in Cologne and had the chance to chat with various publishers such as EA, Ubisoft and Microsoft and we felt that there’s a big appetite from these global companies to grow their footprint in the MENA market. The biggest appetite of them all was definitely that Chinese publishers who currently are rejoicing the Chinese government, lifted the freeze on new video game licenses according to the Economist. At one point China was producing more than 9,000 new games every year before the freeze and now the giant machine is back on. We met with top Chinese video game publishers and they all had their eyes on the Arab gamer. Most certainly the biggest validation to this, comes from the gaming giant Tencent Games that recently picked Dubai as their MENA headquarters.

News

The good news for the Chinese is that the Arab videogame market is real and lucrative. But the bad news is that Arabs consumes content primarily in Arabic and not English and especially not Chinese and this is where we can help. As a matter of fact, for the past five years, DeafCat Studios localized video games into Arabic. We have been working with global publishers such as EA to help them localize some of their biggest titles into Arabic including World Cup 18, FIFA 19, FIFA 20 and also Battlefield 5. Our best added value to EA is the fact that we are a dynamic team who acquired unique video game localization skills. We also like to believe that we have the necessary middle eastern cultural know how fused with an international mindset and that allows us to easily bridge between Arabs and the rest of the world. Our presence in both Beirut and Dubai solidifies our Arab roots and expands our international spirit which is attractive to most global publishers. For those reason we believe we are in a best position to localize Chinese games into Arabic.

Now if you are a Chinese publisher reading this article, the following message is for you. DeafCat Studios is more than your typical localization company. We are part of a trio set-up made up of three other companies that have digital marketing and advertising as a core service offering. The trio set-up is perfectly positioned to localize and drive highly targeted converting traffic to your IPs or video games. We can help you enter and grow the MENA video-game market quickly and efficiently.

To learn more about our services, feel free to contact us or chat with us by clicking the chat icon on the bottom right of the screen.

The post Helping Chinese Video Games Publishers Enter the MENA Market appeared first on DeafCat Studios.

Arabic Localization, How it All Started!

Deafcat Studios — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 11:27:58 +0000

History of Arabic Localization

Through history, both human communication and the evolution of Arabic Localization using expression and dialogue were regarded as the main trigger for the elevation of human civilization. The use of writing through newspapers followed by photography, enabled communication to shift beyond. Reaching the 20th century, which was the dawn of media after the invasion of radio and film (TV) where people had the chance to see what others across the world looked like. Both, considered the most powerful aids of communication, source of information and entertainment. They made their way into homes becoming immensely a major component in everyone’s daily life routine. With a late, came the Internet, the latest assertive of all mass media linking the globe.

Globalization vs Arabic Localization

In today’s world of globalization, and with the expansion of broadcasting audiovisual sector. People are on daily basis coming in contact with films, TV programs, music and video games, many of which originated in foreign countries and with different languages. To make this contact possible and efficient, screen translations were used. Later on, came dubbing, one of the screen or audiovisual forms of translation, which involves the replacement of the original speech by a voice track. It attempts to follow as closely as possible the timing, phrasing and lip movement of the original dialogue. This became the upcoming trend. Pushing thus, translation, adaptation and localization in the US and Europe to their highest apex for the good of global interaction.

The Ages of Localization

Meanwhile, in the late 70s, the Middle East, distant from localizing foreign content, came Nicolas Abu Samah, a renowned Lebanese film director, introducing “Arabic dubbing” and establishing his own company FILMALI in Lebanon to eventually become the first entity of the region that kick-started the industry of dubbing in Arabic to the Arab world. Hence, and for the past four decades, FILMALI, followed by DeafCat Studios, a company established in 2006 due to the expansion of services offered. Hence, fully determined to provide consistently the highest quality of localized productions and services. Deafcat Studios, specialized in Arabic VO recording, Arabic translations, dubbing into Arabic, Arabic voice over, music production, 2.0 and 5.1 mixing as well as mastering. More recently, a boom of the video game industry, DeafCat Studios positioned itself to be one of the top companies to offer Arabic video game localization services to the biggest developers in the world.

