|
|
|
al|together 2008 “CROSS THE RUBICON” Extended Phase
While we are always happy to see other people inspired by our efforts, and always interested in
seeing new translation projects being born, there are several things that we require of you
if you wish your translation project to formally be presented as an al|together 2008
extended phase piece.
-
Provide proof of permission to translate from the original creator. This is the most
important guideline of all, without which this entire festival would be for naught. This event was originally — and remains — entitled al|together
because it is an opportunity for us to build bridges with the creators of these pieces, work hand-in-hand with them to
create excellent localizations. In our own conversations with these freeware novel game creators, we have observed
over and over how much it means for them to be asked first — and we have also observed (rightful) indignation
from original creators who were not asked by previous participants (who had told me that indeed such permission had been
granted) in al|togethers past. This is unacceptable; if your translator is so unskilled or so unethical that
he cannot draft a proper formal permission letter to the original creator, then it is our belief that he should not be translating the piece for distribution to begin
with. In the case where the original creator cannot be contacted (is not responding to your request, has unreachable contact
information, or — in the case of a circle — is defunct), we require you to provide evidence of at least a good-faith
effort to contact the original creator.
-
No translations of translations. The only kind of translation acceptable to us is from
the source language to the target language. Every language you have to traverse between the source and the
target is an unacceptable degradation in fidelity. Respect the work of the original creator — and translate
from the source language alone.
-
Submit a feature-complete draft build of your translation for peer review. By "feature-complete",
we mean a completely localized build: there should not be a single thing left in the original language, including the
readme files. Your build will be peer reviewed by the al|together 2008 Peer
Review Committee, and one of three things will happen: (a) permanent rejection for nonadherence to above
rules, or for an unacceptably poor translation; (b) rejection with review commentary and invitation to resubmit for
a competent translation that needs changes; (c) acceptance with review commentary for a translation that meets
all our standards.
-
The submission deadline is 14 February 2009. After this, no more submissions will be considered for participation
in the al|together 2008 extended phase.
-
Extended phase pieces accepted for publication will be presented at the opening phase of al|together 2009;
the date of this phase is to be announced at a later time. However, three guarantees: (a) al|together 2009 will happen;
(b) I will be coordinating it; (c) festival phase participation will again be by invitation only.
Please e-mail at2008-aHLNFOREVERt-insani-dot-org if you wish to submit a piece for consideration.
For this year, we will not be providing technical support or Japanese language support for extended phase participants.
We have found in years past that the investment of time is too high, and the return on investment is too low. Happily,
since many people who have been observing these proceedings seem to think that the amount of work it takes
to put together a festival like this amounts to nothing, it appears that our technical and linguistic expertise will
not be needed anyhow.
We look forward to seeing your translations — and working hand-in-hand with both you and the original creators of the pieces you
choose to translate.
As so many of the creators have said in the pieces we've presented — let's meet again someday, on other pages, with other
stories to tell each other.
3 December 2008
Seung Park
Festival Coordinator, al|together 2008
|
