Available on the Nintendo Switch™.

Role: Nintendo of America | Localization Copy Editor

Contributions: Copyediting, localization, and creating internal documents.

Player experience matters.

Multiple writers contributed to summaries and instructions in the Adventure Log, and one of my main tasks was line editing it into one cohesive, consistent voice. I created a mini style sheet and persona to help me shape entries into something easy, clear, and entertaining to read. (I imagined this persona as a less obtrusive version of Navi. Navi’s less annoying cousin, if you will.)

I also advocated for deviating from one of Breath of the Wild’s style rules: matching highlighted text word for word with the original Japanese text. As a player, I open the quest log in any given game so that I can tell at a glance where I’m supposed to go, what items I need to collect, and so on. This isn’t something you can do with multiple entries in Breath of the Wild. Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one who felt that this change would improve the player experience, so we changed things up.

It’s the little things.

Aside from the Adventure Log, I copyedited side quests. Some of my proudest moments include:

• A writer wanted feedback on how to write dialogue for an NPC who spoke with his mouth full of food. I valiantly stuffed my mouth with marshmallows and shared notes on my pronunciation.

• Another writer was uncertain how to make the most of Beetz’s onomatopoeia. I suggested creating a rhythm using short, forced pauses in between bouts of noisemaking for a beatboxing-like effect.

• As an editorial team, we decided to localize Bolson’s dialogue a little differently. I scoured his lines in Breath of the Wild and created a character sheet with copious notes and insights for writers to consider.

EXP isn’t just for games.

I leveraged my QA experience to create workflows for the product-testing department to find text-related bugs, from potential string hazards to context issues.

I also requested implementing UI tags to populate singular and plural words because I could already see grammar issues on the horizon.

Tears of the Kingdom aside, I found myself spending most of my editing time making similar types of adjustments and corrections across every project. I wrote a comprehensive guide for video game writing and localization best practices with contributions from the rest of the editorial team to streamline guidance for writers.

It became a helpful resource for both writers and editors alongside NOA’s in-house style guide.