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360° Video Production in Dubai and Beirut

Deafcat Studios — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 13:16:08 +0000

Video Production

Yes it is finally here! We are proud to announce that DeafCat Studios now have the capacity and resources to produce 360° Video Production and cater to both the Lebanese and UAE markets. Now brands, publishers and advertisers in Beirut and Dubai can produce 360° videos quickly and affordably. F&B, retail, real-estate, event organization, travel and tourism industries can now showcase their businesses in a fantastic new way. These 360° Video Production are guaranteed to capture your audiences and increase your brand equity.
One of the most powerful content formats ever created, 360 has been at the beating heart of visualize since day one.
360° video is one of the most powerful content formats for user engagement. It transports viewers to the center of a narrative, giving them a highly immersive experience of a real-world or custom environment. With major platforms like YouTube and Facebook supporting the format, your 360° content has the potential to reach millions.
Interactive video is currently seeing wide adoption on campaigns from international brands, music videos, TV and entertainment, sports, corporate training, the travel industry and more. With the lowest barrier to entry of any VR content, brands can reach a massive audience of 2 billion smartphone users who can enjoy 360° video even without a VR headset.

The post 360° Video Production in Dubai and Beirut appeared first on DeafCat Studios.

Top 10 Rules to Successfully Manage a Video Game Localization Project

Deafcat Studios — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 19:01:30 +0000

Proper management of a video game localization project is essential for its success. Modern video games usually have complex story-lines and game-plays and in turn have a large script. These scripts have more than 100,000 words that are recorded and hence localizing these video games into spoken Arabic is not a walk in the park. We have compiled below the top 10 rules that will help you successfully manage a video game localization project in Arabic or any other language:
1- Organize all your files in a comprehensive manner and place them in a shared folder that is easily accessible by team members.
2- Make sure the naming convention of your files are short and simple.
3- Make use of a project management tool and keep log of the tasks. We recommend Celoxis.
4- If you work with freelance translators, ask them to spend as much time at the studio as possible and not work from home.
5- Study the video game, understand the game-play, the plot, the characters’ bios and play previous versions of the game if possible.
6- Use a cloud based service to share and edit the scripts. We recommend Google drive.
7- Get the actors to preview the scripts prior to recording.
8- Start on time and commit to a certain number of recorded lines per day.
9- Spend enough time on script adaptation before the recording.
10- Review all the files and make sure they are complete before sending them out to the client.

We have been really lucky to work with top video game developers to localize their product into spoken Arabic and we have learned a thing or two along the way. If you have a video game that you want to localize into Arabic, please feel free to contact us to learn more.

The post Top 10 Rules to Successfully Manage a Video Game Localization Project appeared first on DeafCat Studios.

Which Arabic Voice Over Talent is Right for You?

Deafcat Studios — Sun, 12 Jul 2015 20:01:49 +0000

Arabic Voice Over

You have a movie, cartoon, advert, radio spot or any project that needs Arabic Voice Over and you are not quite sure how to go about it? You ask around and the feedback around you just makes things more complicated because you realize that there are too many factors that come into play when choosing the proper Arabic voice over talent that would ensure a great final product? Well, we have compiled a couple of best practices that might help you take the proper decision.

1- Understanding the project type and the requirements: That is a no brainer really, but choosing the proper Arabic voice over talent is still a very important part of the project. A good director can help you cast the right talent since he/she usually knows the strengths and weaknesses of the talents that they work with. For example, some talents are really good for cartoon based projects and some are better for drama and others are really good at recording ads. It is very important to understand the project requirements very well and trust the director’s recommendations for a successful project.

2- Identifying your target audience: Every Arabic voice over job is supposed to speak out to a certain target audience; literally. Hence it is essential to be able to speak the target audience’s language. If you are talking to kids, you need to be able to speak their lingo, and if you are talking to business men you should be able to convey confidence etc. Consequently, adapting the translation to your target audience’s style is a very important aspect in delivering a powerful voice over project.

