Not sure if this was posted. Credit goes to Wellbidlo on reddit.
The English translation for this interview with the Czech translator for B&W.
The English translation for this interview with the Czech translator for B&W.
Can you told us about some interesting use of language in Blood and Wine?
"You should know from books what kind of principality Toussaint is - it avoided war, people just drink wine and solve nothing - just except knight's honor, galantness or tournaments and so. It's land like straight from fairly tale, at one point almost unreal (how beautiful it is), so we adapted speech of the locals to that. Everyone is talking nobly, galantly, ostentatiously, loftily and absolutly not like normal people. Honestly, I enjoyed more normal peasants and brigands from base game. When I was translating Blood & Wine, I often pick from very old history books.
How much difficult is Blood & Wine translation?
"It's not more difficult than Wild Hunt or Hearts of Stone, but for me it's not that big of a "language playground" like rest of the Witcher 3. CD PROJECT RED is really indulging in references and cues, so I should be careful in this or that. This was true also for Wild Hunt and Hearts of Stone. If I told you how much in Witcher appears reference from other work, book, movie, TV series you never expecting... Most of the time references are refering to William Shakespeare (because he wrote so much, so it won't run out). But it's my luck I have degree in english literature, so that Shakespeare won't hold me so much"
Do you have in new expansion some character that you especially enjoyed (his way of speaking, dialect, funny moments)? And what character for you was most interesting by translating it?
"I really can't talk about new characters in expansion, because I don't want spoil anything, but I almost leaked one quest while I was almost dying by translating it. That quest was full of songs, poetry, short stories and so. I kept everything in translation - every verse, reference, joke, language gimmicks... but from time to time it's really hard.
For characters that I enjoyed translating, they were mostly characters that don't speak normal czech language - villagers, drunks, kids, trolls ect. But they aren't that common in next expansion. "
Did CD PROJECT RED put some another easter egg from Tarantino movies in Blood & Wine?
"Even if they did, I can't really tell you anything. But I can tell that developers are really passionate about references like these, so you should be looking after them. I really recommend to look careful now. "
Will in Blood & Wine appear some characters from Witcher 2? Will in new expansion be piece of politics? Who was your favorite character from books and who from games?
"I can't talk about who appear in new expansion - with this announcement, developers should announce it, and they are really "shaking" about it. From books I liked Regis, and from games.... If I should tell you one, it would probably be Johnny (Witcher 3) or Master Mirror. Its really hard to choose, there were so many of them. But in books and games I really hated Marigold - I just can't stand so talkative people
Do you know when the expansion will come out?
"It's not known yet. I know the release date, but I will pretend I don't know it
How looks average day of translator in CD PROJECT RED?
"I will correct you now, I'm not a translator working in polish CDPR, but I work in czech company Comrad, mainly known for translating other games - but translating Witcher is my work. My average day looks like this, I will get up from my nice bed, and go to my office (if I get up from sleeping, haha). If I don't must work on dabbing or other stuff, I mainly translating so much my fingers are burning.
We are testing and translating games here in company, but Witcher is exception. When we are going to Warsaw to CDPR, it looks like this: We will come at morning and we will test the game so long, the computers and consoles are almost burning. We are trying to find every error and mistake in translate and improve it. Afternoon we'll get to our rented rooms and in night we are writing reports to management. This is repeating. Often times I'll talk with game developers about Witcher and game development. So you should know how my day looks. My team of testers are Witcher-only people, but as boss in company I need to take care of other projects. It didn't look like it, but its really stretch. We were testing translation of Wild Hunt twelve weeks, and we did approx. fourteen thousand changes in translation."
Did you have some problems or complications in translating new expansion, Blood & Wine?
"You mean something like they cut me out of electricity or I would get carpal tunnel syndrome?
How long it takes to translate single side quest in Witcher 3: Wild Hunt?
"From person to person. But hm, answer like that woudn't satisfy anyone. Suppose average side quest have 12 norm pages (one norm page is usually 1800 characters if counting spaces). Someone will do it in day, but for me in right place and feeling well - I would do that in 3 hours. "
Who created this sentence (inn in White Orchard): "Do you also have two cocks?" (refering to Witcher swords)?
"How who, developers, we just translated it
I want to hear from you why in Czech version there are many swear words in places where in Polish version there weren't any.
"We had only English version to translate. I would rather translate from Polish, but in Polish there can be swear words in parts where English don't have them. It's absolutely not about vulgarisms and swear words, English and Polish are often changed in whole sentences. "
I really want to know what do you know about cancelled story plot twists in base game, you mentioned on Twitter
"In development time there were many changes and re-writes, but it's always like that. I can't tell you details, developers should. People on internet discovered some things (like making pancakes at Kaer Morhen), but they didn't found any of the whole pieces and scenes - supposing from what I translated and what I saw on internet. Maybe as time goes, they'll discover more. "
I'm dying to know, how much cost Czech translation of game... any game?
"Details will tell you no one. We are tied to our contract to be silent about things like this. You would also won't like to tell how much you earn. But it's not cheap thing. We need to translate the whole game, correct the translation and do some betatesting, especially in non linear games or where you choose other sex to play for (it changes the whole czech grammar). Some managers are supervisioning it, and if you are planning to make dubbing, it's even more costly. How much Witcher 3 cost I can't tell you. But public information is that in game Skyrim, whitch Comrad also translated, it cost 1,25 milion of czech crownds (50000 US dollars). So you have it. "
I wanted to ask: I read about Witcher 4 and it will be real, but we won't play as Geralt so it won't be so good.
I wouldn't trust everything you hear somewhere. CDPR mentioned that this is last game for Geralt of Rivia, but not the last Witcher game. If they'll make 4th game, it would be without him, but if it wont be good, we'll see. Like we'll see if some kind of Witcher 4 will ever be or it will be totally different.
Is Andrzej Sapkowski contributing to script of the game, or it's just a CDPR work? I really like story of the book, but I need to know if it's serious sequel to fantastic Witcher books
"Andrzej Sapkowski many times said that he don't find videogames in kind of entertainment what he like, but he really like graphics developement of those things, but he don't think that games can told good or inteligent stories. At times of Witcher 1, he really helped on developement as consultant on Witcher things (many of the places from books weren't graphically created, so developers really talked with him to be very exact on this things), but after that he put his hands away from this. He also said many times that games aren't cannonical sequel to books and only him can write proper sequel, no one else."
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