One thing that has always made me proud about the games I have worked on has been the international audience they reach. One of my HDI partners likes to tell the story of when he got a call from China in the early 90s, where a raid on a warehouse of pirated software revealed a trove of unauthorized copies of HDI’s first game, “Battles of Destiny.” He used that to get BOD’s then-publisher to release a Mandarin version of the game.
However, international success requires a lot more than just having a translated version of the game, and we are exploring a number of these factors 6 pm July 11 at the Atlanta Technology Development Center (ATDC). This meeting is open to the public and includes a number of great participants:
The meeting’s focus is on startups and game studios, but really applies to companies of any size. International partners play an important role for any company wanting to do any more than the bare minimum to export its games. With Fading Suns, we always had great distributors in South America and Europe who would promote our translations through their networks. Now Ulisses Spiele, a German company, and GOG, a Polish company, take that role for Fading Suns and Emperor of the Fading Suns, respectively. We are fortunate that Blair Lucas, Group Commercial Director of Acclime, will share his experiences both on interational sales and partnerships.
We also have Joe Rubagumya from the Integral group to talk about localizing your game or product. Localization, which requires greater understanding of foreign audiences that just the language, is much more valuable than simply translating your game.
Since many of our attendees are startup founders, we also expect this to be a great opportunity for anyone looking for work, as well as for investors hoping to meet innovative young companies. Make sure to register HERE if you want to join us.