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
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)
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
