Crowdfunding to make Smilesoft translate telefang?

Post things about the Telefang series, and aren't about a particular Telefang game here.
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telefangfan(imported)
Posts: 61
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 12:30 am

Re: Crowdfunding to make Smilesoft translate telefang?

Post by telefangfan(imported) »

Would Smilesoft translate and release Telefang if given the money to do it?I haven't tried e-mailing them,but if they'd accept,would you start a kickstarter about it?
RacieB
Posts: 871
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 4:27 am

Re: Crowdfunding to make Smilesoft translate telefang?

Post by RacieB »

There's a few problems with that, mainly the fact that Smilesoft hasn't existed for a long time (since 2003 or so.) They changed their name to Rocket Company, and were recently dissolved into Imagineer, so it's really hard to say who would even be in charge of such a thing. Somewhat doubtful Imagineer is even aware of the series. Additionally, Smilesoft was the publisher, but Natsume Atari was the developer - I'm not really sure who would be in charge of a translation effort in that case. Lastly, it's very hard to argue that there would be a market for a Game Boy translation in 2017, that's why all efforts have been fan-focused.
kmeisthax
Posts: 128
Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2010 3:20 pm

Re: Crowdfunding to make Smilesoft translate telefang?

Post by kmeisthax »

It's very unlikely. Retro game translations are nigh unheard of outside of the unlicensed fan translation space. It doesn't make financial sense in terms of audience. Most of the development infrastructure and training surrounding these old platforms has atrophied long ago. Hell, they might not even have the source code anymore.

We've punted around the idea of actually licensing this IP here and there, but it's mostly a pipe dream so far. That being said, crowdfunding would almost certainly fail; we'd be paying for it out of our own empty pockets. There's a grand total of 394 registered accounts on this forum; about 40 between Discord and IRC. The biggest notoriety this game's ever had was a JonTron episode on Pokemon bootlegs. "Hey, you remember that one really weird RPG that Mr. Jon 'I do not watch your videos because you are black' Jafari spent all of 2 seconds talking about?" is not something to base a kickstarter off of.

Oh, and don't try e-mailing them unless you can write Japanese at a really good level.
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