The toolset has been released!

The #LocJAM is almost over, and the Locagrams, exhausted and incredibly satisfied, are about to pass out. We managed to release this main version, the most accurate (at least we hope so), and a sort of spin-off, whose idea slightly evolved during Saturday afternoon, when we were discussing how to give a twist to the cards' graphics. You can check it here.

I think it's fair to say that we both underestimated the challenge at the beginning. A lot.

On Friday afternoon, we started translating separately: our intention was to compare the two translation at the end and to merge the best parts, then some review to make it consistent despite our different styles, and that's all.

After a couple of hours in the translation, we realized we were slower than expected. 

The biggest challenge (we didn't see it coming) was keeping a guide, who is addressing people, players and masters, completely gender neutral. Italian is a strongly gendered language, and we only had few synonims to use. The risk was to keep using the same words, using words that could be non inclusive (we couldn't even use anyone, no one, everybody, everyone, as these are also genderd).

It was a complete nightmare. We could have used the schwa (ə), a non-binary termination which is recently being used more and more, online and in games, but since this jam is also about other types of inclusivity, we wanted to keep this text simple, for everybody to be able to read it (it seems like the schwa can be a difficult character for dyslexic people). 

Therefore, 90% of the time spent translating, was about looking for alternatives and periphrasis to avoid issues. Of course, then we had the repetition issue. It was insanely complicated to keep the whole text neutral, but I hope we managed and, even though it might not sound as fluent as other types of text, we think it is fair, and most important, inclusive.  

We called a sort of emergency meeting and split the file in two. We knew it would have been risky, because our styles are very different, but in the end it was a winning choice. 

I am leaving this little crocodile here, just because this poor guy couldn't make it in the cards :(

The second less brilliant idea we had was to merge the strings we had already translated separately. It took us forever, and often they were good taken singularly but didn't make much sense with the previously or following string. Still, even though time-consuming, it was a great experiment to compare our choices and learn from each other. It was something we had been wanting to do since forever, but we never have time when translating/proofreading for our usual work-related tasks.  I think it took us almost 5 minutes per string, it was a real pain, but at least we only had 85 to compare 😅

After these big issues, we proceeded quite smoothly, spent the whole Saturday afternoon in a call to read aloud our versions and fix what sounded off or was not inclusive.

When we were a bit more confident with the translation, we started considering customizing the cards. We were fearing that moment, because we're completely null with graphical skills and tools, but we couldn't just localize half of the content, could we?

It was now that we started thinking of nice images for cards, which were probably only suitable for kids. So we thought: what if we also create a simplified version for these illustrations? 

The challenge (inside the challenge) was on!

Bea started working on the second content, reshaping the whole text as tool for an educational activity, while Chiara was swearing on the graphics. The animal cards came first, as they were quite simple and linear, but then we really had to customize also the normal cards. THAT was something else. Never again (then it's always happening whenever there's a gaming jam, unfortunately).

Sunday was spent reviewing, creating backgrounds, learning HTML/CSS on the phone with the priceless help of Davide, fixing consistencies, improving the appeal of the submission pages and so on... A quiet (not) lazy Sunday.

Of course, just before the submission, the second release, Fantacomando, broke down. Fully working locally, broken when uploaded on the platform. Panic attack. 8 versions later, I realized that maybe Chrome was picky with case sensitive names.

Sure, so many final versions

We're safe, and our projects are as well!

But of course tireless Bea couldn't just celebrate. She edited the last fixes 4 minutes before the Jam's end. How dedicated!

We survived our first LocJAM. Together. Without dramas. We were incredibly efficient and able to work with minimum supervision (I know it's silly to say, but coming from many other jams, I know how hard it is working in teams). I have never had such a supportive and proactive team mate. I was right, in the end. Perfect team. 

And, most importantly, we had lots of fun and laughs. I have the feeling it's because of the sleep deprivation. But yeah, laughed until we cried. And that's just the best feeling evah, especially when coming from a collaboration with a person you only know because of work, and never even met in person. 

Would do that again, recommended 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