3- Choosing the right Arabic dialect: There are 300+ million Arabs in the Arab world who speak hundreds of different dialects. However, the good news is that modern standard Arabic is common for all. Hence, if you want to reach a vast majority of Arab speakers, you should always pick modern standard Arabic for your projects. Nevertheless, modern standard is not always the best option since it is very heavy and a bit classical and definitely is not the first choice for a comedy series for example. Instead you can opt for a lighter local dialect such as Lebanese that is still understood by the majority of Arabs.

4- Preserve the essence of the original reference video track: The majority of voice over projects that we work with at the studio usually have original English reference and M&E tracks. We find it extremely essential to preserve the essence of the original reference while working on the Arabic voice over track. Our job at the end of the day is to make sure that we are properly communicating the client’s message in as much authenticity as possible.

5- Provide clients with exceptional mixing and mastering services: Last but not least, mixing and mastering are the glue that holds the final project together. When poorly performed, mixing and mastering can easily turn a great voice over project into a major flop. Hence, it is important to work with mixing and mastering engineers that have experience in Arabic voice over projects.

Knowledge & Information about Arabic Language

You have to understand the the Arabic language is very hard sounding and can create a lot of sibilance, hence a talented sound engineer needs to be able to properly deal with the sibilance while making sure that the words are understandable and without affecting the overall audio track quality.

The post Which Arabic Voice Over Talent is Right for You? appeared first on DeafCat Studios.

Video Game Localization into Arabic Made Easy!

Deafcat Studios — Sat, 27 Jun 2015 13:23:03 +0000

We have been working very hard to put together an optimized system to simplify video game localization into spoken Arabic. We also have been very lucky to work with European clients who helped us learn from their own processes. Let’s face it, European standards are very high and we are very fortunate to be able to cater to their request. A few things we learned along the way:

1- Project Management: It is undeniably the most important building bloc of the job. When working on video game localization projects, the studio is usually working with multiple stakeholders such as translators, actors, quality reviewers, sound engineers and most importantly the game developers. It is important to submit all the material to the game developers exactly in the format they ask for, and they might ask for up to 10 different audio recording format to fit exactly within their game structure. With games that need over than 100 hours of audio recording and 10 different file formats, it is very crucial to have solid project management skills.

2- Comply with the instructions: Since we are working with international clients, it is very important to comply to the instructions that they have send us. We learned that the proper delivery of our files and following instructions to the letter, does not only help us ensure deliveries, but is also very important to the other stakeholders’ deliveries since they are directly related to our own.

3- Transparency and trust: Localization of video games into different languages such as Arabic usually means dealing with clients that have no clue about the language. They do not speak the language and they rely on us to provide them with proper guidance. Hence it is very important to explain to them every detail no matter how frustrating it might be. Sometimes we feel like we are giving Arabic 101 courses but we learned that it is very important to build trust with our clients.

4- Support: It is no secret that all clients like to have outstanding support when asking for our services. As a general rule at the studio, we always go out of our way to provide our clients with whatever support they need. For example, we recently installed Skype conferencing in our studio so that the client and his engineers can assist the recording sessions from overseas. They asked for it, we made it happen.

5- Committing to deliveries: We take our delivery commitments very seriously, for that we understand that our clients are usually very eager to get their products out. They have sales milestones to reach and these are absolutely dependent on our deliveries. Consequently, we feel it is our duty to do whatever it takes to meet the deadlines. Easier said than done, since we are usually running after moody talents and juggling schedules to be able to make sure not one single hour is wasted. It has been truly a blast working on all our video game localization into Arabic projects and we are happy that we acquired that skill. Feel free to drop us a line to discuss a potential collaboration with our studio.

You have a fantastic new game you want to release and want to reach those 300+ million Arabs? Well, we can help you localize your game into modern standard Arabic or the popular Lebanese dialect. Contact us today to learn more.

Get a Free Quote

The post Video Game Localization into Arabic Made Easy! appeared first on DeafCat Studios.

