Ted Woolsey
Ted Woolsey | |
---|---|
Occupation(s) | Translator, video game producer |
Years active | 1991–present |
Notable work | Final Fantasy VI, Secret of Mana, Super Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger |
Ted Woolsey is an American video game translator and producer. He had the primary role in the North American production and localization of Square's role-playing video games released for the Super NES between 1991 and 1996. He is best known for translating Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger during his time at Square. Limitations on text length and strict content guidelines forced Woolsey to make many script changes in his translation work, which became known as "Woolseyisms" in popular culture and were both praised and criticized.
Woolsey resigned from Square in 1996 when the company moved offices to another city. Since then, his work in the video game industry shifted to a producer role at Big Rain, a company he co-founded, as well as others like
Biography
At Square
Although born in America, Woolsey spent five years living and studying in
During this time,
Post-Square
When Square's offices moved to Los Angeles in 1996, Woolsey decided to stay in Washington and leased his old employer's office space for his next company, Big Rain. Woolsey's last project with Square was the translation of Super Mario RPG and left before the English localization of Final Fantasy VII began.[6] At Big Rain, he served as Vice President of Marketing and Business Development. The company moved to Seattle in 1997, where Crave Entertainment purchased it. Woolsey signed on as Vice President of Internal Development and oversaw the development of Shadow Madness, a Japanese-inspired role-playing game.[4][6] Upon its release in 1999, Shadow Madness sold poorly, and Woolsey left the company to join RealNetworks as the Director of Business Development. As the director, he managed RealArcade, the network's online gaming client.[4] Between 2000 and 2004, he worked on the distribution of the service to publishers and internet service providers and helped launch RealArcade in Japan.[6]
Woolsey moved to
Works
Title | Year[a] | Platform(s) | Notes[b] | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest | 1992 | Super NES | Translator, Writer | [5] |
Final Fantasy Legend III | 1993 | Game Boy | Translator | [6] |
Secret of Mana | 1993 | Super NES | Translator | [3] |
Breath of Fire | 1994 | Super NES | Translator | [6] |
Final Fantasy VI | 1994 | Super NES | Translator | [3] |
Chrono Trigger | 1995 | Super NES | Translator | [5] |
Secret of Evermore | 1995 | Super NES | Marketing | [5] |
Super Mario RPG | 1996 | Super NES | Translator | [5] |
Shadow Madness | 1999 | PlayStation | Producer | [2] |
See also
References
- ^ "Ted Woolsey: Former Member, Advisory Board". Asian Languages and Literature Institute, University of Washington. Archived from the original on 2016-03-10. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
- ^ a b Vestal, Andrew (April 29, 1999). "Interview with Ted Woolsey". The GIA. Archived from the original on March 11, 2016. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
- ^ a b c d e Szczepaniak, John (2009-08-31). "Localization: Confessions by Industry Legends". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 2016-03-09. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
- ^ a b c IGDA Online Games Committee (2002). "IGDA Online Games White Paper" (PDF). IGDA.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Johnston, Chris (February 15, 2007). "Transcript of Ted Woolsey interview". Player One Podcast. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
- ^ a b c d e f Cifaldi, Frank (August 29, 2005). "Playing Catch-Up: Ted Woolsey". Gamasutra.com. Archived from the original on October 7, 2012. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
- ^ Mandelin, Clyde (2018-09-10). "Legends of Localization: Game Localization and Nintendo of America's Content Policies in the 1990s (NSFW)". Legends of Localization. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
- ^ a b c Oxford, Nadia (May 5, 2020). "Ted Woolsey Remembers Final Fantasy 6, Evading Nintendo's Censorship Rules, and the Early Days of Localization". USgamer. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
- ^ Mandelin, Clyde (2013-06-26). "How Kefka's Famous "Son of a Submariner" Works in Japanese". Legends of Localization. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
- ^ DirtyDiva (2008-09-24). "Gamerscore Blog : XBLA - Want More? Got More!". Gamerscoreblog. Microsoft. Archived from the original on 2009-04-28. Retrieved 2008-10-06.
- ^ Weber, Rachel (2015-06-24). "Undead Labs hires new GM". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 2019-09-23. Retrieved 2019-09-23.
External links