Joana Santos, Portuguese Translator

1. Tell us a bit about who you are, your background, and how you came to work on translating Forgotton Anne?

I'm Joana from Portugal and my background is mostly cinema and 3D related. I did try Chemistry but it wasn't a good reaction... I'm an intern at ThroughLine Games and Alfred, the Creative Director, made a joke about me translating the game in a week. I know I'm amazing and all but one week sounded crazy, even so, I said I could try. He became very serious and told me it was a joke but we could look into it and so we did and decided to move forward with it.

2. There is a lot of text to translate in Forgotton Anne. How did you approach the task?

At the beginning with a scared and inquisitive smile​. Then I cursed the Portuguese language a couple of times and after a while I just accepted it.

3. What are some of the specific challenges you faced bringing Forgotton Anne into your native language?

The English expressions were a headache. It is somehow common to use English expressions when talking to friends because they have been engraved in us for some time now and they're easy and practical to use. The character's name puns. The 95 character dialog length limit. We don't have Portuguese CSI, so police terminology has a long way to go. At times European Portuguese can be way too formal. ​In English ​it's difficult to know if we're being addressed in an informal or formal way, in Portugal that is not the case, it's two different words. Choosing between our two "you" required some time. We like complexity so we also have two genders which requeired me to constantly toggle between translation sheet and character sheet until I memorized who was what.

Regarding the Brazilian Portuguese ​translation, I took a deep breath and concentrated on all those years watching Brazilian soap operas. I have to admit ​I panicked a ​little and was constantly checking the documents for a specific word that is very common in Portugal, but forbidden in Brazil because it's offensive. Also, there are a large number of words that have

​a ​different meaning. The help I got from our Brazilian editors was very much appreciated.

4. Were there any word or terms that proved particularly awkward or humorous to translate?

Let's say that "Endorser" sounds better than "Enforcer". Wrench in Portuguese is called "English key". The Hound dialog was something else.

I believe we have at least three​ words for "Pipe". Crate Boxton's nodding, shaking and waving.​

5. What do you think about Forgotton Anne and translating/editing it?

I think it's a very beautiful game wit​h a very interesting and compelling

​ story that deserves to reach as much people as possible. I'm glad I was able to help with that.

6. How do you expect your culture will take to Forgotton Anne in your language?

Regarding Portugal, some people will be interested, however, I believe the majority of the gaming community plays mostly in English. As for Brazil, I think they'll like it and I'm glad we could localize the game for them.

7. Any message you want to enclose to players in your language?

​Joguem mais indies​!