5.1 Mix for Arabic Dubbing Movies

Deafcat Studios — Sun, 03 May 2015 09:55:39 +0000

It’s always exciting to work on cool Arabic dubbing projects. That’s exactly what we have been doing recently at the studio and it’s just great!
The whole team is buzzing with energy, putting long hour and having a blast especially with a couple of 5.1 projects that we’ve been working on. Mixing a 5.1 movie is very different than mixing a 2.0 movie there’s no doubt about that. It gets even more complicated when you add to the equation Arabic dubbing.

First of all, our casting director needs to find the perfect Arab voice over talents that can match the original English cast. This is an art form by itself and we are very lucky to have a superb director with more than 20 years of experience that does that for us.

When the cast is done, and the Arabic scripts are ready, we start with the recording sessions. Now this is where the magic happens! We are so lucky to work with extremely talented and experienced Arab actors that can easily dub any class. An international supper star! That’s really comforting to know. When the recording sessions are done, our editing team make sure to clean up all the recordings and make the session file ready for our mix engineer. Our mix engineer is by far the superstar of the studio!

It is hard enough mixing all the Arabic dubbed tracks in 2.0, but doing it in 5.1 is a different ball game all together. Our mix engineer needs to make sure that all the Arabic tracks are mixed in to match the same quality of the original movie which is usually a multi-million dollars Hollywood production. How do we do it? Well it is simply talent and dedication! It all starts with a proper analysis or the original movie audio tracks. Sound discrimination, spectrum analysis, timber of sound identification, spatial analysis, volume mix, re-verbs etc. This thorough analysis allows our mix engineer to plan the 5.1 mix properly and to better understand the scope of work.
From that point over, it is basically talent and experience that gets the job done. We are very lucky to have a great team working in synergy together, for that the performance of one team member affects the overall quality of the project.

For more information about 5.1 mixes for Arabic dubbing movies, feel free to drop us a line and get in touch!

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Arabic Voice Over, Finding the Right Talent!

Deafcat Studios — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 09:38:34 +0000

Finding fresh talents in the Middle East for Arabic voice over projects is becoming more and more difficult. We live in an age where the broadcasting and the whole media industry in general reached its lowest in terms of its quality of content production and more specifically Arabic content production! There’s no doubt that some clients choose to produce cheap content just for the sake of maximizing their profits. Yet it is without a doubt that those who care enough to produce higher quality content reap the benefits. Consequently finding talent that can deliver high quality content for Arabic voice over projects is becoming a very difficult task.
However, there’s always amazing talent out there, and we at the studio are lucky to work with a few. Yet talent comes with a cost, and over the years we learned that paying a little extra brings indisputable added value for our projects.

It is without a doubt that a well spoken actor with experience who masters the Arabic language is always a delight to work with especially for Arabic voice over projects. At the end of day, the objective of most VO projects is to communicate a message, and that’s simpler said than done. For that reason, a talented and experienced actor can facilitate the process and turn the project into a success.

We have a database of over more than 1,000 Arab talents from all ages and genders. Get in touch with us today and we will cast the right talent for your projects.

The post Arabic Voice Over, Finding the Right Talent! appeared first on DeafCat Studios.

VO request from Dubai turns out to be quite challenging

Deafcat Studios — Sun, 28 Dec 2014 19:14:48 +0000

Technically, voice over (VO) projects are quite simple to do. However it gets a little bit complicated when the delivery date is very short and when the script is not available. The last voice over project I got from a small production house in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai) and it was quite a fun challenge where I had to do script writing of 7 short videos (reportage) to which the main protagonist was a French guy speaking in English. That alone took quite a lot of time because I couldn’t understand what the French guy was saying in English. It was funny but the team and I did it.

After that, we had to translate the script from English to classical Arabic and then we had to find out the right talent to do VO. After recording the scripts, the mixing engineer did a fantastic job mixing the voice over with the original audio track so that all the videos had a uniformed master track. Taking on small projects like that is always fun because you never know what you might expect but most importantly because the studio can cater to the needs of smaller production houses with limited budgets.

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