Game Localization Meets Dubbing: A Translation Proposal for the First Episode of the Video Game “Life is Strange”

Abstract

This dissertation presents both a theoretical and practical analysis of the interconnections between game localization and dubbing. While game localization has recently emerged as a fundamental sector within Translation Studies, dubbing is an established yet continually evolving translation practice for audiovisual products. The first chapter deals with game localization, aiming to provide a comprehensive definition and an in-depth analysis of its processes, forms, and types. This is necessary due to the limited amount of academic literature currently available on the topic The second chapter focuses on dubbing, exploring its definition, processes, quality standards, and adaptation strategies required to achieve high-quality results. This chapter concludes with a comparison between dubbing and subtitling, the other common method for translating multimedia products. These two chapters are primarily theoretical and are meant to be preparatory to the third chapter, which offers a practical translation proposal for dubbing the first episode of the video game "Life is Strange". This proposal is original, as the game has only been partially localized into Italian, with Italian subtitles provided but without translation of the dialogues and voiceovers. Moreover, the chapter also includes a thorough analysis of both the source and target texts and a comparison between the new translation for dubbing and the existing subtitles.