Spelunky classic HD em pt-BR: desafios da tradução e localização de jogos eletrônicos

Abstract

Electronic games are artistic products that are part of an expanding multi-billion dollar market that has surpassed the music and film industry. The growth and internationalization of this market have brought the need for localization, which represents a great opportunity for translators who are interested in the area of video game translation. Based on the translation and localization effort of a game called Spelunky Classic HD in the English-Brazilian Portuguese language pair, we analyze important challenges that the translator may encounter in the localization of video games and contribute with theoretical and practical input that can serve to support the teaching of this modality in university translation programs. The technical and linguistic challenges demonstrated how important it is for translators to develop creativity, problem-solving abilities, and other skills that help in understanding the specific characteristics of video game localization and in solving all types of linguistic, cultural, and technical problems. At the end of the work, the Brazilian Portuguese localization was made available to the gamer community on the Spelunky Classic HD page over at Itch.io.