Getting to know Diana Díaz Montón

junio 6, 2021

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Hello, world! 👋

 

I’m Diana Díaz Montón, one of Native Prime’s co-founders and Localization Specialist in charge of the Spanish division. You might be wondering… how did I get here? Let’s start from the beginning!

 

I started working as a freelancer in 1999 (many years ago, I know!) and since then, I have worked on many video games that I’m proud of. As I gained clients and the workload became bigger, I saw the opportunity to expand my business and to take on entire projects, instead of just translating or proofreading part of them. That’s when I decided to create Wordlab. Soon I had a team of Spanish translators, later I started offering multilingual localization.

 

I thought it was great that I could have clients from all over the place, and also had the chance of working from virtually anywhere. A big point was organizing my day according to my needs: I’m a night owl, so I particularly enjoy working late, when there’s almost zero activity in my Inbox. This is when I’m most inspired! I also have two kids, and I love going to the park with them after school. It’s nice to breathe some fresh air and be away from the screens for a couple of hours!

 

The main driving force behind starting my company was being able to handpick my team and to get to see and translate the whole game. This gave me more freedom for creativity and to organize the projects. I learned project management on the fly! It was challenging, but also very rewardingSo, yes, I’m very happy to say I have been in the business for over two decades now! Okay, it’s time to answer the question you would be wondering… What are my favorite projects? I have been involved in many video games, and it’s tough to pick one, but if I have to choose…

  • I have fond memories of Fallout 3 and New Vegas because those were the first large projects I managed from start to end. 
  • Castle Crashers was my first multilingual game, so that has a special place in my heart too.
  • With Children of Mana, I got to travel to Japan and work on LQA for the first time. That was a big moment in my career!
  • Ni no Kuni is a jewel, and I also got to travel and meet the FIGS team in person (which doesn’t often happen).
  • The Dragon Quest games I’ve been involved in are challenging, and my colleagues keep me on my toes, they’re so brilliant.
  • For Hitman 2 I managed a large team of people, with 11 languages involved. I enjoyed the thrill, plus I love this kind of game.

 

Wait… Do I really have to choose one? 😏 I have worked on many well-known titles, but I’m also quite fond of indies since I really feel the loc team is part of the game! 

 

I bet many of you went through the list above thinking how cool it’d be to localize one of those titles one day, right?, so here is some advice I would have loved to read when I was younger:

  • Study hard and translate a lot. That’s a must.
  • Don’t stop moving. You have a myriad of resources at your hands, so you should make the most of them. There are many courses on game localization, but also articles and studies in the field.
  • Focus. Your goal should always be to develop your skills as a translator, reading, and writing in your working languages.
  • It’s important to keep an eye on the gaming industry since it moves fast and evolves quickly. But there are different genres of games, and different types of texts, so any other specialty you have will add to your set of skills.
  • Go to events. They are perfect to meet new people and reconnect with clients and peers alike. Putting a face to names is always nice, and meeting someone in person can help further develop a relationship. After all, most of the communication is done by email or Skype, and we don’t get to talk in person so often. Sharing coffee in a more relaxed environment helps build trust. I especially like talks about game writing, and localization (but those are scarce!). And yes, partying is also a fun part of attending events!

 

So my final advice is to keep on learning and improving, persevere, and, as in any game, if you fail: retry! I really hope this helps. Gotta go, it’s park time! 😄

 

See you all in the next “Getting to know”!